The Music Man

As an eight-year-old he was a “little cherub choirboy” who sang his first solo in church. After that, he started to play the clarinet, and by the time he was 11 years old, Kerry Rigg wrote a song called “The King’s March,” which was a duet for clarinet and trumpet. His love of music continues today.

Rigg, a janitorial specialist for Morrisette Paper Co., Greensboro, N.C., plays, sings, composes and arranges music. Growing up Kerry was classically trained on the clarinet, and today he also plays the saxophone, piano and flute.

Arranging music was a skill that Kerry learned in the U.S. Navy. He was in the Naval music program as an entertainer, and while he was serving on the Navy’s Seventh Fleet Flagship, the USS Oklahoma City, the admiral had a band on board. One of Kerry’s colleagues on the ship did the writing and arranging for the rock band and that got Kerry interested in arranging music.

For the music illiterate, a music arranger takes a piece of music that has already been written, and changes and interprets it in a distinctive way.

“You change something in the music to make it your own,” said Kerry. “It could be a change in tempo, or a slight alteration in the music itself. Or, you might change the introduction of a song, or the ending, or fiddle with the music somewhere in the middle of the piece.”

As for his musical compositions, Kerry’s compositions are literally gifts, typically memorial gifts.

“When people pass away, I write a song,” said Kerry. “The most recent song I wrote was ‘Helen’s Song.’ It was for Helen, the wife of a former colleague of mine, and rather than sending a sympathy card, I wrote a song,” said Kerry. “Helen’s Song” is an instrumental piece and is written as a piano solo.

Songwriting is different for everyone, so I asked Kerry how he goes about writing a song.

He replied, “A melody sticks in my head. I start with the melody and add an introduction. Toward the end of the song, I have to finish it somehow, so I finish up with a grand finale. I think of the person I’m writing for when I’m composing. When I wrote a song for my father-in-law, I included some honky-tonk piano in it because he was a trained musician and played in a dance band. My father-in-law was also very involved in his church, so I also put some religious-type music in his song.”

Kerry has arranged a dozen songs, and composed about 25 of them. However, Kerry says that his favorite musical activity is singing.

“I’m a vocalist all the way. I sing the old stuff — songs made famous by Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand,” said Kerry.

His biggest singing thrill was when he participated in talent night while on a cruise ship.

“I sang ‘On a Clear Day.’ There were about 700 people in the audience and it was magical,” he said.

Kerry’s not afraid to show off his talent in front of the cleaning industry, either — he sang for a big crowd in Las Vegas during an ISSA trade show. While participating in karaoke, Kerry drew an audience. During his performance, “People just stopped and stared,” Kerry said.

Maybe we could all do some karaoke during this year’s ISSA/INTERCLEAN® show. I know exactly who we could get to start the singing.

Gretchen Roufs, an 18-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns Auxiliary Marketing Services of San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “Freetime,” contact her at GretchenRoufs@aol.com.