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Mohawk College Music Career Day

June 18, 2018 IM

(L to R) Local 293 Executive Board Member Ryan McKenna, CFM Electronic Media Supervisor Daniel Calabrese, and Local 293 President Larry Feudo man the CFM Booth at Mohawk College’s Music Career Day.

On May 1, members of the AFM participated in the first annual Music Career Day at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario. Attended by more than 600 high school and college students, the event presented more than a dozen panels. Three live bands, two of them comprising entirely Local 293 (Hamilton, ON) members, provided entertainment. For more information on the event, including panelist bios please visit https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/music-career-day-hamilton.

Hamilton Musicians’ Guild, Local 293, President Larry Feudo, Secretary-Treasurer Brent Malseed, and AFM International Representative Allistair Elliott served as panelists on a workshop entitled “Introduction to the Hamilton Musicians’ Guild,” moderated by Local 293 2nd Vice President Janna Malseed. Some of the topics covered were: the history of Local 293, benefits and services to members, contracts for live performances/recordings, intellectual property rights, US work permits for Canadian musicians, the MPTF, and the Lester Petrillo Fund. The theme was the importance of being part of a collective for a stronger voice in issues that affect all musicians at the local, national, and international levels.

The Women in Music panel was popular with students. (L to R) are: drummer Amy Di Nino of Local 226 (Kitchener), keyboardist/vocalist Lily Sazz of Local 293 (Hamilton, ON), singer/songwriter Lori Yates, disc jockey Rachael Henderson (aka DJ Donna Lovejoy), and manager/producer Robert Missen.

A CFM booth at the Music Career Day Vendor Marketplace, was manned by CFM Electronic Media Supervisor Daniel Calabrese with the assistance of Local 293 First Vice President Reg Denis and Executive Board Members Ron Palangio and Ryan McKenna. They handed out AFM/CFM informational pamphlets and answered many questions about the benefits of AFM membership. Mohawk College Music Student Raul Gutierrez-Ruiz, who is interning at the Local 293 office, helped the team and took photographs.

Among the more than a dozen workshops and panel discussion topics were career pathways, women in music, film scoring, royalties and licensing, and funding sources. The workshops were dialogue starters with something of interest to everyone. Among the panelists were Local 293 members Lily Sazz, Andre Bisson, and Janna Malseed; Amy Di Nino of Local 226 (Kitchener, ON); Pat Collins of Local 149 (Toronto, ON), and Dusty Micale of Local 802 (New York City).

(L to R) At a workshop, Local 293 Secretary Brent Malseed and President Larry Feudo, AFM International Representative Allistair Elliott, and Local 293 Vice President Janna Malseed (moderator) introduced students at Mohawk Colleges’s Music Career Day to the union.

“Music Career Day was an excellent opportunity for our officers to interact with the students and network with the other panelists to make them aware of what we do as a union. As a result of this event, three new members joined Local 293 the day after,” says Brent Malseed.

The event, designed to offer networking opportunities and unique workshops/panel discussions for aspiring musicians and industry professionals was created with support from Mohawk College, Hamilton Music Community, and the City of Hamilton.

The Hamilton Music Advisory Team (HMAT) has close ties to Local 293 through Janna Malseed’s position as vice chair of the HMAT committee. Made up of local music industry representatives with eclectic musical backgrounds, HMAT assists with the city’s music strategy and is focused on “cultivating music creation and talent and growing audiences and appreciation of music.” For more information on the HMAT visit https://www.hamilton.ca/hamilton-music-film-office/music-in-hamilton/hamilton-music-advisory-team.

At the closing ceremony, Local 293 President Feudo and Secretary-Treasurer Malseed presented second-year Mohawk College music student James Degeer with a cheque representing the local’s donation to the Richard Newell (King Biscuit Boy) Scholarship, given annually to outstanding music students at Mohawk.

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To see video highlights from Mohawk College Career Day visit:
www.hamiltonmusicians.org/news-events

At Mohawk College’s Music Career Day closing ceremony, student James Degeer was presented with a cheque representing Local 293’s contribution to the Richard Newell Scholarship. (L to R) are: Mohawk College Associate Dean of Media & Entertainment Kurt Muller, Local 293 officers Brent Malseed and Larry Feudo, and Degeer.

On the Cover

Belinda Whitney: Tapestry of Support Shapes Compelling Career

June 1, 2018 IM

photo credit: Matt Dine

Violinist Belinda Whitney of Local 802 (New York City) has forged an exciting and diverse career. She’s currently concertmaster and personnel manager for The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, concertmaster for the Broadway show My Fair Lady, performs with the Harlem Chamber Players, plus does a wide range of commercial gigs. She credits her success to all the people that believed in her and helped her along the way.

Whitney’s journey in music began at school. “No one is more a product of music in the public schools than I am,” she says, recalling the first time she heard a string quartet in second grade in Philadelphia. Later, she was one of two students from each classroom selected to take violin lessons.

