The Arnie Chycoski Mentor & Life Coach Award

Arnie Chycoski

Arnie

“The Boss Brass started as a commercial band playing pop tunes. Then Rob McConnell said, “Let’s start playing other kinds of music.” So we did! I played lead trumpet with the Boss Brass for 35 years.”

In the 1950s, I discovered that Arthur had taken the band on some really great and extended trips to the old country. We have heard about the 1950 trip from Brian Bolam and Ron Wood, where the band encountered strong feelings of sentiment from their Dutch hosts. Kenny Douglas told us a lot about the 1953 trip when the band played in vaudeville theatres from Blackpool to London. And Bing gave us some great philosophical insight into the 1955 trip. But there was one person whose name kept coming up; someone whom I really wanted to meet. He had only gone on one trip with the band and that was in 1955 but he had gone on afterwards to play lead trumpet in the Boss Brass in Toronto with Rob McConnell for thirty-five years. I was curious to find out about the journey that had led him to the lead chair in the Boss Brass. His name was Arnie Chycoski, the boy who had looked after a very young Bing Thom in Paris, some fifty years earlier.

Arnie lived on Vancouver Island, just north of Nanaimo, with his second wife Sherilene, ‘Sher.’

“How are you?” he asked when I called him up one morning.

“Sure, I would be glad to sit and talk to you about the band and my career.”

The next day, I got up early and made my way down to the bus depot on Main Street. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful Vancouver morning. I boarded the bus and departed the terminal. In about forty-five minutes the bus arrived at the Horseshoe Bay Ferry and proceeded straight to the front of the lineup. I knew taking the bus would be a good idea after reading in the newspapers about the long queues. Soon, we were on board. After several walks around the observation deck and a tea break or two, we arrived in Nanaimo, two hours later.

Arnie had said to give him a call when I arrived and Sher would drive down and pick me up.

“Hi Arnie, it’s Chris,” I said, standing at a pay phone, near the rear of the bus depot. He replied,

“Sher is on her way back from Victoria. When she calls, which should be soon, I will let her know you have arrived and ask her to pick you up.” About an hour later, a burgundy SUV pulled up to the back of the terminal, driven by a young-looking woman in her late thirties, early forties. She wound the window down and said,

“Chris? I‘m Sher. Arnie ask me to pick you up.” After exchanging a few hellos, we were back on the road, and heading for Nanoose Bay.

“Arnie tells me you play the trumpet?” I said.

“Yes, we met at the 5th Field Military Band in Toronto, while I was going to Sheridan College for musical theatre. He was the lead trumpet and I played second.”

I knew she had to be considerably younger than Arnie. If Arnie was sixteen in 1955, that would make him sixty-nine today. She went on,

“I spent two years in the music department at UBC and played in the 15th Field Regiment for a while. Then I went back to Toronto and did my last two years at the University of Toronto. I also spent some time in Malibu, California as a music teacher and in Sacramento as a visual and performing arts coordinator while I was pursuing my doctorate at the University of Southern California (USC) which I finished in 2005.” It wasn’t long before we arrived at a nice, one-level, waterfront home with a big yard and a magnificent view of the surrounding ocean and harbor. Arnie was in the back part of the house when we entered.

“Hello, glad you could come,” Arnie said upon seeing us.

“Hope I can remember some stories to tell you. How are you dear?” He said to his wife, who replied,

“I am tired this is my only day off. I have been working long days lately at my studio and the Village Theatre for Bard to Broadway’s (B2B) summer programs in Qualicum Beach,” she added, directing her attention toward me.

“We had the B2B Pacific Vocal Institute professors Gary Glaze and Cynthia Munzer from USC staying with us, so I had to take them back to Victoria. Have you eaten anything?” she asked Arnie.

“No,” he replied as if he had gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar!

“Well, you better, you don’t want your blood sugar to get too low.”

With that, Arnie shuffled off to the kitchen, where he pulled out some cold pizza from the refrigerator and put it in the microwave, leaving me alone in the living room. When he came back, pizza in hand, he said,

“We use this room for entertaining and rehearsing.” It was a large room, close to the ocean, with big glass windows all around and a glass skylight above.

“It’s beautiful,” I said. “And you get an amazing view of the ocean and harbor as well. I see why you don’t want to leave.”

“He mumbled something inaudible, his mouth full of pizza, and motioned me to sit down at an antique circular table, to one side.

“Tell me how you ended up going on the 1955 Kits band trip to England?” I suggested.

