Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Happy Birthday Clark. You were the featured ssoilot with the University of Nebraska jazz band around 1971, right after I was discharged from the Navy Band. You were fantastic! You gave a clinic to all of the young trumpet majors. I was a pre-dent major that eventually switched over to Music Ed. We all had such a great time hanging with you in Lincoln. I got to see you again a few months later when the jazz band played at a jazz festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. You were adjudicating trumpet players to be chosen to play in a Stan Kenton All-Star jazz band that was scheduled to play in the Munich Olympic Games. I remember playing in a trumpet section, you stood in front of us with your back facing us. We would move around and play different parts .you took notes as to which section members you liked. When we were done, you came around and asked us our names and where we were from. I'll never forget, when I told you my name, Dave Brown, you leaned close to me and said, Dave Who? Again I said, Dave Brown. You replied again, Dave Who? I the replied, Dave, Brown, you know, like the color, brown. You then smiled, with that great smile of yours .leaned real close to my ear, laughing softly and very softly, and sweetly said, S . You. You smiled at me again and moved to the next player. The next day at the concert they announced which players had been chosen to be in the All-Star band. One saxophone player, and two trumpet players from our band were chosen, I was one of them. I still have the Shure microphone that Stan Kenton handed to me. I believe United Airlines was supposed to finance the trip to Munich, but they went bankrupt and the trip was canceled.Happy Birthday Clark!
