Musicians Jan - 01 - Nashville Musicians Association

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8 The Nashville Musician January-March 2009 We've entered the busiest time of year for the front desk. Your patience and understanding are appreciated more than ever, and we thank you for minimizing calls, etc. when possible. Over 2,000 members have already paid their 2009 annual membership dues! Fewer than 600 members have yet to submit payments in full. Members are required to pay the following items in their entirety to maintain active status with Local 257: Local Dues, AFM Per Capita Dues, Funeral Benefit Fee, Funeral Benefit Assessment, and Vic Willis Emergency Relief Fund. The only optional item was listed on the postcard you received separately, and is for the Legislative Action Fund (formerly TEMPO), the money going to lobbying on behalf of musicians. Please contribute generously to this fund if you're able. Although your membership cards expire each year on Dec. 31st, we do allow you to pay as late as Jan. 31st, before your membership status is suspended and a reinstatement fee is added to your account. If your membership and reinstatement fees are not paid in full by March 31, your status will be expelled and an additional reinstatement fee will be charged to you. Finances are tight for most everyone, and if you find yourself in a position where you're unable to pay by the due dates, yet intend to maintain your membership, please contact Secretary- Treasurer Craig Krampf. He's happy to hear from you and work with you. If you choose to resign in good standing, it's best if you do so before March 31, at which time we will be sending in a per capita dues payment to A.F.of M. for every member on our roster. The last payment was sent for Dec. 31, ’08, so thank you to all who made the decision to resign prior to Jan. 1. If you are contemplating a change, but not quite sure which way to go, please contact Secretary-Treasurer Krampf or President Pomeroy. They can listen to your concerns and advise you on your situation. Collecting your Pension is not affected by maintaining your membership in our Local. Resigning does make you ineligible for applying for assistance through our Emergency Relief Fund. You also forfeit your Funeral Benefit Fund if you resign. Your membership can be reinstated within a year, but beyond that one year you must sign up as a new member. In this Office Manager’s Notes . . . By Sherri Olson case, your start date changes to the date you come back in, and you lose the length of time you had built up as a member in good standing. Applicants for ERF must be members in good standing for the past 12 months or more. The Funeral Benefit is based on your length of time as a member as well, ranging from $1,250.00 at the start of your membership, up to $8,000.00 after you've maintained your good standing membership for 20 or more years. In order for your benefit to be paid out, your membership and all dues and obligations must be paid in full. Please remember us when you have a new mailing address, e-mail address, name change, or perhaps wish to change your beneficiary. As members, you each contribute to the Funeral Benefit Fund with your annual dues payments. It's comforting for you to know the money will go where you would like it to go at the time of your death. The Fund was designed to help cover the cost of your burial and funeral arrangements, but it's really in the hands of whoever you have designated. We are currently printing your named beneficiary on your billing statements. If you would like to re-assign your benefit, please stop by or request that we mail you a new Funeral Benefit Beneficiary card. Having a new card on file, signed by you, is the only way we can make these updates. My personal thanks goes out to former President Harold Bradley and former Secretary-Treasurer Billy Linneman. These two gentlemen always treated us with respect and love, and their friendship and presence are greatly missed around here. I'm thankful that my position is not subject to an election! I don't think I could deal with the uncertainty every three years. Although a new administration can bring uncertainty in and of itself, we can only continue to do our jobs to the best of our ability and hope that we are seen as a vital part of the organization, someone who contributes to the success of the purpose. In my opinion, we have a great staff! I welcome Dave Pomeroy and Craig Krampf, and pray we will feel a similar friendship that comes with time spent together. They generate a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and I encourage you to stop by and congratulate them. It's your union…and your voice should be heard. Sherri Olson Local 257 members inducted into the Arkansas Hall of Fame last fall . . Six legendary entertainers, including country music star Joe Nichols, rock