Bandstand Stories

I was on the road several years with Stan Kenton, joining at 19 years old as bandboy, then being the road manager before I was legal age to drink. I have hours of road stories, a short double whammy I'll submit here.

Stan's contracts (among other things) called for a grand piano tuned at A440 pitch. Most the time the promoters would comply, however when you do 50 weeks a year on the road, there were always those jobs that were dubious, with contractual compliance. We were playing an old ballroom someplace and an upright spinnet piano was supplied. Worse yet, there were two keys that didn't work. So through the whole gig, Stan kept playing those two keys, which would crack the audience up. Finally at the end of the gig, While the band was playing the ending theme, Stan took out a matchbook, lit the book with one match, opened the top of the piano, and threw it in, then acted as if it was going blow up. The audience loved it.

Another time in Europe someplace, we played this huge venue, and under the solo mic, was an opening to the stage (probably an old "prompter's" box), that could not have been seen from the audience. Lead trombonist Dick Shearer and I use to love to play pranks on each other. So on this particular gig, I slipped into the prompter's box and decided to grab Dicks leg, during one of his solo's. He took his bow after the solo, and had a tough time getting back to the section, but managed to break away from my grasp. I knew Dick had another solo coming up on another chart, so this time I braced myself. This time I wasn't letting go. Dick walked up to the mic, I grabbed his leg this time for good but Dick outsmarted me. This time when he took his bow after the solo, he cleverly emptied his water bottle down the hatch, where I was sitting and drenched me.

Jack Sandmeier

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The contents of this page will contain short notes of interest on a variety of
subjects, as the muse dictates. All of the stories will have something to do
(one way or another) with life on the bandstand...ours, theirs, even YOURS.
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Check out our "Bandstand Stories Archive