Lush Life

Lainie Kazan gave me some great advice once "get a picture taken while you are young, you'll understand later". Great advice. I look like hell now!

I recorded this in Denver, 1987, right before I moved to California. I played the piano part on my fender rhodes, then overdubbed myself. I played this song a lot because I love the lyrics (the song, too, but the lyrics just kill me) I tried to get it as close to Sarah Vaughn's version as I could. I've made hundreds of recordings since then, but this was definitely my best effort on Bass Trombone. I looked better, too :-)

I can't play like this anymore - I don't have time to practice as much as I did then because of my job at Foothill. I miss it!

I don't have these horns anymore, either. Like most musicians, I was always on the hunt for something better, so I sold them and bought others. That's a Holton TR 181 bass trombone in my hand and a Bach 16 behind me on the stand. They were actually the best horns I ever had - my Bachs I play now are incredible (Mount Vernon 16, Mount Vernon 36, and a pre-war Bach 6vii that sounds velvety), and I have a similar Holton (the one I have now has a Minick conversion and lead pipe) but they sound very different than these horns did.