Trocadero Orchestra -- Wally Might

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Wally Might -- A Few Notes George Carmichael

I met Wally after I was invited to a Trocadero Orchestra rehearsal in Sept of 1999.

Wally was directing the rehearsals, and playing 2nd trumpet (doing all the solos); I was asked to fill in on 3rd trumpet, along side Doug Zimmerman and Phil McComb.

We rehearsed on a weekday morning (at the Lion's Seniors' Centre on 111ave), and I had a flexible enough schedule to skip out from my work. Most of the rest of the band were retired, so a weekday rehearsal was not a problem for them. Even though I was 40, I was considered one of the "young pups" in the band.

The music was chosen by Wally -- we had two main folders: a "gig book", and a "duct book". By the time I got there, the Trocadero Orchestra had firmly seated itself as a "dance band", to promote ballroom dance music. The "gig book" had all the swing standards, like "In the Mood", and "String of Pearls". But, it also had waltzes, polkas, and the occasional "pop" tune.

When there were no gigs on the calendar for a couple of months, Wally would bring out the "duct book", which behaved like a staging ground for tunes that might eventually end up in the "gig book" -- the folders were so full, they were bursting at the seams, requiring him to reinforce them with liberal amounts of duct tape. Wally used the "duct book" to test our chops -- sometimes, the tunes were harder -- often much too hard to make it into the "gig book", but were fun. He especially liked Count Basie tunes. One Basie tune in particular, "Good Bait", was used to work on the proper "swing feel"-- the "Basie feel" that was very important to him. He also really liked Rob McConnell, and while we never did play any those difficult McConnell tunes, he did have them in his personal library.

Wally was the leader of the Troc for several years before I arrived. He stored the 800-chart library (a subset of Zen Magus' library), and I got to watch him sort the music a couple of times -- it is not easy looking after that much music, and sorting 50 tunes into a suitable dance order for the "gig book".

We were not allowed to take our music folder home -- the music was more valuable to the band than *we* were. A lot of the tunes were one-of-a-kind/out-of-print, so it was really important for band members to keep control over their "books".

Wally was also one of a handful of the musicians responsible for booking gigs, and also contracting the "ringers" that made up the ranks for the gigs. I've seen a couple of emails related to "pay scales" that were used for the performances, and there seemed to be a lot of push-and-pull on how to set the salaries for a gig. In my opinion, there were too many "opinions" on that.

About two years after I joined the band, Wally asked me to "run a rehearsal" for him -- probably because I was the loudest. He was getting tired, and he was gradually passing his solos and his higher parts onto the other trumpeters.

Eventually, he just let me keep running the rehearsal. He was asking me to help with the music-sorting chores, so it seemed logical (to him) to hand off the library to me. So, I went over to Karen and Wally's house one day (with my van), and took about 20 boxes of music home.

Wally was good to me. He trusted me to take one of the positions as a "gig regular", rather than just a "rehearsal regular". Eventually, he let me take on a couple of the more coveted solos in the book, (such as "In the Mood", and "String of Pearls"), then he let me step into the lead trumpet spot. Later, he trusted me with the library. Ultimately, he let me become the leader of the group.

I learned a lot from Wally: How to run a rehearsal, how to organize sets of folders, how to hire musicians, how to handle contracts, and how to communicate with band members. He was my mentor, and he was a humble, talented musician, patient leader and friend.

After Wally retired from the Troc, he would still come to our gigs, and record the performances. And, after he retired from the School Boys' Band (Edmonton Swing Band), he gave me a few more charts that he had been holding onto, such as the way-too-tough Rob McConnell tunes. One day, I'll eventually add them into the duct book.