Northeast Michigan Oral History and Historic Photograph Archive
Carey Deadman Interview

Description
Interview
Interview
Transcription
CC.  We're at the Alpena County Library and this is September 1st, 2015.  I'm Carole Cadarette and we are going to interview Mr. Carey Deadman, ah who um, has been gracious enough to come here and give us his history of his beginnings in Alpena and where he's at now.  
CD. Mm hm.
CC.  So Carey, let's start out by talking about how many years you've been involved in music.  
CD.  I began taking trumpet lessons when I was a third grader, um, from a . . . private lessons from Dave Antolini, who was a great trumpet player that lived here in, in Alpena.  Um, he went on to move somewhere else - I don't know if he's even ah, with us at this point, but I studied with him for a few years and then got into other things and began again, afresh in fifth grade and, you know, played, took the, went through the school system, you know, band program and it was about seventh grade that I saw a concert here with Bill Chase.  Bill Chase was a great trumpet player who was a rock and roll trumpet player and I always enjoyed kind of the rock and roll side of things and I thought, "Oh, you can play trumpet and be a rock and roll player - I wanna be like him!"  
I got more interested in trumpet; I started studying lessons again in, in seventh grade.  I started with Brad Moors, who's a local trumpet player - great trumpet player and really great guy, and, uh, he taught me a lot and ah, I got just on fire.  By the time I was in ninth grade I knew I was going to do this for a living.  And uh, I wanted to be a studio musician, I wanted to play just in the background.  I didn't want to be out in front, and have my name up in lights, I just wanted to, you know, be part of the background guys, you know, in studios, and however that would unfold.  And um, continued to study, practice real hard, work real hard at it and, uh, went to North Texas State University, ah, for my undergrad. 
 So, I was in the whole band program, I studied with John Hopkins at Thunder Bay Junior High School, we did, uh - I was in every band and orchestra thing I could be in.  In, in, in those days, the junior high was a three year thing, seventh, eighth, ninth grade.  And it seventh and eighth grade I managed to take all of the requirements I needed, so by the time I got to ninth grade, I had very little left to do.  I only had . . . you know, I took a study hall- I'd go practice.  I'd practice in the morning before going to school.  I would ah, practice . . . I would have band and orchestra and the stage band thing, I was ah, on the yearbook staff, and then halfway, the yearbook was done and sent in for printing, so I had that period free, so I had like all these class times free throughout the day of my ninth grade year and I practiced really, really hard.  So I thought I'll do this same trick in high school, tenth, eleventh, twelfth grade.  So, tenth and eleventh grade, I loaded up all my requirements on the front end.  By the time it got to ah . . .I started doing some summer stock over in Petoskey with the Young Americans.  And um, by the time I got to my senior year of high school, I had very little requirements left, I had an English class, maybe there was a . . . some kind of literature or history or reading or something.  And I was, I was offered an opportunity by the Young Americans to go on the road with West Side Story on a national tour.  And I talked to my principal at Alpena High School and he said, "By all means, go - just write a report."  So I did this, this tour. 
CK.  What year was this?
CK.  1977, 78.  I graduated in 78.
CK.  Ok.
CD. So fall of 77, spring of 78.  I was out on the road with West Side Story, came back for the last two or three weeks of school.  And, uh, it was a hard time, being 18 years old not being with your friends.  
CK.  Mm hm, mm hm.  But you were making new friends, I would imagine . . .
CD.  And it was a great experience, you know, it was one nighters mostly, we were bus & truck, you know, different towns.  I got to see the whole USA, you know, so it was a great experience.  
CK: That's cool, yeah.
Anyway, you know, so, along through that, you know, those high school years, and studying with the different band directors that I had, and by this time Brad Moors had gone off to the US Army, um, the Washington, DC job that he got with the army, high profile job that he got.  I was just kind of on my own as far as practicing and getting - improving as a trumpet player, so I got hungry for, um, ah, lessons again by the time I got to North Texas is where I went to my undergrad, I studied with a great trumpet teacher named Don Jacoby for five years and he really changed things around for me.
They have ten Big Bands there and when I got there I wasn't, you know, the greatest, there were a lot of other great players, so I kind of worked my way up through and ended up being the top - the first trumpet player in the very top band by the time I left.  Recorded that album with them, I went and did my Master's Degree at Northern Illinois University . . . um, at Northern, I, I spent two years working on my Master's there.  I met my lovely wife, Julie, made a lot of great friends at Northern but that was - it's about an hour drive from Northern to Chicago, so I started working in the Chicago scene and you know my real goal was to move to New York after college, but - or LA.  I like New York better, and, uh, that didn't ever happen. 
 I ended up staying in Chicago because, it just - everything snowballed and became, you know, a whole careers' worth of playing there.  I'm still very busy - I'm blessed and fortunate to be that busy; because a lot of guys in this economy aren't working like that, you know?  But I . . . I . . . networked well, I kind of became one of the top call players there and we all know each other and, you know, you know that a guy'll show up on time and get the job done.  