Her remarkably dedicated violin teacher, John Hamilton, invested heavily in his students, traveling to their homes once a week for free, private lessons. “He would give me lessons until I couldn’t concentrate anymore and then he would stay for dinner,” she recalls. It was the only payment he would accept. “He also took us to free concerts, found performance opportunities for us, and he introduced us to a summer camp.” Still teaching and performing, Hamilton is now a member of Local 294 (Lancaster, PA).

Already gigging in college, Whitney joined Local 77 (Philadelphia, PA) as a student. “It was very formal. I had an interview and I dressed up and brought my violin. The interviewer asked a lot of questions. I played some scales and a little solo,” she says. “It really drove home the fact that I was becoming part of something. We had pride in what we were doing and I valued that.” However, she had no idea how important her union would be later.

Whitney received a Bachelor of Music from Temple University and a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, where she was a scholarship student of Ivan Galamian. Though her studies were classical, the music she wished to play was more commercial. “I always loved old movies and the sound of old TV show orchestras,” she says. “When I started doing freelance gigs in college, my professor said, ‘Now, don’t you enjoy these gigs too much.’ But, I loved doing commercial work.”

Before graduation, she was already hired to play in Philadelphia that summer for The King and I with Yul Brynner. “I thought, ‘Wow, I’m not out of school and I already have a job,’” says Whitney who was 23 at the time. “I loved it. I got to work with a lot of seasoned pros; it was a great introduction.”

“At the time, big stars would go on the road,” she says. Following The King and I, she worked on several other shows—Sugar Babies with Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney and Mame with Angela Lansbury—and other acts that came through Philadelphia and Atlantic City. “I recorded with Sigma Sounds and Philadelphia International Records and did symphonic work as well. I felt like I had it all.”

Photo credit: Kevin Yatarola

Her first full-time symphony position was as associate concertmaster for Savannah Symphony. “They sort of took a chance on me because I had no experience [as concertmaster],” she says. When the former concertmaster left, Whitney became one of the first black concertmasters for a large symphony. “That was a big feather in my cap that led to a lot of other things.”

After a few years, she wanted a change of pace and moved back to Philadelphia. A short time later she had her first gig on Broadway. The concertmaster for City of Angels dropped out just weeks before the show’s opening and John Miller, a Local 802 contractor, hired her. “It was a little odd to start in New York as concertmaster for a Broadway show, but I’d already paid my dues elsewhere,” says Whitney who went on to have a long and rewarding association with Miller. “I feel really lucky for that,” she says.

According to Whitney, one of the most important duties of a Broadway concertmaster is to maintain high standards. Not everyone is cut out for Broadway, she says. “In a symphony, you prepare a different concert every week or so. With a Broadway show, you play the same thing over and over—for years, if you are lucky. Being a concertmaster for a Broadway show is a matter of maintenance: keeping standards up, while keeping the work atmosphere inclusive, light, and pleasant. New York is full of incredibly fantastic musicians and it’s important to foster an atmosphere of respect in the pit.”

“I don’t mind playing the same thing over and over,” she says. “I feel when you play Broadway you are either building up or tearing down. You are either playing your best and thinking ‘tonight I’m going to make my sound a little better’ or just phoning it in, which is tearing down. As a concertmaster, it is my challenge to keep the standards high in the face of repetition.”

Whitney has now served as concertmaster for many Broadway shows. When asked for her personal favorite, she replies, “I could tell you why they are all my favorites. I’ve always loved old musicals. At Lincoln Center, I was concertmaster, as well as in-house contractor, for South Pacific, The King and I (which I did for a second time), and currently My Fair Lady.”

Music Coordinator David Lai of Local 802 first asked her to contract for South Pacific. “I tend to take on challenges,” she says. “He led me through it. It was a big orchestra—30 people—and by the time everyone was allotted five subs, we were talking 180 people. That was a pretty big payroll and a lot of people to get to know.”

That’s when she first realized all the little things her union does behind the scenes to make sure musicians are compensated and treated fairly. “I really can’t imagine navigating the musical freelance business without the union,” she says, describing how she acts as a bridge to the union. “I enjoy people—facilitating work situations and making them run as smoothly and painlessly as possible.”

Today, Whitney is also contractor and personnel director for The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, which she’s been involved with from its inception. When she first met with founder and Local 802 member Gary Fagin about his ideas, Whitney discovered they had similar approaches to music. “We both value musicians who are experienced in a variety of styles,” she says. “He said he felt New York freelance musicians are among the most well-rounded musicians in the world today, and have extensive playing experience, at the highest level, in many different styles. This was exactly what he wanted for Knickerbocker.”

photo credit: Cenovia Cummins

Whitney also told him she would not contract an orchestra that didn’t provide fair wages and benefits for its musicians. “We agreed on this from day one,” she says. “We’ve had some unusual requests and Gary always says, ‘We do it the right way or we don’t do it.’ It’s been wonderful to be the bridge between this orchestra, this man who has this fantastic vision, and the union whose priority is getting people the benefits to which they are entitled. These musicians are absolutely valued.”

The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra is Lower Manhattan’s orchestra, she says. “It started 10 years ago, not long after 9/11, at a time when so many orchestras were folding. It’s been wonderful to be a part of building it and I feel lucky to have done that.”

