Benny Carter - Part 1

Part 1

Benny Carter's long life started out inauspiciously. Born on 8 August 1907, in a neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, known as San Juan Hill, almost from birth Bennett Lester Carter was faced with tough choices. In those days, San Juan Hill was home to many who made careers in crime; it was also a district where young men could, if they chose, make music. Benny Carter was one of several who chose to take a talent for music into the world of jazz. Among his cousins were Theodore ‘Cuban’ Bennett, a widely respected (although unrecorded) trumpeter, and Chicago-born clarinetist Darnell Howard. A near-neighbor was another trumpeter, James ‘Bubber’ Miley, who gained fame with Duke Ellington’s orchestra. Other neighbors were saxophonists Rudy Powell and Russell Procope and trumpeter Bobby Stark. When Carter was aged 13, he acquired a trumpet from a pawnshop, but unable to master the instrument in the couple of days he allowed for the endeavor, he went back and exchanged the trumpet for a C-Melody saxophone. This time he achieved quicker command and with the assistance of tuition from Harold Proctor and Lt. Eugene Mickell Sr., within two years he was sufficiently proficient to be made welcome when he sat in with bands in Harlem, which is where he moved with his family in 1923. With trumpeter June Clark's band, he made the switch to alto saxophone, and he then played with various bands, including those led by Billy Fowler, Lois Deppe, Earl Hines (where he played baritone saxophone), Horace Henderson, James P. Johnson, with Duke Ellington as a substitute, Fletcher Henderson, then joined Charlie Johnson's band at Smalls Paradise. He made his recording debut with Johnson, in 1928, and it is pertinent that on the date the band played two of Carter's arrangements.

A year later, Carter was leading his own band. He had rejoined Horace Henderson’s band in 1928, and when the leader quit and despite Carter’s youth the musicians chose him as leader. The following decade saw him alternating between leading a band and working as sideman and arranger the bands of Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb, and he was musical director of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. Although often overlooked, during the 1930s, Carter’s band was very highly regarded among musicians who considered it to be an unparalleled academy of musical learning. These ‘students’ in the early 1930s included pianist Teddy Wilson, tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, trombonists Dicky Wells and J. C. Higginbotham and drummer Sid Catlett. Among the bands for which he wrote charts were Chick Webb (his arrangement of Liza is especially notable), Teddy Hill, the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. Carter had meanwhile mastered the trumpet and his instrumental arsenal included alto, C-Melody, tenor and baritone saxophones, clarinet, trombone and piano.

Carter traveled to Europe in 1935, joining Willie Lewis in Paris and then spent the next three years over there, playing also in Denmark and the Netherlands. In this same period, he commuted frequently to London where he worked as an arranger for the BBC dance orchestra led by Henry Hall. During these years, he made a number of very good recordings with multi-national bands that included musicians such as Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt.

In 1938, he returned to the USA, a country now in the grip of swing fever, and formed another band with which he held a two-year residency at the Savoy Ballroom. Inevitable perhaps, but the musicality of Carter’s band, allied as it was to the unassuming dignity of his personal bearing, proved detrimental to popularity. During the big band era he had only one hit, Cow-Cow Boogie, a novelty trifle sung by Ella Mae Morse. His small group work during this period included spells with the Chocolate Dandies and the Varsity Seven. Much of Carter’s music from the 1930s through into the 1950s can be heard on a release by Proper Records. Popular acclaim aside, Carter was about to launch himself into a distinguished career in the motion picture industry.

From early in the 1940s, Carter worked in Los Angeles as an arranger, composer and orchestrator in film studios, undertaking and very effectively completing tasks for which he was often not credited. Hollywood was not yet comfortable with granting on screen credit to black musicians, however accomplished they might be. By the late 1940s, Carter’s film studio work consumed most of his time and energies, and as the next two and more decades passed he also worked extensively in television. His film work, off-screen and on, began with Stormy Weather in 1943 and continued through Edge Of Doom (1950), 1951’s An American In Paris, A View From Pompey’s Head (1955),The Sun Also Rises (1957), Too Late Blues, Town Without Pity (both 1961), State Fair (1962), A Man Called Adam (1966), Buck And The Preacher (1972), and 1975’s TVM, Louis Armstrong-Chicago Style among a very long list. On television, he worked on several popular series, including scoring many episodes of M Squad, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Banyon, and Name Of The Game.

Duke Ellington

Somewhere to start?

