Count Basie

Basie, Count (William Basie)ba’se, 1904–84, American jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer, b. Red Bank, N.J. After working in dance halls and vaudeville in New York City, Basie moved to Kansas City, a major jazz center. There he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils in 1927, moving to Bennie Morton’s band in 1929. He formed his own band in 1935, and for 40 years it has produced a distinctive sound marked by a powerful yet relaxed attack. Basie’s provocative piano style is characterized by a predominant right hand. Among the many pieces he has composed for his band is “One O’Clock Jump.”

Duke Ellington

Ellington, Duke (Edward Kennedy Ellington), 1899–1974, American jazz musician and composer, b. Washington, D.C. Ellington made his first professional appearance as a jazz pianist in 1916. By 1918 he had formed a band, and after appearances in nightclubs in Harlem he became one of the most famous figures in American jazz. Ellington’s orchestra, playing his own and Billy Strayhorn’s compositions and arrangements, achieved a fine unity of style and made many innovations in the jazz idiom.

Many instrumental virtuosos worked closely with Ellington for long periods of time. Among his best-known short works are Mood Indigo,Solitude, and Sophisticated Lady. He also wrote jazz works of complex orchestration and ambitious scope for concert presentation, notably Creole Rhapsody (1932), Black, Brown and Beige (1943), Liberian Suite (1947), Harlem (1951), and Night Creatures (1955), and composed religious music, including three sacred concerts (1965, 1968, and 1973). Ellington made many tours of Europe, appeared in numerous jazz festivals and several films, and made hundreds of recordings. In 1969 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Harry James

Harry James was one of the most outstanding instrumentalists of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work instantly identifiable. He was also one of the most popular bandleaders of the first half of the 1940s, and he continued to lead his band until just before his death, 40 years later. James was the child of circus performers. His father, Everette Robert James, was the bandleader and trumpet player in the orchestra for the Mighty Haag Circus, and his mother, Maybelle Stewart Clark James, was an aerialist. Growing up in the circus, James became a performer himself as early as the age of four, when he began working as a contortionist. He soon turned to music, however, first playing the snare drum in the band from about the age of six and taking trumpet lessons from his father. At 12, he took over leadership of the second band in the Christy Brothers Circus, for which his family was then working. He attended grade school in Beaumont, Texas, where the circus spent the winter, and when he was 14 he won a state music contest as a trumpeter.

That inspired him to turn professional and begin playing in local bands. James' first job with a national band came in 1935 when he was hired by Ben Pollack. In May 1935, he married singer Louise Tobin, with whom he had two children and from whom he was divorced in June 1943. He made his first recordings as a member of the Pollack band in September 1936. Not long after, he was tapped byBenny Goodman, then leading one of the country's most popular bands, and he began working forGoodman by the end of 1936. He rapidly gained notice in the Goodman band, and by December 1937 he had begun to make recordings under his own name for Brunswick Records (later absorbed by Columbia Records).

In early 1939, he left Goodman and launched his own orchestra, premiering it in Philadelphia in February. That spring, he heard the then-unknown Frank Sinatra on a radio broadcast and hired him. The band struggled, however, and when the more successful bandleader Tommy Dorsey madeSinatra an offer at the end of 1939, James did not stand in his way. Around the same time, he was dropped by Columbia and switched to the tiny Varsity Records label. After two years of difficulties in maintaining his band, James changed musical direction in early 1941. He added strings and turned to a sweeter, more melodic style, meanwhile re-signing to Columbia Records. The results were not long in coming. In April 1941, he first reached the Top Ten with the self-written instrumental "Music Makers." (His band was sometimes billed as Harry James and His Music Makers.) A second Top Ten hit, "Lament to Love," featuring Dick Haymes on vocals, followed in August, and late in the year Jamesreached the Top Five with an instrumental treatment of the 1913 song "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)." This was the record that established him as a star. But with its sweet style and what was frequently described as James' "schmaltzy" trumpet playing, it was also, according to jazz critic Dan Morgenstern (as quoted in the 1999 biography Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James by Peter J. Levinson), "the record that the jazz critics never forgave Harry for recording."