Whitney thrives in the diverse work of a freelance musician, which for her has also included film scores, records, and working with artists as diverse as Michael Jackson, Luciano Pavarotti, Barbra Streisand, and Stevie Wonder of Local 5 (Detroit, MI). She can also be heard, along with violinist Cenovia Cummins of Local 802, in the recording of the tango introduction to the show Mystery Masterpiece Theatre.

As an old movie buff, Whitney felt particularly blessed when she met Donald O’Connor during an MGM special at Carnegie Hall. “I went to his dressing room and we had a great time talking. At the concert, he spoke about his experiences with MGM. As they dimmed the lights to play a video of his routine ‘Make ’Em Laugh.’ I saw him walking over to me. He says, ‘Now let’s watch,’ and puts his arm around me and we watched it together. I was on stage at Carnegie Hall, watching ‘Make ’Em Laugh’ with Donald O’Connor’s arm around me! That really tickled me.”

Among the necessities for a successful freelance career, according to Whitney, are union membership, networking, affability, and professionalism. Earning livable wages as a freelance musician would not be feasible without the union, she contends. “The union really pulls it all together. I think we take our union for granted, but the way the freelance world works is really a product of our union’s hard work.”

“Respect, pleasantness, networking, and being on time and ready to play are huge for musicians,” she continues. “In a big group of musicians, you may not stand out. But, if you are early, ready to play, dependable, and friendly, people will want you around. The music world today is very competitive and there are a lot of people who can do a job pretty well. Sometimes networking skills can give you a slight edge. People will forgive a lot of missteps if they realize you are eager to learn and pleasant to be around. We all remember when we were young.”

It’s also critical to be a well-rounded musician, she says. “My experiences in Broadway, the recording business, and the classical business keep looping around for me. One takes me to the other, then back to the first. It’s been a rich experience learning different styles.”

Looking back on her career Whitney is thankful to everyone who helped her succeed. “God has blessed me more than I ever thought and I feel humbled that so many people took a chance on me. When I take inventory of my journey I realize that my career is like a tapestry of all the people who invested in me—from my family who encouraged and believed in me, to my parents driving me all over the country to music camps, to that very first teacher,” she says. “I love that I’m involved with the Harlem Chamber Players and Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, which put on children’s concerts. Investing in others is really important because that’s what brought me here.”

Whitney feels that working with young children is key to bringing more racial diversity to symphony orchestras. “By the time musicians are out of college, I feel like it should be a level playing field,” she says. “I think the reason I did as well as I did was because people invested so heavily in me before I got to college.”

“When I talk to my colleagues, many of them had parents who played an instrument so they started at a very early age and music was a part of the home. But about 90% of the black professional musicians I know started music in the public schools. So that means they are starting later. I think we should invest in programs targeting younger people so when they get to college they are already competitive,” she says.

Member Profiles

Aldo Mazza: Educator Builds Bridges to Cuban Rhythms and Culture

April 30, 2018 IM

Percussionist Aldo Mazza of Local 406 (Montreal, PQ) is an Italian-born Canadian educator specializing in Cuban rhythms and music. With his wife, violinist Jolán Kovács, he founded KoSA Academy in Montreal. The educational program offers master classes in classical music, jazz, and rock, but stretches beyond North America to Europe, South America, and Asia. Of Cuba’s musical tradition, Mazza likes to say, “We’re not dealing with one music—a small island—we’re dealing with a musical continent.”

Mazza’s hybrid approach to teaching combines Cuba’s rich music with lyrical traditions of African, Spanish, and European percussion and rhythms. Along with music clinics and concerts, the academy hosts international workshops. Participants come from all walks of life and musical persuasions—students and professionals alike. Faculty includes virtuosos like Walfredo Reyes of Local 47, and Yves Cypihot, Eugenio Roberto “Kiko” Osorio, and Harold Faustin of Local 406, among others.

As a drummer, Mazza cut his chops in rock bands before studying classical percussion and jazz performance at McGill University. Graduate studies in ethnomusicology at l’Université de Montréal and attending international festivals, he says, opened his eyes. He found himself attracted to Cuban music and began to rigorously explore its language and vocabulary, the political and historical currents that shaped its traditions, and how music was infused into the culture. He found his true niche as an educator and ambassador for Cuban music.

Citing a few examples, Mazza explains that rumba and cha-cha-chá have different histories as do danzón and son. Influenced by African and Haitian rhythms, Spanish flamenco, Andalusian folk music, and European contra dance, Cuban music is a confluence of rhythms, dance, and ritual. “It’s the cha-cha-chá, mambo, and Mozambique—but there are Chinese and European lineages. When slaves were freed, they went to the eastern side of the province near Santiago, where rumba was developed. The conga, which is high-life music, almost Brazilian, is different from son, the root of so many Cuban dance rhythms. A huge repertoire of rhythms were invented in Cuba.”

Mazza, who until age nine lived in Italy, says his interest in percussion rhythms as a common language is a direct result of his early experiences. In Calabria, where he was born, contemporary drumming, funk and jazz, for instance, always incorporate traditional and cultural roots. The question is “How is the younger generation making it hybrid?” Likewise, he says, “Our Cuban trips and music camps are musical, historical, cultural—a deeper experience.”

