Early Career: Territory Bands
Early in his career, Fischer had played trumpet and valve trombone several territory bands, all booked out of Omaha by the National Orchestra Service (NOS), including the Teddy Philips, Little John Beecher Orchestra, Joe Vera Latin Ensemble, Walter Martie, John Paul Jones, and Lee Williams, all of which became the outlet for his arranging and compositional skills throughout the late 40s and 50s. Fischer directed some shows and did most of the "special" arrangements, drove the sleeper buses, and the like. He was the road manager for John Beecher as well. After five years Fischer left the Beecher Band September 1959, when the NOS was going out of business.
Some say that he earned the name "Dirty Dirk" when he had the unpleasant job of hiring and firing musicians in one of the bands.
- Dirk Fischer, Arno Marsh, and Clare Fischer all played together in the Walter Martie Band around 1946-47.
Read more about this topic: Stewart "Dirk" Fischer
Famous quotes containing the words early, territory and/or bands:
“I have always had something to live besides a personal life. And I suspected very early that to live merely in an experience of, in an expression of, in a positive delight in the human cliches could be no business of mine.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“We found ourselves always torn between the mothers in our heads and the women we needed to become simply to stay alive.With one foot in the past and another in the future, we hobbled through first love, motherhood, marriage, divorce, careers, menopause, widowhood—never knowing what or who we were supposed to be, staking out new emotional territory at every turn—like pioneers.”
—Erica Jong (20th century)
“According to the historian, they escaped as by a miracle all roving bands of Indians, and reached their homes in safety, with their trophies, for which the General Court paid them fifty pounds. The family of Hannah Dustan all assembled alive once more, except the infant whose brains were dashed out against the apple tree, and there have been many who in later time have lived to say that they have eaten of the fruit of that apple tree.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)