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Post by ChuckSchoenleyRIP on Jun 4, 2009 18:41:03 GMT -5
Hi all! Chuck here.
UPDATE - Eric from Eric and the Chessmen and I have been corresponding and discussing the idea of telling the story of the Chessmen. Eric has sent me two MP3 file he recorded about the very early days of the Chessmen going back to when he first became interested in music. For me, this is FASCINATING and I consider it a real privilege to be part of the story. I hear so much of myself in the story at that young age when we were all rock star want-to-be's! I now have the honor to transcribe the recordings into textual format and construct a Story Board which will begin our journey into what we hope will ultimately become a publication of the history of a number of young men who shared the dream and participated in one of the 1960s primier musical experiments. I anticipate this will be a rather long journey as nothing of such undertaking should ever be either quick or easy. We want to capture the reality of the era, the personalities of the fellows who participated, and provide the reader a cohesive perspective of the dream that young men of our generation shared and strived to achieve. Someday, perhaps a couple of years in the making, we hope to provide our story to all so that we can pass on the thrill of being young and enamered by something we truly loved. Stay tuned!
Chuck
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Post by Clipper on Jun 4, 2009 19:54:18 GMT -5
Glad to hear it Chuck. You definitely were a part of music history in that era. Eric and the Chessmen was definitely THE premier band to book back then. I can't wait to see the story when you guys start putting it in print.
Good to hear from you again. Drop by more often. Keep this wonderful thread going with some more of your stories from back in the days we all treasure.
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Post by jon hynes on Jun 8, 2009 10:39:53 GMT -5
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Post by jon hynes on Jun 8, 2009 10:41:34 GMT -5
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Post by jon hynes on Jun 8, 2009 10:43:28 GMT -5
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Post by dgriffin on Jun 8, 2009 17:30:27 GMT -5
Hey, I worked for those two guys in '61 and '62 when I was in college. Ray and Boyd. There were nice folks. Boyd's father had been the mayor of Utica when I was a little tyke. He and Ray bought the store from "old Mr. Worden," and we sold records, pianos and a lot of those stand alone stereo systems that were more a piece of furniture (like a credenza.) Up in the back part of the building next to the Stanley theater, kept clean and sparkling like the Holy Grail, was a full size Steinway Concert Grand, and it was trucked to the auditorium and tuned for celebrities from time to time. E.g., Van Cliburn used it during his '62 tour stop in Utica.
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Post by Clipper on Jun 8, 2009 18:08:34 GMT -5
My grandfather worked for Wordens as a sales person and piano tuner when he married my grandmother if I am not mistaken. I know he worked there for many years and then for Brayton's Hotel supply on Hotel St for the entire rest of his working days. He was a steady worker and stayed put once he had a job he liked. That would be Jim Gaylord's father that I speak of.
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Post by jon hynes on Jun 8, 2009 18:39:59 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure Ray Sr. was one of the scout leaders back in my Cub Scouts days. Ray Jr. was one of the neighborhood kids. We played football in his back yard on Woodlawn Ave. Larry Moynehan was another in our crowd. His parents bought him a Hamond from Warden's and he played professionally for years. I remember at Warden's they had listening booths so that you could listen to a record before you bought it. |
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Post by dgriffin on Jun 8, 2009 21:12:23 GMT -5
I remember Ray Jr. He was in early high school when I was at Worden's and he took over for me when I finished school and he was turning 16.
There was a guy named "Jim" (I think) who I helped from time to time in the workshop we had up in back beyond the piano display room. (For a narrow store, it went on and and up into the back.) Jim was a "neat old guy" (to me, but he was probably barely sixty) and worked on the pianos part time, tuning them and fixing them up and cleaning them. When he was up back and I didn't have much else to do, he'd set me to taking the keys off and burnishing and polishing the ivory. He could reset strips of ivory like nobody else.
We had a younger guy up there a couple of nights a week too, fixing electronics ... record players, radios, etc.
The lady who ran the store down front, selling records, cataloging them and also doing all the store's bookkeeping, was Marion, Mike Zumpano's aunt, who lived on Mohawk St. above James.
She was the sweetest woman and was always very nice to me. Years afterward when I was in Utica, I would stop in to see her. She was in her forties when I worked there, never married.
Yes, we had a listening booth. We sold mostly classical music on vinyl, but also had a good jazz selection. We had the best selection of classical in town, and always the latest recordings. Every time the Met had a new diva ... Joan Sutherland comes to mind .... we'd have a rush of people coming in looking for the recordings. We had no real competition for classical records. Melody House sold the popular stuff. We did have everything at the time by Henry Mancini, however, because both Marion and I loved his neo-big band style and the young couples who bought the "furniture-stereos" came back for Mancini albums. Marion introduced me to Sinatra, who I had previously avoided, until she played me some of the modernized re-do's of old standards he did with Nelson Riddle.
Damn! Nelson Riddle ... there's another topic.
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Post by kit on Jun 10, 2009 9:26:36 GMT -5
Hoo Wah! We're touching on stuff that is firmly impanted in our souls here. Stuff we'll take to our graves. From Lew Gaylord at Brayton & Co. on Hotel St. (a tongue-in-cheek prick that whoever knew him loved him just the same, because you couldn't help it with Lew because in his own way he loved all of us kids with a bit of talent, and his kid, Jim, the drummer who I had the pleasure of working with at several venues for a while) on through to the others who made such an impression on many of us in our real lives and not just in our performing lives. These folks, perhaps unbeknownst to us at the time, taught us a lot that is an integral part of who we are today. Which just goes to show us that who they were when we were kids, they made their mark and it's up to us to realize, appreciate, and cherish that. (I don't mean to get mushy here, but let's put the real stuff in context)
The "Pie in the sky" people??? That's another story altogether.
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Post by jon hynes on Jun 10, 2009 23:46:49 GMT -5
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Post by jon hynes on Jun 10, 2009 23:48:23 GMT -5
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Post by chris on Jun 11, 2009 8:34:27 GMT -5
Jon I think I went to that Chubby Checker concert. That had to be around 1959 because I moved in 1960.
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Post by jon hynes on Jun 12, 2009 10:30:57 GMT -5
Jon I think I went to that Chubby Checker concert. That had to be around 1959 because I moved in 1960. This particular concert was Feb 17th, 1962 put on by General Artists. I think it was '59 that he was at the Auditorium with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. I also attended then. |
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Post by tracman on Jun 19, 2009 7:31:03 GMT -5
Tonight at the Vernon Downs casino....Bill Haley and the Comets ....9pm for free ( 3 original members)
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