Cuban rhythms have been absorbed into other cultures, filtered through other traditions, especially in the US, Mazza says. For example, Mozambique is played differently in Cuba than in the US.

Mazza started KoSA Cuba Festival Camp and Fiesta del Tambor (Havana Rhythm and Dance Festival) 17 years ago and has since established clinics and events in China, New York City, and Italy. Moving beyond music camp, it has become an immersive cultural experience. Several times a year, the week-long clinic brings students and veteran musicians together with top Cuban artists, for a program that encompasses visits to museums, religious ceremonies, interaction with Cuban musicians, jam sessions, and nightly concerts.

In recent years, KoSA Cuba has recruited top musicians to give master classes to Cuban students, like Mexican drummer Antonio Sanchez of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA), who composed the score for the award-winning film Birdman and Rascal Flatts drummer Jim Riley of Local 257 (Nashville, TN). “It’s a good way to build a bridge,” Mazza says, adding, “In fact, Jim [Riley] was taking classes, too. He said, ‘Do you mind if I sit in a class—you know, we all have a lot to learn.’”

One of the most important components of the academy is the enlistment of elder-statesmen musicians from different traditions, who teach and pass down what they know. “It would be like Beethoven teaching classical composition. A lot of the people learning these rhythms and music are getting to the level where they can compete with Cuban musicians, which is a pretty high bar,” says Mazza.

In 2004, Mazza and KoSA moved the workshops to Matanzas and Havana, where they began a collaboration with Giraldo Piloto to help establish Cuba’s La Fiesta del Tambor in honor of Piloto’s uncle, Guillermo Barreto, one of Cuba’s most celebrated drummers.

KoSA also sponsors a national competition in which winners in five categories are awarded a Cuban percussion instrument. Through its nonprofit foundation, KoSA raises funds to help Cuban students acquire instruments not otherwise available.

In 2017, Mazza published an instructional book and DVD, Cuban Rhythms for Percussion and Drumset: The Essentials. He says, “Students are given a white canvas—beginning a discussion of the divergent traditions and the significance of how they relate to each other to make a more complete experience. Not calling things Afro-Cuban or Latin-Cuban, but accurately identifying rhythms on Cuban instruments.”

If musicians want to play Cuban music, according to Mazza, they all need to learn these rhythms. “In Cuba, that’s the way it is.” It’s about enlightening musicians and correcting myths. “Like Hollywood appropriating mambo with Desi Arnaz,” Mazza says. “We try to correct that.”

Mazza, who has worked with John Cage and Philip Glass, performs with the percussion quartet, Répercussion, which has been active for more than 40 years. The first Western percussion group to play in Beijing, they used to do 150 shows a year, but now perform exclusively for special events and festivals.

In 2015, Joachim Horsley, a composer and pianist based in Los Angeles, called Mazza. He wanted to write an authentic piece blending classical and Cuban music—a hybrid approach that Mazza fosters—and wanted to learn to play the instruments. Mazza recalls telling him, “‘I’ll become your conscience. It’s important that you keep the integrity of the music and not create some Hollywood mishmash.’ He did it right.” The result was Beethoven in Havana. Horsley and Mazza went on tour in Italy and France, culminating in a performance at Paris’s Folies Bergère.

Mazza is a featured guest artist with leading symphony orchestras, and can be regularly heard on television and radio broadcasts worldwide. Still, Mazza says, “There’s so much more to do. When I hear about schools closing down their programs I always say—repeating what I’ve heard in my travels—‘A village without music is a dead place.’”

Member Profiles

Pianist Jeff Lorber: A Career Built from Coast to Coast

December 29, 2017 IM

Jeff Lorber of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA).

Pianist Jeff Lorber of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) says he felt like he had access to the world stage growing up in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. He saw the genesis of rock and roll up close. Local record label Cameo Parkway put out a string of hits with Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, and The Orlons. Plus, Dick Clark’s American Bandstand premiered there in 1950. The city offered more inspiration in the way of homegrown jazz talent—Jimmy Heath, McCoy Tyner, and the Brecker Brothers. During the same period, John Coltrane famously lived there.

As a teenager, Lorber played with local R&B bands. At Berklee College of Music in the 1970s, his tastes veered toward jazz and fusion. “I knew if I was going to be an instrumentalist, I’d have to get better at jazz. It was a way to get vocabulary and to become better as a musician,” he says. “Berklee aligned curriculum to the local scene that allowed students to go out and make a living in the music business. It gave us tools to analyze music—taking it apart and putting it back together to understand it—and make our own music.”

In many ways, the Jazz Workshop at Berklee was almost as valuable as taking courses. He says, “Every week there would be somebody absolutely great playing: [Local 802 members] George Benson, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson. I saw Miles Davis play a number of times during that era.” Lorber followed Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, as well as R&B acts like The Crusaders, and Grover Washington, Jr.

But it was Herbie Hancock’s Fat Albert Rotunda album that most inspired him. He remembers thinking it was revolutionary, “Wow, that’s what I want to do. I want to play funky jazz like that.”