And I also do a lot of writing and orchestration, so that's sort of my day job.  And I - as a writer and it changes from week to week.  I might be writing this project for this album over here, TV commercials are - you know, less TV and radio going on now than there used to be but um, I do a lot of writing and orchestrating and I've been really blessed and fortunate to do that.  I've done a lot of really cool string orchestrations - one of 'em is on an album that Paul McCartney's playing on, so I got to be on a record with a Beatle, you know.  That was great.
Um, oh, let me backtrack a little bit - at the very end of my Master's degree from Northern, I went on the road with the great Woody Herman- Woody Herman's band, and that was just for a short time, probably six months or so.  And then when I moved back to town I moved from DeKalb into Chicago, or into a suburb of Chicago.
 So and then from there, it's kind of freelance work and I started getting more involved in the theater scene because the theater is steady, high-paying work.  And you know, in the freelance scene, at the beginning of the freelance thing, I could work 3, 4, 5 jobs a week, driving here, there, different place each time, wearing a tuxedo; in the theater scene you're just wearing all black and you go to the same place every day, and you leave things set up, and it pays really well and, you know, pays into the pension better, so I started working into that theater scene but would still be able to sub out on occasion to do other cool jobs or high profile things.  
And that's, um . . . you know, I was fortunate enough to play with Frank Sinatra, Sr., I did nine tours with Frank Sinatra. Um, I've worked with, um, Barbara Streisand, uh, Celine Dion, did a bunch of television, um, Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, um, just did a recent TV thing for Kander and Ebb music . . . but a lot of theater shows, I got to play the show "Wicked" for three and a half years and then jumped right from there to "Jersey Boys" for another three years, um, that whole six and a half years is a blur to me now, 'cause it was, you know, just it was great, a great time . . .
CK.  That's so great, though, to have a steady, to have a steady work, 'cause it sounds like when you're describing all these different things you do, that just orchestrating that - your life, because you're playing here, you're playing there, trying to, it's-
CC.  And doing what you love and getting paid for it.  
CD.  Oh, yeah, that's the, that's the best part, you know . . .
CC.  Wow.  Was there ever a time, Carey, where you really were down and out, I mean financially.  Was there ever a time in your career?
CD.  No, there's been some slow spots, uh, a couple of summers ago was real slow, there wasn't a lot of work coming in, but I had saved enough to just . . . and I knew, you know, I know when the next, my next steady employment is the end of October now- 
CC.  Ok. 
CD.  But I have so much going on between now and the end of October just freelancing.  I've been off from steady work since, um July 6th.  
CC: Ok.
CD. Been off, but and I, and I use the time . . . I'm so busy still with writing and doing other . . . and I play, saying I'm off, I'm playing, you know, two or three days a week, you know, individual jobs, you know, but . . .  
CC.  Are you playing actually in a band, there in Chicago?  
CD.  It's freelancing, so I play in, I play in a different band this last Saturday than I did the, you know . . .
CC.  Ok.  A call comes out for a trumpet player and . . .
CD.  Yeah.  'Are you available?'  It's usually guys I've worked with before.  I have one this coming Thursday . . . uh, for a convention, um, the last - two weeks ago I got to play with Danny Seraphine, the drummer from the band Chicago - it was, that was a cool job, that was - 'cause it's, you're out there and audience is watching, and they know all the songs and I'm playing all these songs that I grew up with.  Chicago.  Bill Champlin was the singer, he was one of the singers with Chicago for 20 years, so I got to hang out with guys that were, like, you know, my idols, you know, and they're great - they still sound great and it was just fun to be with - I would have done that job for free, you know.  But the -- we did a couple - we did the whole weekend together and it was, it was a great time, I got to do something really meaningful.  You play sometimes, you play jobs where no one's paying attention 'cause it's - you're not there for that, you're just there to fill the air a little bit 
CK.  Background . . .
CD.  Be in the background, but, um . . .
CC.  Those are the easier jobs.
CD.  They're real easy.  They're real low pressure and you know.  Um, but, yeah - it's just been been a great, a great run for me, you know so far. I, I start up again in October. 
 I'm the contractor at the Drury Lane Theatre, it's in a suburb of Chicago and they do musicals, I don't know, six months, seven months out of the year.  So when there's a trumpet player, I hire myself.  You know, I hire all the guys.  Right now they're doing a show that has two musicians that I'm not a part of - I still get paid every week, something, a little something, but um . . . but so, you know, when they have a trumpet on, I'll be there.  
And then, um, I got to work with a, a good friend of mine that I -- remember that West Side Story tour I told you, I was 17 years old, I met this guy, Jerry Mitchell, he was on the tour, and Jerry um, he's from Paw Paw, Michigan, and he's a choreographer nowadays, ah, but he was a dancer on the tour - we were just kids, you know.  Well, it turns out he's this choreographer and director on Broadway, doing all these - he did Legally Blonde, he did this brand new thing with Gloria Estefan - have you ever heard of them, Gloria Estefan, and Gloria and Emilio- Miami Sound Machine? They were real big in the late 70s, I got to work with them - that was the job that ended on July 6th and that - Jerry was directing the show, so there's - Gloria Estefan, you know?  It's their whole life story, it's gonna be a big hit on Broadway.  It'll open up in, uh, in early November.  