drummer Ronnie Hawkins, the Opry’s brother duo The Wilburn Brothers (Doyle & Teddy), noted Memphis horn player Wayne Jackson, and the late blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson were inducted into the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame Nov. 15, in Hot Springs. The late Doyle and Teddy Wilburn were born in Hardy and were child performers in an act called The Wilburn Family that were brought to the Grand Ole Opry in the 1940s. After the brothers served stints in the Army during the Korean War, Teddy and Doyle continued on in country music as The Wilburn Brothers. They had their first hit in 1954, “Sparkling Brown Eyes.” Other hits include “Which One Is To Blame,” “Trouble’s Back in Town” and “It’s Another World.” They operated a major music publishing firm Sure-Fire and with Don Helms, Wil-Helm booking agency. The Wilburn Brothers had a longrunning syndicated TV show, 1963 to 1974, and helped introduce Loretta Lynn to a wider audience. Both Wilburns were in AFM Local 257. Fellow member Jackson grew up in West Memphis and his life took him across the Mississippi River to Memphis, where he became a legendary backup trumpeter in such groups as the Mar-Keys and would go on to perform with a who's who of artists from around the world on over 300 gold and platinum records. Of course, he was a founder of the legendary Memphis backing band, The Memphis Horns. Son says Rex Peer had ‘a remarkable life’ Rex Peer, one of the original musicians in Danny Davis’ Nashville Brass, died Oct. 14, in Chapel Hill, Tenn., following a lengthy fight with cancer. He was 80. The trombonist, a Lifetime member of Local 257, also performed big band sounds with such notables as Benny Goodman and The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. He had recorded with such acts as Davis, Goodman, Johnny Cash, Eddie Fisher and Tennessee Ernie Ford, and was on Pat Boone’s TV show for a year. Born in Atlantic, Iowa, Rex Eugene Peer grew up in a musical family. His father Willard Ralph Peer, a cornet player and flautist, at one time was introduced on ABC-TV’s You Asked For It program as “The world’s greatest Ocarina (sweet-potato flute) player.” Brother Herb played jazz trombone in the Joe Ventuti Orchestra. Rex’s sister Dorothy Zehr is still a music and voice teacher in Ft. Dodge, Iowa. “Dad dropped out of high school to play in territory bands,” notes son Ryan Peer. “Then he got a job with Jimmy Palmer’s band. During a hiatus with that band, he finished high school, and a couple of years he spent on the road.” Near the tail end of World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps, part of which he played in a military band at Lackland Air Base in Texas. Peer decided to get out just two weeks before they suspended all discharges (as the Korean War loomed large). “Under the GI Bill, my father went to Morningside College in Sioux City to earn his B.A. degree,” Ryan points out. “He obtained his master’s (in music education) from Columbia University in New York.” Later, he was proprietor of the Peer Music Store in Atlantic (originally founded by his father Ralph), where Rex also taught aspiring music students for $1 per lesson. Among other bandleaders he performed with were Vincent Lopez and Woody Herman. It was Goodman, however, who kept calling him back. As early as 1952, he toured the U.S. with Goodman; in 1955, he toured the Far East, a highlight being a command performance for King Aduljadet of Thailand (who jammed with them on sax); they toured Europe in ’58, headlining two weeks at the Brussels World Fair; in 1959 they toured Canada and New England; and in the early 1960s, South America (including some memorable dates in Mexico). An incident during his Goodman gigs occurring on a dual All-Star Farewell Band Tour in conjunction with fellow legend Louis Armstrong, also proved memorable, much to Benny’s chagrin. According to Ryan, Benny had a bit of ego: “Theirs was a six-week tour and after a couple weeks, Benny and Louie got into an argument right there in front of their bandsmen. It started when Benny wanted more stage time; then Louie asked, ‘Who do you think I am? I’m not your ***damn flunkie!’ So Benny left and his drummer Gene Krupa took over the band for the next four weeks. After that, everything was fine and the guys remembered it as memorable.” Despite all his time with Benny and the Goodman Sextet, he confided to his son that his very favorite band to work with was Sauter- Finegan (whose co-leaders were Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan), explaining: “It’s the only band where after three hours on stage and they were packin’ up their horns, he wanted to play more. He said that was his all-time high.” Nonetheless, Rex is heard playing on such acclaimed Benny Goodman albums as Benny’s celebrated 1956 live effort cut in Bangkok, and their set recorded in Belgium in 1958. Changes in beneficiary? Be sure to report changes in your personal status to the Union office! Call (615) 244-9514, Ext. 240. According to worksheets turned in by leader Bill Walker, after the initial tracks for Bob Dylan’s “Self Portrait” were done in ’69, some overdubbing was accomplished in Nashville, specifically the period March 11 - April 3, 1970, including trombone playing by Rex Peer, Dennis Good and Frank Smith. (Rex didn’t remember that session.) One of Rex’s best friends was multi-instrumentalist Walker, an Australian who gained further career renown as an arranger and conductor based in Nashville. “Bill was the reason my father came down here,” explains the younger Peer. “In 1966 or ’67, when Dad was playing with Eddy Arnold, he took his putter from his car trunk while awaiting rehearsal, to practice his swing. Bill walked by and said, ‘We’re looking for a fourth tomorrow. Want to play?’ That was the start of a long friendship.” Walker worked with both the Johnny Cash and Statler Brothers’ TV shows here in different decades. Rex first came to town now and then to work, but finally moved his family to Nashville in 1969. “He was pretty much first-call for anyone wanting a trombone player. The list of artists he played for is huge . . . He once played for Nat (King) Cole, and later for his daughter Natalie Cole,” notes Ryan. “I think he hit the road with Danny in the early 1970s, and came off the Brass like in ’77. The last musical thing he did here was The Statler Brothers’ show on TNN. He did a nice little thing with Leon Redbone singing, while he had a fine little instrumental solo.” Some say for many years Peer was a regular attraction at the old Cajun Wharf restaurant, doing Dixieland. With former Iowa student Roger Bissell, however, he founded a two-trombone and rhythm band called The Hip Bones in 1977, also playing area clubs. Two stand-out Peer arrangements were “The St. Louis Blues March” for the Nashville Brass, and “The National Anthem” for Benny. Rex Peer also launched the Nashville Sound Plus You, a singalong recording unit, sort of a predecessor to today’s karaoke fad. “He started that with a couple other guys, but then he bought them out,” adds Ryan. “It was something he worked on like one day a week, until he let someone buy him out.” Although Ryan’s mom - Barbara Benton Peer - was creative as a clothing designer and semi-professional photographer, he remembers she was more a full-time Mom. She died in January 2008. Ryan’s sister Rachel played bass and during eight years with then-husband John Prine, played bass and sang harmony for him. “She also worked with the Everly Brothers quite a bit,” he recalls, adding “My sister Cindy’s a decent piano player, but she saw her role more as being a mother and homemaker.” While Ryan claims, “I was a pretty mean high school trombone player,” he admits that he enjoys his current job in the graphic arts division of Lightning Source, a subsidiary of Ingram Books, in LaVergne. What characteristic did he most admire in his father? (Continued on page 31) Rex Peer
January-March 2009 The Nashville Musician 9 Hello from Mike Brignardello. On his victory in Local 257's Presidential election Dec. 14, 2008, Dave Pomeroy resigned his post as President of RMA Nashville. As vice-president I have agreed to serve as RMA Nashville's new President. Well, 2009 is off to an exciting start with a new leadership team at Local 257 and an energized membership. The turn-out for this election was about double the last cycle, and it's self-evident that RMA Nashville played a vital part in motivating members to participate. While I am very excited about Dave Pomeroy's win, and that of fellow RMA member Craig Krampf as Local 257's new Secretary-Treasurer, I am keenly aware that RMA Nashville will miss Dave's passion and enthusiasm. Dave was instrumental in growing the RMA Nashville chapter to its largest membership ever, and represented Nashville musicians on the national level with skill and integrity. Small wonder that others in our music community noticed, and elected him President of 257, the fourth biggest Local in the country. His leadership will be missed, but I am honored to try and carry on the principles of the RMA, which is working for the betterment of all recording musicians. We have a terrific Executive Board and I'm looking forward to working together with them, along with our members, to solve problems, define issues, and keep Nashville a great recording center. While there is much to celebrate on the Local level, RMA still faces challenges on the National front. As of this writing, the AFM International Executive Board is considering whether or not to de-certify the RMA as an AFM player conference. The threat has been looming since June 2008, when the idea was first proposed at an IEB meeting. RMA International officers, along