Harry James

[ghost of miles]

OK, another guy I sloughed off for a long time as a nascent young jazz snob (outside of his early hot work as a sideman, of course). But lately I've been listening to him more, particularly the '39 band, and I just ordered the Hindsight box BANDSTAND MEMORIES 1938-48, as well as the Krupa/James Capitol set. Any other recommendations/thoughts on this trumpeter?

[Harold_Z]

Harry's first Chronogical Classic 1937-1939 contains some great sides. I assume they're Harry's earliest as a leader and the band is pretty much Basie cats. Buck Clayton, Herschel Evans, etc. Subsequent sessions included in this disc are a mix of Basie, Goodman. and even Harry Carney from Duke's band. Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson show. It's allstar stuff and a great debut as a leader.

[Harold_Z]

Also, for some sideman stuff, check out BENNY GOODMAN ON THE AIR 1937-38. This is a 2 disc set on Columbia. It may be OOP but it shouldn't be hard to find at all. I still see it from time to time. Harry is KILLIN' on this stuff and the so is the band. Harry is heavily featured. IMHO This is as good as the Carnegie Hall (which is to say VERY VERY GOOD) and should recieve equal attention.

Harry James playing is hot and he had complete technical command of his horn.

Edited September 18, 2003 by Harold_Z

[Shrdlu]

Great idea for a thread!

I'm a big BG fan, and Benny had a great trumpet section, Harry foremost of course. That "On The Air" set sounds interesting.

I did recently get the BG MGM 3 LP set called the "Treasure Chest" (not on CD, sadly). Recorded in 1937-39, these cuts are no doubt very similar to the "On The Air" collection. They sure are good.

Also, Harry came back for the 1955 movie soundtrack (also not on CD), released on two LPs called "The Benny Goodman Story". I've had Vol. 2 since the 50s, but just recently got Vol. 1 (found a mint copy, hee, hee!). That's a fine summary of the BG years, with Harry well featured, plus a guest appearance by Buck Clayton, who could not be listed in the notes at the time. (Buck LaFunque?)

[DrJ]

ghost of miles Posted on Sep 17 2003, 10:31 PM

lately I've been listening to him more, particularly the '39 band, and I just ordered the Hindsight box BANDSTAND MEMORIES 1938-48, as well as the Krupa/James Capitol set.

You're in for a treat with the Krupa/James Capitol set. I found a used copy several months back, and to be honest initially bought it more due to the "what a great deal" and "gotta have all the Mosaics" feelings rather than great excitement about the music. Boy was I misguided. Along with the Maynard Ferguson Mosaic, this one takes the prize as the biggest "My God, listen to what I've been missing!" Mosaic for me. While I do actually prefer the Krupa portion of the box (there is some really swinging music there, and some fine features for players like Red Rodney and Charlie Ventura as well as Krupa) the James recordings are also thoroughly enjoyable. Has anyone ever had a bigger sound on trumpet? The original recordings were superbly done and the transfers really do them justice. While a certain excitement is lacking when the music is compared to that from James' earlier years, there's a great maturity in his playing, in the tone and conception, a whittling down to essentials. Although at a much less exhalted level, the parallel I would draw is with Louis Armstrong's or Monk's earlier versus later years. The pleasures are there to be had in both periods, they are just different pleasures.

[JSngry]

James kept a good band together long after most of his peers had either disbanded or gone the nostalgia route. Think they worked almost exclusively in Vegas, and didn't record hardly any as the 60s wore on, but remember - Buddy Rich was in Harry's band jsut before he started his own. James gave him his initial financial backing, in fact.

There's avideo of that mid-60s band in the old Swingtime series, and it's pretty interesting. Buddy's on drums, and Red Kelly (who looks like Uncle Fester) is on bass. They do "Walk On The Wild Side", a Thad Jones arrangement of "Tuxedo Junction", and some boogaloo number ("Teddy The Toad", I think) that features an ELECTRIC piano solo. Corky Corcoran does a short but sweet ballad feature, and the whole band is good - a little light from a hardcore jazz perspective, but still, in no way is it a nostalgia band. It's a good, slightly commercially oriented modern swing band that draws a lot of it's stylistic character from Basie's "New Testament" band. Not a bad way to make a living, all things considered, if you were realistic about what it was going to be. If there's such a thin as "hip straight", this is it.

The higlight of the video, though, is the opening number, "Don't Be That Way". It's a slightly modernized version of the Goodman band's arrangement, and in the spot towards the end, in the drum fill (the space that Krupa used to get the stick out of everybody's asses at Carnegie Hall), Buddy Rich just goes into hyperspace, playing a 2 bar fill that is one of the most concentrared examples of pure manic intensity you'l ever want to hear. If Krupa's fill got the stick out of everybody's asses, Buddy's sets an atomic bomb off inside them, and without any warning either. It's a miracle that his head didn't just go explode and spew itself all over everybody, that's how intense it is. You definitely get the impression that Buddy was ready for something else.

I'll tell you what - Harry James could PLAY! That cat had a thing of his own, and some really badass chops that, when not being used in the service of purveying so much schmaltz, could and did produce some very idiosyncratic jazz playing. He went for showbiz nearly and often, but, not unlike Robert Mitchum, I always felt like he knew he was playing a game, and that he knew what the real deal was every step of the way. Gotta respect that.