Fortunately for us all, very nearly everything recorded by Duke Ellington has been reissued over and over again. So much is available that newcomers to the magical musical world of this remarkable man are bound to be daunted. Cutting down the list of available albums to just three is a crazy task, doomed to failure and one that is bound to raise dissenting voices. But ... here goes. Actually, I’m cheating a little because none is a decades-wide compilation, rather they show the Ellington band in three important and somewhat different lights and thus offer intriguingly varied glimpses of one of the finest bands ever to grace jazz.

The first of these CDs is The Blanton-Webster Band (Bluebird 5659), which comes from a short but highly productive and creative period in Ellington's life. He was of course always productive and creative, but this period, 1940-42, was astonishing even by his own high standards. Several of the band's members had already spent long periods as Ellingtonians: Harry Carney, Johnny Hodges, Sonny Greer; others were relative newcomers, notably Jimmy Blanton and Ben Webster, whose contributions were of such importance that their names were ever afterwards appended as identifiers for this brief era. Nothing is weak or wasted, even the alternative versions included here add to our knowledge and understanding of and delight in the band. But is it the real Duke Ellington?

The second album, Duke Ellington At Newport 1956 (Columbia Legacy C2K 64932), marks the turning point in public awareness of the band; that evening designed by an alchemist when everything went right. Its centrepiece is, of course, the roaring Paul Gonsalves solo that bridges the two parts of Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue, even if this had the unfortunate effect of tying the saxophonist to a roof-raising role despite his being one of the most rhapsodic of Ellington's players (Webster and Hodges notwithstanding). Yet, in a way, what this album gives us, while an immensely enjoyable and true view of the band (this reissue gives us everything, including studio remakes), might also be something other than the real Duke Ellington.

If that sounds a little negative, it should perhaps be mentioned that it was Johnny Hodges who raised the question I have left hanging over the foregoing pair of truly marvelous sets of music and cast doubts upon the continued assertion from most critics and fans that these two albums are archetypal Ellington. What Hodges said was: ‘If you never heard Ellington play for dancing, then you never heard Ellington.’ It was a casual remark made to a friend but is worth thinking about, if only because Hodges was notoriously reticent and therefore anything he said is likely to have at least some truth in it. Of course, if he was accurate in what he said, then almost no one living today really heard Ellington; that’s because pretty nearly everyone around today has heard Ellington only on record or in the concert hall. And that is what the two foregoing albums are. In the case of The Blanton Webster Band we hear Ellington in the recording studio, bound by the three-minute side and, despite the glories that abound, affected as were almost all jazz musicians by the relative coldness of the setting. While Ellington At Newport was not really a concert hall, it did have that same general ambiance, albeit considerably livelier than most.

This is why the third album, The Duke At Fargo 1940 (Storyville 8361), is so special. This is a dance date, recorded with commendable foresight, by Jack Towers and Dick Burris, and with remarkably good sound considering the time and circumstances. Despite some minor technical shortcomings, this set captures that free floating spirit of an organization that was not only a great jazz band but was also a great dance band. The band's personnel is pretty much the same core of musicians as for The Blanton-Webster Band and many of the solos taken are on par with, or sometimes superior to, those on the studio dates. Over everything, though, hangs that indefinable ‘something’, an atmosphere that makes it possible to detect a glimmer of what it was that prompted Hodges to make his remark.

Having cut down the list of available Ellingtonia from hundreds to just three, I will not go further and try to choose between them and recommend just one album. Each of these is important, valuable, and in its own way a superb example of the extraordinary alchemy that was the Duke Ellington band. Bearing in mind that many might argue persuasively, with or without fanaticism, that it was the greatest band of them all, then even the impecunious newcomer would be justified in buying all of them.

Gene Krupa

Drumming Man

Today, we see pop music people everywhere, all the time. They have become instant celebrities and anything they say or do, even if it happens to be infantile (and it often is) makes the newspapers and television chat shows, even television news programmes. It wasn’t always like this. Back in the 1930s and 40s, pop music people were outside the mainstream of news. But there was at least one exception. The most popular of pop music back then was jazz ... more accurately, one particular style of jazz. This was swing music, which was for a while a powerful force in popular culture. One swing era musician who transcended the musical press and became headline news was Gene Krupa. He made non-musical headlines not only nationwide but even internationally - no mean feat in those pre-Internet, pre-television days. With his handsome presence both on-stage and on-screen (movie screens, that is), he provided a lasting visual image of the swing era. Unfortunately, and unfairly, this was not always for the best of reasons.

