DALY-WILSON: DYNAMIC by Eric Myers ______The Daly-Wilson Big Band re-emerged for the first time in 1980 for a series of concerts at the Argyle Courtyard last week. The Morning Herald critic ERIC MYERS takes a look at the story of one of the most dynamic big bands Australia has seen.

Drummer Warren Daly (left) & trombonist Ed Wilson… PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY COLLECTION hen drummer Warren Daly and trombonist Ed Wilson gathered together a group of young musicians for a rehearsal big band at W Sydney's Stage Club in 1969, few thought that, in 1980, they would be in the 11th year of the Daly-Wilson Big Band. Yet these two unassuming musicians, through sheer hard work and dedication to an idea, have created the only Australian big band within living memory which can list achievements comparable to those of the prestigious American big bands led by musicians such as Maynard Ferguson, Count Basie, and Buddy Rich. The success of the Daly-Wilson Big Band over the last 10 years is on the record. It has released eight LPs, all of which have sold well, and two have had outstanding sales. The Daly-Wilson Big Band On Tour (1973) sold more than

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30,000 and its highest selling LP Daly-Wilson in Australia sold more than 60,000 and now has two gold records. It has mounted a national tour of Australia almost every year. In 1975, with the Whitlam Government picking up the tab, made a triumphant tour of the Soviet Union playing to more than 100,000 people in three weeks. Twenty concerts were given, mainly in Moscow and Leningrad, the tour was sold out, and members of the band still talk about their standing ovations, the excitement of which was captured in Bernie Cannon's TV documentary Big Band In Russia.

The Daly-Wilson Big Band, circa 1975, shortly after its return from its tour of the Soviet Union… Despite the Daly-Wilson Big Band's successes on all these fronts it has often been criticized in Australian jazz circles. Like other areas of the performing arts, the jazz scene is peopled by highly competitive purists who are quick to denounce what they consider to be non-creative. Neither Daly nor Wilson are primarily composers (although Ed Wilson has produced some excellent compositions in recent years) and are therefore open to the claim that their music is derivative.

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Also. the hand's great success has automatically deflated its reputation among those who see mass popularity as a sell-out to the taste of the lowest common denominator. Don Burrows, who enjoys a similar type of popularity with middle-of-the- road jazz fans, is another who attracts criticism on this count. Rather than relying on wholly original music, the Daly-Wilson Big Band is eclectic: it draws on popular songs and ballads of the day arranged for its own line-up, jazz standards such as the Ellington repertoire, semi-classical works such as the Peer Gvnt Suite and Scheherazade arranged for big band, plus an input of original tunes by Daly and Wilson themselves. The strengths of the band are twofold: its great ability in live performance, where its sound is built around the dynamic playing of Warren Daly himself, one of the few virtuoso big band drummers this country has produced, and the musical arrangements, chiefly written by Ed Wilson, who uses to advantage his shrewd knowledge of big band voicings and players’ capabilities.

The band’s sound is built around the dynamic playing of Warren Daly himself, one of the few virtuoso big band drummers this country has produced…

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Daly and Wilson have also had to withstand relative indifference in the media. Their LP sales have been achieved with almost negligible airplay on Australian radio, other than occasional ABC outlets. As for the press, it has rarely given the band dignified appraisal. Music critics in the early 1970s tended to see the hand merely as a provincial attempt by two suburban Sydney lads to create a carbon-copy of American bands. The press in general has been such a disappointment to Ed Wilson and Warren Daly that, these days they rarely give interviews, and agree to them only with writers who have demonstrated a serious interest in the music itself. In fact, the Daly-Wilson big band had to go to the United States to receive its best press. Its appearances there in 1975 were an achievement which has never been fully appreciated in Australia. They played three concerts at the Hilton in Las Vegas, and the engagement was extended to six nights. Their seventh and last concert, at Donte's in the San Fernando Valley, was reviewed by one of America's leading jazz writers Leonard Feather in the Los Angeles Times. In his review, Feather wrote: For the big band fan, receptive to swinging sounds with typically American touches of jazz/rock, this was a most agreeable evening ... The Daly-Wilson band carries two important weapons in its arsenal: precision and excitement. The brass section hit each phase with accuracy and flawless intonation, the saxes captured a Ducal essence in Take The A Train, and the rhythm team, thanks mainly to the dynamism of Daly, compares with some of this country's best.

