Can I Sit In

I was living in Omaha, Nebraska at the time (the 60's) and I had just gotten back from California where I had been studying.   I don't know how John Noubarian got ahold of my phone number but one day he called me and said he had eight weeks of work in London at the Iroquois Hotel.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to come back to my hometown and play and also be part of John's great ensemble. I have to say that it's always a special treat to work with such a gifted piano player of John's calibre.

 We both worked for Neil McKay's Orchestra at the London Arena in our teenage years. More recently I had a New Year's engagement at the Deerhurst Inn and was putting a select group of musicians together for that special event.  I called Pat LaBarbera (renowned tenor player and teacher) if he was available for that engagement.  It paid a big buck, free lodging and dinner and breakfast were thrown in. You could also bring your wives or whatever.  Well Pat was already booked and just by chance as we were wrapping up the conversation he asked, "Oh, by the way, who do you have on piano?" I said, "John Noubarian from London." He said, "In that case I will try to get out of my job and do yours." He did just that. That's how much he respected John and enjoyed working with him.

Back when John Noubarian called me for the hotel job he had actually been offered two jobs, the Iroquois and Campbell's. He was leaning toward accepting Campbell's as it was a rare chance to back-up an array of well-known Jazz artists. John said that if he did take the Campbell's gig, he would see to it that I took over the bandleader's position at the Iroquois.  It turned out exactly that way and I am indebted to John for opening that door for me. 

The Iroquois Hotel was a supper club and you got a chance to back many singers, comedians and a variety of acts, magicians etc.   It was a great learning experience. Local musicians used to drop in and eat the reasonably priced meals (all you could eat or shove in your pockets) and have a few drinks.

The entertainment program at the Iroquois, included many "stars" from C.B.C. television such as Tommy Ambrose, Shirley Harmer, Tommy Common, Wally Koster, Joyce Hahn and others.  They were all excellent entertainers, and reputable orchestrators such as Jimmy Dale, Rick Wilkins and others wrote their exciting charts. These were the writers that eventually went on to write for renowned television personalities in the States later on.

It wasn't out of the ordinary for fellow musicians to ask to sit in but on this occasion the circumstances really complicated the request. The "guest" musician was a drummer and hadn't been in the London area for several years.  He no doubt felt a desire to showcase his musical acumen that he had acquired all this time. I knew the guy but only by reputation and only remembered him as a would-be “jazz drummer.”

As I said there were many factors that complicated this situation.  It was late at night and we were required to play dance music for the patrons on the last set. We tried to accommodate musical requests from the audience and in this case we had only one more song to play.    Well, the drummer pleaded to sit in. I told him that we only had one more song to do and then it was "lights out." as deemed by the policy of the hotel management.

Well, I finally relented and assured him that we were only going to do this one song and that was it. He got behind the drums (that were Bob Rawling's if I recall) and to my annoyance and perhaps Bob's started to re-adjust the equipment - the snare drum, then the high-hat and the angle of the cymbals etc. He tested everything thing and I might add noisily.  He most likely expected the last tune to be his time to shine (cook) in this hometown forum.  I was really ticked not so much for the request to sit in but by the way he took over the previous drummers equipment and without permission, changed all the settings and for only one tune.

Well, that did it. We were under the gun to play the last tune and pack up.  I kicked off the tempo for this last request.  "Here's two bars intro guys."   "One two three, one…  

The tune - a waltz – “Fascination”.

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