“He had a crisis with his trumpet section before the trip. He called me up and asked me if I wanted to go on the trip. I didn’t know what to do. I was in New Westminster. I played with Fred Turner in the New Westminster Band. Arthur must have heard me playing somewhere or another. Donny Clark and I, wound up being the added trumpets. I had heard stories about Arthur. I was about sixteen. I went in and sat down on the last chair, which was third. He saw me down there and said, “What are you doing down there? I want you to play first.”

“I was really scared of him. We would be rehearsing. He would say,”

“Gosh, darn it all, anyway!”

Never swore but he goshed and darned all over the place. He took off his gold watch and threw it against the wall. He never gave me any heat at all. I think it was because I didn’t come on like I thought I was the best player in the world. Donny Clark did a lot of the solos. When I came back from the 1955 trip, I was asked to play at the Cave Supper Club, with ‘Paul Souder’ and ‘Dave Robbins.’ They were professionals. It was a good thing for me.

“How long did you play at the Cave?”

“I played for several years, I even began to smoke. It was my only self-defense. It was such a smoky environment, at the Cave.

“I was told you were making more money in a week at the Cave Supper Club than your brother made in a month installing furnaces.”

“Yes, he was a tradesman. My dad didn’t like me being a musician. He just wanted to make sure that I would be okay, but I never had any money problems. I always had money. It turned out to be a steadier job for me than it was for most in those days. After playing around Vancouver for several years, I went down to Los Angeles for seven years. I was about twenty around 1960. In LA, I did a lot of studio work and got in with a band led by Si Zentner. One of his tunes was “Up A Lazy River.”

And the Johnny Mann Singers! Then, I went to Las Vegas for six months and got married in ‘The Little Chapel of Flowers.’ That was 1964! The girl that I married was from Vancouver. It was fast and cheap. I developed a sleeping problem in Las Vegas. I used to hang out in the clubs until

BELOW: c1960 LA Arnie playing lead trumpet in the Si Zentner Band. Third from the left, in the back.

sic in the morning. Then, I would come home and turn on the air conditioning. I would always wake up at noon every day. Then I had the whole day to fill until we played in the evening. I played with Louis Bellson in Las Vegas.”

“Do you have any stories about Louis Bellson?”

“He was a beautiful man. He was married to Pearl Bailey. She was very bossy. She would get mad at the band and he would turn around to the band and say,

“It’s all right guys!”

“How did you get the gig?”

“I got a call from LA. I started getting a name for myself, as a good first lead. So, these guys started to call.”

“Do you have any other stories about Las Vegas?”

“Lionel Hampton’s band was playing in Vegas at that time. I went to hear him. The bass player and the drummer didn’t like each other. On the bandstand, they had a fight. He fired them all.”

“Who impressed you the most?”

“Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie were impressive.”

“Did you know Dizzy?”

“Oh ya, I played a television show in Montreal with the MSO. Dizzy was one of the guests. I never got to meet Sinatra but I played with Les Brown. Sinatra was very humble in the early days.”

“He was still out drawn by the Vancouver Boys’ Band in Blackpool, England in 1953.”

“Really, I remember the theatres in England. There were lots of comedians, one hour show.

In Vegas, we played at the Flamingo Hotel. That was mob-owned, everything was in those days. You didn’t insult anyone down there. I remember Louis Prima and his wife, Keely Smith.

Jack Teagarten’s brother used to play after hours until six in the morning. That’s where all the musicians went.

I made a mistake when I left Vegas and came back here to Vancouver. When we arrived at customs, the agent asked,

“Where are you going to be living?” I said,

“Oh, we will probably live in Canada.” He said,

“I guess then you will not need this anymore.” And he tore up my green card!”

“What do you remember about Arthur?”

“When I first joined the band, Cyril Battistoni said to

me,

Cy was a good trumpet player, he said, “Arthur is really tough!”

They all grumbled about how tough he was but if anyone from outside the band dared say anything, the guys would jump all over him. They would have a fight coming.

In Vancouver, after Vegas, I played for a couple of years and then went off to Europe. We had two kids. I didn’t get much work over there though. I am not a person that pushes myself; to find jobs I mean. We were in Paris. I found the French very rude.

After Paris, we went to Spain. You couldn’t buy property but you could lease for one hundred years. Then we went to England. Then we came home and stopped in Toronto. My wife had a friend in Toronto. The work was ridiculous in Toronto, in the late 1960s. I auditioned for one guy. His name was Benny Louis. There was only me and Benny and his wife upstairs cooking. She kept yelling, “Benny, ask him to play Stardust!”

