Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts

Friday, July 5, 2013

Remembering Big Band & Jazz Legend - Harry James



Harry James
He was the best trumpet player during the Big Band Era. Harry James
was known for his technical proficiency, amazing high register, and swinging style.

Harry Haag James was born in Albany, Georgia on March 15, 1916 to Everett R. James, a circus bandleader, and Maybelle Stewart Clark James, a trapeze artist. Both performed with the Mighty Haag Circus. By the age of 8, his father was teaching him how to play the trumpet, and at 12, Harry was playing his trumpet and leading the second band in the Christy Brothers Circus.

Ben Pollack Orchestra
Benny Goodman Orchestra
His first gig was with the Ben Pollack Orchestra, a nationally known band. In 1936, James joined one of the nation’s most popular Swing Bands, The Benny Goodman Orchestra, and performed on the hit recordings of Sing, Sing, Sing and One O’Clock Jump.


Frank Sinatra
Harry James & His Music Makers
Three years later he was ready to go out with his own band; Harry James and His Music Makers. They took to the stage in Philadelphia and swung the crowd. Shortly thereafter he hired then unknown Frank Sinatra as a vocalist for the group. James also helped launch the career of female Big Band singer, Helen Forrest

Harry James
Playing for the Crowds
In 1941, James changed the sound of the band from the fast-paced Swing music to Sweet music, which had strings and was more in the style of ballads.  The results were immediate; in April 1941 his self-written instrumental Music Makers was in the Top 10, followed by Lament to Love in August. The week of December 7, 1941, You Made Me Love You was in the Top 5, the record that would make him a star. 


You Made Me Love You  - Harry James and His Music Makers with Helen Forrest on vocals.
Opening from the movie “Private Buckaroo” 1942




By 1942, his band was second to Glenn Miller’s as the most successful recording artist of the year. When Miller went into the Armed Forces, he handed over the reigns to the popular Chesterfield Time Radio Program to James and his Band. 



Harry James & His Trumpet
Harry James and His Music Makers had 40 hit singles including Ain’t She Sweet, Cry Me a River, Flight of the Bumblebee, and (Up a) Lazy River. James was one of the most popular Big Band leaders during the early 40’s, but disbanded the group at the end of 1946 due to a lack of income and the waning interest in Big Band music.  But he continued to perform and appeared in numerous Hollywood movies.

Harry James Show
Harry James

In 1947, James formed a jazz group also known as Harry James and His Music Makers. By 1951, he had his own television show, The Harry James Show.




The James Family
Betty Grable
James was married four times, most notably to WW II pin-up girl Betty Grable on July 5, 1943. Their marriage lasted for over 20 years and they had two children.





Harry James
James played his trumpet in the jazz style until the early 80’s. Diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1983, he continued to perform.  He made his last appearance on stage nine days before his death.







Harry James died on July 5, 1983 while on tour in Las Vegas.  He was 67 years old. He is interred at Bunkers Eden Vale Cemetery in the Chapel of Eternal Peace in Las Vegas.

Harry Haag James
Regarding his eminent death, James said, "Let it just be said that I went up to do a one-nighter with Archangel Gabriel."

~ Joy

Friday, September 28, 2012

Remembering Jazz Great – Miles Davis


One of the great legends of Jazz died on this day, September 28, 1991, twenty-one years ago.  Considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th Century, Miles Davis altered the direction of jazz several times with the introduction of bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz-fusion.




Davis House in Alton, Illinois
Miles Dewey Davis III was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois.  His father, Miles Henry Davis, was a dentist.  His mother, Cleota Mae Henry Davis, was an accomplished blues pianist, a fact she kept hidden from her son.




Miles grew up in East St. Louis.  At the age of thirteen, his father gave him a trumpet and arranged lessons with local musician, Elwood Buchanan.  By the time Miles was 16, he was a member of the music society and was playing professionally.  He was offered a chance to play with the Tiny Bradshaw Band and tour around the country, but his mother insisted that he finish high school.  He graduated in 1944 and moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music. Within a year, he had dropped out and was playing professionally in the 52nd Street clubs in New York.