Jazz critic Leonard Feather: two important weapons in the band’s arsenal: precision and excitement…

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Sponsorship by the Benson and Hedges company has been a constant element in the Daly-Wilson story. The first three years of the band's existence (1969-71) were successful in terms of concerts and records, but financial difficulties forced its disbandment in late 1971. During 1972, the band was unable to perform at all. In 1973, Benson and Hedges were considering a number of ideas to celebrate their centenary. A local Sydney trumpet player who worked for the company (and who had occasionally played with the Daly-Wilson Big Band) noticed that one of the options put forward by the company's advertising agency was sponsorship of music. It was suggested that Benson and Hedges bring the Daly- Wilson Big Band back for a three-month tour of Australia under the company's banner. That tour took place and was a huge success. The band played continuously for three months. Such was the professional promotion of Benson and Hedges and the wide appeal of the band that the tour led to Daly-Wilson's first gold album, The Daly-Wilson Big Band On Tour.

For Daly and Wilson, the sponsorship by Benson and Hedges has been a two- edged sword. On the one hand, it has indubitablv enabled the hand to survive throughout the 1970s. On the other hand, it has somehow given the band an illusive aura of privilege in the competitive music and entertainment industries.

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During the early years, there had been a good deal of idealism and support for the band in some sections of the press. Once B & H stepped in to ensure the band's survival, the writers lost interest. The truth is that Warren Daly and Ed Wilson, through sheer tenacity, created something original in Australian music: the first big band in this country to capture not only the flavour of big band jazz, but also the excitement and intensity of rock music.

Daly (on the right) performing in the US with clarinetist Buddy De Franco in 1968. Other musicians include John LaBarbera (piano) & Chuck Lawson (bass)… PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY COLLECTION And, their basic concept has been remarkably consistent. In 1967-68 Warren Daly spent 12 months in the United States, where he was resident drummer with two top American big bands — firstly, Si Zentner's band, and then the Glenn Miller Orchestra (led by clarinetist Buddy de Franco) which toured the United States and Japan. ______

Eric Myers writes (August, 2020): For a response to this article, see the letter to myself written by Warren Daly dated August 22, 2020, which commences on the following page:

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LETTER TO ERIC MYERS by Warren Daly OAM ______

ric Myers writes (August, 2020): Circa mid-2020 I commenced putting up onto this website reviews and articles of mine that were published while I E was the Sydney Morning Herald’s jazz critic, 1980-82. I decided to do this, not because I’m particularly enamoured with my profound insights into the music I was reviewing some 40 years ago, but because such reviews and articles served to document jazz performances and jazz activity during those years. In April, 1980 I was into my third month as the SMH’s inaugural jazz critic when the arts editor asked me to do a feature article on the Daly-Wilson Big Band, on the occasion of their re-emergence for a series of concerts at the Argyle Centre in The Rocks, Sydney. Entitled “Daly-Wilson: Dynamic Big Band” it appeared on the Arts page of the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, April 12, 1980. It appears on this website directly above this text (see page 1). Because I was aware that Warren Daly had a comprehensive collection of photographs and memorabilia, I contacted him (in August, 2020) to ask if he could provide better photos than the ones I had in hand. Subsequently Warren read the article, and was highly critical of its content. Accordingly Warren provided the following letter to myself dated August 22, 2020, where he responded in detail to the content of that article.

Warren Daly: highly critical of the article “Daly-Wilson: Dynamic Big Band”… PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

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i Eric, Thank you for your email inviting clarification re my disappointment at your reposting your 1980 article “Daly-Wilson: Dynamic Big Band” and H with your expectation that I might supply different photos to give new life to it. So many points therein are incorrect and many an observer might wonder why you even chose to make all these claims at all. From first introducing some positives in your article, you more than diluted these by including false negatives, thus enabling a conclusion on my and the DWBB’s achievements in an excellent example of damning with faint praise. Not known for being a person prone to boasting, rather valuing modesty and privacy, I nevertheless am reluctantly now driven to finally set the record straight on this then 11-year retrospective themed analysis on myself, Ed and the DWBB. The extremely patronising claim in this article that "Music critics in the early 70's tended to see the band merely as a provincial attempt by two suburban Sydney lads to create a carbon-copy of American bands", is laughably untrue. Such invective is rather more revealing of this unnamed source than myself, Ed or the band. Contrary to this claim, the music critics that I know and will name awarded us no such brickbat. Rather, continuing their recognition of our uniquely fresh approach with supportive reviews throughout that 70's decade. Those critics, who were well credentialled themselves and with no agenda, I can easily call to mind: Sinclair Robieson, Mike Williams, Bob Hope, Jim Oram, Meredith Oakes, Michael Symons, Merv Acheson, Trevor Graham, Greg Quill, Dick Hughes, Gil Wahlquist, David D McNicoll, John Clare, Grant Thompson, Brian Hoad, Ian Moore, Matt White and John Torv and later, Frank Crook amongst many others into the 80’s. All in my scrapbook and all of whom belie the aforementioned claim.

