James Brown – Recording Session Humor

Recording with the great James Brown had some funny moments:

In the early 1980s, James Brown was standing by the horn section during a recording session in NYC. James noticed some discussion going on between his arranger and Ronnie Cuber, the great baritone saxophone player. Wondering what was holding up the session, he asked the arranger what was wrong. The arranger had written a very low note that did not exist on Ronnie’s instrument. Ronnie was playing an older model saxophone, which did not have access to the lowest note found only on the very latest model Selmer saxophones.

So James turned to Ronnie and asked, “What kinda saxophone is that?” Ronnie replied, “a Selmer, made in Paris.” James looked puzzled and said, “You tell Mr. Selma, he owe me some money!”

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