James was second only to Glenn Miller as the most successful recording artist of 1942. During the year, seven of his recordings peaked in the Top Ten: the Top Five "I Don't Want to Walk Without You," with vocals by Helen Forrest; the number one instrumental "Sleepy Lagoon"; the Top Five "One Dozen Roses," with vocals by Jimmy Saunders; the Top Five instrumental "Strictly Instrumental"; "He's My Guy"; the Top Five "Mister Five by Five"; and "Manhattan Serenade," the last three with vocals by Helen Forrest. In September, when Miller went into the armed forces and gave up his radio show,Chesterfield Time, he handed it over to James, a symbolic transference of the title of top bandleader in the country. (James was ineligible for military service due to a back injury.) Meanwhile, wartime travel restrictions and the recording ban called by the musicians union, which took effect in August 1942, had limited James' touring and recording activities, but another avenue had opened up. He began appearing in movies, starting with Syncopation in May 1942 and continuing with Private Buckaroo in June and Springtime in the Rockies in November. His next hit, "I Had the Craziest Dream," with vocals by Helen Forrest, was featured in Springtime in the Rockies; it hit number one in February 1943. The movie is also memorable for having starred Betty Grable, whom James married in July 1943; they had two children and divorced in October 1965.

"I Had the Craziest Dream" was succeeded at number one in March 1943 by another James record with a Helen Forrest vocal, "I've Heard That Song Before." "Velvet Moon," an instrumental, followed and did almost as well, but with that Columbia's stockpile of James recordings made just before the start of the recording ban was almost exhausted. The label went into its vaults and began reissuing older James recordings. Frank Sinatra had recently emerged as a solo star, and in the spring of 1943, Columbia reissued "All or Nothing at All," a song he had recorded as James' vocalist in 1939; the song reached the Top Five. Next, Columbia released "I Heard You Cried Last Night," a year-old recording with a Helen Forrest vocal; it too reached the Top Five. Once again, James ranked as the second most successful recording artist of the year, just behind Bing Crosby.

Meanwhile, James was based in New York, doing his three-times-a-week radio show and appearing at major venues such as the Paramount Theatre and on the Astor Hotel Roof. He also appeared in the June 1943 film release Best Foot Forward. Decca Records settled with the musicians' union in 1943, which gave its recording stars an advantage, but while Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, andJimmy Dorsey (all on Decca) were the top recording artists of 1944, James came in fourth without ever stepping into a recording studio. His instrumental "Cherry," recorded in 1942, became a Top Five hit early in the year; "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)," recorded in 1941 with Dick Haymes on vocals, hit number one in June; and he had eight other chart records during the year. He also continued with his radio show through March and had two films, Two Girls and a Sailor and Bathing Beauty, in release in June. The two remaining major labels, Columbia and RCA Victor, came to terms with the musicians' union in November 1944, freeing James to return to the recording studio. This resulted in seven Top Ten hits in 1945: the number one "I'm Beginning to See the Light"; "I Don't Care Who Knows It"; "If I Loved You"; "11:60 P.M."; the Top Five "I'll Buy That Dream"; "It's Been a Long, Long Time"; and "Waitin' for the Train to Come In." "If I Loved You" had vocals by Buddy DiVito; all the rest had vocals by Kitty Kallen. That was enough to make him the third most successful recording artist of 1945, behind only Bing Crosby and Sammy Kaye.

Meanwhile, he and his band became regulars on the Danny Kaye Show radio series in January 1945, and he hosted its summer replacement program from June to September. James scored two Top Ten hits in early 1946 -- the Top Five "I Can't Begin to Tell You," which featured a pseudonymous vocal by his wife Betty Grable, and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," with a vocal by Buddy DiVito -- but then his recording success began to decline, though he managed one more Top Ten hit, "This Is Always," withBuddy DiVito on vocals, in the fall. Having appeared in a number of films, he formally signed a movie contract with 20th Century Fox, resulting in bigger parts in Do You Love Me?, released in May, and If I'm Lucky, out in September. He also took to the road for the first time since the end of the war.

