The Penguin Jazz Guide (24 page)

For someone who recorded a good deal, the catalogue has always been sparse. A self-effacing character, Berry found himself in the shadow of more celebrated figures such as Basie’s ill-fated right-hand man, Herschel Evans. Berry was only ever a dep in the Basie orchestra, but he turned in one classic, ‘Lady Be Good’. He had more prominence in the Calloway outfit, with whom he was employed at the time of his death. Too often under other leaders he was restricted to brief excursions from the woodwind bench, and Chu was a player who needed time and space to have his say.

The partnership with Eldridge was a happy, matey affair, and the ‘Little Jazz’ ensembles of November 1938 are among his best small-group performances. The version of ‘Body And Soul’ sits well alongside the great ones. ‘Sittin’ In’ is introduced conversationally by the two principals. Talking or playing, they’re both in rumbustious form and the warmth of the partnership was equalled only in the late sessions with Hot Lips Page, made within weeks of the road accident that ended Berry’s life.

AVERY ‘KID’ HOWARD

Born 22 April 1908, New Orleans, Louisiana; died 28 March 1966, New Orleans, Louisiana

Trumpet

Prelude To The Revival: Volume 1

American Music AMCD-40

Howard; Andrew Anderson, Punch Miller (t, v); Duke Derbigny (t); Joe ‘Brother Cornbread’ Thomas (cl, v); Martin Cole (ts); ? Harris (p, v); Joe Robertson (p); Leonard Mitchell (g, bj, v); Frank Murray (g); Chester Zardis (b); Charles Sylvester, Junious Wilson, Clifford ‘Snag’ Jones (d); Matie Murray (v). 1937–1941.

Humphrey Lyttelton said (1997):
‘Revivalist jazz is a bit like reproduction furniture, often much better made than the original.’

So little jazz was recorded in New Orleans during the ’30s that any archive material from the period is valuable. Sam Charters, perhaps not the most reliable judge, reckoned that Kid Howard would have been the next King of New Orleans trumpet after Joe Oliver. It was the spread of modern recording, rather than any shrewd anticipation of the great revival of interest in traditional jazz, that allowed men like Howard, who’d enjoyed only local fame in his youth, to be heard more widely. He is only on the first four tracks here, in barely passable sound, but they show a mature, hard-hitting musician displaying the inevitable debt to Armstrong but resolutely going his own way. He’d started out as a drummer and still liked to hit his notes on the head rather than whisper them. Anderson and Derbigny are less individual but they bridge the older and younger New Orleans traditions unselfconsciously enough. The sleeve-notes detail the detective work that went into finding and restoring the original acetates; ears unused to prehistoric sound, beware. There’s also material on the record with Punch Miller as leader.

EDGAR HAYES

Born 23 May 1904, Lexington, Kentucky; died 28 June 1979, San Bernardino, California

Piano

Edgar Hayes 1937–1938

Classics 730

Hayes; Bernie Flood (t, v); Henry Goodwin, Shelton Hemphill, Leonard Davis (t); Robert Horton, Clyde Bernhardt, John ‘Shorty’ Haughton, David ‘Jelly’ James, Joe Britton (tb); Rudy Powell (cl, as); Roger Boyd, Stanley Palmer, Alfred Skerritt (as); Joe Garland (ts, bs); Crawford Wethington, William Mitchner (ts); Andy Jackson, Eddie Gibbs (g); Elmer James, Frank ‘Coco’ Darling (b); Kenny Clarke (d, vib); Orlando Roberson, Earlene Howell, Bill Darnell, Ruth Ellington (v). March 1937–January 1938.

Drummer Kenny Clarke said (1978):
‘Forty years ago, coming over to Europe with Edgar Hayes. That was an education, and I guess that was my apprenticeship – a lot of freedom.’

Hayes led a very good orchestra, which evolved out of the quaintly named Eight Black Pirates and the Symphonic Harmonists. He also did a stint with the Mills Brothers Blues Band, before setting up his own outfit. They had a big hit in 1937 with ‘Star Dust’, not one of their best records. There were good soloists: trombonist Horton was exemplary on both muted and open horn, Garland could play tenor, baritone and bass sax and arrange with equal facility, and Goodwin’s trumpet shines; the rhythm section could boast the young Kenny Clarke, already trying to swing his way out of conventional big-band drumming. There are too many indifferent vocals, and some of the material is glum, but much of the first volume stands up to a close listen. A second disc picks up the story with a final Decca, but that was more or less the end of the Hayes story as far as big-band records were concerned.

