SWING MUSIC HISTORY

God Bless America was written during the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, in Yaphank, Long Island but remained obscure until Kate Smith made it popular in 1938. "While the storm clouds" gathered in Europe...Berlin signed over all future profits of his anthem to the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts.

John Hammond was born a child of wealth in New York City in 1910. For his contributions to American popular music...he is one the most important figures of the twentieth century. Producer, critic, writer, record executive and board member of the NAACP, he was an early crusader for racial equality and a major force in integrating the music business. He is responsible for discovering: Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Arentha Franklin...among others.

She was Eleanora Fagan or Fagan Gough or Holiday. It is said that her grandfather was one of 17 children of a black Virginia slave and a white Irish plantation owner. She was born in Philadephia or Baltimore on April 7th or 17th in 1912 or '15. Her mother's name was Sadie. Her father, Clarence, played guitar for Fletcher Henderson. She took her professional name from screen star Billie Dove and was greatly influenced by Louis Armstong and Bessie Smith. Miss Holiday began her career in small Harlem clubs then worked with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Basie before going out on her own. Other noteable colleagues include Buck Clayton, Teddy Wilson and Lester Young. John Hammond, who brought her to Columbia Records, recalled his first impression of the soulful artist: "The way she sang around a melody, her uncanny harmonic sense and her sense of lyric content were almost unbelievable in a girl of 17." Between 1933 and '44, she made more than 200 recordings for which she never received royalties. But all of that is dust, now. What remains is her glorious voice...so listen...and be glad.

My friend and partner, Charlie Busterna has impeccable time...not a bad thing for a drummer. He likes to talk about a "pocket" that is created by the proper melding of rhythmic elements in a band. It's like a great sauce, well simmered, in which the ingredients cooperate for the common good in hopes of approaching synergetic perfection.

Frederick William Green was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1911. In the early 30's, "Jazz Angel" John Hammond noticed him at the Black Cat Club in Greenwich Village and alerted Count Basie. This provoked an association that would last for almost 50 years. Green was the heartbeat of Basie's band. It wouldn't have been the same without him. His heavy gauge strings, placed further off the neck than usual along with ingenius voicings...gave a corpulent but incredibly buoyant personality to the quarter notes over which he reigned supreme. This techno-point attempts to explain the sound. The precision and art of the legendary guitarist were the mysterious products of his heart, mind and talent. Treat yourself to a tour of the Basie Discography and savor the genius of these giants of swing and check out "Rhythm Man" recorded by Mr. Green, under his own name...in which he actually plays a solo.

"I don't try to play those big 'concert' chords. I play just a couple of notes, sometimes just one, but it sets the sound of the chord. When you try to play those big chords, it can make the whole band drag." Freddie Green
"In a sixteen piece ensemble like the Basie band, there are more players than notes in the chord, so between the horns and the bass player, each chord is clearly defined. Freddie's task was to provide a solid quarter note "heart beat" at every tempo, plus avoid conflict with the bass player's lines and Basie's comping. By deadening all the strings except the fourth but striking all six, Freddie created a unique style and sound that: 1) precisely defined the beat, 2) was recognizable as a guitar timbre, 3) cut through the thick texture of a big band even though unamplified, 4) allowed the creation of subtle moving inner voice lines similar to a cello or viola part, 5) was comfortable to play at very fast tempos." Michael Pettersen

Chick Webb, born in 1909 in Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the most influential jazz drummers of all time. He led his big band from 1926 to 1939 despite a lifelong struggle with spinal tuberculosis. Webb began his career with the Jazzola Orchestra. John Truehart, a member of the group, saw Chick's talent and included him on a trip to New York in 1924. In the City, he worked with Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Johnny Hodges and Tony Hardwick. Ellington got him jobs at the Paddock Club and the Black Bottom...he was 17 years old. 1927 marks the beginning of Webb's celebrated association with the Savoy Ballroom. Leading the Harlem Stompers, he thrilled audiences with his virtuosity and exciting style. In the famous Battles of the Bands, Chick challenged and "defeated" the likes of Lloyd Scott, Fess Williams, Alex Jackson and Fletcher Henderson. Later renamed the Chick Webb Orchestra and fortified with new members such as Benny Carter, Don Redman and Edgar Sampson, they parried with Swing Era Goliaths like Ellington, Goodman and Basie. In 1934, The King of the Savoy added a 17 year old vocalist named Ella Fitzgerald and recorded tracks including Blue Lou, Blue Minor, Stompin' at the Savoy, and Don't Be That Way. By the late 30's his chronically failing health began its final stages but the ink was already dry on this remarkable page in Jazz History.