Well credentialled critics’ reviews and articles on the DWBB … IMAGE COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

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Article on the Daly-Wilson Big Band by Mike Williams, published in “The Australian” newspaper on December 18, 1971… IMAGE COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION As to the further claim, Despite the Daly-Wilson Big Band's successes on all these fronts it has often been criticized in Australian jazz circles by highly competitive purists who are quick to denounce what they consider to be non-creative. Neither Daly nor Wilson are primarily composers and are therefore open to the claim that their music is derivative. Well, what can one say to this, as this seems intended for all of those also including standards in their performances, which these "purists" claim as being "non-creative". They are also denouncing Sinatra, Bennett, Tormé, Ella, Sarah and nearly everybody that led big bands and small groups! On all of but one of the six DWBB recordings, there are original compositions also included. However, for those "purists" trying to imagine any of their own compositions will cease to tie them to the umbilical cord of this venerated US-created art form and thus cease to be derivative, they are only further deluding themselves.

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Also, the band's great success has automatically deflated its reputation among those who see mass popularity as a sell-out to the taste of the lowest common denominator. More elevation of the jaundiced points of view of the unpopular? So, all and any music! If popular to the masses, it had to have been rubbish? No wonder jazz now struggles to regain the audience support it deserves with this lamentable mindset. Regarding the statement "and the musical arrangements, chiefly written by Ed Wilson": Almost all of the band's signature arrangements were the result of the collaboration of both myself and Ed, with our being co-writers. You may be interested to know that when I returned from the US, the very first chart provided to the band's library was also the first co-composed and co-arranged by myself and Ed. Its title is WD & HO Blues and I chose to name it so in the hope of acquiring sponsorship from a company such as Wills which, when I deliberately disbanded the band in late 1971, was to come to fruition with the Benson and Hedges parent company WD & HO Wills in early 1973...."build it and they will come".

Warren Daly (above) & Ed Wilson (below): Almost all of DWBB’s signature arrangements were the result of collaboration between both of them, their being co-writers… DALY & WILSON PHOTOS COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

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(It always had the duality of being my name [initials] plus His Own Blues, if I didn't succeed in achieving my hope for the sponsorship). This sponsorship was to come a year after disbandment. I had had an earlier invitation from Buddy De Franco, whilst in Australia with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in late 1971, to immediately rejoin the band in the US but, whilst Ed had decided to relocate to the UK, I had chosen to stay and pursue sponsorship, which involved flying to various prospects around the country to no success, but ultimately gaining the eventual sponsorship with WD & HO Wills via their Benson and Hedges brand. For Daly and Wilson, the sponsorship by Benson and Hedges has been a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it has indubitably enabled the band to survive throughout the 1970's. On the other hand, it has somehow given the band an illusive aura of privilege in the competitive music and entertainment industries. Well now, let's see. Among other sponsored entertainment art forms, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is sponsored by the taxpayer in the sum of 20 million dollars per year, I am advised. How dare they have this "illusive aura of privilege" over less popular orchestras! While I am on this subject, they tell me at SSO managerial level, the slice of the pie for new original works is very, very small. This, because their subscribers expect that known popular works be accorded the majority of their programming. Are the "purists" to be happy then to also welcome the SSO into its "non-creative" pigeonhole? The SSO dares to be popular too, as well! I understand that grants have been made available to many in the field of jazz and I understand Eric that your long tenure position as National Jazz Coordinator* was sponsored by the Australia Council and the NSW government also, until it was withdrawn and which saw you leave the scene, which was a loss.

Eric Myers: his position as National Jazz Coordinator was funded by the Australia Council and the NSW Government… PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN

______*Web Editor’s note: Eric Myers was jazz co-ordinator from 1983 till the end of 2001, leaving the scene in early 2002.

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Further, "the writers lost interest" once Benson and Hedges sponsorship had been obtained in early 1973 is also completely untrue (refer page 8). There was no curtailment of supportive newspaper reviews and interviews after sponsorship arrival at all, which were constantly afforded the band throughout the years of concerts, touring and from all media including print, TV and radio stations which, contrary to your belief, were only too happy to play our tracks on their commercial radio stations during those interviews. Your mentioning "almost negligible air play" is true however, of general commercial radio programming, which precluded all jazz- based entities, local and overseas. Whilst sponsorships are important, the band had packed houses during the 58 concerts staged from 1969 to the end of 1971 and all without sponsorship. Two interstate tours had also been undertaken as a double bill with the Dudley Moore Trio and later Cilla Black.

