[Dixielandjazz] A few "notes" on whistling

[Norman Vickers]

Listmates:

 

Responding to the several of you who have posted items on whistling

 

A decade ago, as I recall, there was an item in USA Today about whistlers.

Of course, it mentioned the great whistler/vocalist Elmo Tanner who was with
Ted Weems. 

 

It mentioned three currently outstanding whistlers-jazz chromatic
harmonicist, guitarist Toots Thielemans, clarinetist from Maine, Brad Terry
and clarinetist, flutist, piccolo player Ron McCroby. Thielemans and Brad
Terry are still following their vocation.

Brad's whistling can be heard on a couple of recordings he did with late
guitarist Lenny Breau-"Living Room tapes."

 

The late Bob Haggart would whistle through his teeth one some numbers,
including his "Big Noise from Winnetka."

At a jazz party I saw Haggart and cornetist Peter Ecklund do a duet with
this whistling through the teeth routine.

 

I've seen great trombonist Bill Watrous do some great whistling numbers,
too.

 

 

One anecdote I heard about Elmo Tanner.  Seems that Ted Weems would wait
until Tanner was eating something, then he'd call a whistling tune, much to
Tanner's consternation. 

 

Here's a note about McCroby---taken from a website.

 

Ron McCroby 

*	Genre: Jazz 
*	Active: '80s
*	Instruments: Piccolo, Flute, Clarinet


Biography


Ron McCroby was a master of the rarely practiced art of jazz whistling,
blessed with amazingly sure intonation and technical control that allowed
him to mimic bebop players' lines with a clarity that made it sound as
though he were playing a piccolo. In fact, McCroby delighted in describing
his "instrument" as a "puccolo" (a conflation of "piccolo" and "pucker"). He
was born in 1934 and grew up in Morgantown, WV, where he played clarinet in
the high-school marching band. It was there that he made his musical
whistling debut, filling in the piccolo part in "Stars and Stripes Forever"
when the regular player was out sick. McCroby studied music at West Virginia
University, but subsequently got married and moved to Cincinnati to pursue
advertising as his vocation. In his spare time, he performed locally as a
clarinetist with various large and small jazz groups, sometimes doubling on
flute or saxophone. Eventually, he became the advertising director for the
Little Tykes toy company, and also moved into cartoon voice-over work,
portraying a whistling penguin on Scooby-Doo.

McCroby made his television debut as a jazz whistler on a Cleveland morning
show in 1981. Word spread quickly about his astonishing skill (and not
inconsiderable novelty appeal), leading to his banner year of 1982. McCroby
performed on The Merv Griffin Show and made the first of five appearances on
The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson; he also performed at that year's
Monterey Jazz Festival, with a repertoire that ranged from "Body and Soul"
and "Blue Rondo a la Turk" to Vivaldi to the Andy Griffith theme. If that
weren't enough, McCroby also recorded his first album, Ron
<http://www.answers.com/topic/ron-mccroby-plays-puccolo>  McCroby Plays
Puccolo, for Concord Jazz, with a backing quartet featuring flutist Sam
<http://www.answers.com/topic/sam-most>  Most, pianist Bill
<http://www.answers.com/topic/bill-mays>  Mays, bassist Bob
<http://www.answers.com/topic/bob-magnusson>  Magnusson, and drummer Jeff
<http://www.answers.com/topic/hamilton-vta>  Hamilton. A second Concord
album, The <http://www.answers.com/topic/the-other-whistler>  Other
Whistler, appeared in 1984. McCroby also continued his voice-over work for
several ad campaigns, most prominently as Tenderheart Bear for the
greeting-card toy spinoff The Care Bears, as well as a Winnie the Pooh video
game. He retired in 1999, and in 2001 he traveled to the Netherlands and cut
an album with the Hans Mantel Trio, titled Twolips From Holland. On August
5, 2002, McCroby passed away at his Aurora, OH, home from an apparent heart
attack.

 

Norman-if you whistle, please do it in tune--Vickers