He gave me thirty jobs within a month and a half. He was working all the time. His orchestra played Bar Mitzvahs, dances. All Jewish functions!

I did a lot of freelancing and CBC work on television and a lot of recording. There were a couple of years there, when Trudeau was in power, if you invested in talent, you could deduct everything.

A lot of people were supporting the Arts. When it became known that there were a lot of good musicians in Toronto, they started coming up from LA. Then the movie industry started up.”

“What would an average work week be like for you in those days?”

“My mornings would be an eight am rehearsal for a jingle, for an hour, and then the same again at ten. I lived in Oakville. The kids were in school and a third child was at home. We would have lunch and a drink and then back for a two o’clock call. Then, I started playing at the Royal York Hotel. That was when the Royal York was bringing in ‘Tony Bennett,’ ‘Ella Fitzgerald’ and a lot of other big names. It was a house band. That lasted for a couple of years, in the evening.”

“Tell me about the Boss Brass?”

“The Boss Brass started as a commercial band playing pop tunes. Then Rob McConnell said, “Let’s start playing other kinds of music.” So we did! He was a jazz arranger. Guys like ‘Rick Wilkins’ worked for us but you had to keep in good with the contractors. If they didn’t like you, you wouldn’t work. I never threw my weight around, consequently, I was always working. I worked more than the average guy. No one ever got upset with me. After, well, with the Boss Brass, the brass section was on everything; movies, jingles. It became an entity unto itself.”

“How many years were you with the Boss Brass?”

“I was with them for at least thirty-five!”

“That’s a long gig. Did you get a gold watch?”

“No, Rob wasn’t like that.”

“What year did they end?”

“I think it was last year, in 2006. They still had a smaller band.”

“When was the last time you played with them?”

“About five years ago!”

“You should have got a gold watch and a house. Do you have any more stories about the Boss Brass?”

“Well, we were always drinking. We always had a bottle on the bus. It wasn’t a healthy lifestyle. It showed up in later years, with poor health.”

“Did the Boss Brass travel a lot?”

“Yes, we traveled all over the east coast, Montreal. We went to do a recording, with a company in Montreal.”

“What was Moe Koffman like?”

“Oh, Moe was a great guy! Rob should have been a school teacher. He was always telling us what to do but the guys

let him get away with it, Guido and Moe. Here’s Moe, probably the richest guy in the business and he’s listening to Rob but never contradicted him. Moe made a lot of money through his recordings in the 1960s. He ended up being a big contractor for all the shows coming to Toronto. Shows like ‘Showboat’ and ‘The Adventures of Spider Woman.’ The shows were broken in, in Toronto, and then went on to New York.”

“Did you ever do any contracting?”

“I used to contract my own little band. I was the leader of a nightclub band when I first arrived in Toronto but then I got too busy.”

“I was told you were quite often called to Chicago, or New York, or Boston to play?”

“People didn’t really like you to invade their territory. I never sat in the first chair. They sat me in the first chair but I got up and moved to second or third. These are little secrets that the kids can learn. Because there are so many great players, you have to have the right attitude. It’s the same in all walks of life.”

“Tell me about the Spitfire Band?”

“The Spitfire Band was at the same time as the Boss Brass. They played pop music. It was primarily a recording band but we did play concerts. One of the leaders of the Spitfire Band has since passed on. I will say, if I had gotten paid for everything I was supposed to have been paid for, I would be richer than I am today. It is a cutthroat business in many ways, no controls.”

“When did you finish playing with the Spitfire Band?”

“Oh, about the same time, I finished with the Boss Brass,

about five years ago. I have been married to my second wife for thirteen years. I guess I have been living in Nanoose Bay for about fifteen or sixteen years and here for three years.”

“Do you have any more stories from Toronto?”

“A lot of tragedy actually also here in Vancouver. Tragedy mostly caused by booze.”

“Anything you want to say about the guys you played with in the Kits Band?”

“Bill Trussell was a great player. I kept in touch with a few of them after I left.”

“How did you get started playing the trumpet?”

“I really wanted to play the clarinet. There was one in the Eaton’s Store catalog. It cost sixty-four dollars. I couldn’t afford it, so I kept working. Then I found a trumpet for sale. It was a Czechoslovakian trumpet. It cost thirty-four dollars. I bought it! I have never done any other kind of work except playing my trumpet.”

“Do you wish you had become a clarinet player?”

“Right now I do, it would be a lot easier.

“They don’t have clarinet players in the Boss Brass though.”

“That’s true, no clarinet bands.”

“I think you did okay with the trumpet.”

