[Dixielandjazz] Charlie Barnett NY Times obit

[Stephen G Barbone]

Given the interest in Charlie Barnett, here is his obit from the NY  
Times. He was a millionaire by birth and a swinger by nature. (see  
last paragraph) I worked in the past with 2 trumpet players who played  
in his bands at one time or another. They would get glassy eyed when  
talking about both the good times and the good music during their  
residencies with him.



What the obit doesn't say is that in the 1960s, for one last fling,  
Barnett put together a band to play a two week gig at the Basin Street  
East in NYC. It was a must go see event for NY jazz musicians at the  
time. His autobiography, cited in the obit, is a great read about the  
life and times of his band years.



Cheers,

Steve Barbone


Charlie Barnet, 77, Saxophonist And a Band Leader of Swing Era



Published: September 6, 1991
Charlie Barnet, a jazz saxophonist and band leader whose orchestra was  
widely admired during the swing era, died on Wednesday at Hillside  
Hospital here. He was 77 years old.

He had Alzheimer's disease and died of pneumonia, said his wife of 33  
years, Betty.

Best remembered for the jazz standards "Cherokee" and "Redskin  
Rhumba," Mr. Barnet had retired from music and divided his time in  
recent years between his homes in San Diego and Palm Springs. His  
career spanned four decades.

Mr. Barnet was one of the first white band leaders to integrate his  
band racially. He began hiring black musicians as early as 1937, among  
them Frankie Newton, John Kirby and Roy Eldridge. One of his early  
vocalists was Lena Horne, and his was one of the few predominantly  
white bands to play the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Music Over Legal  
Career

Mr. Barnet was born on Oct. 26, 1913, to a wealthy New York City  
family, and began developing an interest in music when he received a  
saxophone as a gift. He disappointed his parents by shunning law in  
favor of a musical career, joining a band on an ocean liner at age 16.  
He led his first band at the age of 33.

In his 1984 autobiography, "Those Swinging Years," Mr. Barnet  
described how he reveled in the music, drugs and women that filled  
road life in the jazz era. "I found the idea of life on the road very  
intriguing," he wrote. "I probably was more enthralled with the life  
than the music -- at first."

He soon became enthralled with the music and was especially influenced  
by the work of Duke Ellington, to the point of imitating some  
arrangements played by the Ellington orchestra.

Mr. Barnet's 1939 recording of "Cherokee," in an arrangement by the  
trumpeter Billy May, was a huge hit and became the signature tune of  
the Barnet band. His other early hits included "Pompton Turnpike," "I  
Hear a Rhapsody" and "Where Was I?" He wrote more than 25 Billboard  
pop chart hits from 1936 to 1946, including "Skyliner."

Mr. Barnet was married 11 times. In addition to his wife Betty, he is  
survived by a son from a previous marriage, Charles D. Barnet Jr.