Not that many of you are not famous in your own right, but it would be interesting to know who you have played with that we all might know. When I was 18, I got a summer gig at a resort in Northern Wisconsin, six nights a week - kind of like a scene out of Dirty Dancing. I showed up not knowing who I would be playing with. I had a name - Ronnie Kemper - but in the pre internet days good luck finding anything out. To my surprise it was just me and him - he on piano/vocals and me on drums. Talk about an odd combo, but it worked really well. I was into jazz anyway, so learning all his classics was fun. I only learned later how famous he had been in the big band era. He had a number of hit recordings including the original recording of the "Teapot Song". Yes, I'm a little teapot...
Sadly no pictures to prove it. In that day no one had cameras out 24/7. I wish I had known more about him at the time. We did not talk about his past, or music at all. Days were for relaxing, fishing and reading. From 8-1 it was show time.
So look him up. He had some fun novelty hits that the Dirty Dancing crowd loved. He was a great musician and, for a summer, an unexpected friend.
Marty
Sadly no pictures to prove it. In that day no one had cameras out 24/7. I wish I had known more about him at the time. We did not talk about his past, or music at all. Days were for relaxing, fishing and reading. From 8-1 it was show time.
So look him up. He had some fun novelty hits that the Dirty Dancing crowd loved. He was a great musician and, for a summer, an unexpected friend.
Marty
We played the Monster Mash. Later we also played a benefit for Gram Parson's roadie who had stolen Gram's body and cremated it in Joshua Tree National Park (in accordance with a mutual promise. He had some legal bills.). The young guitarist in the group -- Brian Ray -- was 'discovered' at that benefit and played with Etta James the following 10 years before getting called to play with Paul McCartney at the Superbowl. He's played live gigs with Paul ever since.
