He was with the band from 1952 to 1973, an anchor in the horn section...known for his solo renditions of "Hot Lips" and "Sugar Blues."
One of his daughters, Janice, appeared on many Welk shows during the late 1950s and early 1960s as a singer....
...and did you know before the Maestro expanded the horn section in 1957, Norm also did double duty playing the trombone as well?
You'll always learn something new about our Welk stars everyday here on this blog....and here's him at his finest, fighting with Charlie Parlato for on-air time in this clip!
Fellas....will call it a draw
4 comments:
Thank you SO much for this clip of Norman Bailey playing the trumpet. Mr. Bailey was my very favorite teacher and band instructor when I was growing up in Torrance, California in the 70's. As the director of the Torrance Area Youth Band, Mr. Bailey taught yougsters more than merely the fine points of musical prowess; He took it upon himself to treat each of us as one of the family, and instilled upon us his own fine sense of integrity, fairness and teamwork - qualities which I hope have remained with me to this day.
I fondly remember him dancing with his lovely wife at my Bar Mitzvah in 1973, and boy oh boy could he ever blow a sweet horn !!
Wow, what memories this brings back to me. I got to watch Norman and Donna Baileys two girls during the 1950's. Every Saturday night Donna would sing and Norman would play. I watched the girls until I got married in 1958, when I moved away. Wonderful people, fond memories.
My father, Forrest Jones, grew up in Worcester, Mass. His next door neighbor was Norman Bailey back in the early 1930's. My father played the alto saxaphone and Norman played the trumpet. My father and Norman would be in their separate houses and would leave their windows open facing each other's house where they were practicing. My father used to smile and tell me about how they would play duets through their open windows with each other. Back in the 1970's my parents went to see Lawrence Welk and his orchestra who were performing in Springfield, Massachusetts one evening. They met up with my father's old pal, Norman Bailey and talked quite a while. Norman even gave my parents his autograph!
How cool! I grew up in worcester... on what street did your father and Mr Bailey live?
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