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Harry James
Born:
One of the most popular bandleaders of the wartime era, Harry James is best remembered today for his colorful trumpet playing and as the husband of pin-up girl Betty Grable. Born in a run-down hotel next to the city jail in Albany, Georgia, Harry's parents were circus performers -- his mother a trapeze artist and his father the bandleader.
James began playing drums at age seven and took up the trumpet at ten, performing for the Christy Brothers circus band. James' family later settled in Beaumont, Texas, and he began playing for local dance bands while in high school. In 1935 he joined Ben Pollack's orchestra, leaving in December 1936 for Benny Goodman. During his time with Goodman, James became very popular with the jazz crowd for his colorful, ear-shattering, trumpet playing. He became so popular that when he decided to leave Goodman in December 1938 to form his own band Goodman himself financed the outfit.
Chuck Redd With the Kevin Bales Trio At The Jazz Corner
by Martin McFie
Chuck Redd with the Kevin Bales Trio The Jazz Corner Hilton Head Island, SC January 3-4, 2020 Masterful musicians make excellence look easy. It's not always immediately obvious, the quality becomes evident through its sustained presence, like a spreading smile. The band opened with “Tricotism" written by early bebop ...
The New Golden Age of Jazz Radio
by Karl Ackermann
There was the Jazz Age, and later, the Golden Age of Radio. There was no golden age of jazz radio unless one considers the brief, ten-year reign of devolution when swing music dominated the airwaves. Think about this: New York City has not had a twenty-four-hour commercial jazz radio station in over ten years; decades longer ...
McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans & More
by Joe Dimino
Off a brand new album called 400 by veteran jazz bass cat Avery Sharpe, we charge straight on into a new episode of Neon Jazz. We continue the music with a look into the world of Matt Slocum, Curtis Nowosad and Brad Turner with new projects and revelations from their music minds. We also pepper in ...
Arturo Sandoval: Two Counties, Two Lives, One Trumpet de Oro
by Jim Worsley
Arturo Sandoval is widely considered the world's premier living trumpet player. You will get no argument from me. After a tumultuous life in Cuba, he and his family successfully sought political asylum in the United States. His story is well documented in For Love or Country (HBO, 2000). Andy Garcia portrays Sandoval in this movie that ...
Duke Ellington, Hugh Masekela and Harry James
by Joe Dimino
From the talented collective Sammy Miller and the Congregation out of Los Angeles, California, we start a new hour of jazz with episode 594. Over the hour, we hear from some exceedingly cool cats like Duke Ellington, Hugh Masekala, Fess Williams and Harry James. A look into the music and words of the book Jazz on ...
Salvant, Skonberg, Aldana And More At Kimmel Center
by Victor L. Schermer
Cecile McLorin Salvant, Bria Skonberg, Melissa Aldana, Christian Sands, Yasushi Nakamura and Jamison Ross Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Monterey Jazz Festival On TourPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania March 23, 2019 While some jazz festivals sponsor tours that highlight their more seasoned icons, Monterey was different in ...
Michael Leonhart: Surfing on an Orchestral Wave
by Ludovico Granvassu
If one were to find an answer to the age-old “nature or nurture" debate, s/he would have to look no further than The Painted Lady Suite [Sunnyside Records]. Listening to the stunning debut album by the Michael Leonhart Orchestra makes it clear that major achievements are only possible when nature and nurture are well integrated and ...
Blue Highways and Sweet Music: The Territory Bands, Part I
by Karl Ackermann
Part 1 | Part 2 OriginsBy the second half of the 1920s, New York had supplanted Chicago as the center of jazz. The “Jazz Age"--a label incorrectly ascribed to F. Scott Fitzgerald--could rationally have been framed as the “Dance Age." Prohibition, and the speakeasies that it spawned, were packed with wildly enthusiastic patrons of ...
Hugh Masekela: Strength in Music and Character
by R.J. DeLuke
This article was first published at All About Jazz in May 2009. “I think it is incumbent, not just on every artist, but every person who has as their source communities that are disadvantaged, to give back," says Hugh Masekela, antiapartheid champion, friend of the downtrodden and musician extraordinaire who is still going strong ...
