[TPIN] Pete Barbutti

[Achias1 at mchsi.com]

At the risk of repeating myself, I need to retell a story that Pete told once when I was playing in a group 
backing him up many years ago. Actually two:

He was holding a plunger mute and getting ready to play using it, but constantly interrupting himself 
by telling another joke (while holding and ocassionally smoking a stogie). Finally, he stuck the plunger 
to the side of the piano, set his stogie into the hole, and played a riff on the cornet. Not the use we 
expected for the plunger!

The cornet that he used (the one in the video) was AWFUL and looked like it could fall apart at any 
moment.

His schtick was to get ready to play something, then suddenly stop and tell another joke. I'm not sure 
that he ever did play anything.

As he looked like he was about to play, he looked at the piano player and said, "B natural," and the 
piano player played a B natural for him to tune. He then said, "No, just be natural! - I told that to the 
trumpet section once and they all put on high-heeled shoes!"


> Years ago, Pete came into Dallas and played with  Eastfield Community 
> College Jazz Band. As I knew the Band Director(Curt Bradshaw), I was invited 
> to go back to his house and hang out as his wife had put together a little 
> get together for his band members. As I walked in the door, Pete came in 
> right behind Paul Guerrero and I. He introduced himself, just like a regular 
> guy, no airs ..just very down to earth. He sat next to a couple of us and 
> talked like he had known us for years. Later , he got up and mingled with 
> the kids and seemed to have a great time. I miss seeing him on TV, he was 
> always hysterical.
> 
> Rob Jonas