Words on Gary

Gary Windo: 1941-1992

I first met gary in '77 or '78. Terry had played on a Carla Bley tour in Europe and Gary was one of the musicians. So, when he later visited the U.S., he came to see us and sat in with his horn. Everyone liked him right from the start. He was always raving, whether he was taking a sax solo, describing how beautiful a girl's legs were, or giving you details of a baseball game.

Gary was from Brighton, England, so of course he had an English accent. That, mixed with a nutty, game-for-anything personality, made him a lot of fun to be around. He was always blurting out funny stuff.

I loved his enthusiasm for everything, even the smallest, trivial thing. Once-I think it was in a hotel-we went down to check out the vending machines. As soon as he saw the choices, his voice went up high and he said, "Let's split a Musketeers!"
You know, whenever Tom and I come to a candy machine, without fail, one of us always says, "Let's split a Musketeers!" I guess we always will.

-Joey

 
I've been trying to figure out what to say. It's hard to know what to say, it all just comes out sounding like good-bye, but with longer verses.
 

-Donn

We always had a good time when Gary was around. He was funny even when he was complaining about something, whether it be about the food on Air India airlines or the tour bus we had that kept breaking down. I've got a tape of him listing everything wrong with the bus and we're all cracking up by the end. I never realized how often we quote him when we're talking. Like for some reason he thought the club Toad's place was called Mr. Toad's, so ever since then we call it that too. There's a lot of other things like that that most people won't know, but we do. He really loved to play. He'd be ready to break out that saxophone and go blasting in a second.

During the last week we were with him he talked about how he had lived a great life and was real happy. I didn't expect him to go so soon, but you never know. Everyone who knew him will miss him.
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-Tom

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He was a great guy. I'll really miss him. He could always make me laugh, even after a 500 mile road trip.

-Al

Gary and I roomed together briefly upon his return to the band. we came up with a simple game to lull ourselves to sleep the first night. Laying in the dark, working our way through the alphabet, we took turns listing tenor players with the appropriate letters. Ammons, Ayler, Sil Austin . . . Byas, Brecker . . .Coltrane, Buddy Collette . . . Lockjaw Nathan Davis. . .Herschel Evans (Can you hear Gary's enthusiastic english accent saying "Herschel"?), Booker Ervin . . .Frank Foster, Von Freeman . . . Getz, Garberek, Dexter, Wardell Gray, Johnny Griffin, Gilmore. . . Coleman Hawkins, Scott Hamilton, Jim Bob, Joe Henderson . . . and onward.

Gary got us through several toughies, including "I" (All I could think of was David Izenson . . .Ibert?), with names I can't recall. Part of the fun was sharing impressions and memories, and hearing all those horns in your head as you named them. Gary could get most of them out of his own horn, or "Stan Getz' horn" as he liked to call it. A walking Saxpository. Did we reach the end? I don't know. I fell asleep somewhere around Rollins, Pharoah, Shepp, Shorter, Stitt, Spring . . .But I bet Gary did" . . . Ben Webter, Frank Wess, Junior Walker, Gary Windo!"

-Klem


I met Gary at the London airport in 1977. It was the beginning of the Carla Bley Big Band's European tour. The first thing we talked about was what a weird world it was going to be without Elvis Presley. The next day he showed me a street full of mourning Elvis guys in leather jackets.

From England, we travelled by bus and played in nearly every country in Europe. Gary Windo was the guy who kept the whole band laughing in each of those countries. It was how he was constantly raving about everything. You could hear his voice from the back to the front of the bus, over all other conversations and road noise.

It was Carla who helped him at the immigration department to move into the states. And once he was here, we asked him to tour with NRBQ. He didn't really know us or our habits.
It seems like it was the morning after the first night, somewhere in South Carolina, at something like 7 a.m., he woke up the whole band-pounding on Al's motel door. He was screaming loud with his English accent, "C'mon Big Al, you've got me trapped! Let's get some southern grits! C'mon Big Al!" There was only one car, and Al had the keys. To this day, anyone needing access to a car will approach whoever has the keys with "You've got me trapped."
He played with us for about five years then suddenly dropped out of sight. In the last year he was making a comeback and was starting to play with us again. he sounded great.

When he found out we were going to be playing in California, he told me how important it was that he go with us. He said that one never knew how much longer life was his. I thought it was a weird thing to say, but of course invited him along. I'm glad I did now.
Who else looked like Benny Hill, could sound like Archie Shepp, and take on the split-brain of Curly? -the one and only Gary Windo!

-Terry