with local RMA officers, have been unsuccessful, so far, in their meetings with the IEB, to resolve the issues that have us at the current impasse. We're exploring avenues of communication and are hopeful a dialogue will begin, but for now, we're awaiting the IEB's decision. I don't have space to recount the history, but the threat to the RMA eventually became one of the major campaign issues in this past Local election, an example of a national issue spilling over into local politics. To the best of my knowledge, RMA Nashville members have filed no lawsuits against the union, have not been Musician-educator Baldassari succumbs to cancer at age 56 Butch Baldassari in 2007 Patricia Presley photo. Our last message from mandolin-master Jerome H. (Butch) Baldassari occurred over the holidays, as he plugged his new book and CD combo, “A Victorian Christmas: Sentiments & Sounds Of a Bygone Era.” Sad to say, the bluegrass session player died from cancer Jan. 10, at St. Thomas’s Alive Hospice, following a lengthy battle that left him unable to play his beloved instrument. Baldassari was 56. The musician was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in May 2007, and a benefit was conducted on his behalf at Blair School of Music, on Oct. 27, 2007, to help defray the family’s mounting medical costs. Baldassari had served as an adjunct professor of mandolin at Blair since 1996, while also heading up the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble (since June 1991). He also played on numerous sessions, including those of Alison Krauss, John Mock and David Schnaufer. Butch recently noted, “Support from family, fans and friends has been enormous. I am humbled and thankful for it. I am often reminded of and surrounded by many of the musical friends I've made over the years. What a pleasure it is to know them and privilege to have recorded with many of them. “I stay busy with projects and am writing a column for Mandolin magazine,” Baldassari added. “Although I can't play for now, the music in me is still very much alive. It feeds my soul and excites me every day.” According to Mark Wait, dean, Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, “Butch Baldassari was a wonderful artist, a warm and generous teacher and a great colleague and friend. We were extremely fortunate to enjoy his affiliation with the Blair School and to learn from this remarkable man. Butch’s passing is a huge loss to the Blair School, to Vanderbilt and to the musical community.” A number of bluegrass greats joined Butch in recording his solo project, “Old Town.” Among them Alison Krauss, Tim Stafford, Sam Bush, Ron Block, Alan O'Bryant, and Mike Bub. Incidentally, Bub and Block were members with Baldassari and Chris Jones in the bluegrass band Weary Hearts. A native of Scranton, Pa., he was the son of Henry and Patricia Baldassari. Jerome was a graduate of Scranton Preparatory School and also attended the University of Scranton and the Berklee School of Music, in Boston, Mass. “Butch” became a professional picker at age 35, and subsequently served in such bands as Grammy-nominated groups Grass Is Greener and Lonesome Standard Time. Following graduate work at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, he toiled a time as a croupier at casino gaming tables in the gambling capital. He moved to Nashville in 1989. Butch also played mandocello and mandolo, and conducted mail-order instructions, prompting some to say he made a cottage industry out of mandolin music. Numbering among his Blair School mandolin students was popular singer Dierks Bentley, who claimed, “Butch really encouraged me musically. I took mandolin lessons from him, and he’s full of information.” Former fellow instructor on the Vanderbilt campus, fiddler Matt Combs had spearheaded Recording Musicians Association Mike Brignardello President charged with breaking union rules, and have not joined any other “shadow” union. Yet 200 of our busiest, most active members are being threatened with losing their voice within the union. It's frustrating, because the IEB has chosen to threaten an entire player conference for the actions of a few individuals. If a member breaks a union rule, the individual should be charged with the violation, not an entire player conference. Because I'm an optimist, I think the IEB will come to this conclusion. I believe that the IEB will vote NO on de-conferencing the RMA. An AFM without the RMA will serve no one's interest. But it highlights the importance of focusing our energies on the Nashville music community and our own Local business. Whatever the 2007 fundraiser, saying, “Butch is a fantastic mandolin player. This is a community where people band together for their friends who are hurting, so that’s what we’re doing.” Butch was nominated three years running as top mandolinist by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and