The declining popularity of the big bands led many to break up in December 1946, James' orchestra among them. But in January 1947, his All Time Favorites collection was at the top of the album charts, indicating he was still broadly popular, and within months he had reorganized his band, reducing the number of strings (and soon eliminating them entirely), and taking a more jazz-oriented approach. He scored only one Top Ten hit in 1947, "Heartaches," with vocals by Marion Morgan. And he appeared in the filmCarnegie Hall in May. James appeared in the film A Miracle Can Happen (aka On Our Merry Way) in February 1948, the same month he became a regular on the radio show Call for Music, which ran until June. He was not much visible in 1949, but in February 1950, his trumpet playing was heard in the film Young Man with a Horn, though the man fingering the trumpet onscreen was Kirk Douglas.

The Young Man with a Horn soundtrack, credited to Jameswith Doris Day, hit number one in May 1950. Repeating that pairing, Columbia teamed James with Day for "Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)," which hit the charts in March 1951 and reached the Top Ten. Similar success was achieved with "Castle Rock," which paired James with Frank Sinatra and reached the charts in September. Meanwhile,James had his own TV series, The Harry James Show, which ran on a Los Angeles station for the first six months of 1951. From this point on, James maintained his band as a touring unit, though he was less frequently glimpsed in the media. He played himself in the film biography The Benny Goodman Story in 1955, the same year that, having moved to Capitol Records, he released Harry James in Hi-Fi, an album of re-recordings of his hits that reached the Top Ten in November. (The 1999 compilation Trumpet Blues: The Best of Harry Jamescombines tracks from this album and its follow-up, More Harry James in Hi-Fi.)

By now, he was deliberately trying to make his band sound like Count Basie's. He was back onscreen in November 1956 in the film The Opposite Sex. He made his first major tour of Europe in October 1957, and in ensuing years he alternated national and international tours with lengthy engagements at Las Vegas hotels. There were two more film appearances, The Big Beat (June 1958) and The Ladies Man (July 1961). James performed regularly through the early '80s. He was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1983, but continued to play, making his last appearance only nine days before his death at 67. Led by trumpeter Art Depew, his band continued to perform. No one questioned James' talent as a jazz trumpeter, though after his commercial ascendance in 1941 many jazz critics dismissed him. After his period of greatest success, he turned back to a more jazz-oriented style, which failed to change the overall impression of him, if only because he was no longer as much in the public eye. Nevertheless, his swing hits remain among the most popular music of the era. In addition to the Columbia recordings from his heyday, there are numerous other titles in his discography, notably many airchecks, though his recordings of the '50s are also worth seeking out.

Les Brown

Les Brown, Sr. (March 14, 1912 – January 24, 2001) and the Band of Renown are a big band that began in the big band era of the late 1930s and now performs under the direction of his son Les Brown, Jr.

‘Les Brown and the Band of Renown’ brought Doris Day into prominence with their recording of Sentimental Journey in 1945. The release of Sentimental Journey coincided with the end of WWII in Europe and was the homecoming theme for many veterans. They had nine other number-one hit songs, including I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.

Les Brown and the Band of Renown performed with Bob Hope on radio, stage and TV for almost fifty years. They did 18 USO Tours for American troops around the world, and entertained over three million. Before the Super Bowls were televised, the Bob Hope Christmas Specials were the highest-rated programs in television history. Tony Bennett was “discovered” by Bob Hope and did his first public performance with Les and the Band.

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton (1908–2002), was a U.S. bandleader, jazz percussionist, and vibraphonist.

Hampton was born on 20th April 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky, but moved to Chicago as a child, where he began his career as a drummer. He relocated to Los Angeles to play drums in Les Hite’s band. They soon became the house band for Frank Sebastian’s New Cotton Club, a popular L.A. jazz club.

During a 1930 recording date in the NBC studios in L.A., Louis Armstrong discovered a vibraphone. He asked Hampton if he could play it. Hampton, who knew how to play the xylophone, tried it and they agreed to record a few records with Hamp on vibes. Hampton is credited with popularizing the vibraphone as a jazz instrument.

