Fanfare for Uan Rasey
I composed "Fanfare for Uan Rasey" as part of a birthday celebration for legendary Hollywood trumpet player, Uan Rasey (solos on Chinatown, American in Paris, and many more iconic movies). In attendance was the absolute royalty of the Hollywood trumpet world and many other great session musicians and composers who created the soundtrack of our lives. Though I was honored to be asked to compose and conduct this piece, it was also very intimidating since I was only 26 years old at the time, and had just moved to L.A. a month or so prior. I was broke and homeless, but standing before me were a room full of my trumpet heroes who I had dreamt of meeting one day. How could I have ever imagined that my first encounter with these gifted musicians would be to conduct a whole group of them on one of my own compositions honoring one of my childhood trumpet heroes, Uan Rasey. To name a few in attendance: Pete and Conte Candoli, Chuck and Bobby Findley, Mannie Klein, Cappy Lewis, John Audino, Snooky Young, Allen Vizzuti, Nelson Hatt, Malcolm McNab, Bill Bing, and a long list of the "Who's Who" of the Hollywood trumpet world. And to add one more musical giant to make my knees shake, the Master of Ceremonies was the legendary composer/arranger/trumpet player, Billy May, who enjoyed the performance so much, he asked to meet me (I thought I would pass out). A week or so later he treated me to lunch in Studio City, and after lunch we walked over to CBS Radford Studio together, where he was conducting his score to the movie "Pennies from Heaven." To this very day, it all seems like a dream, but that was the Hollywood I knew. It was the great "dream machine," and the amount of love, generosity, and kindness from all my musical heroes seemed to flow endlessly.
I'm very grateful to my friend and champion, the late Nelson Hatt, for helping to arrange this unimaginable opportunity for me. For someone brand new in Hollywood, this was like going from zero to one-hundred in one unforgettable, historical evening.
I recorded a demo of "Fanfare for Uan Rasey" in 1983. I had lost my original recording of it, but a friend made me a copy from his cassette tape, and I did what I could to improve the sound. I believe the trumpet section was: Charley Davis, Rick Baptist, Nelson Hatt, Larry Lunetta, and Bill Bing.