JSngry Posted November 25, 2003 Report Posted November 25, 2003 Met him once while in my earliest teens, at a Kenton gig. Approached him with "Mr. Maiden", and was promptly rebuffed with "MR MAIDEN? That's my FATHER'S name. MY name is WILLIE!!!!" The guy was as nice to a 13 year old dweeb as a veteran Road Dog could be, and oozed hipness and highness while doing it. The impression was indelible. I know there's stories. There's GOT to be stories. Anybody got any? Quote
John Tapscott Posted November 25, 2003 Report Posted November 25, 2003 There's some great Maiden stories in "Straight Ahead" Carol Easton's bio of Stan Kenton. A lot of Kenton fans hate that book, but it's a terrific read IMHO, and gives great insight into Kenton's persona and career. No time to tell all the stories, but I do remember one about Kenton clashing with Willie over the latter's lack of sartorial sense. Kenton said to Willie, "Either buy some decent clothes or leave the ****** band!" To which Willie asked, "What's more important - the way I play or the way I dress?" Kenton replied, "The way you dress!" There's another about a time when Kenton's band played the Loser's Club, a Mafia run joint in some American city (Dallas?) Kenton was not with the band due to illness, and the band's manager was trying to collect the night's pay with little success. Willie, all 5'5" of him, overheard the conversation, ran up to the Mafia guy, put his nose in his face and said, "Now I know how this place got its' name!", then ran out of the room. The band manager left with his life, but not the money. Oh yes, Willie loved music in 4/4 and wrote some swinging charts for Kenton's band. But he hated the odd time signature charts of Hank Levy which Kenton often played. As a sign of rebellion, Willie rewrote his baritone parts in 4/4, which must have been pretty confusing for those who followed him in that chair. Quote
JSngry Posted November 25, 2003 Author Report Posted November 25, 2003 John Tapscott said: There's another about a time when Kenton's band played the Loser's Club, a Mafia run joint in some American city (Dallas?) Don't know if that's the location of the club in question, but there was a joint with that name here that fits that description. Quote
jazzbo Posted November 25, 2003 Report Posted November 25, 2003 I'm sure that Wingy will transcribe a long story or three from DEEP and will paraphrase it here. . . . Quote
Guest WINGY (I STAY BOMBED) Posted November 25, 2003 Report Posted November 25, 2003 DEEP told me that one time on a gig with Maynard Ferguson somewhere in Massachusetts, Maiden got to the gig early and put a chair in the sax section and just sat there all night not playing at all (he was ill with cancer by then). When the band played his chart on "THREE MORE FOXES", Maiden turned around to the band at its conclusion and said, "There's a lot of shit in that chart, and you cat's just played the shit right out of it". WINGY Quote
JSngry Posted November 25, 2003 Author Report Posted November 25, 2003 Did Willie go back with Maynard for a while after leaving Kenton, or was he already ill towards the end of his first stay w/Maynard? Quote
Guest WINGY (I STAY BOMBED) Posted November 25, 2003 Report Posted November 25, 2003 (edited) JSngry said: Did Willie go back with Maynard for a while after leaving Kenton, or was he already ill towards the end of his first stay w/Maynard? Willie never played with Maynard again and the incident to which I refer (1975) was when he was already sick and had long left Kenton. Willie did play on one tune that night but to DEEP'S knowledge never picked up a horn to play with Maynard again. Maynard payed for him to visit a Mexican Doctor with a cancer curing drug but it didn't work out. WINGY Edited November 25, 2003 by WINGY (I STAY BOMBED) Quote
JSngry Posted November 25, 2003 Author Report Posted November 25, 2003 Thanks. From what I hear (secondhand), Willie and Maynard had a special bond back in the day. Slide and Sebesky wrote a bunch of good stuff, but Willie's shit was always hipper than anybody's. "Tinsel" - that's about as brilliant a piece of writing as there is, at least within whatever the hell genre it's in. The way that thing screams and sighs, I hope it got played in some form or fashion at Willie's funeral. Seems like it would have fit. Quote
Guest WINGY (I STAY BOMBED) Posted November 25, 2003 Report Posted November 25, 2003 JSngry said: Thanks. From what I hear (secondhand), Willie and Maynard had a special bond back in the day. Slide and Sebesky wrote a bunch of good stuff, but Willie's shit was always hipper than anybody's. "Tinsel" - that's about as brilliant a piece of writing as there is, at least within whatever the hell genre it's in. The way that thing screams and sighs, I hope it got played in some form or fashion at Willie's funeral. Seems like it would have fit. According to Maynard, the tune Dancing Nightly and one other (DEEP couldn't remember the title) we're incorporated into what Willie called his TV medley. The reason being was that he wrote the two charts while WATCHING TV!! WINGY Quote
