Riaan C wrote:
Was reading an interview with Glen Campbell in the Jan 09 Guitar Player - Glen was a huge session player back in the day and played on some iconic tracks. Discussing the need to be able to read music and charts in that situation, he relates that the best reader he ever met was Tedesco.
They were on a session and the producer walked over and placed the charts on their music stands. Tommy, being a great reader, immediately started playing what was written. It sounded weird, so the producer walked over to see what was going on. He had placed the chart upside down on Tedesco's stand, who was playing it - note perfect - back to front and upside down!!!
Tommy Tedesco was a great session player. He was not the only demon reader of his time. There were others who could also sight read parts not previously seen. In fact there was a code of honour in the 80s based on the principle that, according to his peers, Tommy was always number one. There would be parts for number one, number two etc guitar players. If somebody else got the nod first and ended up with the number one part when Tommy Tedesco was also involved they would quietly take Tommy's part and put the number one part on his stand.
The producers never noticed...
