WHY NOT A BIOFILM OF THE GREAT LEGEND, HARRY JAMES?

[michael manthey]

OK .. so back to the subject ... HARRY JAMES ... I would suggest all readers look at all the You Tube clips of Harry that are out there. Pass them on to your friends, and have them do the same. Next time you're in a store ... check out the reissues of Harry's LP's on CD. There are a lot of them. The Big Bands were THE Rock and Roll bands of the 30's 40's and 50's. Harry James was one of the biggest stars, not just of recordings, but also on the silver screen.
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Michael Manthey
Scodwell USA Trumpets
Stomvi USA FLEX Mpc
Bob Reeves Mpc's
Kanstul Mpc's
'The Brass Spa' Practice Mute
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Maynard Ferguson BBN Band

[Scorpion]

[michael manthey]

I don't think SPOCK had anything released, and keep in mind there is no bigger Star Trek fan than I ... now back to Harry James .. or should we start a new Harry James thread?
_________________
Michael Manthey
Scodwell USA Trumpets
Stomvi USA FLEX Mpc
Bob Reeves Mpc's
Kanstul Mpc's
'The Brass Spa' Practice Mute
www.ultrapureoils.com
Maynard Ferguson BBN Band

[toughcritic]

[

{Dr. Dean Sorensen ... I worked with a Dean Sorensen on the Glenn Miller Orchestra a number of years ago ... as in close to 20 ... yikes. Is he a trombone player?, and can you put me in touch with him?}

{I think it's a great idea, Tony and Lynn Roberts doing a tribute to the music of Harry James. There is STILL a crowd for the music of the era. I see it all the time, the nutt just has to get cracked. } [/b][/quote

Dr. Dean Sorensen is director of the Jazz Studies program in the Music Department at the Universiy of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. My son worked under him as lead trumpet in the U. of M. Jazz Ensemble 1. Just call information for the U.of M. and then get the School Of Music extension. Yes, he is a great trombone player, arranger and writer and producer of a nationally famous jazz educators program used in many of the leading colleges and universities in the U.S. Dean was a member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra for several seasons.

[ConnArtist]

I know it's wrong to hijack a thread, but I must defend my honour. Unfortunately, Mr. Nimoy did release at least one album containing "music", in addition to some other spoken word recordings:

http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/set/1931/2-sides.html

Complete with video supplied in my previous link:

http://archshrk.com/2006/08/the-ballad-of-bilbo-baggins

I will grant you the unlikelihood of live musical performance, however.

I don't think Harry James participated in this endeavor, nor do I think he could have helped it much. We can take solace in the fact that, though the masses are more likely to know who Leonard Nimoy is than Harry James, the latter is a more likely subject of a biopic, and whose music is much more likely to be heard, even if folks have no clue who is playing... just as I don't know the composers or titles of any classical music I can hum note-for-note from watching Bugs Bunny.
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1958 Conn 18A cornet
1962 Conn 9A cornet (yes, the Unicorn )
Reynolds Onyx cornet
c. 1955? Besson 10-10 trumpet
1939 Martin Imperial Handcraft “Model 37�
1986 Bach Strad 37 ML

[toughcritic]

[_Daff]

You are preaching to the choir and completely missed my point and took my statement out of context (are you a politician?), so I'll remake it......

"To further stress my point, the next time anyone here is in a group of non-musicians, ask them to name a couple (nationally recognized) trumpet players. Fair enough?"

If you read further back, I also made an analogic reference to other forms of art by artists much greater, and on a much grander scale than Harry James. No one knows them either.

No one is dissing Harry James for crying out loud. Relax, make a shrine..... listen to Ruben Simeo on youtube.