“I guess so!”

“You taught at Malaspina College?”

“Yes, just for a couple of summers at jazz camp.”

“Did you like teaching?”

“Yes, I liked some of the kids I met. There was a young girl, she was about sixteen. She had the prettiest sound. Her father came to me, she was really talented. Trying to get kids to work is frustrating. She wanted to play jazz. I told her to listen to jazz!”

“Did trumpet playing come easy to you?”

“I guess it did, I played a lot. Not necessarily wood shedding but I was just always playing in bands.”

“How do you think Arthur influenced you?”

“He gave us all a place to play. I was playing with a fellow named ‘Bill Williams’ before the 1955 trip. I was making a lot of money.”

“You took a cut in pay to go on the 1955 trip?”

“Oh ya!”

“Tell me who the three most impressive people are that you have met in your life?”

“Well, two people who really impressed me were ‘Maynard Ferguson’ and ‘Dizzie Gillespie.’ One time I went to a club Maynard was playing at in New York. He started with Maria. With the biggest sound you ever heard. He just wiped out everybody. He was just a strong player. There’s a guy named ‘Guido Basso’ who is just a fantastic trumpet player.

Another great trumpet player is a fellow named ‘Erich Traugott.’ He was a Toronto studio musician. I learned a lot from playing next to him. He was always so in tune that you had to play in tune as well. You knew he was right.”

“If there was someone playing a wrong note, you knew it was you,” I added.

“That’s right!”

“What enticed you away from a paying gig in 1955, to go to Europe with the band?”

“It was their reputation and their prestige. Everyone told me it was a good thing to do. I enjoyed the trip across Canada, stopped and pulled our train cars over to the side, and played our concerts.”

“What do you recall about the trip?”

“Do you know Bing?”

“Bing Thom?”

“Yes, he’s a big architect now. When we went to France, I took him around with me. Delamont asks me to look after him. Later, when I came back from the USA, someone said to me,

“Do you remember Bing?”

“Yes,” I said. “He was the young fellow who played the clarinet in the band.”

“See that building over there, he built it. I never knew that he had become such a famous architect.

We played a lot of vaudeville theatres. When I returned to England, later in life, I used to watch British television, and I saw a lot of the same performers on the television that we had played with on the same bill in vaudeville. Jersey was interesting, there were lots of German fortifications left over from the war. The music we played was great. Probably about two hundred concerts in all. We traveled by bus around England.”

“Do you remember some of the big names you played with over the years?”

“Oh, I played for ‘Mitzi Gaynor,’ ‘Tony Bennett’, ‘Jimmy Dean.’ We used to pass the Glenn Miller Orchestra on the road and also Woody Herman.”

“Any other big bands you played with?”

“Yes, I did some session work with ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’ and with ‘Lighthouse.’ They were hard, very loud.

ARNIE CHYCOSKI ~ 259

You couldn’t hear yourself. It wiped you right out.

It’s been a great life and I have three wonderful daughters and five grandchildren which is the best gift a man could ask for in this day and age.”

“Thanks Arnie.”

“You’re welcome!”

BOSS BRASS - Discography

The Boss Brass. 1968. CTL 477-5015/RCA CTLS-1015

Boss Brass Two. 1969. CTL 477-5118/RCA CTLS-1118

The Sound of the Boss Brass. 1970. CBC LM-73

Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. 1971. CTL 477-5143.

Reissued as Down to Brass Tacks. Pickwick PC-40013

Rob: Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass 4. 1972. CTL 477-5159.

Reissued as Odds and Ends. Pickwick PC-44007

The Best Damn Band in the Land. 1974. CTL CTLS-5182/ U Artists UALA-309G

The Jazz Album. 1976. Attic LAT-1015

Big Band Jazz. 1977. 2-Umbrella UMB-DD4

Nobody Does It Better. 1977-8. CTL CTLS-5215/Phonodisc NV-5004

Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass Again! 1978. 2-Umbrella UMB-GEN-1-12

The Hi-Lo’s - Back Again. 1978. MPS 0068.217

Singers Unlimited with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. 1978. MPS 0068.238

Present Perfect. 1979. MPS 0068.249

Are Ya Dancin’ Disco. 1979. CTL CTLS-5223/New Ventures NV-5008

All in Good Time. 1983. Innovation JC-0006

Atras da Porta. 1983. Innovation JC-0010

Boss Brass and Woods. 1985. Innovation JC-0011

Mel Tormé Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. 1986. Concord Jazz CJ-306

The Brass is Back. 1991. Concord Jazz CCD-4458