Kurt McGettrick - Bari Sax Monster - R.I.P.

Unsung & a master of originality ; he took the bari to another level

Maybe some you might of heard him in Zappas last bands. Maybe?

In the rock sax world Kurt is NEVER documented as he should be. In 70's he wrote and played on Phoebe Snows 3ed record. The string writing was as good as it got- and it wasn't full of dumb cliche' stuff either. Likewise the wildman bari sax solo stuff he did w/ Graham Parker.

I thank Mr Marsh and a few of my L.A buds for dubs thru the years on Kurt.
Albert Wing 'bout the time I was doing NAAM shows w/Guardala etc and playing stuff w/ Brecker at the NAAM shows...I hooked up with Wing and he was kind enough to give me rare Zappa stuff- some of which Kurt was on.

I called Ray Pizzi today, because he was another who spoke of Kurt highly. They used to do lots in various settings. Ray had no idea he passed and broke into tears when I told him the sad news.There so far as he knew wasn't anything in LA TIMES about Kurt or Pizzi woulda saw it. SAD
Ray used to have Easter egg hunts for the kids & Kurt would bring his family over and they'd hang. as we spoke Ray told me of a _CURRENT_big band he's writing an ENTIRE book for....and had features for Kurt already written!!
THAT'S HOW GREAT KURT WAS!!!!!! A musicians musician.Pizzi would of had some stuff for to hit- oh yea.

He was one of the bari sax players who knew- how lame parts were in big bands and the lack of real solo stuff. So he hung in stuff like Ladds bands as Marsh described. BUT- his vehicle was ZAPPA. I saw a dub a friend in Jersey had ( a bassist ) and he said- " You must know this guy on bari Tim- he's a freak...playing the Zappa stuff and going for no mercy " ....right he was. It was Kurt. No mercy- and no cliches either.

In 1970- I heard him in the basement at Berklee. This was before stuff like the FRINGE or anything...and this Bari roars outta small ensemble room. I'll
never forget it. Ever!! For a second I thought it mighta been someone outside the school- but I looked in and there was Kurt. I saw him around and he was a few years older than me. Later that session- he played soprano-so I had to ask him cuz he was getting that Surman sound on soprano, but more of a American- ized bluesish thing. But even more...kinda Mariano but not.
So I find out he had a Berg rubber soprano mouthpiece and the first LAWTON
bari sax mouthpiece I ever saw. ( Even before Big George and Frank Foster hit w/Elvin and had Lawtons ) BUT- originality was in his concept. Iasked Mariano about him- and Mariano just point blank said " Kurt is a M.F.'er "

How does a guy like this just pass thru the cracks?
It's one of the dark parts of the BIZ of music I dispise. Obiviously folks heard him, but he should of recorded HIS STUFF as Kurt. I dunno......

All I know is this guy was original- and he was REAL.
I'm glad I had the pleasure of knowing the guys music. After hearing him on bari in 1970...I knew there were other places to take the horn in the music.

Shame.....another voice lost. A real great one too.

If a guy like this woulda played with Elvin or Miles?? WOAH-

I found a cassette of a radio show Kim Richmond had, that he was kind enough to give me a decade ago. On Kurt!! Kurt was big on HARRY CARNEY and knew PEPPER ADAMS well in the 73' point as he lived in NYC for a bit before going to LA.I think Kurt must of turned Pepper on to Lawton now I think about it. Had to! Kurt never played like Pepper; but he had some cool storys on the Kim show about him.

Lots of roots but also he stood for something as a bari player...when he played he created not replicated.After all- jazz is suposed to be a creative art form!

I note how he's never ever mentioned...in rock stuff via sax. After all ZAPPA was rock so was GRAHAM PARKER. Especially cuz he was such a savage player in those idioms.

On the Kim Richmond tape ( a radio interview ) Kurt played TANGERINE and played the most _cliche free_solo I ever heard on a bari. He played tenor too and so much else.....flutes low clarinets. Ya can hear those on most of the Zappa things.

more on McGettrick

McGettrick never changed away from the Lawton mouthpieces on Bari. Perhaps a lesson to those who change mouthpieces every season…. I don't know the opening, but he used Plasticover reeds.