Big Band trombonist, Milt Bernhart, best known for his solo on the original 1956 recording of Sinatra's I've Got You Under My Skin, died on January 22 in Glendale California at the age of 77. Born in 1926 in Valparaiso, Indiana...his career spanned three decades during which time he performed with notables including: Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Andre Previn, Henry Mancini and Ray Brown. After traveling with bands throughout the 1940's, Bernhart settled in Los Angeles and became a regular in Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. Marlon Brando heard the All-Stars in 1954 and arranged for them to appear in his film The Wild One. This launched Bernhart as a studio musician in demand...first with Columbia and then at other motion picture and recording studios.

In 1956, Milt found himself at the Sinatra/Riddle/Capitol session recording Cole Porter's classic I've Got You Under My Skin. According to Will Friedwald's 1995 biography "Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art, Bernhart recalled that somewhere around the 10th take...a technician decided that his trombone should be closer to the microphone. But he was too short. "Sinatra himself went and got and box and brought it over for me to stand on, " Bernhart said. "It was funny!" When the session ended, Sinatra invited him into the sound booth to hear the playback. "It was the greatest honor the Chairman could have paid," the author wrote. (Excerpts from Newsday/January 29, 2004)

Johnny Hartman

Click on his picture to read the poem: Never Leave A Burning Butt On A Baby Grand Piano.
There's also a brief biographical sketch of the great artist.

If Nat Cole had not been a great singer...his piano virtuosity, alone, would have placed him in the Pantheon of Jazz Giants. I could praise him at length but the following remarks say it with much more clout and clarity.

"Here I'd like to recall various musical moments that had a significant effect on me. Some of them will deal with recordings that I consider to be important in the development of any Jazz player. Other moments concern some of the live occurrences that had a specific bearing on my own musical growth. The first reference I want to make is to a recorded album that not only enlightened me to some of the necessary components and nuances that a Jazz player must have, but also served as an inspiration to me as a pianist. I am referring to that old Capital album simply titled, The Nat King Cole Trio. I consider this album, by itself, to be a complete musical thesaurus for any aspiring Jazz pianist. Consider Nat's rendition of his "Easy Listening Blues". The performance is simple and direct; yet in it, Nat puts together all of the components that, to my way of thinking, are necessary to be able to play the blues. First and foremost, his distinctive yet soulful delivery of the melodic line sets the tone for the whole performance. His distinctly articulated touch and time, as he sets out and releases his phrases, serves to tell a story that he wants his audience to hear. For all trio players, I think it is important to take note of the restraint of the performance. No one instrument intrudes on the other, but rather serves to enhance Nat's lines. The time quotient throughout is, to my way of thinking, exact, low-key, believable and moving. Oscar Moore continues the blues conversation where Nat leaves off, and offers his own musical opinion in a manner that precisely matches the tone of this musical dialogue. There is a great lesson to be learned here by aspiring trio players, and that is that shared effort is the most important component in trio playing. Nat's flowing lines continue to the very end of this recording, and bring it to a restful conclusion. In my opinion, this is one of the most outstanding readings of the blues ever recorded, and a required listening experience for any musicians who aspire to be trio players.

A second selection I would like you to consider from the King Cole Trio album is the version of "Body and Soul." I have often referred this particular rendition to students when they have asked me about an approach to playing ballads. If we listen to Nat's interpretation of this great standard, the first thing that becomes clear is that he gives at the very beginning a respectful and moving interpretation of the melody. Having established this, he then, and only then, proceeds to deviate and interject his own feelings improvisationally into the performance. His almost languid quotation of the melody from Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King subliminally becomes a quiet understatement that in many ways enhances, rather than disrupts, the structure of Johnny Green's classic. I particularly admire the way that Oscar Moore retains this feeling established by Nat in his solo. The integration of these two musical statements, to me, serves to broaden the harmonic and melodic possibilities of this composition. This is a performance that, in my opinion, will live forever as a masterpiece of trio integration." Oscar Peterson