Lorber moved to Portland, Oregon, where he formed The Jeff Lorber Fusion. The group released a self-titled debut album in 1977. “There were lucky coincidences, but it’s also about being able to take advantage of those lucky breaks,” Lorber says. “We were touring, selling records. It was a good time in the music biz. We were signed to Arista records and they had good budgets to make records and promote B artists.”

“Then one day Clive Davis [Arista founder and president] decided he wasn’t into jazz anymore. He got rid of his jazz division almost overnight. The few who were left, he wanted them to do R&B vocal stuff,” says Lorber. “That was a mistake. We were on a trajectory to having a solid fan base and touring a lot of pretty big venues. When we radically changed what we were doing, we lost fans.”

Lorber briefly launched a solo career with a release in 1982, but took a break from solo recording and composing, opting instead to work with other artists. There were a few hits on Arista, “Step by Step” (1985) with Audrey Wheeler and Anita Pointer. He moved to Warner Bros. and had another hit with “Facts of Love,” with Karyn White. He recalls working with the R&B duo René Moore and Angela Winbush. “I loved the music we made, the records, and what I learned working with them.” He says, though, “Most of the time vocal overpowers instruments.” He resumed his solo career in 1991 with Worth Waiting For.

Lorber says union scale was important. “Most guys would get double scale for gigs—and having that standard in place created a level playing field where everybody knew the value of a musician’s time. You didn’t have to negotiate each time.” When he lived in Portland, early in his career, Lorber says, “We used to do Musicians Performance Trust Fund gigs. Here in LA, a lot of people do jam sessions and rehearse at the union hall.” Lorber says he’s a supporter of any organization that looks after musicians. “[Otherwise] we’re out here on our own.”

For a number of years, Lorber has battled Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), a congenital disease, which has affected many members of his family. A kidney donated by his wife 11 years ago saved his life. “When you face a life and death situation, you know what’s important. I try to spend my time doing things I love doing, which is playing music and composing,” says Lorber, who says about 600,000 people in the US and two million worldwide are afflicted with PKD.

The proceeds from Lorber’s record of bebop standards, Jazz Funk Soul (Everett Harp and the late Chuck Loeb), go to PKD research. Lorber says, “I love the straight-ahead jazz. You can hear bebop phrasing in the solos.”

Lorber’s most recent album, Prototype (2017), was nominated for a Grammy. “I’m just grateful I’ve had a chance to make a career doing music. I love living in LA and working with the great talents here on a regular basis,” he says. At present, he’s doing some composing and planning an upcoming tour of Southeast Asia.

On the Cover

Faith Seetoo – Zen and the Art of musical

November 3, 2017 IM

Faith Seetoo of Local 76-493 (Seattle, WA) has spent most of her adult life on the road as associate conductor with more than a dozen touring Broadway shows, among them: The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Mamma Mia!, A Chorus Line, and Newsies. Since April 2017 she has been on the North American tour of Aladdin.

Seetoo’s first glimpse into the world of theatre music came when she saw Peter Pan at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles as a child. She was so taken by the show that she wrote to both the show’s star, Sandy Duncan, and the conductor of the orchestra, Jack Lee.

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Member Profiles

American Original: The Storied Career of Reggie Young

November 3, 2017 IM

Reggie Young of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) with his 1957 Stratocaster at Jackson Highway Studio, Florence, Alabama.

Few session musicians can lay claim to the deep roots of Reggie Young. Among guitarists, he is revered. His instinct for phrasing has consistently rendered artful licks mimicked by hundreds of other players. The now 80-year-old musician of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) crafted some of the most famous guitar riffs in history. Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” James Carr’s “Dark End of the Street,” Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” Dusty Springfield’s classic “Son of a Preacher Man,” and Elvis Presley’s comeback hit, “Suspicious Minds.” The list goes on.

In the 1960s and early 1970s Young and the rhythm ensemble known as the Memphis Boys were at the heart of the American Sound Studio at 827 Thomas Street in Memphis. What followed in that five-year period, between 1967 and 1972, was an unparalleled run of more than 120 Top 40 hits.

“We thought it was normal,” Young says, “but it was extraordinary. The talent of everybody combined contributed to the success.” Session work would take Young from Memphis to Nashville and corridors along the way at FAME Studio, Muscle Shoals Records, Stax Records, and Royal Studios. The work led to major tours around the country and Europe and as an opening act, witnessing Beatlemania. “I feel like I was in the middle of the peak of the session world as a studio player.” Of those days, he says, “It was rewarding. There was a lot of camaraderie.”

The story of Reggie Young may well be the story of Southern soul music. He was born in Caruthersville, Missouri, in 1936, and raised in Osceola, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee. His father played Hawaiian guitar—old music like “Sweet Lelani,” Young recalls—and bought him a National flat top when he was 14 years old. Young was fueled by the Delta blues, as well as Django Reinhardt and B.B. King. Most of his musical education came by way of radio, inspired by the Chet Atkins and Jerry Byrd show, Two Guitars, which aired on the now famous WSM radio out of Nashville.

By 1955, Young got his first break with Eddie Bond and the Stompers, which recorded the rockabilly song, “Rockin’ Daddy.” The song charted quickly and Mercury Records signed the band to a deal. A local disc jockey promoting tours hired them to join a tour that included Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, and Roy Orbison.

