DON MENZA with SAM NOTO Live in New Orleans 1989 P-1

and see during I go back to 56:57 we were in the Army together in the 3rd Armored Division band which was still to this day people over there remember the we were stationed in Stuttgart and it was it was part of the Seventh Army Symphony and soldier shows and they decided they were gonna have a jazz band or no whose idea it was oh I think it was a man named Bob Phillips who's from Tuscaloosa Alabama if I'm not mistaken I know he's from Alabama anyway Bob was a trumpet player and he had this idea about putting this thing together and he managed to recruit guys from different bands or anywhere in the military service since all of a sudden Cedar was there Leo Wright was there myself Don Ellis was in the band Lanny Morgan was in the band there was a singer by the name of Sam Fletcher a bunch of people in Europe at the same time Eddie Harris was we would always cross paths Eddie Harris was in a field unit band somewhere and ory I don't even know if he was in a band at that time but we used to see these people all the tiny ways cedar and I were were involved in it together and that band lasted about three years and I was in it for one year their final year before I left to come back to the states and then Cedar stayed on for he was in the service two years he lucked out he had most of his duty with that band and it was great and we got got a head chance to play like a bunch of festivals and we played for german-american relationships we'd get to go to Paris weekends and we got to hang out a lot and we made a lot of music together and for me it was great because I was just starting to open up my ears and eyes about a lot of different kinds of music and being around cedar and and Leo Wright and Don Ellis I mean it was you know all young rabbits I got at the Army in 58 when I went back to Munich in 64 I worked with a band radio television band over there max Gregor and he had there were Benny Bailey trumpet player from Cleveland was in the band Ricky Ferg from Cleveland also was in the band and dick Spencer was in band and the rest of the guys were Swiss Austrian mostly German and a couple guys from leaving the East Bloc countries Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia but he had like a quasi show ban although he was a he was very interested in jazz he didn't really it wasn't really a jazz band it was a radio television band and we played everything dance contests gala balls whatever in know and I've been lucky I've done a lot of different kinds of work i mean i'd i'd just i had for whatever reason i never really did make it could make a living playing jazz matter of fact couple of times i quit playing because of that but in europe they look at jazz as a really bonafide art form not so here i mean i came back from Europe where i was like a respected artist in sixty four or five six seven and eight and when I landed in New York I couldn't get insurance on my car I said what do you do is I don't use ition you gotta put you inside and risk pool I said I don't have any marks on my license I showed them all my financial statements and everything you know they want to hear about it it's changing somewhat here not a lot but it's changing and it is changing very slowly yeah that's that's my the prime thing or the main thing that I see even in Japan you know it's well not even as you'd say ginger the rest of the world the rest of the world don't ask me why

Channel: Chris Noto

Views: 11,361

Rating: 4.9629631 out of 5

Keywords: Noto, Menza, Jazz, New, Orleans

Id: BqIY4zJU_YA

Length: 20min 54sec (1254 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 22 2011