Recently, I heard this swingin' 1940 tune by "Doctor Sausage and His Five Pork Chops" (!), and it reminded me of part of a letter I found among Kay's paperwork. So far I've only found the second page, so I don't know who she was writing the letter to, but Kay tells about using novelty kazoos with the young women in the correctional center where she led a small band. Almost all the women played by ear, and they'd learned the solos and melodies from listening to the radio, but they didn't know the background parts. When the women were frustrated that they weren't getting a full swing sound, Kay explained about the parts different instruments play in an ensemble, and at a dime store she'd found some kazoos shapewd like trombones and saxes. She'd brought these in for the next band rehearsal and at first the women resisted the idea of playing music on toys. But apparently Kay did a killer sax solo from Claude Hopkins' "Swinging Down the Lane," and the women did try mimicking parts from records with the pretend horns. There were a lot of goofing around and giggling, and a couple of jousters had to be disarmed, but the women did seem to get the idea and after that Kay was able to help the group create some simple arrangements that sounded better to everyone's ears.
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