Close Encounters 10

Once again I reminisce about concerts I've attended and musical personalities I've met. Back in the last decades of the 20th century, prominent musicians and their fans got together at the annual banquet of the Big Band Academy of America, held at Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, California. During those years as many as 800 people filled the ballroom. I chatted briefly with Helen O'Connell and her husband, bandleader Frank De Vol. Closer to home I saw the Preservation Hall band in performance plus the Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey bands under new leadership. The Russ Morgan band continued to thrive under the leadership of his son Jack. And so it went: First-class entertainment, keeping the big band sound alive and well.