[MikeyMike]

[westview1900]

Movies that are designed to appeal to a wide audience cost a lot of money to make. To appeal to a wide market, they need well known actors. A subject who appeals to a wide audience makes the movie easier to sell. Harry James, while appealing to members of the TH, may not be as appealing to the general public. While many of us may extol his great playing, that may not be enough to get a big budget film off the ground. Harry James died in 1983, his most popular years were 35 years behind him. When Louis Armstrong died in 1971, his biggest hits were less than 10 years before his death and when Miles Davis died in 1991, his hits from the 1970's were 20 years behind him. Most people alive today were not even alive when Harry James was at his most popular. Although, I personally like his playing, any chance of a Harry James film has passed. That ship sailed about 20 years ago.
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Carpe Diem
and Plan for Tomorrow
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[_Daff]

[MikeyMike]

[olbrneyes]

Suzanne Somers obtained the rights to a biopic about Betty Grable,

However she could not find a studio to produce the movie.

Sad to say, the dumbing down of America has been successful...nobody cares about Harry James!
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Chuck Par-Due
I play a KING "Harry James" balanced, dual-bore model trumpet...refurbished by The H.N. White Co.
I play a LEGENDS HJ .26 mouthpiece, and a vintage Parduba 5* mouthpiece.

[razeontherock]

This is note-worthy: the notable Chuck Par-due has necro'd a thread! One that Hairy James never participated in, lol

[Rod Haney]

Peoples tastes have changed but straight instrumental music hasn’t changed with it. Very few guys took to the electronic aids that were as available to us as to anyone after the mic and effects boards were invented. Music simply moved past us and its really no ones fault. We could have however moved a little better along with it?? Just an opinion.
Many will say they wouldn’t play electronically even if they could, but listeners also have a choice of what they listen to. When LV shows use recorded music, guitar players and drummers are also sitting at home.
I really like rock blues and fusion and would love to be able to add the full suite of electronics to my sound. Many Many lead guitar licks can be done easily by average trumpet players (not Jeff Beck or John Mc Gloughlin, but) but how many tried. Are we stubborn?? I dont know, other than having sadness that a form of music I loved is a dying art form, that we shouldn’t try to fit in with what people do want to hear. I actually think there could be a real future for electronically assisted trumpet players with a little additional time on an effects pedal and board.
Just my .02.
Rod

[Robert P]

When's the last time any biographical film about an individual musician made a big splash? The ones I see in more recent years have been about more recent performers.

Whatever is left of the youngest of Harry's Swing-Era heyday fans are in their 80's. He seems like a big presence to us but my guess is outside of trumpet players, other musicians and whatever niche market of non-musician big-band buffs there are he's unknown. Even before the Beatles came along Harry was already a nostalgia act. Kids in the 1960's didn't know who he was - I don't envision a large percentage of their grandkids most of whom probably couldn't tell you within a decade when WWII was fought and who the major players were rushing out to see a movie about him.
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[Tony Scodwell]

I read in my morning newspaper that the great record producer George Avakian died. A while back after Peter Levinson wrote his wonderful biography about Harry James entitled "Trumpet Blues", he had interviewed a few of us that had played on Harry's band and I mentioned that I had one-off copies from the master tapes Wally Heider had recorded of our band at the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival that Wally had dubbed off for me in his Hollywood studio. Wally was there to record the Charlie Mingus "Mingus At Monterey" album and as that was later in the night he asked Harry if he might record our band's two sets. Wally was the best remote engineer in the business and the quality of what he recorded that night was amazing. Buddy Rich was on drums and the tempos were never faster nor the band ever better. Peter suggested I contact George Avakian as he produced all the big records for Harry on Columbia and the famous Miles Davis recordings later on so I called him up. He was very interested and said he'd call me back which he did. Sadly even he couldn't find anyone interested in putting these out and he apologized to me. That should tell you what little interest in a movie about Harry's life exists today. For God's sake, here in Las Vegas nobody even cares about Frank Sinatra anymore. I wonder if the DJ's making $450K a night have a Sinatra tune in the line-up?

Tony Scodwell
www.scodwellusa.com

[Ed Kennedy]

[Ed Kennedy]

[Ed Kennedy]

One of my faves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YNY39alFzc

[Robert P]