The disc had 10 cuts and I listened to it hundreds of times as I read the liner notes over and over. I couldn’t think of anything cooler. Even at that early stage of my musical life I recognized the creative ensemble writing and heard that the solos were not long and usually had some kind of band backing figures from the other horns. Dave Pell was doing what I wanted to do, but growing up in Flint, Michigan where everyone either worked for General Motors or for a company which owed its existence to GM, I had no idea how that could ever happen. But as it turned out, it DID happen. I got a music degree in college followed by a gig playing trombone with a touring group after graduation, got into arranging and directing, moved to Orlando and then Charlotte. I carried the Dave Pell Octet album with me through all the moves and would occasionally play it until CD’s came out in the mid 1980’s. One thing led to another until I found myself married and living in LA in 1986 and working in the recording industry writing and producing radio and TV music and, increasingly, music for the big entertainment companies like Disney, Universal, and Warner Brothers. One day in the early 1990’s I was standing in line to pay for some recording supplies. I distinctly heard the salesperson talking to the guy several places in line ahead of me when he said “Dave Pell Music” or “Dave Pell Productions” and then something like, “That will be $76.50 Mr. Pell.” My brain went into overdrive. “That’s DAVE PELL!!! He’s right there in front of me!!!” After he finished paying he walked past me but I couldn’t think of anything to say to him. “Hi, Dave? My name is Brad Kelley and I’ve got your album!” I went home and told my wife about being in line with Dave Pell and she couldn’t believe I didn’t say anything to him. I resolved that if there was a next time I would.
Fast forward 15 years and I was at the National Association of Music Merchants (“NAMM”)Convention in Anaheim playing with Bones West. NAMM is one of the biggest roundups of music and musicians in the world and as we were filing in the back entrance to the hall I encountered an older guy coming out. When I looked down at his Convention ID badge there in large letters was the name “Dave Pell.” We were in motion headed opposite directions but I approached him, introduced myself and stammered out the whole bit about having his album and how important it was to me, etc, etc. Obviously Dave had other things on his mind that day. He just sorta looked at me like I was speaking gibberish, nodded and headed off. I told my wife about seeing Dave Pell again and how things had not gone as I had hoped.
Last spring I got a call to sub in a band for a 2-hour dance job at an Italian Restaurant in Northridge. I only knew the bari player so just slipped into my seat and did what turned out to be a very fun gig. Nice charts and a very good bunch of players who were mostly all guys who had been on the road with legendary big bands like Les Brown, Buddy Rich and Count Basie. At the end of the set the band leader was introducing everyone and said, “And on tenor sax, Dave Pell.” I about passed out! He was sitting 5 feet from me! I had done a gig with my idol and not known it! Now the stupid part. I packed up my horn, stand, and mutes and got distracted in the process. I was several miles down the road before it dawned on me that I had had a golden opportunity to talk with Dave and had blown it AGAIN!!!!! By now I was getting mental about Dave Pell and had told this whole saga to a number of friends inside and outside the business.
Well, 2 weeks ago the phone rang and it was an invitation to sit in with that same band again and the guy said, “you said you wanted to meet Dave Pell so here you go.” At the gig today I had a mutual friend introduce us properly. I showed the album to Dave and told him how much it meant to me to finally meet him. He was VERY gracious, signed the cover and took a picture with me. We even had some time during the break to talk shop, specifically his approach to those great charts I had heard for the first time 45 years before. His ensemble-based writing had a clear effect on my own writing style. You won’t see a chart by me that has 64 measures of solo chord changes with the rhythm section while the rest of the band just sits there. I like to keep everyone involved, like Dave did.
I don’t know what the moral of this story is. I never thought I could actually be a musician. It never entered my mind that I would ever meet someone as famous (to me) as Dave Pell, let alone do a gig with him in Los Angeles. So, I’ll just have to leave it at this: “Thanks Dave.”