JSngry Posted November 25, 2003 Author Report Posted November 25, 2003 Yeah, I've heard stories of him writing out charts on the bus, not even bothering with score paper, just writing out the individual parts as he went. Maybe not the most exciting thing to ever happen on a band bus (with or without Bobby Shew on board...), but I'd have given a fair amount of money to see it just once. Quote
DIS Posted November 26, 2003 Report Posted November 26, 2003 "Dancing Nitely" [sic] is a Bill Holman, not a Willie Maiden chart. Quote
sidewinder Posted November 26, 2003 Report Posted November 26, 2003 (edited) John Tapscott said: There's another about a time when Kenton's band played the Loser's Club, a Mafia run joint in some American city (Dallas?) Kenton was not with the band due to illness, and the band's manager was trying to collect the night's pay with little success. Willie, all 5'5" of him, overheard the conversation, ran up to the Mafia guy, put his nose in his face and said, "Now I know how this place got its' name!", then ran out of the room. The band manager left with his life, but not the money. I recently came across an old Ann Richards LP on VeeJay in the 2nd hand racks called 'Live At The Losers'. Looked to me that this place might have been somewhere in the LA area (the setting looked sort of like an out of town strip mall). Not suprised in the slightest, based on cover photo, to hear that this was a mafia-run joint. Edited November 26, 2003 by sidewinder Quote
JSngry Posted March 19, 2012 Author Report Posted March 19, 2012 On 11/25/2003 at 8:14 PM, JSngry said: "Tinsel" - that's about as brilliant a piece of writing as there is, at least within whatever the hell genre it's in. Found Kenton At Brigham Young on LP for $1.25 a few days ago, hadn't heard it in 35-40 years, so figured, hey, the price is right..anyway, Willie's piece "Kaleidoscope"...I did not appreciate the full measure of it's brilliance until now. Genius, pure genius. One of those things where the first thing that comes to your mind is "who the hell could even think of something like this" and the more you hear it (and I keep repeating it, good exercise, vinyl is), the more the thought changes to "even if you could think of something like this, how the hell do you actually make it work?" Guess you gotta be a genius, or at the very least pretty damn hip. Quote
jazzbo Posted March 19, 2012 Report Posted March 19, 2012 Well Willie was pretty darned hip, and may have been a genius. Thanks for sharing. Quote
JSngry Posted March 19, 2012 Author Report Posted March 19, 2012 I'm leaning towards pretty damn hip genius myself! Are you hearing his comp on that video? There are plenty of full-time piano players who aren't that hip! Quote
JSngry Posted November 18, 2014 Author Report Posted November 18, 2014 Tinsel, at last on you Tube. Some guys played their heart out, Willie wrote his heart out. And played it, too. Arrangement - gorgeous arrangement - by the otherwise cringe-inducing (for me) Rob McConnell. Just goes to show ya'. Quote
sgcim Posted December 5, 2014 Report Posted December 5, 2014 Just got back from a great gig with a great big band I never played with before, and they played a few Willie Maiden charts that smoked. They were all minor blues. One was a fast waltz that had a few bars of 5/4 in it. Hip genius indeed! Quote
scooby Posted December 5, 2014 Report Posted December 5, 2014 I have a copy of Tinsel in my library. Would love to play it someday. One of Maiden's best. Quote
scooby Posted December 5, 2014 Report Posted December 5, 2014 Nice to hear some of Willie's thoughts on improvisation: Quote
John Tapscott Posted December 5, 2014 Report Posted December 5, 2014 (edited) Reminds me that I must soon listen to Willie's Christmas For Moderns from the MF Mosaic set (it was also released as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Kenton's Christmas). Edited December 5, 2014 by John Tapscott Quote
scooby Posted December 6, 2014 Report Posted December 6, 2014 A couple of additional Willie Maiden related links: http://maynardfergusonboard.yuku.com/topic/819/t/Willie-Maiden-on-Maynard.html#.VIMdoEc76rU http://www.vosbein.com/lagniappe/words/maiden_article/ Quote
JSngry Posted December 16, 2019 Author Report Posted December 16, 2019 Surprise Willie Maiden sighting!!! Quote
Niko Posted December 16, 2019 Report Posted December 16, 2019 Apparently, this is something of a sister session to the Bob Tulley Quintet recordings for Skylark from the same summer 1954, also with Willie Maiden as an arranger and also with Hank Milo on drums and Paul Binning on drums... note the praise for Maiden and his arrangements in the liner notes... recently issued by VSOP as streaming/mp3 only, here is more information Quote
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