Sarah Vaughan-Practical Joke
http://www.LisaGary.com
I'm so excited to share this piece of musical/comical history! I have the great honor of working with the great trumpet player Mike Lewis (http://www.MikeLewis.com). One night when he made me laugh so hard on a gig that I couldn't even sing the rest of the song, let alone breathe, he told me that he did the same thing to Sarah Vaughan. I didn't believe him until he sent me the recording he had of the night it happened, and man does she laugh hard! I just had to share it with all of you!
The Joke:
Sarah was singing with the Buddy Rich Orchestra, which Mike was playing in. They had already done a series of shows, so the band knew what to expect Sarah to say each time she introduced the band. She would do it in the same order and make the same jokes each night, one of them being about the little guy at the end of the trumpet section, Greg Gisbert. The rest of the section was Eric Miyashiro, Joe Kaminsky, and Mike Lewis.
Mike, being his clever self, decided to throw her off a little and told the trumpet section to bend down so that they all looked like they were the same height at Gisbert. So as she turns around to continue her introduction and tell her joke, she loses it! The bang you hear is from her dropping the microphone because she lost all control from laughing! The man you hear saying "What's happening?", is the great drummer Harold Jones (Sarah Vaughan's drummer and now Tony Bennett's drummer). I guess he couldn't see what they did from where he was on stage!
I could tell how much fun she was having. I wish I was there, well this is the best I can do to transport all of us back there! Enjoy! Good job Mike!
All my love,
Lisa Gary
Come hear me and Mike live one night, you never know what might happen!
http://www.MikeLewisTrumpet.com
http://www.LisaGary.com