Charlie Parker & Miles Davis
Charlie Parker Album
In 1946, Davis recorded his first album with his group, the Miles Davis Sextet.  That same year he was hired to replace Dizzy Gillespie in the Charlie Parker Quintet.  He stayed with Parker for two years, until the situation became too tense. Parker was suffering from mental and physical problems due to his drug addiction, and the group began slowly falling apart.

Davis spent the rest of 1948 and 1949 developing the sounds of Cool Jazz.  His approach to this new style was to create music that sounded like the human voice through specifically arranged compositions that stressed melodic improvisations.  In 1956, Capitol Records released Birth of the Cool which was a compilation of several recording sessions from January 1949 to April 1950 by Davis’s nine-member group. This is the album that ushered in the Cool Jazz era.

Miles Davis
By 1950, Davis was experiencing problems in his personal life, and felt unappreciated by the media critics for his breakout music style.  Thus began his first major drug addiction to heroin, which would affect the rest of his life.  In 1953, his addiction began to seriously affect his ability to perform.  Although he tried several times to kick his habit, he didn’t succeed until 1954, when he went back home to his parent’s in St. Louis.

Miles Davis Backstage
But, regardless of his problems, Davis was still able to create yet another form of Jazz during this period – Hard Bop.  Hard Bop jazz was the result of slowing down the tempo, as compared to bebop music, and approaching more of a bluesy feel.  Many times performers would begin with a popular tune and improv into hard bop.


From 1955 to 1958, Davis formed his first popular quintet.  During these years, the group released five acclaimed albums; Round Midnight, Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet, Steamin’ with the Mile Davis Quintet, Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet, and Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet.  It appeared that Davis had his groove back.  But by 1958, the quintet disbanded and Miles began experimenting with modal music.

Kind of Blue  Awards
Kind of Blue was released in 1959 and brought the modal jazz sound to the mainstream.  This album is considered to be one of the all-time greatest jazz recordings.  Kind of Blue is the best-selling jazz album of all time, having sold over 4-million copies, according to the Record Industry Association of America. And, in 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 409 – 0 to pass a resolution honoring this album as a national treasure.


Miles also helped make orchestral jazz acceptable when he and three of his former sextet members recorded a jazzy version of Porgy and Bess in 1958, and again, with Sketches of Spain in 1961. 


Miles Playing Fussion
In 1964, Davis put together his ‘second great quintet.’  Their sound became known as free bop because they improvised in a less conventional manner. Miles was now on his way to introducing Fusion Jazz.

 
By 1968, electric instruments were a part of Davis’s sound.  With this change, he introduced the world to jazz/rock fusion with In a Silent Way, released in 1968, and Bitches Brew in 1969. 


Miles and his Trumpet
But in July 1975, citing health issues from hip surgery, sickle-cell anemia, and depression, along with drug and alcohol addictions, Miles Davis retired from the music scene.  He stayed out of the public eye for six years. During that period, he was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame.





By 1981, Miles had returned to the jazz scene.  In 1985, he released, You're Under Arrest, an album that included his jazz interpretations of current pop songs. During the 80’s, he collaborated on four movie soundtracks, Street Smart, Siesta, Hot Spot, and Dingo.   




Betty Marby Davis
Cicely Tyson & Miles Davis
Miles was married three times, first to Frances Davis from 1958 – 1968.  He was then married to Betty Mabry for a short time from 1968 to 1969.  And in 1981, he married Cicely Tyson. He credited Tyson with helping him kick his drug and alcohol dependencies, and for getting him back on the stage. They divorced in 1988.

Miles Davis
In 1990, Miles Davis received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.  Through his music, he influenced hundreds of artists and helped many rise to prominence in the industry.  Miles summed up his attitude toward life best when he said, “You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians." 




Miles Davis
Miles Davis Grave
Miles Davis died in L.A.  on September 28, 1991 of a stroke and respiratory failure.  He was 65 years old. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

~ Joy