[Dixielandjazz] Harry James

[Marek Boym]

Harry James was a wonderful jazz trumpeter when he felt like playing jazz,
probably one of the very best!
Cheers

On Sun, 10 May 2020 at 21:17, Ken Mathieson <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Following on from the debate about whether Harry James was a *real* jazz
> trumpeter or not, my view is that he most emphatically could be when the
> occasion demanded. He was a consummate trumpet player and a fine,
> flexible musician who could play sensitively or brassily in a wide
> variety of idioms, but, non-players should never forget the reality of
> having to make a living in a notoriously fickle and changing music
> business.
>
> I certainly don't grudge him his highly commercial moments as he had to
> eat and pay the rent like everyone else (there was also the small matter
> of large alimony payents to a sizeable number of former wives and the
> attendant legal fees). However when he was in the right musical company
> he could demonstrate serious jazz chops.
>
> Here's a question for Robert Calder: did you hear the Harry James Band
> in the Motherwell Civic Centre in the mid 1970s? At that time, he had
> Neal Hefti writing for the band, Sonny Payne on drums, so it was a band
> very much in the style of the great Basie bands of the 1960s.
> Unfortunately, the rest of the band is now a blank, but I remember it as
> a cracking night of top quality big band jazz.
>
> Sonny was on a riser at the back of the stage and, during his solo
> feature he was doing his show-biz schtick of bouncing a stick off the
> floor and catching it above his head etc while still thundering away
> with the other hand. One of the sticks flew backwards and disappeared
> off the back of the stage, but in trying to catch it as it flew past him
> he amost fell off the back of the stage. He fished another stick out of
> his stick bag and carried on after a few stuttery moments, but meanwhile
> the rest of the band (Harry included) were having a right good laugh at
> Sonny's antics. At the end of the number, Sonny took his bow before
> jumping down backstage to recover the errant stick. He was quite a short
> man and it was quite a long way down, so he fell when he hit the deck,
> then had a heck of a struggle to get back up on stage. Obviously the
> band couldn't miss another opportunity for taking the p*ss, but Sonny
> was raging (I suspect he was angry at himself for screwing up his act,
> rather than at the band, as I know he was held in great regard by the
> other musicians, in particular by Harry).
>
> Regards to all and stay safe and well,
>
> Ken
>
>
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