I'm going to work with Jerry again in . . . on a brand new musical in December, it's starting up and it's called "Gotta Dance,"it's about older people, retired people who want to get into dancing - and I don't know the through line, what the story is but it - it stars, um - what's that gal from Mary Tyler Moore Show, the ditzy blonde one?  Anyway, she's in it.  Uh, it should be fun.  That's in December.  Five weeks.  Looking forward to that one.  
CC.  Carey, how much, uh, influence, in any way, shape or form was your dad?
CD.  A lot - huge.  It was huge.
CC. Ok, and your grandfather before him?
CD. My grandfather I didn't know very well.  He - he was in a wheelchair, but I don't have -  I have very few memories of him when he could actually walk. 
CC. Ok.
CD. Um, he was an inspiration in that, um, I knew he was a musician and that he was a professional musician and piano tech and was able to make a living through the Depression.  And it kinda taught me that I could, you know -- you know a lot of times musicians are looked at like, you know, they don't have a real job and they're just kinda bums, and can't make ends meet, and that is the case sometimes, but um, I knew that with a lot of work, you know, hard work and getting good at what I do - this is what I tell my kids, too, you know, whatever you're gonna to do , just be really good at it, it doesn't matter what it is, just be the best at it, the best you can be at it and there'll be work, you know.  Um . . .
CC.  Your dad, your dad, uh, uh, speaks very, very highly of you and all of his children-
CD. Mmhuh. and I, I, I only can imagine, ah, you know, the influence that he had.  Now, you play trumpet, do you play any other instruments?
CD.  I pretty much just play trumpet, I have to play keyboards just enough to know how, what I'm doing writing-wise, but I would never try to do it on a job.  I poke around at it, but trumpet is, is the thing that I'm proficient at.  
CC.  Ok.
CD.  Yeah, he - my dad was very influential in that regard, he ah, he was always encouraging me to be better and to play, even this last job I played, he and my Mom came down and uh - I have a band now, our first job we played July 20th and there were my parents, they surprised me, they came down, and um, during the break between the sets he came up to me and said "you're a little bit sharp, just want you to know".  You know, so - yeah, he's proud, but he's also, you know, telling me the truth, like "watch the pitch, you're riding a little high on the pitch".  Great, you know, so I listen to that and I adjust it, you know.  
CC.  Ok.  Interesting.  
CD.  Yeah, he's, he's, uh, he's been really good, really good, uh . . . to guide me, you know.  And, uh, and then I'd say my second dad is Don Jacoby, from North Texas.  That was just another great influence, you know?  So between my dad and Don Jacoby, those were the two big kind of guru, trumpet, uh, teachers that really changed my life, you know.  
CC.  Well, you named several that you got started with in Al - in Alpena.  Sounds like there were several of them that influenced you and that got you going in the direction .
CD.  Brad Moors  was - was a big influence as well - he, he got me on the right track and he got me to break a really bad habit with how I was playing, so I, you know - if it wasn't for . . . and, actually, with Dave Antolini, it's the same thing, if it wasn't for each one of these stepping stones, the next one wouldn't have happened.  If it wasn't for Dave Antolini, I wouldn't have been interested enough to play the trumpet, to continue, and if it wasn't for Brad Moors, I would not have progressed to a place where I could really think I would be a professional at this, you know.  And if it wasn't for my dad being there through all of it, you know, I wouldn't - we wouldn't be talking right now.
CK: You are a music arranger . . .
CD.  Yes. And orchestrator. 
CK.  . . . at Drury Lane 
CD.  Yeah.
CK.  Can you tell us what that involves, all of what music arrangement involves?
CK.  The - the orchestrations I do for The Drury Lane have to do with the economics of having a smaller size ensemble, 'cause the pay scale is so good out there that they can't afford to hire a large band, it would be too expensive, so they want to have bands that are ten, you know, between five and ten pieces, usually.   But the orchestrations that you rent from Broadway are written for 30 players, so what I have to do is take those orchestrations that are on Broadway and get 'em to sound as good and full as possible with a smaller ensemble, so it's more of an orchestral reduction sort of job.  And I've found all kinds of shortcuts over the years on how to do that and uh, and just - so it's not as, quite as creative as working on an album project or something where you can just do whatever you'd like, this is like, this sounds like this, how can I make it sound like this with just this smaller ensemble.  That's kind of the job doing those orchestral reductions; but it's basically who's playing what and when, and if you're working on, let's say, a show - A Chorus Line, for instance, there's three trumpets and three trombones on Broadway, I have to do it with two trumpets and one trombone, how do you, which notes are you going to choose to make that thing sound good?  You know, instead of five woodwinds, I have two, so I need to find out how to - figure out how to make them sound full and, you know, give them the tools with the charts that I've put on their stand to sound full and sound good. Yeah, so that's kind of a, sort of a, you know, it's . . . almost like a kind of paint by numbers thing to do that kind of work
The other orchestrations - the ones . . . I'm working on an album now with Josie Falbo, which will be great, it'll be big band and strings, it'll be just a glorious - I've done two albums like that, produced and arranged, um, one for Tony Andriacchi, and one for Denise Brigham.  And then, um, there's been a couple of other projects along those lines.  Those are more creative, you can just, it's like, put the canvas in front of you, what do you want to do?  Here's, you know - the world is your palette, what do you want to do?
