Inside the Arc – The Book of Norman

[DCP Commentary]

Sometime in the fall of 1971, I was walking down Waverly Place in Greenwich Village with a friend. A group of German tourists with backpacks and “Youth Hostel” virtually written all over them approached from the opposite direction. Just as they passed, I heard a young woman exclaim, “Das ist er! Das ist er!” There […]

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[ironlips]

I invite others to share their Kenny Norman vignettes and anecdotes here. There really is a book in there somewhere. He was the very definition of "Carpe Diem!"

The first time he visited us in NYC, he dropped off his bag at my apartment in Jackson Heights and asked which Subway train to take to get to a notorious psychedelic night club called "The Electric Circus" in Greenwich Village. I told him. We didn't see him for 3 days.

When he re-appeared I asked what had transpired. "Oh", he said, "I met ("Johnny Carson Show" bandleader) Skitch Henderson and his daughter, and they showed me around."

I'll bet.

[JimF-LowBari]

This one was thanks to you IL (ironlips). Asked you months earlier about playing a 1 valve tenor Bari at DCA I&E and you said go ahead. At I&E saw you and showed you the horn. You then said “Kenny Norman would love to see this, I’ll send him over”. Never met Ken but he walks in with a horn case and… “bet mine is older than yours”. My reply was “you must be Kenny and Hope you’re talking about the horn”. 😆

Years later looking for repair help on a piston/rotor Bari. Get an online message “call me at …. next week and we’ll talk”. Sure enough guess who. Think I needed the only spare part he didn’t have but had a great talk.

My late wife and I always tried to talk to him Friday night. Rest of the weekend who knows where he was. 😆

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by JimF-LowBari

[ironlips]

Here's one from legendary Royal Airs soloist and Buglers Hall of Fame member, Chris Ferrara: (used with permission)

"Listen to this one. Ken always blew my mind...I was Ken's roadie occasionally when he played piano at the local Moose. One time I almost dropped his music folder with loose music in it. As I looked at each sheet music they were all blank. The page only had the title of the song, the key it was written in and large numbers..1.. 4... 5.

 I said, " What the heck is this?" He said that is the chords the song is written in. I then saw one sheet that had 1,3,4,5. I said," What is this?" He said.. 'Patsy Cline.' "

 

[ironlips]

26 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

This one was thanks to you IL (ironlips). Asked you months earlier about playing a 1 valve tenor Bari at DCA I&E and you said go ahead. At I&E saw you and showed you the horn. You then said “Kenny Norman would love to see this, I’ll send him over”. Never met Ken but he walks in with a horn case and… “bet mine is older than yours”. My reply was “you must be Kenny and Hope you’re talking about the horn”. 😆

Years later looking for repair help on a piston/rotor Bari. Get an online message “call me at …. next week and we’ll talk”. Sure enough guess who. Think I needed the only spare part he didn’t have but had a great talk.

My late wife and I always tried to talk to him Friday night. Rest of the weekend who knows where he was. 😆

 

"...always tried to talk to him Friday night. Rest of the weekend who knows where he was. 😆"

Usually marching with some alumni corps or other.

 

[JimF-LowBari]

2 hours ago, ironlips said:

"...always tried to talk to him Friday night. Rest of the weekend who knows where he was. 😆"

Usually marching with some alumni corps or other.

 

IIRC with a mini corps one Friday night. Think “Outlaws” which was mini of one of the TX corps DCA had all too shortly. At least guy behind us thought so “hey ain’t that” 

[hairbear]

Nothing out of the ordinary in my encounter with Ken. He located and purchased a trombone here in Cincinnati.

He sent me the money and I drove to Kenwood (suburb of Cinti), paid for it and shipped it to him, via UPS.

It was a special trombone, as trombones go. If it were a guitar, it would have been a vintage Fender Stratocaster.

I told my junior corps director about it, because when I was a kid, Ken Norman was number one in his book.

You never know where life will take you, or who you'll be introduced to.  🙂

Edited September 5, 2022 by hairbear

[J.C.]

For some reason, when I tried to respond to this thread with a long winded reply, I couldn't post it successfully, so I am going to try to break up the original post into smaller responses. Here goes...

