TEXAS DANCEHALL STANDARDS: Vernon Drozd & the Texas Brass / Fraulein / Tonka 12 скачать в хорошем качестве

TEXAS DANCEHALL STANDARDS: Vernon Drozd & the Texas Brass / Fraulein / Tonka 12

Vernon J. Drozd was born to Carrie (Holub) and Emil Drozd of Moravia, Lavaca County, TX, on June 4, 1938. His father was one of eleven children of John Drozd, a 1880 Czech immigrant to the United States. Vernon recalled that when he was 10 years old, “Mother used to watch Herbert Kloesel, a trumpet player with the Knights of Dixie, playing in parades at Schulenburg, and she said, ‘Son, I wish you’d do something like that.’” Vernon started taking clarinet lessons from Kloesel for 75 cents each. When he was confined to a wheelchair because of a broken hip in 1953, his father borrowed a saxophone for him from the neighbors (“I was practicing all the time.”). He took band at Hallettsville High School and played his first paying gig at age 15 with the Joe Fajkus Polka Band of Praha. He was performing as “Vernon Drozd and his Starlighters” in 1956 and recorded with the Joe Patek Band in 1958 (he wrote Corrido Rock Polka for Joe’s band). Drozd was a member of the Shiner Hobo Band in 1958, and was with Curly Long and the Wild Ones in 1958 and 1959, about the time he started his long association with the Gil Baca Band. He led his own “Texas Brass” from 1969 into the 1970s and recorded several singles for the Tonka label. Drozd was a respected sideman on recording sessions in the late 1950s and 1960s, and was prestigious enough that bands advertised themselves as “featuring Vernon Drozd.” While with the Gil Baca Band, he played the January 1973 Presidential Inaugural Ball (“the biggest honor of my life”) and the 1968 Smithsonian American Folklife Festival. Vernon’s son Steven is a multi-instrumentalist with the band the Flaming Lips and other projects. Father and son have each played in the other’s band. As late as 2004, a 66 year-old Vernon was gigging with John Dujka and the Bluebonnet Opry in Brenham, TX, but as the years progressed, Vernon Drozd was unable to play music because of advanced arthritis. He passed away in Schulenburg at the age of 77 on August 1, 2015. The above is drawn from various newspaper articles and advertisements, including: Henry Wolff Jr.: Two’s company, three’s a crowd [Victoria Advocate 1994-07-24 p.3] Gary E. McKee: Vernon Drozd: Reflecting on God's Gift, 2015-04-09. [http://polkabeat.com/blog/c6ioeoc3tzq...] The newspapers also say: “Vernon Drozd America’s greatest Czechoslovakian artist…” “Vernon is original and authentic as he copies no one…” “Vernon has mastered the Trumpet, Piano, Tuba, Trombone, Clarinet, and plays two Saxophones at the same time: An achievement only the best ever try…” “Vernon Drozd plays the Blues, Latin, Country and Western, Pop, and Folk with the same proficiency…” “Fraulein” is a cover of the 1957 song written by Lawton Williams and recorded by Bobby Helms for Decca that same year. [Fraulein, Vernon Drozd & the Texas Brass, Brian McWhirter vocal, Tonka 12, recorded 1969/70, matrix LH-5102] The flip side of this disk is Uncle Pen:    • TEXAS DANCEHALL STANDARDS: Vernon Drozd & ...   Texas Dancehall Preservation: https://texasdancehall.org/ Polka Playlist:    • Polka Time