CK.  Describe it like - where do you do that work.  They come to you with ia-?
CD.  Yeah, they come to me because of the word of mouth reputation, and they've heard the other records and they want to work with me.  
CK.  And then, are you working in a studio, or are you working at home?
CD.  I have a studio.  I have a studio.  I call it "the house that Wicked built".  And it was basically my old - I used to have a studio in the basement.  Uh, I had, my wife and I had a daughter, two years later we were going to have another child, and the other child became twins.  So suddenly my house is a little on the small side, but I have the basement bedroom.  So by the time the twins were, I don't know, five years old or something, I was working the show Wicked, I had my garage torn down, I had another garage built that was considerably larger and a space above it, and that became my studio where I do all my writing, and the basement downstairs bedroom became my son, Austin's bedroom.  So, I have a studio.  And I have a full-time assistant, too.  And he - he lives in Chicago, and we . . . we communicate by email and phone most of the time, but he's got keys to my studio and he's going to be doing some work up there today.  And um, he - uh, his name's Marty, he does great work for me, and he sets up things, it was supposed to be designed to lighten the load, 'cause I had so much work to do that he could prepare scores for me and then I could just write on 'em and hand them back, you know, instead of me having to do the input on the parts preparation and all that - do the grunt work and then let me write it in, and then he would take it.  And that's - it has lightened the load, except it's also enabled me to take more jobs.  So now the load is just as big as it was, I'm just doing more of it.  But don't least . . . I at least don't have to do the grunt work on it, you know, for the writing.  Um, but yes, my studio is above, um, above the garage, and it has all the comforts of home except no running water 'cause my wife said she knew she would never see me again if I had running water out there. 
CC. & CK.  (Laugh)
CD.  So.  It's a nice big space and it's got lots of light, I've got skylights and, you know, 'cause the basement one was the opposite - I didn't have much light, and I didn't have a table space, so I've got, like, tons of tabletops and skylights, it's a great place, and I love to go there after work, late at night - I get home, I go up to my studio, it's quiet, the phone isn't ringing, I can have, like,  uninterrupted writing time.
CK.  It's inspiring, yeah.
CD.  Yeah, it's just great.  Nobody's calling . . . So I tend to stay up on the later side, sleep in 'till nine, you know.  It's kind of my usual routine.  
CC.  Ah . . . this is . . . I almost hate to ask you this question, but I'm going to.  What is the style of music you play or is it everything.
CD.  I have to play all styles.  
CC.  All styles.  
CD.  Yeah.
CC.  Ok.  Have you ever played country?  
CD.  Well, on the trumpet - you know, I have . . . I worked with Kenny Rogers . . .
CC.  Ok.
CD. I did a . . . I did a Christmas show with Kenny Rogers.  I've done a . . . I worked with Dwight Yokum, I did 2 TV shows with - what's her name? Faith - something?
CK.  Hill?
CD.  Faith Hill.  That's it.  Yeah.
CC.  Faith Hill.  Yeah, ok.
CD.  Did two TV shows with her.  But, see, these are orchestrations that are written for a large string section and brass and stuff, so we're part of it, but it's not like you play, there's not really a trumpet player that plays country music . . . ah, Maybe Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass went . . .  
CC.  Merle Haggard had trumpet players.
CD.  Did he have a trumpet player?
CC.  Yeah.  Yep.  Merle Haggard.  He was one of the first ones that introduced the brass to, to country music; because Nashville wouldn't allow that for a long time.  
CD.  Ok.  Ok.  It wasn't the scene, yeah.   
CD.  But I play - the other style that I don't, I . . . I have to do it when I have to do it in a show like Evita or, um, Miss Saigon is the real, orchestral, classical style, that's a whole other world, whole other set of equipment and stuff . . . I get close to it, but that's not my thing.  And then what I do, when they bring me in to work with, with the orchestras in pops things, they can't do it.  That's why they bring in a lead trumpet player to do Broadway, or, you know, play those high notes and stuff.  Because they're geared for Mahler and Brahms and that sort of thing and it's a whole other, it's the same kind of airstream, but it's a whole other set of equipment, and a whole other, just, concept.  And so, while I dabble in that, I don't really call it my own.  I play more commercial, you know, um . . . and rock n' roll and jazz stuff and Broadway.  That's sort of my thing.  So.  Does that answer that?
CC.  It does.  Absolutely.  Wow.
CK.  I've got a question about being on the road . . . can you describe - you talk about, you know, Sinatra tours, Celine Dion - what's it like, as a musician, a road musician, what's your, what's your day like?
