[TPIN] Oklahoma

[David Arndt]

For whatever it's worth, "marking parts" with pencil is unavoidable, at
least it was back in my day.  Even if postit notes were available (I think
they might have just come out around that time) - but can't imagine getting
along that way.  You have to mark the parts.

As a matter of nostalgia, when you were playing a headliner, like Johnny
Matthis, Sammy Davis, Steve Lawrence, etc., it was typical to see notes in
the parts from players all over the country.  It was actually kind of cool
to see who else had been playing the book (sometimes players would initial
the bottom of a page - or even send a "hello" to someone in another part of
the country using this mechanism).

One funny incident: I was playing for "Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes"
once back in 1977 or 78 (just a "young buck" at the time).  As was typical
with the Motown-type acts, it was always "road map city"...

"...ok, we're gonna repeat letter C three times.  Trumpets: Play the first
four bars the first time, lay out the 2nd four bars, then, on the repeat,
layout out every two bars, then play everthing the last time.  After letter
C, cut to letter H, play it once, repeat only the 1st four bars, then go
back to B, then... when you get to C, just play it once and then go to the
coda..."

You get the picture.  In the midst of this, when I leaned forward to pick up
a pencil the conductor glared at me and snarled:  "No boy... Don't make no
marks... CONCENTRATE!".

This became a standing joke with the house band.  From that point forward,
whenever someone marked a part (regardless of the act) someone would say
under their breath: "No boy... CONCENTRATE", drawing laughs from around the
band.

- da


-----Original Message-----
<<
... The music itself is not hard, but the cuts, jumps and deletions are
crazy.  Bring a good, sharp pencil to rehearsal and some paperclips to help
the multi-page turns. 
>>