Interstate tours had been undertaken as a double bill with the Dudley Moore Trio (above) L-R, Pete Morgan (bass), Dudley Moore (piano), Chris Karan (drums) and Cilla Black (below)...

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Also, concerts in and Newcastle took place, two LPs released (1970, 1971) and a feature film Big Band on the Move made on the band. A national ABC one- hour special was made of our last performance before disbandment in front of a 1,600 capacity crowd at the Cremorne Orpheum Theatre titled "For The Last Time".

Sydney’s famous Cremorne Orpheum venue, where a 1,600 capacity crowd attended to hear the DWBB concert titled "For The Last Time" Dec 8, 1971… However, with the sponsorship from B and H, we were able to take jazz to the furthest reaches of Australia over seven years. This annual pilgrimage of performances to far afield places such as Darwin, Alice Springs and Mount Isa, in addition to Australia-wide provincial and capital city concert hall exposure of big band jazz to multiple packed houses, had not been witnessed before, and nor has it since, by any other Australian jazz ensemble in Australia's history.

Warren Daly at the Rocks Push in 1972 just prior to sponsorship. With the sponsorship from B and H, the DWBB was able to take jazz to the furthest reaches of Australia over seven years… … PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

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Nor has any other Australian big band achieved such international success and acclaim. Count Basie remarked, when Daly-Wilson was mentioned to him by singer Kerrie Biddell, "It's a bitch of a band", when she was in the US in the early seventies.

Count Basie (above, right) pictured with Kerrie Biddell: of DWBB, he told her “that’s a bitch of a band”… PHOTO COURTESY MICHAEL BARTOLOMEI… Below is the letter from Kerrie to Warren, dated November 18, 1972, in which she quoted from Basie… LETTER COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

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Both myself and Ed were the first Australians to be included in venerated jazz critic Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz, along with clarinetist Don Burrows.

The band's US visit was advertised by the Zildjian Cymbals company, for which I was an endorser and the first Australian drummer to be featured in their Zildjian Cymbals Hall of Fame. I also was an endorser for Camco drums which was also an advertiser of my performances.

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Representation was with the famed Willard Alexander Agency in NYC. Prior to the 1975 US engagements promoted by the Lee Magid Organisation, the band’s recordings had already created tremendous excitement and high praise from within the US jazz fraternity. The GRC Recording Company ultimately released to the wider US market the album The Exciting Daly-Wilson Big Band featuring Kerrie Biddell in 1975. The publishing group, through Jim Widner, sought the right to include our arrangements in their catalogue, but we chose to not proceed at the time. The President's own US Marine Corps Band also adapted El Boro, being an original composition and arrangement by myself and Ed, for its performances at the White House, in Super Bowls and around the world.

L-R, Ed Wilson, Bobby Weiss & Warren Daly at the “Welcome to USA” party by the GRC Recording Company in 1975...PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

With the Russian Ballet having performed in Australia, the Whitlam government had pursued a reciprocal arrangement and this was achieved with Russia. With a number of Australian performers then presented to and considered by the Russians, the Daly- Wilson Big Band was chosen. In 1975, we then received our first and only Australia Council grant for our historic and groundbreaking tour to Latvia, Lithuania, Moscow and Leningrad (as it was known in Iron Curtain days). This support did not include the USA leg, which was met from our own resources, as were our two other tours to Hong Kong.

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Daly (centre) in Latvia with members of the Riga Jazz Club, after sitting in with them in 1975… PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

Prior to forming the big band, I had played in nightclubs and the jazz scene at the El Rocco since 1964. I was also resident drummer in the Jack Grimsley Orchestra on staff at Channel 10 in Sydney when I received the invitation to go to the US in 1967 with the Kirby Stone Four. However my main aim, after my three-month stint with Kirby, was to play with American big bands, which I had the pleasure of achieving with two great bands and which you report on at the end of your article Eric. What may not be known, with the passing of over 50 years now, is that on my return I embarked on my quest to change trumpet playing in Australia, setting a higher bar for it, and the band as a whole as well. I rehearsed the newly formed DWBB by pushing the boundaries of execution norms to such an extent that the band's style and thus trademark sound could be identified instantly by its difference to other big bands of the day. Trumpet and band stylisation techniques of expression that had not been utilised in Australia, nor, as it turned out, even in the US where 's famous record producer Sonny Burke (eg , with Count Basie) used to play DWBB recordings in the 70's to the studio musicians at his independent record sessions in Hollywood, saying to these jazz greats "this is how I want you to play".

