Eddie Graf Charts

A few years back Eddy Graf called me and a few other guys in his band to augment a band from Chicago. It was a one-night event for this travelling presentation. The band was "Blue Baron" (a society band from the past) led by his nephew, tuxedo, baton and all. 

 I'm glad I didn't have to play lead because I didn't have a lot of experience interpreting this style of music.  Another trumpet player played lead that night and did it quite admirably.  He laid it down deliberately in that "hotel" style. As a result he was easy to follow. It sounded like we had all seen the book many times before.

It turned out that Eddy Graf's band members were the nucleus of the group. Except for the piano player, conductor and drummer, the rest of us were all from Toronto.

During the course of the evening, one of the tunes called out by the bandleader way "Begin the Beguine."  Well surprise, surprise surprise. It turned out to be Eddy's arrangement. It had been copied (without his permission) and had found it's way all the way to the "windy city."   (That must say something about the popularity of Eddy's arrangement.)

One of Eddy's band members remarked, "Hey Eddy, this is definitely your chart, I can tell by the script." Just in case Eddy might be annoyed to see one of his arrangements in that library, he said, "I think you should consider this copy job a sort of compliment." Eddy didn't say anything, just smiled.

That arrangement of Eddy's is very well orchestrated and is a chart other band leaders consider a "must- have" in their dance library. Should anyone else be interested in that number, perhaps it would be a good idea to approach Eddy first.

There is an expression, "plagiarism (theft) is the sincerest form of flattery." It may be.
However, Eddy says, "It doesn't pay for the groceries."

Web space donated by Encore...The Concert Band www.encoretheconcertband.ca