CD.  The first thing that goes away is your sense of what day of the week it is, 'cause all days are the same.  Which is really weird.  You don't have .  . . there's no weekends, there's no Sunday, Monday -- it doesn't matter, they're all the same.  Whatever, you know, other than you might find that, oh, I can't go get something because it's Sunday, I didn't know it was Sunday, that you might work on.  Tuesday, you might work on Monday, you might have a day off on Wednesday, but there's no real structure to what day of the week it is, so it's easy to forget, because it doesn't matter.  And, uh,  then, the other problem is the food, because you're always eating in restaurants, and, you know, when I was a kid, I thought, oh, how cool that would be, always eating in restaurants.  And you know, even on that West Side Story tour, I remember going for a walk in a neighborhood, you know, after a sound check, you had a little time off, and go for a walk and smell like somebody was making, cooking something on a grill and - ah, wow, that would be great . . . but, you know, we're gonna eat in the, like, the usual restaurant, you know.  So, it's easy to have really poor eating habits on the road.  It's hard to stay in good physical shape.  You have to really go out of your way to - if you're gonna to go for a jog for a half a mile or something, you kind of have to know the area well enough to not get lost, and it's . . . you know. 
 In today's world, it's a little bit easier than it was back then, 'cause there are workout rooms in the hotels and whatnot and better choices on the menu than, you know, when I was on West Side Story, it was just the typical, you know, Denny's or whatever.  That was every meal.  It was that kind of just regular old restaurants, and you know, nobody had the money to bring us to a real fancy place, you know, so . . . that's the hard part, you know.  The, uh, long trips can be tough, sometimes, you know, you have short trips, you can travel, generally every day, and they would, they have to time it so that you get in the bus and get to the hotel by check in time, or not too far before check in time.  But you might have a real long trip - on Woody Herman's band sometimes we'd have a real long trip and we'd get to the, you know, hotel at three or four in the morning, so we couldn't really, they didn't want to pay for a whole room for that amount of time, so we'd sleep in the lobby until noon or, you know, hang out bleary-eyed and then finally get, you know, so your whole sleep schedule can get all messed up.  Um, with Sinatra, it was completely different, though, 'cause he was, he was so first class that he would fly us up the day before - fly, now, not, not a bus - he'd fly us, one thing he did in Minneapolis, it was a Friday night job, he flew us up on Thursday, we had all Friday just to hang out, they provided a meal on Thursday night, we had all Friday to hang out, 5:00 on Friday, we'd go to the sound check, they cater in a meal 'cause they don't want anyone leaving - with Sinatra, you're playing coliseums and huge venues so they don't want anyone having to leave and find their way back, so they'd bring in food - it's usually a great meal, every once in a while it isn't, but usually it's something really good - you'd play the job with Sinatra, which is just like you're dreaming, you know.  And then, because you're -  it's him, you know - first thing they told us, don't look - just don't look at him when you're playing, because you'll get lost, you know.  Sure enough, I look, and, you know . . . but anyway, he's done with the show, while you're playing the exit music, you're hearing the sirens, 'cause he's got a police escort and they get him out of the building while the music is still playing.  People are still applauding, standing up, "More, more!" and he's already gone.  There is no more.  So, then, we pack up, they get us on a bus, they take us from a bus to our hotel, and then they take us to a restaurant.  They buy a restaurant out for a night, like a fancy French place or Italian place, they'll go to the restaurant and say, "we want to buy a special event here, keep your chefs on, it's a private party.  They had the whole restaurant to themselves, and we go in, and get served great food and hang out and then they fly us back the next day, you put your suitcase outside the door, they come and pick 'em up, it's like that kind of thing.  Everyone gets their own private room, it's a 44 piece band, 44 rooms.
CK.  Ok.  And what about teaching?  You teach . . . you mentioned earlier that you are adjunct faculty at a couple different places?
CD.  Yeah, I started at Roosevelt, I taught music business for a while at Roosevelt, just because of all my connections working with my, um . . . I'm really tight with my union, the Musician's Union in Chicago.  I believe in what they're doing very strongly and we've got good people in there and have for a long time - I'm part of that community and, um, uh - so that, being a contractor at the Drury Lane and having my own company I started up in 2001, basically just started it up so I could pay into my pension - 'cause a musician can't pay into his own pension, but another entity could pay into your pension, so . . . and on my writing jobs I can pay ten percent into my pension - my company can pay ten percent into my pension - so, that's the way I . . . So I had all these kind of business things going on like this and they thought at Roosevelt that they would have me, and I taught a few years of that there, and then they made cutbacks and had somebody else - the full time guy needed to keep his full time hours, so they let the adjunct go and filled up his schedule.  I teach at Columbia now, just an ensemble - it's the largest ensemble at the school.  Called "pop orchestra", so we're doing kind of little rock n' roll things with the string section and the horn section and four singers.  And, you know, these adjunct things don't really pay very much, but, I'm . . . I feel like I'm giving back like my teacher Don Jacoby did.  That's kind of how I want . . . I -- I do it mostly for that reason, I feel a satisfaction of teaching the upcoming college students, like, not to be stupid, you know.  To teach them some common sense - I don't understand where the common sense went, it just went away real fast, you know.  Parents didn't impart that to their kids anymore, like, yes, you have to show up on time.  I mean, this isn't an option - you wanna work, you show up on time.  But some people just don't understand that, and they're in college, and, "Oh, it's so hard to get to this class and Monday morning, you know, after my late Sunday night . . ."  Well, the class is 10:30, you know, this isn't - I'm not asking you to be there at 8, this is 10:30, you know?  And when you have a real job, it might start at 8, and if you're showing up late like this, you won't last there very long.  So, there's one thing - show up on time.  You know. . . Anyway, just trying to teach them some common sense things.  I teach some trumpet students from Elmhurst College that come over to my studio, study with me, and that's real rewarding, too.  