In 1959, Young was working at Royal Studios cutting records, expanding his range with saxophonist Ace Cannon, trumpeter and bandleader Willie Mitchell, and drummer Al Jackson. Young wrote several instrumentals with Mitchell, who would later produce Al Green’s most successful albums. Young recalls playing the Plantation Inn in West Memphis with B.B. King’s band. “A white guy couldn’t sit in with that band. The crowd wouldn’t go for it. So, I’d do it, but I’d be behind the curtain,” he says.

Young says, “You could sell instrumentals in those days.” He was just practicing on his old ’59 Gibson when, he says, “I tuned the guitar down two whole steps, striking the loose strings with a pencil in a rocking rhythm. The strings were heavier back then and it sounded real good when I played a shuffle beat.” It was an old jazz trick the drummer would use with his sticks on the upright bass. The record was signed and the tune “Smokie Part 2” became the number one R&B hit and rose to number 17 on the pop charts. Instrumentals would set the standard for the label for several years and Billboard voted Bill Black’s Combo the number one instrumental band from 1960 to 1962.

Young was drafted into the Army in 1960 and served for almost two years at Kagnew Station in Ethiopia. When he returned, “Smokie” was still on the charts. Fortunately, Young says, “The studio gave us a choice of paying us scale or letting us have a piece of the record. We all took a cut except for the saxophone player. He got scale—$41.25—and we made a lot of money.”

In between sessions, Young often traveled to New York City to work for Atlantic Records, adding guitar to releases by R&B greats Don Covay and Solomon Burke. Because of their success putting out smash hits, Bill Black’s Combo got an offer to be an opening act for the first American tour of The Beatles. Thirty days in the states and 30 days in Europe. It was in 1964 and “A Hard Day’s Night” was a hit.

At the time, Young says, “The union had a trade agreement with England and we were the trade band for The Beatles. In Europe, we backed up The Ronettes, who had the hit, ‘Be My Baby.’ Lulu was there, and The Kinks.” The tour yielded great music, long jam sessions, and new musical partnerships. Young became good friends with George Harrison. On the second leg of the tour, he met a 20-something Eric Clapton (then a member of the Yardbirds). “He was a blues player and I was too, so we hit it off pretty good. We learned from each other,” Young says.

In 1967, Young joined the house band of guitarist and producer Chips Moman (of Stax Records fame) as part of The Memphis Boys. at American Sound Studio. With Young on guitar and fellow Local 257 members Gene Chrisman on drums, Bobby Wood and Bobby Emmons on piano and organ, and Mike Leech and Tommy Cogbill alternating on bass, they ushered in waves of rock and roll, soul, and early R&B. In fact, it was one of the few studio bands at the time to play both pop music and R&B.

Many musical collaborations would change, seemingly overnight, when Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis April 4, 1968, according to Young. Big acts, like Aretha Franklin, canceled bookings at American Sound Studio and worse—although musicians had long integrated—Young felt in the aftermath, even good friends became distant.

Hi Records and American Sound Studio came to an end, and Young moved on to Nashville in 1972, where he quickly became an integral member of the Nashville studio scene, playing with J. J. Cale, Cat Stevens, George Strait of Local 433 (Austin, TX), Paul Simon of Local 802 (New York City), and Merle Haggard, among others. In 2014, Young contributed to the album, The Breeze: An Appreciation of J. J. Cale, produced by Eric Clapton and Simon Climie.

In the mid 1980s, Young hit the road with The Highway Men, which comprised Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson of Local 433, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson of Local 257. He says, “It scared me at first to leave my main job, doing studio work. But we’d go out in fall and springtime, all over the world for five years.” Young remembers each star trying to outdo the other on stage at night. He says, “Everybody had a bus. It looked like the Ringling Bros. Circus.”

Of his distinctive sound, his wife, Jenny—a classically trained cellist and member of Local 257—says, “It’s his tone; even at 80, he has beautiful tone.” Young adds, “I was never trying to be somebody else.” Eric Clapton famously singled out Young in his autobiography as one of the best guitar players he’d ever heard.

Earlier this year, the musician who was responsible for scores of hits by other artists finally recorded his first solo record, Forever Young. In his golden years, the master of session work finally found time to record his own solos. Everyone who has heard the classic songs he made famous over a 60-year career will recognize the soulful, lyrical strains of Young’s genius.

Member Profiles

Dawn Hannay: Shining Light on the Union

June 30, 2017 IM

Dawn Hannay of Local 802 (New York City) looks back on her career and activism as a violist with the New York Philharmonic.

Dawn Hannay of Local 802 (New York City) practically grew up on the stage of the New York Philharmonic. Having joined at 23, in 1979, the violist was one of a handful of women performing with the orchestra at the time. Now comprising more than half women, the oldest ensemble in the country is steeped in history and tradition. Hannay, who retired from her position last October, says she learned quickly, “I was always a bit of a rabble rouser so it wasn’t long before I was elected chair of the musicians’ committee.”

