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Re: French Horns

Yes Adrian..........
I WAS one lucky sod (whatever that is).......Spent many a evening with
Johnny working through the night....  I know you can relate to that.

I'm afraid I'm too young to have worked on Cuban Fire.  That was recorded
in 1956 in New York City right after the Kenton Band came back from a tour
of Great Britain.
I'm sure using 2 french horns was either a budget consideration or Stan
Kenton's decision..  Knowing Johnny, he would have used 4 french horns...
but that's a good question.  I'll ask some of the players that were on the
recording date.  Cuban Fire has been released on CD, Adrian.  I have
Johnny's original scores... talk about luck.

The mellophonium was designed specifically for the Kenton band by Conn with
the guidence of Stan Kenton and Johnny Richards. They wanted a bell front
instrument that could cut thru that massive sound and something that
resembled a french horn sound.
They played them in "F"  using trumpet players, Ray Starling being the best
of the lot.  Real French horn players would never go near a mellophonium.
Besides, most French horn players couldn't swing... at least in those days.
 I too have a mellophonium hanging in my den.  Great looking instrument....
too bad they had so many intonation problems.

I would be happy to make you a copy of "Big Fat Brass."  Now that's a real
classic in brass writing.

Mark Freeh (NYC)

----------
> From: Adrian Drover <saxhorn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: French Horns
> Date: Thursday, May 14, 1998 3:49 PM
> 
> On 12 May, brassman <brassman@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > I later became Johnny Richard's copiest.  
> 
> You lucky sod!
> 
> > As you may know, Johnny Richards composed "Cuban Fire", "Adventures In
> > Time" and arranged "West Side Story" all for Stan Kenton and all Grammy
> > winners.
> 
> "Cuban Fire" is one of the best vinyls I have in my collection, though
> I've always wondered why there were only 2 french horns in that band. Did
> you forget to copy the other two parts? :-) 
> 
> "West Side Story", another classic had 4 mellophoniums. The album would
> have been nicer with french horns, but I guess Kenton found them
> unsuitable for stage work. The forward bell instruments made more noise.
> In fact, I used to own and play one of those Conn mellophoniums. In those
> days I also doubled on alto and baritone saxes, having the same pitch as
> the Eb mellophonium (which also had a crook to put it in F). 
> 
> > I met Billy May once....
> 
> "Big Fat Brass", another great album. Whoever I lent that record to, I
> want it back, d'y'ere!
> 
> Adrian
> 
> -- 
>   ____    _ _
>  /    \ _| (_)___   _____ ADRIAN DROVER 
> |  ()  / _ | / _ \_( ___/ INNOVATIVE ORCHESTRAL SERVICES
> |__/\__\___|_\___/____)   http://www.gemscore.demon.co.uk/   
> Business:  adios@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx		     
> Personal: adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  (Glasgow, Scotland)
> 
> 
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