Wazoo

Well, here we are in Boston, ladies and gentlemen. Just to fill you in on some of the zaniness that took place earlier this afternoon. In the process of examining the stage to make sure that it was fit for human consumption, these large objects over here on the side with the horns on top of 'em—you know those speakers there?—they fell over backwards and completely mangled Jay Migliori's woodwind instruments. So Mr. Migliori is at a certain disadvantage this evening. We just thought we'd let you know. Fortunately, Mr. Migliori was not sitting there when the cabinets went down, so that part's okay.

Well, now that we got that over with, I'd like to introduce the rest of the lads in the band—and the ladies in the band—to all of you here.

Let's start up in the top, with trumpet number one, Malcolm McNab. And the indispensible Salvator Marquez. And on pygmy trumpet and tuba, Tom Malone. And Bruce Fowler on trombone. And Glenn "hands up, face to the wall" Ferris on trombone. And Kenny "always jovial" Shroyer on trombone. And Ruth "also jovial" Underwood on marimba. That's a jovial little marimba. And Tom "with one smashed hand" Raney on congas.

And, over here in the wind section, you already know Jay. Play something, Jay. That one works. And Mike Altschul. Ray "The Phantom" Reed. Charles "up and down" Owens. Joann Caldwell McNab. Earle Dumler. Wait, wait. Try that one again. Can you hear him? That's a little bit better, yeah. Just a minute now. Jerry Kessler on cello. Ian Underwood on keyboards, et cetera. Jim Gordon on drums. Dave Parlato on bass. And Tony Duran on slide guitar.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very, very much.

I'd like to tell you a little bit about this here band. Okay? Here's the deal. This band was put together for a very short period of time. I think it was only eight concerts. Maybe seven, but I would have to count. Anyway, this is the last time this band is gonna play together. This is closing night in Boston. However, it is possible— Shut up. It is possible—

(Attendee: Where's Mark and Howie?)

They'll be around. They have their career. Anyway, it's possible this band will appear maybe next year or something. But this is the end of our tour here, and we're going to make an attempt to blow it all out for you in Boston.

Now, so that you won't be mislead about what we're going to do up here, by having us start off with something that was oriented towards a boogie, most of the rest of the stuff that we do is a little bit more abstruse. So I just wanted to break it to ya easy. Some of it is harder to tap your feets to. Okay?

Let me get my guitar in tune; we'll progress to something a little bit weirder.

Okay, the name of this piece is "Approximate." Just a minute. Now, the way this piece works is the rhythm is, in many instances, specified for the instruments. However, the pitches that they play are left to their own discretion. So at any one time there's a choice of about twenty different pitches being chosen all at the same time and the piece turns out different every time you play it.

This here's the Boston version.

Okay?

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Thank you.

Okay, now we'd like to play "Big Swifty" for you.

All right. Got any chops left for "Big Swifty"?

How's the tape doing out there? D'you run out yet? It's okay? All right.

Okay? At a relaxed pace . . .

So that we can hear the [...], hear the [...] Okay.

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Thank you. How's the sound balance out there? Is it too loud? No? How many say yes? Okay. More Ruth?

They want you, Ruth.

Lighten up.

Okay. What we'd like to do right now is another arranged piece. This is called— Wanna do "Greggery Peccary"? We haven't gone over that for a while.

This is— Wait a minute. This is called "The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary." Now we're gonna try a new version of "Greggery Peccary" tonight. We're gonna put some solos in between the movements of "Greggery Peccary." And what I would like to do is play one— the first section, and then cut off and then go to the front row here and play all in sixteenth notes at the tempo that I start up. And then we'll develop from there.

And then on cue you get the second movement. And after the second movement, instead of going directly into the third, we'll do all the brass section, same thing: sixteenth notes very staccato.

At the end of the third movement, at the end of the third movement, we're gonna go to the back row winds and percussion, the same thing, sixteenth notes staccato. And then change over to "Brown Clouds." And we'll put "Brown Clouds" at the end of it. Okay? No, wait a minute.

We have to get this organized so that it doesn't sleaze off before your very ears. There's a— There is an ulterior motive for making sure that it doesn't sleaze too much, because we're recording this show. And if it turns out good . . . That's right, you will all be immortalized.

All right.

Maybe in between these movements I'll tell you what the story of "Greggery Peccary" is. But we'll just start it off. You can just imagine what's going on.

Here we go.
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Circular breathing. [...]

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Thank you very much for coming to our concert tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Good night.

Thank you. All right, if you'll sit down, we have t— We can play you something else that you might be able to recognize.

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Thank you. Good night.