Gene Krupa might not have been an inspired innovator who changed the sound of jazz; put another way, neither his fans nor he himself would ever have claimed him to be a musical genius like Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker. But he did change the image of jazz and especially he changed the role of the drummer in jazz bands of all kinds. His performing persona was wild, perhaps the gesticulations were overwrought; and when allied to a sensationalized phony drugs-bust in California in the 1940s a lasting impression was forged of the jazz drummer as spaced-out crazy. It was a false impression. Not only was it false when the image was formed, it clung on through the rest of his life and even today, among the ill-informed, it clings on. This is very sad, not only because this image was wholly inaccurate and highly inappropriate when it was formed, but also because it obscures the fact that Gene Krupa was a dedicated, hard-working musician, whose love for jazz was deep and sincere. As for that overwrought gesticulator - that wasn’t a part of a stage act. He was like that in the recording studio, even in the rehearsal room. It was a genuine outward reflection of the sheer enthusiasm with which he played his music. 

Gene Krupa’s playing style, his music, his personality, his behaviour on-stage and off-stage, were all shaped by the times in which he first became a jazz musician and almost from the outset he made a mark on jazz, one that was to be lasting and which remains recognizable through to the present day. In some ways, this persistence is remarkable because at almost any point in his career it is possible to cite other drummers in jazz who were in one way or another better at what they did. Consider some of these names: alongside him in his early Chicago-style days was Dave Tough; in the early years of the swing era there were Chick Webb and Jo Jones; later in that same era was Tough again, and Buddy Rich. But Krupa’s work with Benny Goodman helped make the swing era an unequalled highpoint of the era - especially when playing in Goodman’s Trio and Quartet. His own big bands were never less than good and in the case of that of the early 1940s, which included Roy Eldridge and Anita O’Day, it was second to none. When bop came in, although Krupa was quickly overtaken by Kenny Clarke and Max Roach and all those who came along in their wake, he encouraged his sidemen and arrangers, notably Gerry Mulligan, and in the late 1940s he fronted a fine and very successful boppish big band. Krupa remained a headline attraction through the following decades, whether leading his own small group, playing in reunions of the Benny Goodman Quartet, duelling with Buddy Rich on the Jazz At The Philharmonic circuit, or leading specially-formed studio big bands to recapture past glories.


Much of the energy and excitement of his performances can be heard on record thanks to the regular reissue of some of his work. Among these CDs are:

Benny Goodman: The Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings (RCA Victor 68764), a 3-CD re-mastered compilation of the music that helped define the swing era; Benny Goodman: The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert (Avid Entertainment AMBX 151), not only a swing era highpoint, but much more besides, including soundtrack music from the 1955 movie, The Benny Goodman Story;

The Gene Krupa Story (Properbox 1), a 4-CD set that ranges through his big band work from the mid-1930s until 1947; The Complete Capitol Recordings Of Gene Krupa & Harry James (Mosaic MD7-192), a 7-CD set, which includes his 1946-7 recordings; Gene Krupa Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements (American Jazz Classics 99020), late 1940s and a 1958 revisit;

Jazz At The Philharmonic - The Beginning (Charly Le Jazz CD 41) and The Drum Battle (Verve 559 810-2); 

Drummin’ Man (Retrospective RTR 4174), a double album that ranges from early years through to JATP tours; Gene Krupa In Concert (DBK Jazz 70015), where he sits in with a Chicago traditional band in 1971; Live At The New School (Chiaroscuro CD[D] 110), recorded on 3 April 1972 with old pals Eddie Condon and Wild Bill Davison, along with Kenny Davern and Dick Wellstood; Live At The New School (Chiaroscuro CD[D] 297), recorded on 17 April 1973 with his then current small band, just a short while before his death on 16 October 1973.


Some, maybe most, of the foregoing CDs might be hard to find, but they are well worth searching for - maybe on-line second-hand sources will be your best bet.

Good places to visit for more information on Gene Krupa are Joe Pagano’s Gene Krupa Reference Page and that of my near-soundalike-namesake, Bruce H. Klauber, whose site is also the place to go for Krupa rarities on Bruce K’s own DBK label. You should also look there for videos, including Gene Krupa: Jazz Legend. If some of the videos are in US format it worth noting a UK-format source, Hudson Music Europe.

