When the call went out for musicians to do the music for the pilot, Mancini had decided on four woodwinds, four trombones, one trumpet, and five rhythm (piano, vibes, guitar, bass and drums). One of the first to get called was 31-year-old Ronny Lang, a sax and flute player who had worked with the Les Brown band for a few years. I managed to track down seven of the musicians, including Lang, who shared some memories.

"Les Brown did a concert in 1956 at UCLA with (film composer) Franz Waxman and a studio symphony orchestra. It was a joint concert that featured music by German composers, and one of the pieces was "Concerto Grosso for Symphony and Jazz Band." It was a tour de force for alto sax. Hank was at the concert. After the concert was over, he came over to me and said, 'I didn’t care much for the piece, but you did a great job.' Soon after, I left Brown. I had to get off the road, because I had a couple of kids. I started to do a little bit of studio work. It wasn’t easy to break in. I would be called as a substitute occasionally."

"When I walked into the studio for the Peter Gunn gig, I had no idea what kind of music we would be playing. When you're a studio player, you show up, and sometimes the music is great, and sometimes it's boring. Gunn was quite a breakthrough because he used jazz throughout the whole show. I thought it was exciting music. It wasn’t out and out jazz, but it had a strong beat."

"I played a lot of the flute jazz (on the show), and Ted (Nash) played the alto sax. At that time, I had been playing the baritone sax with the Dave Pell Octet, and Hank needed a baritone player, so I played a lot of that also. When it came to the flute, Hank was very specific about what he wanted. He didn’t tell me exactly what to play, but he said, 'Stay in the low register and don’t play too many notes.' He wanted the jazz to be melodic, like you were playing a song, not just blowing up and down chord changes."

"Hank wasn’t a taskmaster. He had come up as a band musician, and he was a very down-to-earth guy. I seldom saw him get angry. He got respect through his ability, and he was very personable. He wasn’t one for making a great many takes. Especially on jazz things, after one, two, or three times, it starts to get a little stale."

"After that, I did more work for Hank, and worked with (film composers) Elmer Bernstein and John Williams, when he was called Johnny Williams. And I worked with (director) Martin Scorcese on Taxi Driver."

"I've been trying to get hold of Scorcese for years. That was Bernard Herrmann's score, and I played the alto sax solo. In those days, you didn’t get credit. A few years ago, I saw a television show that was a tribute to Herrmann. They interviewed Scorcese, and he was asked, 'Was that an alto sax or a tenor sax?' He obviously didn’t know. If I ever run into him, I want to tell him, 'It was an alto sax, Martin, and it was played by Ronny Lang.' I also worked a long time with John Barry, and that's me playing the alto on his score for Body Heat."

I'll always be thankful to Hank, because working with him was the key for me to get into studio work. He had a contractor named Bobby Helfer. A contractor is the guy who actually hires the musicians for the leader. He was the contractor for all the Hollywood composers. Back in the 1950s, I was always trying to connect with this guy and get some work, but he used to hang up on me. After I did Peter Gunn, I was on his 'A' list."

Gene Cipriano, now 77 years old, played with Mancini in the Tex Beneke band, and he also got the call for Peter Gunn.

"He asked me, 'How’s your flute playing?' I had studied flute for about a year, but then I sold it to buy an oboe. I hadn’t touched a flute in about six months. He said he was going to do the pilot in a couple of months. I told him my playing was good, and then went out and bought a flute and woodshedded (intense practicing of fundamentals). When we did the pilot, there wasn’t much flute for me to play, just a lot of bass flutes as a pad, so it wasn’t too hard. Ronny played most of the flute solos and Ted (Nash) did the alto solos."

"Two years later, we were doing Mr. Lucky with Henry. Tuesday night would be Lucky, and Wednesday night would be Gunn. Henry was a joy to work for - so relaxed - really a wonderful man. We had a lot of laughs. We looked forward to it."

"Peter Gunn changed the whole scene on TV. Producers started asking for jazz. A lot of the young jazz composers got work, like Pete Rugolo and Lalo Schifrin and Dave Grusin. It opened up my opportunities enormously. When it caught on, people would ask for the guys in Henry’s sessions."

"I worked with Elmer (Bernstein) and (film composer) Jerry Goldsmith. I even did a lot of rock work (he once played on a Frank Zappa album). I worked with Marty Paich on 'Unforgettable,' his last thing with Natalie Cole. I’m working tonight at Capitol. The phone is still ringing and I’m still fooling them."

Often called "Henry Mancini's favorite trombone player," Dick Nash was also an alumnus of Tex Beneke's band, and worked with bandleader-arranger Billy May. Like his brother Ted, he was in Mancini's band for Peter Gunn.

"I don’t think any of us saw the music. We just walked in, and there it was. We were very impressed. It was going to be a TV show, and to have all the good jazz guys in LA involved with it made for quite a get-together. We had Jimmy Priddy, John Haliburton and Karl De Karske on trombones, and Pete Candoli and Conrad Gozzo on trumpets. Milt Bernhart (trombone) did some sessions. And we had Johnny Williams. We called him Curly. He had a lot of hair then. I had the pleasure of working on many movies with him later."

"When he would have a solo, Pete would really get the essence of what Hank was doing. And Gozz - we called him 'gopher' because he had no neck - it was an inspiration to sit behind him and hear him bore notes into your head. We reveled in what we were doing. It was something revolutionary, but we didn’t know it was going to be accepted."

"There were four French horns and four trombones on 'Dreamsville.' We had to work on it to get that blend, and we had to get everybody miked properly to get that sound. The trombones put on a felt hat to lessen the edge, but the horn players, of course, had their hands in the bell.

I did some sidelining (appearing on camera on the show) on a couple of occasions, like on 'The Brothers Go To Mothers.' It was all pre-recorded. We'd just hold our horns up and fake it."

Others who were hired for the sessions were drummer Jack Sperling and bassist Rolly Bundock, both formerly with Beneke, and vibraphonist Larry Bunker. A year later, Williams got busy in films and was replaced by Jimmy Rowles. Sperling and Bundock joined The Tonight Show band and were replaced by Shelly Manne and Red Mitchell, and Bunker was sharing duties with Victor Feldman. All have since passed away.

It should be noted that fading memories and sloppy research has led to some confusing information about the personnel on the sessions. For example, the liner notes for one of the CD reissues names Barney Kessel, not Bain, as the guitarist, but everyone connected that I talked to said Kessel didn’t participate.