CK.  Mm hm.  
CC.  How often do you get back home, Carey?  To Alpena . . .
CD.  Not very often - once a year maybe, occasionally twice a year.  I was actually here earlier this summer and, uh, coming back just for a few more days.  Actually I'm coming back in, uh, in October.  I'm in the hall of fame - Alpena High School Hall of Fame.  That'll be neat.  
CK.  Are your, uh, kids inclined towards music?
CD.  My two boys are.  And they're really good.  They're real good.  We homeschooled them and they're - they both play piano really well.  And they're - they're going to Columbia now, too, and they're the best piano players there, you know.  And uh, but my other son, Austin, also plays drums and he's a great drummer.  So, I'm really proud of him.  They practice hard - they can't wait to - you know, it's not one of these things where you don't have to tell them to practice; you have to tell them to stop practicing.  You know, 'cause they - they just play all day.  They love and they learn new things, they practice real slow and deliberate and get more and more skilled.
CK.  Do they practice together?  Do they play together at all, or?
CD.  The other day I  came home, and the piano's upstairs and the drum set's downstairs, where Austin's bedroom is - it's in another room next to his bedroom.  So they're not on the same, even on the same floor, but they set up microphones on both and have headphones and they can hear each other, run it through a mixer and (thumps table) there - they figured out a way to play together, drums and piano, so . . . I thought that was pretty funny, 
CC.  That's wonderful.
CD.  "What are you doin'?"  They weren't even recording, they were just . . . practicing together. 
CC.  How old are your sons? 
CD.  My boys are 20.
CC.  Ok.  That's the twins.  
CD.  The twins, mm hm.
CC.  So do you - are they, you think they're going to go into this type of music field?
CD.  Yes, they will.  They're also real diverse in technology, which is what you have to be today.  So my son, Randy, mixes, does sound mixing for the live stream feeds at my church that go out on the internet.  And he knows all about all this sound stuff, and my son, Austin is real into video and video editing, and playing the drums.  Between the two of them, they've got a lot of experience already.  They've done some great music videos with my daughter, um, over the years - I mean, we've got some, I think they date, well, maybe 2007 or 2008 - there were like 3 or 4 - there were contests at the church, so they would put together a video, my daughter would sing and they would do all the music in the background - they were just copying some other song that exists, just trying to grab that same arrangement, do something neat things.  And then they started composing some of their own things, but they've got some videos out there.  They're up on YouTube. 
CC.  I was just gonna say - ok.
CD.  Yeah, that's my kids.  They've got - and they're, they're really great videos, especially for kids.  They - they . . . they're really professional.  I mean, you'd be amazed.  It's . . .
CC.  No, I mean, when you talk about, as - as a kid, here in Alpena - you were a kid when you started . . . 
CD.  Yeah.  Right.
CC.  . . . why would it be any different?
CD.  I guess - I guess you're right.  Yeah.
CC.  When you think back, if your sons are 20, what were you doing at 20?  
CD.  Right.  I was in college, practicing real hard, and becoming a real good trumpet player.
CC.  Ok.
CK.  What do we look for on YouTube?
CC.  Yeah, what are we putting in to bring them up?
CD.  Ah, Deadman Studios, but it's spelled D-E-D-M-O-N, because somebody that follows the Grateful Dead took the name Deadman.  Right.  
CC.  Yes.
CD.  So, D-E-D-M-O-N Studios and you'll find some videos of the kids there.   
CC.  Ok.
CD.  And then, you could find a video of my band from the July 20th concert at Real Horns - two words, R-e-a-l and then H-o-r-n-s and . . . it . . . it brings up all kinds of craziness about people that are growing horns out of their head and whatever, but there's a thing -
CD.  Yeah, I've got to find a better name, maybe Real Horns Band, I have to change it or something . . . but, um, there's a song we did called "Mississippi Delta City Blues", and that's on there, that's probably the best one to watch.
CC.  Ok.
CK.  Ok, and that was actually 
CD.  That was July 20th.
CK.  My last question, I believe, about that band, because I thought I heard you say this is your band.
CD.  My new band, yeah.
CK.  What's . . .
CD.  Why did I do that?  Why would I add that to my already too full plate?
CK.  What makes up that band?  Who's in that band?
CD.  Well, the reason for it, first of all, was - um, we had been talking, me and my colleagues in the theatre had been talking about this for 20 years.  Like, we should put together a band and do something fun and cool that's our thing, instead of just coming in and, you know, playing the notes and going home, you know, do something interesting and new.  And then, that coupled with the, the downtime when I have a summer off or a few months off where I don't have a steady job, it's good to be able to go out during the week and play real hard, like working out at the gym, get your - keep your chops up, so - I was playing with some big bands to do that and they were . . . mildly satisfying . . . But my - my best friend, Dan Johnson, is a trombone player, we'd be on the cell phones talking on the way home, like, why are we doing this?  Like, why don't we do our thing?  Let's get a band . . . So it was, really the inspiration was, I want to have something that's fun and cool for us to do.  So, everybody I called, I hand-picked this band and every single person was completely on board with it.  And I said, number one: no money.  This is not gonna pay anything.  I mean, it may be in the future we'll find some way to earn money off of it -- for now, it's just for the fun, it's just to do cool music and be part of a good group. 