Despite the star status he enjoyed during his lifetime, there have been few books on Gene Krupa. The two that are most comprehensive are: Gene Krupa: His Life And Times by Bruce Crowther (yes, that’s me) and The World Of Gene Krupa by Bruce H. Klauber (that’s the other Bruce).

Here again, second-hand sources are perhaps your best bet. 

 

  
  

New World Jazz Composers Octet

New World Jazz Composers Octet Breaking News (Big and Phat Jazz BPJ 1022)
Led by Boston-based saxophonist Daniel Ian Smith, this group has established itself over the past few years and two previous CDs as a leading voice in composing and playing contemporary jazz to a very high standard. Among the musicians in the band are trumpeters Ken Cervenka and Walter Platt, saxophonist Felipe Salles, pianist Tim Ray, bassist Keala Kaumeheiwa, drummer Mark Walker and percussionist Ernesto Diaz. On this CD are compositions by Matthew Nicholl, Jeff Friedman and Richard Lowell as well as Walter Platt. Everything hereon is written and played with considerable intelligence and flair, from the thoroughly engaging solos to the tight and powerful ensembles, all of which come together to exhilarating effect. Especially appealing is the three-movement suite, Trilogy, composed by Ted Pease and paying tribute to pastmasters of jazz composition, Thad Jones, Billy Strayhorn and Bill Holman. The three movements are entitled, respectively, Thad’s Pad, Strays and Willis. The composer’s skill is evident from the manner in which he evokes the musical style of the dedicatees, finding punchy mainstream power in the first movement, romantically melodic charm in the second, and updated west coast bounce in the closer. This exceptionally attractive CD should appeal to all those who appreciate a contemporary twist on the important qualities of the past, qualities that the musicians Daniel Ian Smith has assembled clearly admire and respect.
 

Chuck Berghofer-Jan Lundgren-Joe La Barbera

Chuck Berghofer Trio Together Again ... At The Jazz Bakery (Fresh Sound FSR 5050 CD)

Playing for a very appreciative audience at one of the leading venues in Los Angeles, Chuck Berghofer, Jan Lundgren and Joe La Barbera prove that the huge success of their previous release, 2008’s Thanks For The Memory (Fresh Sound FSR 5048 CD), was no flash in the pan. Once again, the trio concentrate on standards, exploring the delights of Have You Met Miss Jones?, Love For Sale, Tenderly, Yesterdays, Everything Happens to Me and I’ve Never Been In Love Before. There are also jazz standards, Oscar Pettiford’s Blues In The Closet and Thelonious Monk’s Rhythm-a-ning. There is not a weak moment in this wonderfully performed session; all three men play superb solos, filled with invention and vividly demonstrating their skills. As a group, throughout they show how in tune they are with one another as they lift the music to quite remarkable heights.

Just in case you missed Thanks For The Memory, this CD pays tribute to Hollywood composer Ralph Rainger. Among the songs are Easy Living, Please, If I Should Lose You, June In January and I Wished On The Moon. All of these songs are lovingly interpreted by the three instrumentalists and the true value of the melodic gift of the composer is apparent throughout. Most of Rainger's songs were written in collaboration with lyricist Leo Robin and a measure of his contribution to their partnership can be heard when the wonderful Sue Raney steps up to sing two of their songs, If I Should Lose You and Thanks For The Memory. There is a ten-minute track that presents two radio clips from the era when the songs were written on one of which Rainger talks about his work and then plays Love In Bloom, while on the other Rainger and Robin sing the same song at an ASCAP show. These two CDs, both of which are produced by Dick Bank, are essential for jazz fans for the performances, while the earlier CD will be especially attractive to those who love the music of the era covered by those Hollywood songwriters. 

At the start of 2009, that earlier CD was a winner in the annual Critics' Poll in Jazz Journal and it came as no surprise when the new release also found favour, topping the 2011 poll as best new release.

