Tiny Bubbles

Sometimes you can't get past your own personal musical tastes and biases to appreciate another player's abilities and acumen.   Lawrence Welk's Band fits this problem with a lot of "purist" musicians. 

People who don't care for commercial bands think this musical "show" is too much pablum  ("champagne music" and bubbles) and not enough substance. They considered the music and presentations to be bordering on the "corny."

It's true Welk's band used a successful palatable formula but the music was expertly played by musicians with exceptional professional abilities. Trumpet player Ken Hanna (in the early black and white television days of the show) came from Stan Kenton's Band. Mickey McMahan another great lead trumpet player came from Les Brown's Band. 

Pete Fountain (world class artist) was featured with that show for some time. He was a well known star with exceptional Dixieland clarinet skills.  He enjoyed his own international prominence having played with all the great Dixieland Jazz players in the world e.g. Al Hirt and others in that genre.

Many of Welk's band came from these professional ranks e.g. Big Tiny Little, (pianist). Henry Questa and Peanuts Hucko were clarinet stars in their own right with vast professional backgrounds.

I guess it's easy to type-cast however, in this case I don't think it is valid or warranted. Lawrence Welk's band was a professional "show" played by very capable professionals.

They could play any style but chose this steady employment no doubt attracted by the high musical standards. (After you got past the Champagne Theme..(and the bubbles) there was a lot of musical features that were quite challenging.)

High musical standards is a great inducement for most pros. It's also hard to ignore 1200.00 dollars a week as a steady income. It's the closest thing to being a "studio" musician where you have to play everything and anything from every era of music.

Lawrence Welk was from Strasburg, North Dakota which was heavily populated with Russian-German immigrants. This explained his roots and his "fractured" English and thick accent.  However, his charm and the musical formula that he devised was very successful, so successful that the Lawrence Welk Show appeared on television for 31 years. That's quite an accomplishment by anybody's standards.

When he was first approached by the network he was quite reticent to accept thinking that his manner of speech would not be some thing the American audience would accept and be comfortable with. 

The ABC Network encouraged him to consider their backing and involvement. They said that the way he "talked" was the thing that would make the show a success. It would be one of the charming things that the people would like. (that and a sure-fire musical menu of favourite tunes recognized by a large audience.)

Lawrence recalls the story when one of the executives said, "Do you understand that this is a great career opportunity and it will pay in excess of 5000.00 dollars a week no matter how you talk?" It only took a moment for Welk to consider this proposition when he heard how much the show paid and said,

"For that kind of money.....I'll talk." Eventually he bought out the show and produced it himself for many years.

Who said musicians don't have business savvy?

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