That's funny, John. Yes, I've played that MacArthur Park chart. 2nd tpt, not Maynard's part (that's why I'm still alive).

It's silly to consider playing big band charts without reading.

An appropriate story from movie studio music is the time Rassaan Roland Kirk was the soloist in a movie score. Roland Kirk was a monster sax soloist (sometimes playing several members of the sax family at once in his own band). Now, it's understandable that he could not read: he was blind. But after loads of muffed takes, his fellow sax section mate Bud Shank suggested that, if they were all going to ever finish the session, he play the solos.


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