Kenny was my room mate at “The Walker Whitley” (1111 Park Ave., Racine) for about 6 years in the 1980s. At the time, Kenny was our Brass arranger and instructor in the Boys of 76 drum corps in Racine. He showed up at my apartment one rainy night with a suitcase and asked if he could stay the night because his landlord had just kicked him out of his apartment a couple blocks south of mine. I obviously let him in, and he stayed until I moved to England in 1988 and got rid of the apartment.

Ken built himself a nice bedroom in the attic and was never a problem, except you couldn’t leave beer in the fridge. He had a bit of a drinking problem at that point in his life. But his drinking didn’t interfere with his musical genius. I remember having a party on a Sunday afternoon to watch the Green Bay Packer game on TV with about 15 loud, boisterous and mostly drunk Packer fans. Kenny sat in a corner of the living room, felt tip pen and lined staff paper in hand and arranged the complete show for a high school marching band in Northern Illinois during the game. He never once used his keyboard during the arranging process. He did the whole thing in his head. When the game was over he put the score in a yellow manila envelope, put a bunch of stamps on it, look at me, smiled, and said “I’ll be able to make rent this month”.

Shortly after I move back to Racine from England, I ran into Kenny at George’s Bar (the long time center of the live music scene in Racine). Kenny was playing keyboards in a great little jazz ensemble. Kenny proudly told me that he had quit drinking cold turkey. I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear that. Kenny actually became even more prolific once he quit drinking. He arranged for more varied musical ensembles than ever in his later days.

[J.C.]

Kenny was also a great organizer in the pursuit of having fun and making music.  A Racine Christmas Holiday tradition called "Silverstein Brass" was founded and directed by Kenny.  On the Saturday before Christmas every year, a bunch of old drum corps guys (and a few legit musicians like Kenny) would meet at Georges Bar and Kenny would show up with a lunch box full of "little green books" full of Christmas carol charts and song sheets of altered carol lyrics.  You never knew what Kenny would be wearing from year to year. One year he conducted in a Catholic nun outfit, one year he conducted in a wet suit, etc.  After a quick run through of the repertoire at Georges, we would all board a school bus and barnstorm the local business in Racine, marching into local malls, grocery stores, furniture stores, jewelry stores, etc. and loudly play a few carols.  Between stops we drank a whole lot of beer and sang dirty drum corps songs on the bus.  As the saying goes... "If you aren't hung over the day after Silverstein, you weren't there".

Kenny also organized "Wooleys Polka Band" for the Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day festivities every year.  Wooley's Bar in Milwaukee provided our uniforms (Woolies Band T-shirts) and game tickets, and we'd barnstorm the parking lot at the old County Stadium playing for the tailgaters.  Then we'd go to the game and play polkas in the stands between innings. Kenny always played tuba, and managed to smuggle a 12 pack of beer into the stadium in his tuba.  We had a blast, again thanks to Kenny organizing everything.

[ironlips]

23 minutes ago, J.C. said:

Kenny was also a great organizer in the pursuit of having fun and making music.  A Racine Christmas Holiday tradition called "Silverstein Brass" was founded and directed by Kenny.  On the Saturday before Christmas every year, a bunch of old drum corps guys (and a few legit musicians like Kenny) would meet at Georges Bar and Kenny would show up with a lunch box full of "little green books" full of Christmas carol charts and song sheets of altered carol lyrics.  You never knew what Kenny would be wearing from year to year. One year he conducted in a Catholic nun outfit, one year he conducted in a wet suit, etc.  After a quick run through of the repertoire at Georges, we would all board a school bus and barnstorm the local business in Racine, marching into local malls, grocery stores, furniture stores, jewelry stores, etc. and loudly play a few carols.  Between stops we drank a whole lot of beer and sang dirty drum corps songs on the bus.  As the saying goes... "If you aren't hung over the day after Silverstein, you weren't there".

Kenny also organized "Wooleys Polka Band" for the Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day festivities every year.  Wooley's Bar in Milwaukee provided our uniforms (Woolies Band T-shirts) and game tickets, and we'd barnstorm the parking lot at the old County Stadium playing for the tailgaters.  Then we'd go to the game and play polkas in the stands between innings. Kenny always played tuba, and managed to smuggle a 12 pack of beer into the stadium in his tuba.  We had a blast, again thanks to Kenny organizing everything.

All of which proves that true genius doesn't take itself too seriously.