On tenor he played an open metal Berg with Plasticover. Kurt's tenor was LOUD!!!! He pumped the same amount of air into a tenor that he used on his Bass Sax! I often heard Kurt's tenor warmup routine at the Steve Spiegl big band. He first notes were Triple Fortisimmo and then he went on from there!

Yeah, Kurt would have been great in Elvin's band! Can you imagine what they could have done? Too bad that combination never happened...

But as aggressive and loud as Kurt could be, he was also capable of playing very sensitive things. We used to play some ballad type tunes together that featured Kurt on standard Bass Clarinet. I've never heard prettier bass clarinet playing. If I was playing tenor on the song, I'd have to play super soft, so as not to overwhelm the nice sounds he was making on bass clarinet. We usually got a nice blend between the bass clar. and tenor. Kurt had a great high range on the Bass Clarinet.

Then there was Kurt's old LeBlanc metal ContraBass Clarinet of the "Hairpin" wraparound design. I believe it was the Bb key Contra. Kurt was awesome on this instrument. And when that axe didn't go low enough wasn't low enough for him, to get an extra hlaf step of low range, Kurt would sometimes insert a cardboard tube from the inside of a roll of paper towels into the bell, and sure enough, he'd get that additional half step into the depths. Check out Kurt's outstanding ContraBass solo on the song "Gator" from Andre Caporaso's "Avenue 5" CD. It would have been great if Braxton and McGettrick had ever dueled on ContraBass Clarinets. Brax would have had to work hard to keep up with 'ol K

Zappa's "Make A Jazz Noise Here" CD from the 1988 tour features Kurt on a tremendous Bari solo. The track is "King Kong".

On You-Tube there are some videos of Zappa's '88 band with the horns. A favorite moment on that tour was when the horn section played Jimmy Page's guitar solo on "Stairway to Heaven."

McGettrick can also be heard playing tenor on several CDs by the Steve Spiegl Big Band. "Enigma" features Kurt alongside the great Pete Christlieb.
Several Zappa alumni (including the Fowler Brothers and Albert Wing) formed a band called "Banned (or Band) From Utopia". Kurt can be heard on that band's recordings.

One thing is for sure, we will miss this man's unique instrumental voices in the years to come. I consider myself very lucky to have been able to spend many hours playing alongside Kurt in some creative situations. Bruce Fowler has some tapes we made a few years ago with the L.A. version of Billy Mintz's "Two Bass Band". Kurt was a member of the group. Hopefully the CDs will come out some day soon.

A lot of the top studio musicians here look down there noses at someone like McGettrick. They just didn't know what to make of him. Like he was from another planet. Maybe he was!

Steve

more Zappa horn video

Clip of the Zappa horns playing a whacked out Ravel's "Bolero":


Kurt McGettrick: Bari Sax and Piccolo
Albert Wing: Tenor
Paul Carmen: Alto
Bruce Fowler: Trombone and Paso Doble Dancer
Walt Fowler: Trumpet

Kurt gets a nice piccolo sound and intonation for a guy who had two bars to switch from Bari to Pic. (!!!) Big bari sound near the end of the piece ...

I first met Kurt back in DC when we both lived there. He's about 5 years older than me, He was from Rockville MD. and I from Kensington, so I think I was about 18 or 19. I totally idolized Kurt at the time. He was a schooled player who studied at Berklee and I was mainly an R&B student who love to play and also sing. We all talked about moving to either NY or Cali, and I moved out in '73. I think Kurt moved out just a few years later. We didn't work together alot. I actually saw Kurt more in social settings with get togethers of the DC guys Dave Smith, drummer percussionist, Steve Larrance, drummer, myself, and Kurt. We used to talk about fishing and how much we missed those blue crabs! One time he did a horn arrangement for a reggae version of the Beatles "Love Me Do" for a CD put out by Dave Smith. Another time I was asked by a promoter to play in a jazz festival near where I live north of LA, and the guy asked me if I knew anyone who specialized on bari Sax to play at the festival(guess who I thought of). And oh yes another time I called him to play bari in a ten piece horn section for the Temptations. He of course did a fantastic job at whatever he played, even though he didn't like to play "commercial" gigs. He was a true original, and his playing was probably misunderstood by most of the people that heard him. But you couldn't deny the virtuosity.

He had the dryest, most cynical sense of humor you could imagine! Some of his substitute terms for things are just legendary. But he was ultimately one of the nicest guys you could ever know. Those that knew him well will miss him greatly.