Michael Anthony & Mark Weber | December 24, 2o11 | Albuquerque, New Mexico | Photo by Janet Simon
The Thursday Jazz Radio Show
February 23, 2012 – 12:06 Noon (Mountain Standard Time) KUNM 89.9 FM – Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA – Host MARK WEBER – Streaming on the web > KUNM.org – Current Time Zone OFFset: UTC/GMT -6 hours
Live guitar trio on the show today — Live in the studio — Live in life — on the spot Live — Live in the moment — playing the instantaneous jazz of the Living moment —
Michael Anthony Birthday Trio
Michael — guitar
Cal Haines — drumset
Mickey Patten — bass
(It is Michael’s birthday this day ! )
Remember the quaint, plinking, plaintive ukulele on the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” or was the “Your head” ? . . . . the lyric escapes me now, Top 40 Hit by B.J. Thomas — # 1 on the pop charts 1969 — well, that ukulele was Michael. He worked in the Hollywood studios 1965-1980 then moved here to Albuquerque with his wife Kathie, a dancer, whom he met on the Carol Burnett Show. All those years in Hollywood were spent playing with and/or studying with Jimmy Wyble, Howard Roberts, and Joe Pass. The list of jazz dates is too vast to list here but my favorite one is Monterey Jazz Festival, 1965, when he played “Sketches of Spain” with Miles & Gil and Ray Brown and Elvin Jones were in the band.
God I miss you guys!! (sniff)
Hi Mark,
The gig was 10 shows for Black History Month. It must have been in 1974 or thereabouts, maybe 1975. It was done at NBC in Burbank and I never knew if it was shown only in LA or on the network. It aired at 6:30 AM and I never saw it. I don’t think there was a “star” as such but there were people who appeared on more than one episode, Abbey Lincoln and Roscoe Lee Browne being the only two I can remember. The band was a trio: Bobby Bryant was the leader and played trumpet along with Mike and me. It was a half hour show and we recorded it in the early evening. I think we only did underscoring, no vocal accompaniments. I don’t remember Abbey singing but I sure remember her acting–very intense.
After the gig, Mike would disappear and a few times Bobby and his wife Pam and I went across the street to Chadney’s, a jazz club and bar. Mike was surely invited but must have had better things to do. I met Mike around 1962 through a mutual friend, Mark Weiss, aka Dr. Scat, a marriage and family counsellor/scat singer. His father was Sid Weiss, a prominent bass player in the swing era and, incidentally, the Local 47 business representative who showed up at the Sonny’s Dream session. Small world, huh?
Wish him my best and tell him he was part of one of the best gigs I ever had.
DS
I’m squinting because the sun is pounding on my eyes