Harry "Fats" Crafton

Perfection: Harry James in the Late '50s/Early '60s

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 23, 2025

Two big bands that knock me out from the late 1950s and early 1960s are the ones led by Count Basie and Harry James. Both could swing the house sideways, but both knew when enough was enough. Basie, of course, invented the concept of just enough, but James's decade-straddling band is often overlooked for the same quality. James's near-stalker passion for Basie is well known ("Two O'Clock Jump) but less known is that during this period, they shared the same ...
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Fats Navarro: Nostalgia, 1946-'47

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
September 13, 2024

One of jazz's greatest losses due to drug addiction was the death of Fats Navarro in 1950 at age 26. The trumpeter's promise was extraordinary and only partly expressed and fulfilled. After Dizzy Gillespie, Navarro was probably a close second in terms of sheer sound, technique, improvisation prowess and the ability to navigate bebop from its earliest days in 1945 and '46. A good introduction to Navarro is a 12-inch compilation of his 78rpm recordings for the Savoy label in ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Harry Connick, Jr.

Source: Michael Ricci
September 11, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Harry Connick, Jr.'s birthday today!

Harry Connick, Jr.'s career has been studded with awards and recognition, including several multi-platinum and gold albums, Grammy and Emmy awards, a starring role in a Tony-winning Broadway musical and much more. A true American icon, there are few artists of Harry's stature, and fewer still with such a comprehensive span of the entire realm of entertainment. Harry grew up in New Orleans, and it is here you will find ...
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Interview: Harry Allen

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 3, 2023

Harry Allen is often thought of as quiet and aloof. The truth is, the swinging tenor saxophonist is reserved and, based on my many email chats with him, a gentleman and great guy who tends to keep to himself. While you're certainly aware of his swinging style in the Zoot Sims-Paul Gonsalves tradition, you may not be aware that Harry is a superb arranger cut from the same cloth as Sammy Nestico and Nelson Riddle. [Photo above of Harry Allen ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Fats Waller

Source: Michael Ricci
May 21, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Fats Waller's birthday today!

Jazz music's first organist and one of the giants of piano jazz Thomas Wright “Fats" Waller was born on May 21, 1904 in Harlem into a musical family. His grandfather was an accomplished violinist and his mother was the church organist. His family had moved to New York City from Virginia in the late 1880s and his father was the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. His first exposure ...
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Fats Sadi: A Retrospective: 1953-1961

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 18, 2023

Like trumpeter Harry James, Fats Sadi began his musical career in the company of clowns. The Belgian jazz musician played the xylophone in a touring circus before World War II. After the war, he took up the vibraphone and recorded as a sideman and as a leader. He could play swing and bop, and his earliest recordings in 1946 were with fellow Belgian standout, saxophonist and flutist Bobby Jaspar. In 1950, Sadi moved to Paris in search of work and ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Harry Allen

Source: Michael Ricci
October 12, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Harry Allen's birthday today!

Gene Lees writes, “Stan Getz was once asked his idea of the perfect tenor saxophone soloist. His answer was, 'My technique, Al Cohn's ideas, and Zoot's time.' The fulfillment of that ideal may well be embodied in thirty-year-old Harry Allen." BMG recording artist Harry Allen has over twenty recordings to his name. Three of Harry's CDs have won Gold Disc Awards from Japan's Swing Journal Magazine, and his CD Tenors Anyone? ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Fats Navarro

Source: Michael Ricci
September 24, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Fats Navarro's birthday today!

“Fats was a spectacular musician because, in a time when cats arrived on the scene with nothing, he came on with everything: he could read, he could play high and hold anybody's first trumpet chair, he could play those singing, melodic solos with a big beautiful sound nobody could believe at the time, and he could fly in fast tempos with staccato, biting notes and execute whatever he wanted with apparently ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Harry Connick, Jr.

Source: Michael Ricci
September 11, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Harry Connick, Jr.'s birthday today!

Harry Connick, Jr.'s career has been studded with awards and recognition, including several multi-platinum and gold albums, Grammy and Emmy awards, a starring role in a Tony-winning Broadway musical and much more. A true American icon, there are few artists of Harry's stature, and fewer still with such a comprehensive span of the entire realm of entertainment. Harry grew up in New Orleans, and it is here you will find ...
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Charlie Shavers v. Harry James

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 7, 2022

Back in early May, I received an email from a reader, Jeremy Mushlin, who had an interesting point: “I will go toe to toe with any Harry James fan and argue that Charlie Shavers was his trumpet-playing equal. Charlie just did not get the same opportunities and also wasn't as well organized as James. Compare Harry James's Soft Lights, Sweet Trumpet and Trumpet After Midnight with Shavers's Gershwin, Shavers and Strings and The Most Intimate. A big, bold statement, ...
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