Harry James

[jvf1095]

Hello As you can probably tell from reading some of my posts, I'm starting to play trumpet all over again after 50 years, & I am making progress slowly but surely. To me, Harry James played the best "horn" ever! He can make a trumpet sing, laugh, cry & talk. So here's my question as foolish as it's going to sound. Aside from being born with his remarkable talent, how did he get to play like that? What did he do to make a horn sound the way it did? Equipment, mouthpiece, the perfect jaw & embouchure structure, or was he so talented that he could have just played a galvanized pipe with a mouthpiece in it???

[JonathanM]

Yep to all. As James Morrison does quite nicely on one video, Harry probably would have sounded nice on a garden hose with a mouthpiece and a plastic flair on the end.

But he was masterful with a trumpet, wasn't he? Lot's of vids of him on Youtube. He certainly was a master. Several here at TH remember him well. Tony Scodwell played with Harry at one point, I believe. I always wait for Tony to contribute on these threads; it's a pleasure to get first hand info on the Masters, from the Masters.
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Jonathan Milam
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[kehaulani]

There's an interesting bio about Harry that you might enjoy.
https://www.amazon.com/Trumpet-Blues-Life-Harry-James/dp/0195110307/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?keywords=harry+james%2C+trumpet%2C+bio&qid=1581217546&sr=8-1-fkmr3

I believe his skill was a combination of natural ability, good early instruction and hard early practicing and playing. BTW, once he got his big chops, he hardly ever practiced again.

He also had an interesting personal life, but it would be better read about elsewhere.
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[jvf1095]

I guess once he did get his chops, there wasn't much of a need for him to practice as long as he kept playing songs & music, which to him at that time is a form of practice.

[Tony Scodwell]

It always does my heart good when posters here on the Trumpet Herald talk about Harry James in positive ways.

I was so fortunate to join his band in 1964 thanks to a recommendation by Stan Kenton. The Kenton band had just finished a tour of Great Britain and for all we knew, Stan was going to break up the band due to an upcoming divorce with his wife Ann Richards who, let us say, knew a lot of guys intimately. Stan had telephoned Harry from England saying he had a young kid on the band who would be a good fit in the trumpet section due to an upcoming opening on lead with Rob Turk settling in Las Vegas.

I got a call from Harry's manager Pee Wee Monte saying I could join the band at Harrah's Tahoe. The band room was upstairs over the lounge and the stairway was behind the roulette wheel. When I walked in Buddy Rich was standing by the roulette wheel and asked how I was doing. A little bit intimidated by Buddy (even then) I said I had a slight cut on my chops. A typical Buddy Rich response was "I didn't ask about your chops, I asked how you were doing" in a loud voice. Upstairs I went and there's Harry in his dressing room with the door open. He was very cordial and offered me one of his ties as I didn't have one like the band was wearing.

Warm up, hit the stand and sit next to Rob Turk who stayed a day longer to "show me the ropes". Rob told me to memorize the first half dozen tunes as Harry called them quite quickly. The band always opened with "The Mole" and Harry was still upstairs listening I'm sure. He hit the stage with the fanfare and segued directly into "Don't Be That Way". The long time band member Nick Buono had given me some good advice and told me the correct phrasing on "The Mole". "Play it this way or you're gone". I did my research prior to joining and had listened to recordings of the band so I was comfortable playing the style correctly. After "Don't Be That Way" Harry proceeded to stand directly in front of me all night. That's some audition.

I have to laugh nowadays with these so called "music directors" insisting you sit in some adjacent room with the book and listen to the band over a sound system before allowing you to actually sit on the bandstand and then...maybe you can play the show. "Gee, am I a professional now?"

I'm so glad I did what I did when I did it as the possibilities for younger players are definitely getting very slim. People ask me often if I'm retired. I can honestly say no with the explanation following about the current scene here in Las Vegas. "When DJ's are making $450K A NIGHT, there's not much left for us trumpet players". I do get out to areas where people still enjoy what I want to play, but even those venues are afraid to cough up the minimal amount of money required to hire me now along with the big band.

I'll finish with what I think is the mindset out there amongst trumpeters in higher academia. I approached the ITG person in charge of seminars at the upcoming convention to be held in Anaheim a year in advance, which by the way, coincided with Harry Jame's 100th birthday. I had finished a book of 30 transcriptions of Harry's most famous recordings to be published in France which included a CD of the original recordings. I was with the publisher and I tell this ITG fellow that I wanted to do a one hour session with former band members talking about life on the road with Harry and introduce my book. His reply (without hesitation) was, "the Big Fat Band will be playing and maybe we can get Wayne Bergeron to play a Harry James solo". Understand I'm a big fan of Wayne's playing but this fellow couldn't have been more insulting and my friend and I walked away without saying another word. Maybe I should've suggested having a DJ play some of Harry's older records in the lobby.

Tony Scodwell
www.scodwellusa.com

[A.N.A.Mendez]

I feel your pain. Such utter disrespect for the great ones and tradition.

I saw Harry twice, once on stage in (of all places) Lake Havasu City AZ. with Rosemary......The 2nd time was many years later, very sad. In Del Mar Ca. on a balcony looking out at the ocean with a far away look on his face. I was working next door, I waved and said hi, he just looked back at the ocean. A few months later he was gone.
He was my hero when I was a kid learning the instrument, he and Louis.
Thanks for your input Tony!
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[MF Fan]

[jvf1095]

Thanks!