We do a bunch of really cool, sort of obscure Chicago tunes and Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and things that are off the beaten path.  We don't do any of the hits.  We're not doing any - and we do a couple of more contemporary things, and now I've got three original songs.  So that's, the goal is to get more originals and get more exposure - we learned a lot on that first concert.  We're going to do a whole bunch of things different this next time because it'll be better that way.  But our eventual goal is to get into, um, doing clinics - for, you know, just educating high school and college age students and getting to the clinic thing where we could do something on a Monday afternoon, um, and maybe do the Monday evening concert along with the students and basically to write arrangements that are accessible and playable by kids of that age, because the stuff that I've written is really hard and too difficult for the students to handle - so, you know, pare some of that down and get it to where it's playable by the students and then do a clinic where they're right next to us playing with us or tell them, here's how we do it, here's what we're thinking of -- it helps the band directors, 
CC & CK.  Mm hm . . . 
CD.  . . . 'cause it's just reinforcing what the band directors have been trying to say on deaf ears, and now here's these strangers coming in, saying the same thing, and, you know.   It'll be . . . you know, helpful I think.  That's why the band - it's it's mostly for fun.  
CK.  All horns?
CD.  No, it's four horns and four rhythm.  So it's keyboard, guitar, base, drums, and then four horns and two singers. 
Yeah, well, let me - do you, um . . . need any further - like, there were some guys that I used to work with here, I don't know if they're gonna cross-reference or how you would do that
CC.  For sure - we need their names.  You can say them 
CD.  Um, one great trumpet player who I don't know if he's still with us anymore, his name is Chet London. I don't know if he's on your list . . . you know Chet?  He was a great trumpet player.
CC.  I know who he is, for sure.  
 CD.  Yeah.  His son, Pat, played trombone - I worked with him, although he didn't go on as a professional.  Chet was a, you know, a local trumpet player.
CC.  He, uh, if I remember correctly, he's living out, like in - Wash - State of Washington.
CD.  Yeah, went out - moved out there, and he's - ba- he had a lot of health issues.  My dad would know more.
CC.  Your dad contacted him.
CD.  Yeah, I think he's been a recent contact. 
CC.  Yeah.
CD.  But I think Chet has, has degraded, you know, health-wise quite a bit.  Um, Saul Saretsky, was a great drummer.  I played with here in town.  Um . . . Mike Jones, the, uh, sax player - I think he lives in the Detroit area.  Um . . . again, now, he would - he would come up here and play on occasion, but I think once he graduated high school, he moved out of - of uh, the area and I'm not sure what he does for a living now, he plays professionally or not.  Brad Moors you probably have on there, and he lives in Ossineke.  
CC.  Yeah.  
CD.  Um . . .
CC.  Does he play at all anymore?  
CD.  Yes, he does.  
CC.  Ok.
CD.  He still plays.  He, um, he has some kinda - he got a medical discharge from the army, has some kind of thing with headaches or some kinda medical issue, um, but he still gets out and plays in the area, I think he mostly goes over to Traverse City and does some of these brass bands and stuff.  
CC.  Mm hm.  
CD.  So Brad's still active.  Uh . . . you probably know about Tim Kent, I've never met Tim, he was a great trumpet player, played in the Chicago Symphony for years and he lives in Ossineke now.  Uh, but Tim Kent was, uh, and his brother, uh . . . who I also have never met, uh, I can't think of his brother's name now - Chris, Chris Kent.  The Kent brothers were trumpet players from, uh, the Ossineke area and, uh, they were really good, really good players.  Um.
CK.  And I think maybe it was Tim Kent, has written a few books?
CD.  He's a . . . he's a, yeah 
CK.  History, kind of?
CD.  Yeah - He's a history . . . he follows, uh, I think it was French or Indian canoe trails or something?  Uh, canoe . . . rivers and . . .
CK.  Something like that
CD.  Yeah, and he's done all these archaeological things, and he looks like an archaeo - arch - 'cause he wrote a book, Tim Kent - In the Shadow of the . . . Master or something like this, about Bud Herseth, the great trumpet player from the Chicago Symphony, and Tim got to work with Bud Herseth for several years.  And he wrote this book - I read the book, it's great, it's a great book, but he says it like it is, and I'm sure he didn't make a lot of friends off of that book.  'Cause he - he pretty much called some of the guys out on the carpet, like - that guy's an idiot - he wouldn't follow the Master, he wouldn't - you know, whatever.  So.  It was a good book, though and I loved - for a trumpet player, it's a great book.  Um.  Tim Kent.  But that's a music book he wrote and then he's written a lot of things on his archaeology stuff, but I've never met him.  He was in Chicago, I live in . . . he was, he's back in Ossineke now, I think.  But, I should meet him, I'd like to meet him sometime, tell him I read his book, you know. He was older than me, he was . . . went through school, and so did Brad - Brad was a few years older than me.  Um . . . I'm trying to think of anybody else.  I think, um . . . in my peer group, I think Beverly Hunter might have gone on to teach, saxophone or something.  