Spike Jones

Lindley Armstrong “Spike” Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in performing satirical arrangements of popular songs. Ballads and classical works receiving the Jones treatment would be punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells, and outlandish vocals. Through the 1940s and early 1950s, the band recorded under the title Spike Jones and his City Slickers and toured the United States and Canada under the title The Musical Depreciation Revue.

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987), better known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and Big band leader. During his lifetime, he led some of the most exciting big bands of the twentieth century. His bands changed styles and approaches to jazz but still managed to keep their musical integrity.

Herman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a child he worked as a singer in vaudeville, then became a professional saxophone player at age 15. When Isham Jones’s band, of which Herman had been a member, broke up in 1936, he formed his own band, the Woody Herman Orchestra, with some of his band mates. This band became known for its orchestrations of the blues and was sometimes billed as “The Band That Plays The Blues”.

On April 12, 1939 Woody Herman recorded his greatest commercial and mega popular hit record “Woodchoppers’ Ball”, featuring Woody on clarinet, Neal Ried on trombone, Saxie Mansfield on Sax, Steady Nelson on trumpet and Hy White on guitar. Other big early hits were “Blue Flame,” “Dupree Blues”, “Blues Upstairs and Downstairs” and “Blues in the Night” with Joe Bishop on flugelhorn, Tommy Linehans on piano, Cappy Lewis on trumpet, and the strong rhythm team of Walt Yoder and Frankie Carlson.

Elliot Lawrence

If he had been born ten years earlier, Elliot Lawrence might have been one of the more significant bandleaders of the swing era. As it worked out, he was a bit of a prodigy, leading a strong dance band when he was only 20, but by then (1945), the swing era was ending.

Lawrence did record steadily as a leader during 1946-1960 (for Columbia, Decca, King, Fantasy, Vik, and Sesac), sometimes using Gerry Mulligan arrangements, but he mostly worked in the studios. After 1960, Lawrence stopped recording jazz altogether to compose, arrange, and conduct for television, films, and the theater. Few of his jazz-oriented sessions are available, but his hard-to-find music is worth exploring.

Charlie Barnet

Charlie Barnet came from a wealthy family. His parents had hoped that their son would become a lawyer. However the free spirited Barnet, at just 16 years of age, led his own band on a transatlantic ocean liner crossing the ocean 22 times and later went to the South Seas and Latin America.

Barnet first became well known in jazz circles as a leader of a band that played the Paramount Hotel in NYC in 1932. His fame also spread as a soloist on several Red Norvo Octet sides in 1934 including “The Night Is Blue” which also featured Teddy Wilson, Artie Shaw and others. Although Benny Goodman may lay claim as having the first racially integrated touring jazz group, with his trio (and quartet) a few years later, this session helped break down racial barriers and was an example of what was to come for Wilson, Shaw, and Barnet. Wilson joined forces with Benny Goodman the following year and Shaw and Barnet were among the first white big bandleaders to spotlight African American stars. Barnet featured Lena Horn extensively in 1941 and later Roy Eldridge, Oscar Pettiford, Peanuts Holland and others.

The Barnet big band of 1939 to 1941 was his most well known and highly swinging outfit. The group's greatest commercial hit was Cherokee and a spin off of the song called Redskin Rhumba. Although the former has often been confused and quoted as the Barnet theme song, it was actually Redskin Rhumba that was used as the band's identifying song. Both Billy May and Barnet (sometimes under the name Dale Bennett) contributed many fine songs and arrangements to this bands repertoire. Billy May can be heard soloing with the Barnet band on trumpet often but Bobby Burnet was also a force on the instrument in the brass section. At various times Barnet employed the likes of such notable sidemen and vocalists as guitarist Bus Etri; drummer Cliff Leeman; pianist Dodo Marmarosa; clarinetist Buddy DeFranco; guitarist Barney Kessel; and singers Lena Horne, Francis Wayne, and Kay Starr.

