markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

At nine years of age, my Mom & Dad brought me a 2nd hand beat up old Conn cornet for X-Mas. I had been requesting to play an instrument for a while. My Dad picked up the Conn in an antique shop for $30. It had stuck valves, slides and was falling apart, but with a little help it played. I took lessons from an Italian man who traveled by public bus and three blocks walking to my house, for $2 a lesson. I took lessons until I was 13. At age 11, the cornet stopped playing so I was given a brand new Bach Stradivarius trumpet for my birthday. Wow!!! In the summer of my 10th year, I heard a recording of Clyde McCoy's, "Sugar Blues" and one of Bunny Berrigan's, "I Can't Get Started". I bought the records (78) and a Wah Wah mute and played them until the scratches were louder than the music, but I learned the tunes. My uncle was a radio engineer and received many comp records. The station in Newark, NJ, did not play jazz, so I inherited many records. Among them was Harry James' recording of "You Made me Love you" with Helen O'Connell doing the vocal. You guessed it - I wore that record out too, but I learned the tune. I continued playing along with recordings of Harry James, Benny Goodman, Ziggy Elman Ray Anthony, Miles Davis, Freddy Hubbard, Chet Baker, Maynard Ferguson, Bird, Lee Morgan and others until I was 73. Two years ago, I gave my Bach trumpet to my grandson.

Here are the original recordings of Clyde McCoy, Bunny Berrigan and Harry James:
https://youtu.be/SjemjB3kgAM
https://youtu.be/D1ycvlgrKW4
https://youtu.be/bMaCoxOGXPM


Thanks for your interest and viewing, Thanks for putting up with a little of my personal music history.
Mark

Busbum Loc: 85367

Mark,
Thank you for sharing your music, it's great...
Larry

dancers Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia

OH...Mark......you have me glued to my chair................my early dancing days to these songs made me love this type of music to this very day!!!

what a THRILL!

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Thank for the reply, Larry.
Mark

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

You might have danced with the bands I played with.
Mark

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice. I played the trumpet in my grammar school band. We marched in the NYC St. Patty's Day parade.

"Conn"? You're showing your age.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

That was cool!! My age is 85, just 4 years older than your age. I don't mind showing it.
I also played in HS & Grammar school bands. At 14, a few friends and I started a Dance Band. I played in dance bands for many years. Truly loved those experiences.

Mark

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Hold on now, I'm only 78.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Whoops!! I mistakenly assumed you were born in 41'. Never assume!!
Mark

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yeah, I know. When I was selecting that screen name years ago, I kept picking numbers at random until one was accepted. Unfortunately, it added three years to my life.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

So, you are a random?
Mark

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

In more ways than one.

kvanhook Loc: Oriental, NC

Thanks for the info. I had wondered what your instrument was. I had you figured for a woodwind player. Looks like I was wrong. I am 77, so we lived through much of the same music.

Jazztrader

Great stories, Mark! I have my own story, which you might relate to.

I started with watching The Mickey Mouse Club when I was 5. I begged for and got a plastic Mickey Mouse guitar for Christmas, which I used to teach myself the chords to "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."

The TV was owned by the parents, so we watched mostly what they watched, except for the few shows we got to watch that were kid shows. Lawrence Welk was big with the folks and watching that show made me hungry to play an instrument. Every instrument I asked about was not suitable, according my parents. Drums would make Mom nervous. The organ was too big for the house. The trumpet was too loud and would also make my mom nervous.

Once I saw Buddy Merrill's shiny new Fender Stratocaster, I think I was hooked! When I was 12, after begging incessantly for those early years, my mom finally told me that if I took the money from my lawn mowing business and bought a guitar, she would pay for lessons. I got on the bus and rode the 7 blocks to the music store and made the purchase of a $25 Stella. Thinking that the acoustic guitar would be quiet and would fit nicely under the bed, little did she imagine what would happen once I started buying electric guitars and amps, eventually starting a band. :-)

Thanks for sharing your story! As Eric Gravatt, an early drummer in Weather Report used to tell an eager, young student, "You've got the curse!" I think we both got the curse early on. :-)

Kent

stu352 Loc: MA/RI Border

What got me started? I played trumpet for a couple years in elementary school, but that was it. During high school (mid ‘60’s), I usually had a radio on while doing homework. A local radio station (Boston area) had a DJ playing, not the rock and roll of the day, but jazz, big band stuff, Sinatra, etc. His name was Jonathan Schwartz.
My old vacuum tube radio had a 100 foot antenna attached, so every night I could also tune around the AM band and listen to stations up and down the east coast. From NY, the Night Bird, the Milk Man’s Matinee, even WBT from Charlotte, NC, which at the time was playing good music, too.

I listened to Schwartz again when he moved to WNEW, and later, when I was doing a stupid long commute and found him doing drive time on WQEW, before that station went down hill.

All 4 of my kids were in the music program in high school, especially in the marching band, that won championships around the northeast. With the high school concert band, all had the opportunity to play at Symphony Hall in Boston, and my son played at Rose Hall (Lincoln Center Jazz Venue) as part of the “Essentially Ellington” program.

I’m still listening, hunting for interesting groups on YouTube, and with several jazz stations programmed into my Bose Soundtouch. And there are a couple local old style big bands I see in person once and a while.