1979 Ringling Spec Pay Off

1979 Ringling Spec Pay Off, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. The spec’s payoff: Gunther, Kongo and the uncaged tiger. On the last note of the spec, Kongo would always be standing next to band and close enough to the tenor sax chair so that I could almost have reached out and touched him. When the spec was over, I would look up at Gunther and the tiger (and sometimes the tiger would look down and make eye contact!) Gunther would have him back in his cage before most of the musicians had gotten up out of their chairs. It’s hard to believe that this all took place 30 YEARS AGO! (Thank heavens we have Buckles’ Blog to share photos and reminiscences that help to keep these not-too-distant memories alive!)