Hope fulfilled

Abstract

As Pug and I got our life in order it seemed as if I was riding high on the crest of an artistic wave; things were happening to me that had never happened before. One such event took place in the summer of 1984 at Waterloo Village, a park two hours west of the city in New Jersey, about the time that work on The Cotton Club was drawing to a close. I had been approached by Jack Stine, a jazz promoter and a good friend, who was on the board of the Waterloo Concert Series. His committee was planning its Saturday night summer concert series, and Jack suggested I do a 75th birthday tribute to Benny Goodman. He wanted me to put together a band, and hoped to get Benny to assist in the planning and be the honored guest. Benny was flattered — he was genuinely enthusiastic and surprisingly co-operative, even to the extent of making available his library to choose the arrangements from. I used the Cotton Club band. We’d been recording the soundtrack for three weeks, often two sessions a day, and it had the cohesiveness and spirit of a real band — not the usual pickup group you hear nowadays. We rehearsed for nine hours, and by concert time on August 23rd the band was raring to go. Even the weather co-operated. It was a beautiful warm night, the one Saturday evening of the whole summer on which there was no rain. The program covered Benny’s work from 1935 to 1945, and featured the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson, Deane Kincaide, Jimmy Mundy, Mary Lou Williams, Eddie Sauter and Mel Powell.