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Producer Sonny Burke (right), pictured here with Frank Sinatra (centre) and Sinatra’s son Frank Jr (left): Burke used to play DWBB recordings in the 70's to the studio musicians at his independent record sessions in Hollywood…PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN This was later recounted to me by Frank Sinatra's son Frank Jr who was in Sydney at the time and conducting for his famous father. Frank Jr added, "your band was an index of performance standard in Hollywood and that is why you had all the LA studio guys come to your Donte's performance, stay for the whole evening and why your band was requested by Don Costa to back Dad on his ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back’ tour the year before." Our performance at Donte's in San Fernando Valley followed our performances at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, which I had flown to the US to organise before leaving for Russia. Both of which you have mentioned in this article Eric, including the Leonard Feather critique of our performance at Donte's, which was published in the Los Angeles Times and syndicated to 110 newspapers across the world. There was indeed a who's who of US jazz greats who packed out the club and remained for all three sets. Among those present were Jake Hanna, , Frank Rosolino, , Al Aarons, , Conte Candoli, George Roberts, Richie Kamuca, Jack Nimitz and Earl Palmer, to name but a few.

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Some of the US jazz musicians who packed the DWBB performance at Donte's in San Fernando Valley included drummer Jake Hanna (above right)… PHOTO COURTESY CONCORD RECORDS & JAZZ MAGAZINE, and trumpeter brothers Pete Candoli (below left) & Conte Candoli (below right)… PHOTO COURTESY THE BIG BAND YEARS

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The Avedis Zildjian Cymbals advertisement congratulating DWBB on the US tour… IMAGE COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

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So, I have had to bring the real achievements to light that were not in your 1980 now reprised article. Firstly, that my band was far more than your appraisal of our contribution to creativity in jazz. The band, under my direction, was to rise to be a creative influence to the articulation of big band phrasing technique that resonated even as far as the US, gaining recognition from no less than the jazz elite of the Hollywood session fraternity.

Warren Daly directing the Daly-Wilson Big Band in rehearsal in 1973… PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY PRIVATE COLLECTION

With the emergence of the DWBB and its influence, there was also, for all to see, the introduction of school big bands across Australia, where they had virtually been non- existent before. Many schools modelled their approach on the DWBB, with The Young Northside Big Band among them. In addition to my rehearsing the DWBB, I conducted additional DW workshop bands, such instruction being long before the Jazz Studies course at the Conservatorium of Music, as was noted by Dr Bruce Johnson in his Oxford Companion to Australian Jazz. Other creative achievements involved not only your acknowledgement of our being first in this country to fuse big band jazz with rock, but also with classical and symphony orchestras as well. Those performances illustrated by our co-arrangement of The Peer Gynt Suite performed by the Daly-Wilson Big Band, combining firstly with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and later with the Tommy Tycho Orchestra which I conducted. Both performances were featured in one-hour TV specials (the ABC 50th Anniversary and the Grand Opening of the Regent Hotel.)

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This shot of the Daly-Wilson Big Band, 1974, appeared in Bruce Johnson’s “Oxford Companion to Australian Jazz” (1987): DW workshop bands existed long before the Jazz Studies course at the Conservatorium of Music… PHOTO COURTESY WARREN DALY COLLECTION On a personal note: The renowned bandleader and trumpeter Harry James had offered me the great Sonny Payne's chair in his big band when Sonny went back to Basie in 1973, which I was unable to accept as I had just attained the B and H sponsorship and was touring my new band. Harry James was present with Si Zentner, Jerry Lewis and Bill Reddy (Channel One Suite) at one of our Hilton Hotel performances in Las Vegas in 1975. Harry missed saying ‘hi’ after the performance, but relayed to our sound man Willy Rout to tell me that the band was "the most exciting band I have heard in the world in the last ten years".

The great Harry James (above) described the DWBB as "the most exciting band I have heard in the world in the last ten years"… PHOTO COURTESY THE BBC

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When the incomparable Buddy Rich was later, through health issues, beginning to have trouble doing all his dates booked by the previously mentioned doyen of big band management the Willard Alexander Agency in NYC, I received a call from WAA's booker Richy Barz, who asked if I could do a number of dates for Buddy! What an honour, but I couldn't do them, much to my disappointment, due to having my own tour commitments clashing with Buddy's dates.

Daly (above) was asked if he could do a number of dates for Buddy Rich, but was unable to do them because of his own tour commitments…

Incidentally, the drummer who subsequently did these dates with the Rich band, was the drummer who followed me in the Buddy de Franco-led Glenn Miller Orchestra, Danny D'Imperio. I trust this additional information will be helpful. Kind regards,

Warren Daly OAM ______

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