Neal Hefti
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 1:19 pm
I expect it's been on the news all week but I just noticed Neal Hefti died. He played trumpet, wrote arrangements and songs from a long long time ago.
This is one he wrote, it's sung by an amazing jazz singer called Laura Fygi. One day I might get to hear her sing on a stage if I'm lucky.
Here's a recollection of him just starting out, as a teenager, from his Wikipedia page.We roomed together. And at night we didn't have nothing to do, and we were up at this place - Budd Lake. He said, "What are we going to do tonight?" I said, "Why don't you write a chart for tomorrow?" Neal was so great that he'd just take out the music paper, no score, [hums] - trumpet part, [hums] - trumpet part, [hums] - trombone part, [hums], and you'd play it the next day. It was the end. Cooking charts. I never forget, I couldn't believe it. I kept watching him. It was fantastic.
This is one he wrote, it's sung by an amazing jazz singer called Laura Fygi. One day I might get to hear her sing on a stage if I'm lucky.
Here's a recollection of him just starting out, as a teenager, from his Wikipedia page.We roomed together. And at night we didn't have nothing to do, and we were up at this place - Budd Lake. He said, "What are we going to do tonight?" I said, "Why don't you write a chart for tomorrow?" Neal was so great that he'd just take out the music paper, no score, [hums] - trumpet part, [hums] - trumpet part, [hums] - trombone part, [hums], and you'd play it the next day. It was the end. Cooking charts. I never forget, I couldn't believe it. I kept watching him. It was fantastic.