[Stephen McElroy]

In article ,
Jenn wrote:

In article ,
Stephen McElroy wrote:

My Stokie story is from the American Symphony: the celeste was
under-pitch, earning the keyboardist Stokie's glare. Once more, in tune!
The celeste's pitch is fixed and can't be adjusted quickly. The player's
solution was to raise a shoulder as he played, 'raising' the pitch.

Stephen

lol This reminds me of an encounter with a well-known conductor back in
the days when I was gigging as a trombonist more than I am today. The
conductor had quite a jazz background as well as classical (he's
American/British; you can probably guess who this is!) We were playing
a "pops" concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and I had a little solo on a
ballad. He's stopped and asked for more vibrato from me. I increased
my lip/diaphram vibrato. He asked for more. I gave him more; a bigger
vibrato than is normally used in any style. He said, "No, I want more,
you know..." and made a hand motion like a jazz style slide vibrato. I
did a slide vibrato. "Perfect!" he said. The truth is that my slide
vibrato was exactly like my lip vibrato was originally! But now he
could SEE it happening. It was a big joke in the brass section for
months!

He got what he wanted! :-)

I heard an anecdote about the same man concerning recording session
including chorus. The tenor section was anticipating an entrance but
weren't corrected or helped by the maestro so one of them used a gesture
to bring them in at the right time, earning him a note that there was
only on conductor on the job.

I can see both sides of that one, but, sheesh.

Stephen