Back then, for an “inexperienced young woman,” there was a learning curve. Hannay explains that in those days music schools did little to prepare string players to master the overwhelming orchestral repertoire. “You had to be a great sight reader and fast learner,” she says, remembering the first time she played Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe suite in Studio 8H at NBC with the mics on, no rehearsal. “It’s like jumping on a speeding train. You have to be tough, especially as a young and very naive woman in what in those days seemed like a good ole boys club, complete with poker games, chain smoking, and even occasional fisticuffs!”

Hannay inherited the torch from those older and more experienced musicians who had fought so successfully to improve the lives of orchestral musicians. She says, “I took on the challenge, and spent decades doing my utmost to improve the working life of my colleagues, negotiating contracts and helping to resolve disputes.”

“The union is crucial in maintaining fair wages and working conditions for all musicians. Younger musicians who prefer to remain independent need to learn the history of their business, and how essential the union is in ensuring that musicians could earn a living from their craft. It is easy to take for granted the 52-week season, health benefits, and pension that we enjoy today,” she says.

What distinguishes prestigious orchestras like the New York Philharmonic from the Vienna Philharmonic? She says it’s “the communication between older players and the next generation. There are many traditions of phrasing and tempi, of fingerings and articulations, of tone quality and bowings, and even jokes that are handed down, such as applauding in rehearsal at the false ending in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.”

Hannay explains that a wise conductor lets an orchestra play, shaping his or her own interpretation, but allowing the unique character of the orchestra to shine through. She says, “There may be fewer than a dozen musicians left in the orchestra who played West Side Story under Leonard Bernstein, but they still play the score like nobody’s business. That’s tradition.”

Not long ago, playing in an orchestra was among the most precarious of livings. Hannay explains, “It’s almost unheard of nowadays in any profession for people to stay in a single job for 30, 40, or even 50 or more years. It’s the norm here. We owe this extraordinary stability to a whole generation of musicians who fought to make it so. Their work created the continuity that enables the unique musical traditions to be carried forward from generation to generation. Through the efforts of the past generation there are contracts and fair wages.”

Orchestra standards were set by flutist Julius Baker, clarinetist Stanley Drucker, trumpeter Phil Smith, and concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, of Local 802. Bassist Orin O’Brien of Local 802 shattered the glass ceiling and became the first woman in the orchestra. Legendary players Buster Bailey, Bert Bial, Ralph Mendelssohn, Newton Mansfield, and John Ware created and added to the history and traditions that make today’s daily performances possible.

Hannay performs chamber music, appearing often with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles. She spends the summers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, playing with the Grand Teton Music Festival, where she is a founding member of the string quartet Wind River 4. In 2001, she was a featured soloist and guest principal viola with the London Chamber Players on a tour of South Africa.

Memphis Local 71 Headquarters Listed on National Register of Historic Places

June 30, 2017 IM

This building, 54-year home to Local 71 (Memphis,TN), which included members Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, and B.B. King, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Officers and members of Local 71 (Memphis, TN) are proud that their building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in May. According to an announcement from the director of the National Park Service, it was designated under Criterion A in the areas of Entertainment/Recreation and Ethnic Heritage: Black for its association with the “Memphis sound,” the Southern strain of soul music that entered into pop culture in the early 1960s.

“The modest union building exemplifies this world-famous era because its membership included Stax Recording Studio musicians who produced the original austere style, featuring melodic unison horn lines, organ, bass, and a driving beat on the drums,” the announcement says.

Local 71 opened its doors to black musicians in 1949, more than a decade before some of the other AFM locals integrated. The brick building, designed by federation member, trumpet player, and architect Bill Gaskill, has been home to the local for more than 54 years.

Longtime Local 71 member and violist Karen Casey first came up with the idea of pursuing a historic designation for the building. Looking into its history, she discovered that the union is the oldest continuously operated musicians’ union in the country.

Local 71 President John Sprott hopes that the building’s designation as a historic place will help finance needed repairs. As a historic place, for-profit partners could earn tax credits in exchange for help with renovations. Local 71 Secretary-Treasurer Laurie Pratt hopes the building will one day be a tourist destination with a small museum inside.

Member Profiles

Professor Jon Damian Taps into the Universe for Inspiration

February 10, 2017 IM

Jon Damian’s workshops feature Rubbertellie murals in which he produces visual and sound art simultaneously.

At Berklee College of Music, professor and guitarist Jon Damian of Local 9-535 (Boston, MA) says, “When I’m teaching, I’m composing. I have to be able to compose on the spot as an example. It’s important to be able to see it actually come alive in someone’s hands and face. Teaching and composing, writing, they work in tandem.”

In his renowned Creative Workshop Ensemble, he focuses on unconventional motifs and nonmusical forms—art and multimedia exercises—to heighten listening skills and teach students to draw on more than music for composing, from alphabets to zodiacs. He explains the better students become as improvisers, the less they tend to respond to musical events around them. “In the Creative Workshop, we’re inspired by anything in the universe.” With everyday language, for instance, he adds, “Go to the piano and play ‘popcorn, air, or mozzarella.’ No two people do the same thing. The language of words becomes a medium. To use it to stimulate a musical idea is cool.”