CC.  That's  a new name.  
CD.  Yeah.  That was Frank Hunter's daughter, Beverly, and she went to Oberlin or someplace and I think she was pursuing music.
CC.  Frank Hunter from the funeral home?
CD.  Yeah . . . yeah, his daughter.  
CC.  Wow.
CD.  Beverly.  She graduated in the same class as I did.  1978.
CC.  Ok.  Hm.
CD.  I'm trying to think of, um, others.  There's this guy named Randy Ladkau, L-a-d-k-a-u.  He was - he ended up joining the - playing trumpet in the US Navy band.  Again, I don't know if they've gone on professionally with their music or not, um . . .
CC.  I'm sure I can find out about that . . .
CD.  But those were all, like, little older than me, graduates 1975, '76, '77.  That . . . little older than I.  Um, another great musician, Larry Sawasky.  Uh, if you have his name.  
CC.  I do.
CD.  Keyboard player.  And then there was Beryl Schuster, you might have his name.  
CC.  Yeah.
CD.  And, um, Torey Osgerby.  
CC  Mm hm.
CD.  Yeah.  Boy, this is going back to recall all these names 'cause I've been in Chicago for, like, 30 years or something.  Uh, I'm just trying to picture them all, ya know.  
CC.  Yeah.  Those were all folks your dad played with, too.  
CD.  Yeah.  
CC.  Yeah.
CD.  Yeah. There are some other ones, too, that I heard names of, but never got to work with 
CC.  Well, there was Earle Haines.
CD.  Earle Hanes - I knew him.  Earl was cool.  Beryl Schuster.
CC.  Yeah.  
CD.  Uh, how about the, uh . . . the, uh . . . some of the rock and rollers - Donny Hartman?
CC.  Donny Hartman,  yeah.
CD.  Ok.  uh . . . Bobby Rigg?
CC.  I'm supposed to go over and see Larry Daoust today.
CD.  Ok.  I don't know him, I've heard the name.  I don't . . . I don't know . . .
CC.  Yeah.  Wayne Kendziorski
CD.  Ok, yeah, yeah.
CC.  Yeah, we've got those names, those are all local and they're still here.  
CD.  Ok.  Well, yeah, if we could get any . . . eh, what . . . send ya the, uh, your resume, we could use that, I'm sure.
CD.  There was a couple of them that I had, I was - one of them is a little bit steered more towards education, 'cause I was gonna try, I was going for a job, a full time job at Elmhurst College so I kinda steered it more towards the educational things that I've done, and the other one was a compose - I was going for composing kind of job.  I'm glad I didn't get either one of those.  I was in the top two on both of them and thankfully, by the time they got to this composing thing I was dreading that they were gonna say they wanted me, cause I was going to have to just turn it down.  It was just too, um, it would take me out of so many of my other things I wasn't ready to let go of, you know, to have a full time composing . . . Composing for the one-armed bandits, is what it is.  It's composing for the gambling machines.  
CC.  Mm hm.
CD.  You know - 
CC.  Yeah
CD.  And they have all this music going, they're kind of surround sound - the big ones in Vegas are really attractive, you go by and it's like "Monopoly!" and it plays all - and I play on - I record for these guys, I go into their studio and record all these really cool things but if you, if you get to this certain spot, then it goes to the next level and you get to new music that plays and you know, that's what it would've been - that kind of sound design and writing for the Bally - Bally machines, you know.  And uh, it's really - its worldwide, complicated thing, I have a lot of friends that are doing it right now, it's how I had the 'in'.
CC. Is there anything else you'd like to say, Cary before we turn the recorder off?
CD.  Um, I guess not, I think I've said too much.  (Laughs)
CC.  No, you haven't.
CK.  Thank you.
CD.  You're welcome.
Creators
Carole Cadarette and Cindy Kus, Interviewer
Carey Deadman
, Interviewee
Media Type
Audio
Image
Text
Item Type
Interviews
Description
Renown studio trumpet player, teacher, and orchestrator, Carey Deadman got his roots in music in Alpena. Locaaly, Carey took private lessons from Dave Antolini, studied with Brad Moors and John Hopkins and toured nationally with the Young Americans while he was at Alpena High School.
In his professional career, he has worked with Woody Herman, Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion, and Barbra Streisand among many others. Carey lives in Chicago with his wife Julie and their three children in Chicago.
Place of Publication
Alpena County George N. Fletcher Library
Date of Original
September 1, 2015
Playing Time
46:46
Subject(s)
Trumpet Players
Orchestrator
Personal Name(s)
Carey Deadman ; Don Deadman ; Don Jacobi ; Dave Antolini ; Brad Moors ; Josie Falbo ; Kenny Rogers ; Dwight Yokum ; Woody Herman ; Bill Chase ; John Hopkins ; Gloria Estefan
Corporate Name(s)
Drury Lane Theatre ; North Texas State University ; The Young Americans
Collection
Musicians of Northeast Michigan
Language of Item
English
Geographic Coverage
Chicago

Illinois, United States

Latitude: 41.85003 Longitude: -87.65005
Copyright Statement
Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date