BUNNY BERIGAN

Born Rowland Bernart Berigan, 2 November 1908, Hilbert, Wisconsin; died 2 June 1942, New York City

Trumpet, voice

Bunny Berigan 1937

Classics 766

Berigan; Irving Goodman, Steve Lipkins (t); Morey Samuel, Sonny Lee, Al George (tb); Mike Doty, Sid Pearlmutter, Joe Dixon (cl, as); Clyde Rounds, Georgie Auld (ts); Joe Lippman (p); Tom Morgan (g); Arnold Fishkind, Hank Wayland (b); George Wettling (d); Ruth Bradley, Gail Reese (v). June–December 1937.

Trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton said (1995):
‘Bunny Berigan’s “I Can’t Get Started” is one of the half-dozen greatest performances in jazz. It has everything: great technique, solid changes, a story in music, and the knowledge that his life was slipping away early.’

Bunny Berigan’s only flaw, in Louis Armstrong’s opinion, was that he didn’t live long enough. At the height of his career as an independent bandleader, he was making impossible demands on an uncertain constitution and his intake of alcohol was excessive. As a soloist, he could be wildly exciting or meltingly lyrical, cutting solos like those on the concerto-like ‘I Can’t Get Started’ (two versions but the 1937 one is the classic). He was always one of the boys in the band, utterly inept as an organizer, and even stints with disciplinarians like Goodman and Dorsey didn’t mend his ways.

Though he died prematurely burnt out, Berigan left a legacy of wonderful music. His tone was huge and ‘fat’, a far cry from the tinny squawk with which he started out. Typical devices are his use of ‘ghost’ notes and rapid chromatic runs that inject tension into music that without him sounds ready to fall asleep. Even such a short career can be divided into ‘early’ and ‘late’. He matured quickly and declined faster, but for a time he was the most exciting player in jazz.

HARRY JAMES

Born 15 March 1916, Albany, Georgia; died 5 July 1983, Las Vegas, Nevada

Trumpet

Harry James 1937–1939

Classics 903

James; Jack Palmer (t, v); Tom Gonsoulin, Claude Bowen, Buck Clayton (t); Eddie Durham, Vernon Brown, Russell Brown, Truett Jones (tb); Earl Warren, Dave Matthews, Claude Lakey (as); Jack Washington (as, bs); Herschel Evans, Arthur Rollini, Drew Page, Bill Luther (ts); Harry Carney (bs); Jess Stacy, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, Jack Gardner (p); Bryan Kent (g); Walter Page, Thurman Teague, Johnny Williams (b); Jo Jones, Dave Tough, Eddie Dougherty, Ralph Hawkins (d); Helen Humes, Bernice Byers (v). December 1937–March 1939.

Creed Taylor said (1983):
‘He had no small opinion of himself, an ego the size of Plymouth Rock, but then he was moored to Betty Grable and that can’t have helped. I didn’t care much for that vibrato, either. It just seemed to be saying: “Look at me!” ’

Born into a family of circus musicians, James joined Ben Pollack in 1935, switching to Benny Goodman as star soloist in 1937, then leading his own band from 1939, with Sinatra as vocalist. His taste for show-off virtuosity brought him million-selling records but the derision of many jazz followers. Marriage to Betty Grable ensured he was rarely far from the headlines. He was marked down for stardom very early and in late 1937 started to make recordings under his own name for the Brunswick label.

The sequence starts with three terrific sessions, two in which he fronts a small group drawn from the Basie band, one where he repeats the trick using Goodman sidemen (plus Harry Carney!). Unabashed by the heavy company, James often blows the roof off. Four tracks with Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson spotlight his tersest, hottest playing before the sessions with his proper big band close the disc, opening on his theme-tune, ‘Ciribiribin’, which exemplifies what James was about: no better trumpet technician, a great capacity to swing, but with a penchant for schmaltz mixed with bravado. James considered singers a ‘necessary evil’, and presumably resented the young Sinatra’s rise to fame. He himself was to be the focus of every performance. Some of this music resembles the Bunny Berigan orchestra, with all the technique but little of the judgement. Nevertheless, James could play a horn with the best of them and he took jazz to places it hadn’t hitherto been.

