More from Mike and his Mellotron in the near future I hope.
What have the tracks Devil’s Triangle Cirkus, and Sailor’s
Tale got in common – apart from the obvious point that they’re all KC
tracks. Well, they all use Mellotron
brass and the man who supplied the brass samples was none other than George Chisholm, the Gentleman of Jazz .
Chisholm was a
regular performer on light entertainment shows in the 50s and 60s, often doing
solo comedy spots with his trusty trombone on shows like the Black and White
Minstrel Show and it’s near cousin, The Billy Cotton Band Show.
I’m grateful to Mike Dickson who takes up the
story about the origins of the samples used on those KC-era Mellotrons.
The 'cello was Reg 'Grumpy' Kirby who famously refused to tune his instrument down (not up - down!) for the bottom three notes. He got the serious hump about being told he was playing out of tune.
The three violins were recorded by Harry Chamberlin for the original recordings way back in 1951. I don't know their names, but they were three ladies from the Lawrence Welk orchestra whom Harry had hired for the day and who recorded this famous sound in his daughter's bedroom. Not only does a chair creak in one note, but you can also hear a slight change in timbre as they shifted position in the room to get away from the sun streaming through the window.
There are other more famous ones. The GC3 brass (much beloved of Tangerine dream et al) was recorded by the 'real' GC - George Chisholm! It was very much a job of getting him into the studio, getting the sound down (it was triple tracked, hence 'GC3') and then bunging him cash as he was bundled out the side door. The Musician’s Union hated that instrument.
