RIP Leonard "Chief" Tramiel


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Met me before, my high school band director marched under his direction at Valley. RIP, another Shreveport legend gone home.
 
I also had the pleasure of meeting/learning from/playing for Tramiel when he was the Clinician for All-City Band back in 1986 (spring, I believe). I remember him demanding perfection and paying crazy attention to details (which I didn't understand/appreciate at the time). I remember he spent a lot of time tuning, each individual player, each instrument. We were all bored as he went from person to person. He talked about proper horn carriage and posture - he didn't let us slump in our chairs. He talked seemingly forever about proper breathing and other techniques. It was a good hour into rehearsal before we even played as a group. And then we warmed up playing all these chorales.

But........

By the time he finished tuning us and warming us up, we sounded awesome.. And we played as an ensemble and our concert was flawless...

I appreciated his meticulousness later in my instrumental life.

He was a demanding Director and had Valley 'tight' for a long time. As somebody else said, he perfected corp style marching and performing in an HBCU band, back when everybody was juking to Soul music. His style was different but he and his bands were respected, and they were entertaining.

Thank you, Chief.....
 
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