DIZZY GILLESPIE
^&

Born John Birks Gillespie, 21 October 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina; died 6 January 1993, Englewood, New Jersey

Trumpet

The Complete RCA Victor Recordings

Bluebird 66528-2 2CD

Gillespie; Bill Dillard, Shad Collins, Lamar Wright, Willie Cook, Benny Harris, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Howard McGhee, Karl George, Snooky Young (t); Dicky Wells, Ted Kelly, J. J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Vic Dickenson, George Washington, Ralph Bledsoe, Henry Coker (tb); Trummy Young (tb, v); Buddy DeFranco, Tony Scott (cl); Charlie Parker, Johnny Bothwell, Marvin Johnson, Willie Smith, Benny Carter, Russell Procope, Ernie Henry (as); Dexter Gordon, Don Byas, Fred Simon, Lucky Thompson, Yusef Lateef, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Charlie Ventura, Robert Carroll, Teddy Hill (ts); Ernie Caceres, Gene Porter (bs); Al Haig, George Handy, Wilbert Baranco, Clyde Hart, Jimmy Jones, Frank Paparelli, Lennie Tristano, Sam Allen, James Foreman (p); Lionel Hampton (vib); Bill De Arongo, Buddy Harper, Mike Bryan, Remo Palmieri, Charlie Christian, Billy Bauer (g); Oscar Pettiford, Gene Ramey, Slam Stewart, Al Hall, Murray Shipinski, Milt Hinton, Richard Fulbright, Al McKibbon, Curley Russell, Charles Mingus, Ray Brown, Eddie Safranski (b); Specs Powell, Ed Nicholson, Cozy Cole, Irv Kluger, Shelly Manne, Bill Beason, Big Sid Catlett, Earl Watkins, Stan Levey, J. C. Heard, Roy Haynes, Teddy Stewart (d); Vince Guerra, Sabu Martinez, Chano Pozo (perc); Johnny Hartman, Rubberlegs Williams, The Three Angels, Sarah Vaughan (v). May 1937–January 1949.

Dizzy Gillespie said (1984):
‘There wasn’t much else in South Carolina when I was coming up. Music was a purpose and a way to make sense of life, and I believe that is universally true. I’m a teacher, not a preacher, but I believe music can save you. Nobody was killed by it, whatever you might hear; they were killed by something else.’

One of the unquestionable major figures of modern jazz, Dizzy was bebop’s premier theoretician and became the music’s durable ambassador, as significant in his way to the perception of jazz within and beyond America as Louis Armstrong had been a generation earlier, though Armstrong, of course, was still around, still playing and still statesmanlike when Gillespie made his name. Inevitably, some of his best work was released under Charlie Parker’s leadership, but, away from Bird, Gillespie was able to develop his own conception of bop, whose highwire excitements sometimes camouflaged a high level of thought.

Dizzy began recording at the end of the ’30s. In the Cab Calloway and Teddy Hill bands he cut the outline of a promising Roy Eldridge disciple. His associations with Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, though, took him into hitherto uncharted realms. While he continued to credit Parker as the real inspirational force behind bebop, Gillespie was the movement’s scholar, straw boss, sartorial figurehead and organizer: his love of big-band sound led him into attempts to orchestrate the new music that resulted in some of the most towering jazz records, particularly (among those here) ‘Things To Come’ and ‘Cubana Be’/‘Cubana Bop’. But his own playing is at least as powerful a reason to listen to these tracks. Gillespie brought a new virtuosity to jazz trumpet just as Parker created a matchless vocabulary for the alto sax. It scarcely seems possible that the music could have moved on from Louis Armstrong’s ‘Cornet Chop Suey’ to Gillespie’s astonishing flight on ‘Dizzy Atmosphere’ in only 20 years. A dazzling tone, solo construction that was as logical as it was unremittingly daring, and a harmonic grasp which was built out of countless nights of study and experimentation: Gillespie showed the way for every trumpeter in post-war jazz.

The RCA set sweeps the board as the cream of Gillespie’s studio work in the period. The big-band tracks are complete and in good sound, all the Victor small-group sessions are here, and there are prehistory tracks with Teddy Hill and Lionel Hampton as a taster of things to come, and four tracks with the Metronome All-Star bebop group, where Dizzy lines up with Miles, Bird, Fats and JJ.

& See also
Birks Works
(1956–1957; p. 187)

GEORGE CHISHOLM

Born 29 March 1915, Glasgow, Scotland; died 6 December 1997, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England

Trombone

Early Days 1935–1944

Timeless CBC 1-044

Chisholm; Tommy McQuater, Johnny Claes, Dave Wilkins, Kenny Baker, Stan Roderick, Alfie Noakes (t); Eric Breeze, Bruce Campbell, Dave Walters (tb); Jimmy Durant (ss, bs); Dougie Robinson, Harry Hayes (as); Benny Winestone (cl, ts); Danny Polo, Jimmy Williams, Andy McDevitt (cl); Reg Dare, Aubrey Franks, Jimmy Skidmore (ts); Eddie Macauley, Leonard Feather, Jack Penn, Billy Munn (p); Norman Brown, Ivor Mairants, Alan Ferguson, Dick Ball, Jock Reid, Tiny Winters, Charlie Short (b); Dudley Barber, Ben Edwards, Jock Cummings (d). (1935 and) January 1938–May 1944.