Coming: the Paperback version of Crossing the Musical Color Line

By Bill Russo

Just one month until the launching of the Paperback version of "Crossing the Musical Color Line and other adventures of Singers and Players."

 It is a memoir mostly about icons and trailblazers that I was lucky enough to meet or interview. The Kindle E book has reached as high as Number nine in its category on the Amazon charts. Here's a part of the chapter about my friend Chet Krully, the first white man to play in an all black orchestra (he was also the lead guitarist in the 1970s for Miss Diana Ross , the Lead singer of the Supremes)

"Chet stayed with Diana Ross for a few years and if you were lucky enough to meet him, he would tell you many stories about the lady - but he would never dish dirt. The worst thing he ever said to me is that "she had some personal issues to deal with."

As a guitar teacher few could top Chet. His students included Gabor Szabo, Patty Larkin, and hundreds of other professionals.

I took lessons from him when he was deep into his 80s and we both said that I was the worst guitar student he ever had, but he never held it against me. The truth is, I was a frustrated brass player and only took lessons from Chet for the stories.

We would sit together in one of the studios of Rick's Music Center in Raynham, Massachusetts and he would hoist his ever present large Dunkin' Donuts coffee, take a swallow; and then tell me yarn after yarn about the big band days, the rock days, and his meetings with people like Sinatra, Sid Caeser, Rich Little, Robert Goulet and of course, all of the Supremes.

Beside playing with Fletcher Henderson, he also worked with the aggregations of Jimmy Lunceford and Nat Pearce.

Chet had fond memories of his time with the Henderson band. He recalled, with a sorrowful smile, the many times that he would walk into a 'white-only' restaurant and order coffee – twelve cups to go!

Then he'd saunter outside to the sidewalk and distribute the steaming coffees to his pals who were not allowed in the establishment because of the color of their skin."

Crossing the Musical Color Line and other Adventures of Singers and Players is available in the Kindle store for just 99 cents.