[Brownian Motion]

Harry was a good blues player; he made some nice records in that vein with Albert Ammons, Teddy Wilson, and the Metronome All-Stars. But I believe that by the time he left Goodman to strike out on his own as a bandleader his career as a jazzman was over. Although professionally active until his death, Harry never again recorded in a straight jazz context with peer musicians, not even as a lark. And that was clearly his choice.

[ghost of miles]

You're in for a treat with the Krupa/James Capitol set. I found a used copy several months back, and to be honest initially bought it more due to the "what a great deal" and "gotta have all the Mosaics" feelings rather than great excitement about the music. Boy was I misguided. Along with the Maynard Ferguson Mosaic, this one takes the prize as the biggest "My God, listen to what I've been missing!" Mosaic for me. While I do actually prefer the Krupa portion of the box (there is some really swinging music there, and some fine features for players like Red Rodney and Charlie Ventura as well as Krupa) the James recordings are also thoroughly enjoyable.

You know, Tony, the ironic thing is that I ordered the set primarily for the Krupa, too (haven't gotten it yet--it's coming with the three new releases), and thought, "Eh, the James will be interesting too..." and shortly afterwards I went on my James kick. So my excitement about that set has doubled. I also stumbled across a remaindered paperback of TRUMPET BLUES, which looks like a decent bio of James, and I'm really looking forward to the Hindsight set.

Thanks for everybody's recommendations. I'm now eyeing the James/Basie Hep...

[Chuck Nessa]

At the beginning of the '60s James began a series of very fine recordings for MGM. Some were collected in at least one Verve cd. If you like this sort of stuff, check it out.

[BERIGAN]

A good choice to bring up Ghost! I to used to not think all that much of him, till strangely enough, I saw some of his cameos in silly MGM musicals! Something I have never understood, is that you would assume he would have played the sappy ballads in those films, but usually played hot.....I then got many of those early small group cds, just love them! (before Classics put out his recordings)

A few other cds to check out at some time, Complete Recordings from Columbia with Frank Sinatra, and the Hindsight cd Harry James and His Orch. featuring Frank Sinatra are better than you might think, (Then again, you might have already thought they would be great!) The recordings are before Frank was a household name, and more than a fair share of jazz on the 2 cds, but with pretty good sound...not sure if the Hindsight box covers these tracks or not ( I don't have that box set yet) There are 2 Columbia cds of Benny Goodman cds The Harry James Years vol 1" and Wrappin' it up the Harry James years, volume 2. both are interesting, Volume one has several alternate takes (Orrin Keepnews isn't all bad Ghost! ) one of the versions of "Life Goes to a Party" is played much faster than the version that was released, it rocks!

Grabbed a Harry James cd I don't think I played in years an el-cheapo Excelsior cd called "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" I think I made the mistake of playing it at work (Ghost should back me up on the crappy sound systems Borders has!) once, and thinking the sound quality was so bad, I didn't even get all the way thru it. Well, just cranked up the big old JBL speakers of my Dad's...and the sounds not bad at all! It has 18 tracks recorded in live 1948/49 in Hollywood, With Neal Hefti playing/arranging and Juan Tizol, Ziggy Elmer, and Willie Smith on hand as well! Very boppish! A short but interesting version of Cotton Tail, with Harry ALMOST reaching Dizzy's Stratosphere! These tracks don't seem to be on the Collector's Choice 3 cd set of V-Discs either. Cd appears to be no longer in print(No review at allmusic either) but see that it is for sale for 4-5 bucks used on Amazon.

Oh, and I know some don't like them, but I enjoy listening to the Sheffield labs cds from the mid 70's! Yes, it sounds alot like Count Basie, but is that really so bad? And Harry seemed to blow like someone who sure wasn't a heavy drinkin' chain-smoking 60 year old!!!! And being Sheffield labs, it sounds like his band is playing in your living room!!!

Has anyone got any recommendations for the many ww2 era live cds out there? I tend to like to avoid sappy vocals, but if some are 50/50 jazz/sap that is good enough for me!

Edited September 22, 2003 by BERIGAN

[ghost of miles]

At the beginning of the '60s James began a series of very fine recordings for MGM. Some were collected in at least one Verve cd. If you like this sort of stuff, check it out.

Been listening today to this one:

...and it's "very fine" indeed, as you say, Chuck. Liner notes say James did nine albums all together for MGM... I have one other CD, THE SILVER COLLECTION, which has no overlap with the Verve comp above (all material on both CDs drawn from the MGM recordings to which Chuck refers). Evidently a couple of the LPs were attempts to go "modern," to some extent, and tracks like "Walkin'" on the Jazz Masters anthology sound pretty good in that vein. I'm going to e-mail Mosaic and ask if they've ever thought of doing something from this period of James.

[flat5]

I have a CD of what I believe to be 15 inch V-Disks.

Music made to be broadcast to the US troups still "overseas" after World War 2. (a big war many years ago)

These recording are VERY interesting. James had a band that was playing music with a very heavy Dizzy Gillespie influence. The band played many bop charts and James played somewhat in a Gillespie style.

I have to disagree that H J did not play much jazz after leaving Goodman.

[ghost of miles]

Mosaic says they'll look into a James MGM set. BTW, I also asked about the Goodman, and they say they're still contemplating a set of pre-WWII big-band material.

[ghost of miles]

Those inclined to like James already might want to check out the HJ Hep CDs. I recently picked up EIGHT BAR RIFF, a collection of 1940s broadcasts (hardly any overlap with the Hindsight box, btw); Juan Tizol, Willie Smith, and generally good arrangements/playing that go more towards the swing side of James' 1940s sound.