Charlie Barnet was an outspoken fan of both Duke Ellington and Count Basie giving his tip of the hat to the two in titles like The Count’s Idea and The Dukes Idea. Charlie was mainly a tenor player, forming his style out of the Coleman Hawkins school, but also played alto and soprano sax, his style on the former influenced by Ellington’s alto man Johnny Hodges. Listen to his cover of the Ellington tune The Gal From Joe’s for a fine example of Barnet emulating the style of Johnny Hodges.

 So good was Barnet’s rapport with Count Basie that the Count was one of the first to lend his charts to Barnet after the group lost all of their own arrangements (and instruments) in a hotel fire at the Palomar Ballroom on October 2nd, 1939.[see footnote 1] Not one to let things get him down; on October 9th, seven days after the incident, his band recorded the tune Are We Burnt Up. The record was never commercially released ...at least not in that form. A few years later with the ensemble chorus of “are we burnt up, oh Palomar, oh Palomar…” taken out, the record was released and became a hit as a straight swinging instrumental called Leapin At The Lincoln.

Barnet never recorded music or wrote tunes with much commercial aspiration and he denounced what Downbeat Magazine called “corn” or syrupy, schmaltzy, sweet music. His obvious sentiments regarding the subject can be heard on the hilarious lambasting of this style called The Wrong Idea, written by Billy May. In another song Barnet incorporated his nickname “The Mab” or sometimes “The Wild Mab.” Wild Mab Of The Fish Pond was so named after the loose Barnet band took an unscheduled, impromptu, inebriated dip in a hotel fountain. “Wild Mab” for Charlie Barnet and “The Fish Pond” code for the hotel fountain.

Charlie Barnet’s life reflected the color and looseness of his recordings and bands. He was married at least six times, often making newspaper headlines, and was one of the most talked about figures in jazz in the late 1930s and early 1940s. While his 1944 recording Skyliner became another big hit, his popularity and orchestras never achieved the same public acceptance or high level of output as between the years 1939 and 1941. 

Charlie Barnet’s recording affiliations included; MELOTONE in 1933, BLUEBIRD from '34-'42, DECCA from 1942-46, APPOLLO 1946-47, CAPITOL 1949-50, ABBEY in 1952, CLEFF-VERVE 1953-57, EVEREST 1958-59, CROWN 1960, HEP 1966, CREATIVE WORLD 1967. Barnet fronted an 18 piece band that recorded live at Basin Street East in 1966 for HEP. His last album, Big Band '67, was recorded in 1967 with a 19-piece band for the CREATIVE WORLD label.

Claude Thornhill

Although some of his recordings were on the periphery of jazz and his orchestra was at its most popular in the early '40s, Claude Thornhill's main importance to jazz was the influence that his arrangements and orchestra's sound had on cool jazz of the late '40s.

After studying at a music conservatory and playing piano in bands based in the Midwest, Thornhill worked for Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman in 1934, and for Ray Noble's American band of 1935-1936 (for whom he also arranged).

He appeared on some Billie Holiday records and his arrangement of "Loch Lomond" was a big hit for Maxine Sullivan. Although he recorded as a leader in 1937, it was in 1940 that Thornhill put together his own orchestra.

The band, featuring long tones played by horns that de-emphasized vibrato, had an unusual sound that sometimes accompanied the leader's tinkling piano. The instrumentation included two French horns and a tuba; sometimes all six of the reeds played clarinets in unison. Although classified by some as a sweet rather than swing band (since the group played a lot of ballads), with the addition in 1941 of Gil Evans as one of the arrangers, the recordings of Thornhill's orchestra attracted a lot of attention in the jazz world.

After a period in the miliary (1942-1945), Thornhill put together a new orchestra, retaining the services of Gil Evans (and sometimes using Gerry Mulligan charts as well) and featuring such soloists as altoist Lee Konitz, clarinetist Danny Polo, and trumpeter Red Rodney. Some of Evans' bop-ish arrangements for the group were classic, and the Miles Davis Nonet of 1948 was based on many of the cool-toned principles of the Thornhill big band. However, by then the pianist's glory days were over.

He continued leading bands on a part-time basis up until his death, but Claude Thornhill was largely neglected and forgotten during his final 15 years.

Artist Biography by Scott Yanow