One of Damian’s earliest music memories is listening to his mother whistle. “It was like listening to an aria.” But it was his older sister Judy’s vast record collection that introduced him to everything from Count Basie and Tony Bennett to opera and classical recordings of Claude Debussy and Béla Bartok.

His first music experience was vocal. He sang in a cappella groups in Brooklyn. “We were a nice, serious trio that used to sing on the street corners,” he says.

Watching Tony Mottola on The Tonight Show, Damian remembers, “His beautiful solo guitar, swing and rock—I watched and listened, and I said, ‘Wow, I want to do that.’ And that’s what happened.”

Damian began teaching himself to play guitar and read music. One of his first gigs was a veterans hospital near Coney Island with his band, The Strangers. They played the Merry-Go-Round Room in Brooklyn, which had a rotating bar, and that’s when he joined the union. “I still have my cabaret card that says I am able to play in nightclubs.” Damian remembers going to the union office, which was in the same building as the Roseland Ballroom. “Duke would come and play. People would dance. During the day, union musicians would meet and talk, and there would be auditions happening right there.”

Damian’s all-embracing creative model is based on his early career as a visual artist. He worked on Madison Avenue back in 1965 until he was drafted into the army in 1966. His military occupational standing (MOS) was as an artist in the officer’s training unit.

As bleak a prospect as it was, being drafted proved to be a defining moment in Damian’s life. “Brooklyn was just as dangerous as the army. My friends were getting into drugs. For a kid in 1966, it was scary, but for me, it was exciting. Wherever I was stationed, I always studied at the clubs so it was like a paid education,” he says.

The army became a major part of Damian’s musical development. He says, “I was able to go to service clubs, which had instruments and libraries full of music books so I spent all my free time continuing my music training on my own.” He sharpened his reading proficiency to a professional level and auditioned for a larger ensemble.

After the army, Damian attended Berklee on the GI bill, where he studied theory and composition. He’s been a full professor there ever since, for 43 years.

For years, Damian kept busy doing theater work, playing with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Ballet Orchestra, and Boston Opera Company. “I’ve been fortunate to have such a wide spectrum of possibilities,” says Damian, who has worked with Phil Woods, Sam Rivers, Sheila Jordan, Johnny Cash, Howard McGhee, Leonard Bernstein, and Luciano Pavarotti (at the Boston Garden), to name a few. He’s also shared the stage with a number of his students, notably jazz luminary Bill Frisell of Local 76-493 (Seattle, WA) with whom he recorded the CD, Dedications: Faces and Places.

In his book, the Guitarist’s Guide to Composing and Improvising, Damian shows musicians how to break out of pattern-based playing to enrich their understanding of composition and improvisation. In his latest book, Fresh Music: Explorations with the Creative Workshop Ensemble for Musicians, Artists, and Teachers, he chronicles the ideas in the workshop he’s been teaching since the 1970s.

Damian’s interest in avant-garde music led him to explore other instrumental mediums. One of his innovations is the Rubbertellie, an electric guitar that stretches the boundaries of the traditional guitar. It’s tuned differently, held differently, on his lap or in the style of viola da gamba.

Now, midway to retirement as a part-time professor, he’s finding time to write books for his grandchildren and compose more music. Last year, when he was hospitalized for an extended period, he wrote a woodwind quartet for his caregivers called “Saints and Angels.” He explains, “It’s not too pretty or sad, but more of a soft Schoenberg, a natural roll that builds from chord symbols.” Damian says, “It creates the power of connections. It’s serious, but hopeful.”

Cleveland Local Partners with Percussion Marketing Council to Bring Percussion to Students

February 7, 2017 IM

Karl Dustman of Local 4 (Cleveland, OH) assists a young drummer at a workshop held at the Rainey Institute.

You could hear the thunder throughout the building and see the wall-to-wall smiles on students and faculty attending the three-part Percussion Residency educational program at Cleveland’s Rainey Institute. This was the third consecutive year that Local 4 (Cleveland, OH) collaborated with the Percussion Marketing Council (PMC) to provide an educational percussion program to Rainey students and teachers.

This year’s first session featured the exciting Caribbean sounds and music of pan drums, performed by Local 4 member Jeff Cavallo, aka “Island Jeff.” The program started with an introduction to the origins and sound production of steel drums and pan drums from Trinidad. Local 4 Board Member Cindy Wulff complimented the instructional team, assisting students in performance, grasping the rhythms, skills, and enjoyment of the percussion program.

PMC Co-Executive Director, percussionist, and Local 4 member Karl Dustman provided a huge assortment of instruments for each student to experience. “With a student audience ranging from second grade through high school, the challenge was connecting with and getting participation in an educational experience from everyone in attendance. By educating the students in the music making basics—essentials of melody, harmony, and rhythm—all ages and abilities could hear, see, and appreciate the percussion connection that these instruments provide,” says Dustman. “Many students would never have this educational experience without the collaboration of Local 4, Rainey Institute, and the PMC’s Percussion in the Schools program.”

Every student received a complimentary drumstick keychain as a thank you from the PMC, along with a take-home “Why Learn Music” brochure, provided by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM). Older students also received a How to Play Drums instruction booklet with DVD.