Pencil Portrait by Mort Kuff
A PERSONAL ANECDOTE
It was 1968 and I was 15 years old. I lived in Chicago and went to a Chicago Public High School. They had a very weak music program and for sure no “big band” whatsoever.
My dad was a huge Benny Goodman fan so at 10 years old I started playing clarinet…but at 15 I wanted to play saxophone. I had heard the Basie-Straight Ahead album and bought myself a copy. I was given an old beat up tenor to fool around with. I had no concept of how to read a big band chart and lessons I jazz were out of the question financially. By this time I had been teaching myself clarinet for 4 years. I’ve never had a lesson.
I saw on the album that the publisher was Banes Music. After trying the various sheet music stores in an attempt to get the Tenor parts to the album I learned that they didn’t exist in print individually. So, I wrote a letter to Banes asking them where I could get the tenor parts as I was teaching myself and I wanted to play with the record.
I don’t hear anything for a few months so I figured nothing would come of my letter. One day a package comes for me. I open it and a note said enclosed are the tenor parts for my music. I have marked them as to where they are different from the recordings. I hope this helps you on your way…here’s my phone number…please call me and let me know how you are doing! Good luck…Sammy Nestico…
I called him and we talked for a long time…subsequently he sent me a copy and the tenor parts to Have a Nice Day and later a promo record of Basie Big Band and his own album Dark Orchid.
We stayed in touch for a while. I wound up with a career in music for 47 years in Chicago www.michaellerich.com. I have retired from that end of the business and now I have a jazz group. I was lucky enough to tell Mr. Nestico some 30 years later of my career and how his kindness did send me on my way…
He was truly a wonderful man and indeed his memory is a blessing for the world!
Michael Lerich