also awarded Song of the Year and Best Classical Recording from the Nashville Music Association. Turning out to entertain for the cause Oct. 27, 2007, were Bentley, Ricky Skaggs, Mark O’Connor, Bela Fleck, The Grascals, Kathy Chiavola, John Cowan, Dave Pomeroy’s Three Ring Circle, John Mock, Maura O’Connell, Shawn Camp, Tony McManus and Butch’s Mandolin Jazz Ensemble players. Among Baldassari's how to educational aids available are such as “You Can Play Bluegrass Mandolin (Volumes I & II),” “16 Gems - Bill Monroe Transcriptions,” “Evergreen Mandolin the future brings on the national front, we can continue the tradition of working together with our union and serving the music industry here in our backyard. We have a great working relationship with the Nashville music industry, a long history of “musician tradition” in Nashville, and close personal relationships with artists, publishers, producers and label heads. We have excellent leadership at our Local and engaged members. I believe we could weather just about any storm because of our unique situation. I've seen the effects of an energized informed membership, and I know we can accomplish good things as long as we work together. Times are changing, and the way we work is changing, too. We're working together with President Pomeroy on formulating a new local internet scale, input welcome. Of course, we are continuing discussions with the IEB to resolve the de-conferencing question. There is much work to do and we need your help. Please join or renew your membership to RMA Nashville and help us continue to work for you. Use the Pay Pal option on our site, http:/ /www.rmanashville.com, or mail a check. All of the RMA Nashville officers and Board serve on a volunteer basis, so all the dues we collect are used for the work of serving our members. Join with us and help keep Nashville the best place to make music. Best regards, Mike Brignardello I'm adding a personal postscript and sending heartfelt thanks for the years of dedicated service by President Harold Bradley and Secretary-Treasurer Billy Linneman. I was honored to know and work with you both. Music For Christmas” and “Acutab - Transcriptions, Volume I.” He has recorded for Rebel, Cactus, CMH, Pinecastle, Columbia and his own label (check out soundartrecordings.com). Survivors include wife Sinclair (Dickey) Baldassari, son Blake, and mother Patricia Baldassari, along with two brothers, Henry Baldassari, Jr. and Louis Baldassari. Services were conducted Jan. 17 in St. Francis of Assisi Church, Scranton, co-celebrated by Monsignor Philip A. Gray, pastor, and The Reverend William Campbell. Arrangements were handled by the Neil Regan Funeral Home, Scranton. On Jan. 31, a Nashville service was held at Blakemore United Methodist Church, followed by a public memorial in the Station Inn, Feb. 1. There has been a tax-deductible college fund set up in the name of: Blake Gordon Baldassari, c/o Morgan Stanley, Attn: Jason Pharris, 2525 West End Avenue, Suite 1220, Nashville, TN 37203. - Walt Trott Player pal pays homage to mandolinist By MIKE BUB Butch's fight with brain cancer lasted over a (Editor’s note: Local 257 member, mandolinist Butch Baldassari, founder of the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, died on the morning of Jan. 10, at St. Thomas Hospital. His longtime friend and musical associate, bassist Michael D. Bub, offered these words of appreciation and reflection.) It was nearly 20 years ago that Butch and I moved to Nashville with Chris Jones and Ward Stout to pursue our musical endeavor in Weary Hearts. I have known Butch since I was probably 15 or 16, and that is just shy of 30 years. We played a lot of music and traveled many miles together, before our musical paths took on new directions in the early ’90's. Butch was a great player, known for his taste and beautiful tone on the mandolin. He was a sharp businessman, and involved himself in all aspects of the music business as it related to the mandolin: recording artist, session musician and sideman, performer, producer, label owner, arranger, bandleader, booking agent, instrument collector and designer, as well as teacher. Butch Baldassari's music covered a lot of varied genres and he played it all with great ability and respect. year-and-a-half. I am saddened to see him go, but I am relieved that he is no longer having to suffer with this terrible and painful disease. His fight has been valiant and inspired due to his wife Sinclair and son Blake at his side the entire way. Keep them in your thoughts as they struggle through these toughest of times. Rest in peace my friend. Butch Baldassari
Page 1 and 2: AFM Local 257 election ’08 result
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Musicians Jan - 01 - Nashville Musicians Association

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