Martinman said:
I saw you two play on stage together (assuming you are the Chuck Surack who lives in my town who played with Boots and the local Philharmonic). It was pretty cool, the third time I had seen him in concert. I got to meet him at the clinic at IPFW the day before the concert, and it was one of the greatest moments of my life. He was really nice, and signed a piece of Yakety Sax sheet music for me.
Yep, that's me...The very first record (back when they were records) was a Boots Randolph record my parents got me for my birthday. I had just started to play saxophone and I wore out my first copy of Yakety Sax....
Fast forward 40 years or so and I am playing on stage with him. Wow, what a thrill and what a fright that night. He could have blown me off the stage if he wanted to, but he was a real gentleman. We basically rehearsed once that afternoon. By the way, what a rare night that was to hear him with a full orchestra.
I have probably seen him live 100 times or so, plus in several recording sessions. I have to tell you, the more you know him and the more you are around him, the more you are just become amazed and dumbfounded at his talent. I don't mean just talent on the saxophone either..he is simply an amazing musician in every sense of the word. And with all that talent, he is still "just Boots"...one heck of a nice guy. He would do anything for you. I saw him play gigs when he wasn't feeling well, right after dental work, etc. The audience would never know...He would always stay and sign autographs and listen to stories about where people had heard him before...or what his music meant to them. He would stay until all the people were gone.
He truly loved to play that horn... make that he "lived" to play. He played a great gospel gig last Sunday morning before he got sick on Monday.
Finally, his whole career he played popular or country music. He did about 50 albums of his own and played on literally thousands of others. In fact, he tells some pretty amazing stories about doing 3 and 4 recording sessions a day back in the 60s and having no idea who he was playing for..Brenda Lee, Elvis, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc...amazing..
Anyway, last year he did his first legit jazz album and I was there for some of his sessions. The man blew most of it in one take and it will knock you out. Do yourself a favor and get his latest CD "A Whole New Ballgame" from
http://www.zohomusic.com/ You'll love the picture on the cover, too!
Chuck