FAB Trio (Joe Fonda - Barry Altschul - Billy Bang)

FAB Trio History Of Jazz In Reverse (TUM Records CD 028)
This remarkable trio presents an exhilarating set of original music that is filled with references to music of the past while never being anything other than thoroughly contemporary. This act of musical magic is possible in part because all three members of the trio, bassist Joe Fonda, drummer Barry Altschul, violinist Billy Bang. Throughout, the skill and virtuosity of these three musicians is outstanding. Individually, they perform brilliant solos, yet the fluid interplay of the ensemble passages is eloquent testimony to their long association and the depth of their mutual understanding. All the music on this album is composed by the trio, much of it improvised freely in session; at times they create a thunderous ensemble sound that suggests far more than just three men. The group, which takes its name from the initial letters of its members' names, had recently completed a highly successful international tour just before this December 2005 recording session and the effect this had upon them is evident from their togetherness. This CD is one of the last recordings by Billy Bang, who died on 11 April 2011, while the CD was still in post-production. Thanks to music like this, his name continues to resonate in the world of jazz.

Stéphane Grappelli - Connie Evingson

Stéphane Grappelli Improvisations (Essential Jazz Classics EJC55493)

This CD comes from a time when the violinist was between his two key periods; the first was, of course, when he was alongside Django Reihardt in the Quintette Du Hot Club De France, the second came from the 1970s onwards when he became a notable figure on the world stage. The mid-1950s sets that are heard on this CD are particularly rewarding, in part because here Grappelli is no longer a distant second to Reinhardt but is an increasingly confident leader. Perhaps deliberately, he largely avoids comparisons by working without a guitar on many tracks. In one band, he is with nominal leader pianist Jack Dieval, bassist Benoít Quersin and drummer Jean-Louis Viale; in another he is with pianist Maurice Vander, bassist Pierre Michelot and drummer Baptiste ‘Mac Kac’ Reilles, He does, though, return to his roots for a set with guitarist Henri Crolla, bassist Emmanuel Soudieux and Reilles on which he performs a couple of Reinhardt pieces, Manoir De Mes Reves and Djangology  Throughout, Grappelli displays invention and swing, is always thoroughly melodic and consistently demonstrates how jazz can be simultaneously light-hearted and emotionally fulfilling.

The lasting impact of the QHCDF can be seen from the number of bands that have followed their example through the years. For example, there are ... 

New Quintette Du Hot Club De France (Frémeaux FA542)

This group was led by Django’s son, Babik Reinhardt, who is joined by fellow guitarists Romane and Philippe ‘Doudou’ Cuillerier, violinist Florin Niculescu and bassist Gilles Naturel. This 1998 recording demonstrates the respect these musicians had for the originals. Fortunately, Babik was clearly aware that his father was inimitable and he and his colleagues seek not to copy but to breathe the master’s spirit.

The same can be said of Hot Club de Norvege on ...

Swing de Paris (Hot Club HCRCD 34)  *  Django Music (Hot Club HCRCD 219)

This band was formed in 1979 by guitarists Jon Larsen and Per Frydenlund and bassist Svein Aarbostad who soon added violinist Ivar Brodahl. The band had made a number of well-received albums and appeared at prestigious engagements, including 1984’s Paris concert honouring the 50th anniversary of Reinhardt and Grappelli’s original Hot Club de France. The first of these CDs was recorded in 1985-6. Midway through the 1980s Brodahl retired and was replaced by Finn Hauge and the group continued to play through to the present; the second CD was recorded in 2007. The band has continued to play the music of the QHCDF alongside which they agreeably play music, traditional and contemporary, that echoes other regions of Europe.

The USA is not left out and acknowledgement to Reinhardt and Grappelli can be heard on ...

Connie Evingson Gypsy In My Soul (Minnehaha MM 2006)

Recorded in 2004, this CD finds Connie Evingson in musical territory inspired by Reinhardt as she teams up with three different Django-style bands: the Clearwater Hot Club, the Parisota Hot Club and Pearl Django. The music is vibrant and colourful and singer and instrumentalists revel in the free, open swing that admirably reflects the gypsy legend. Mostly the songs are standards, along with a couple of Reinhardt's own compositions, Nuages and Anouman, the latter having a new lyric by Evingson herself.

This very accomplished jazz singer can also be heard on ...

Little Did I Dream (Minnehaha MM 2008)

Recorded in 2004, this CD album brings together Connie Evingson and pianist-composer-singer Dave Frishberg and the resulting mixture is magical. Although Dave sings only once here, his presence is everywhere. He composed the music for all 14 songs and wrote lyrics for 8 of them. He also plays piano throughout, alongside bassist Gordy Johnson, drummer Phil Hey and saxophonists Dave Karr and Mark Henderson. A lively and immensely entertaining singer, Evingson sings and swings a wide range of music, all performed with a vibrant sense of enjoyment.