Earl Hines

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 10:05

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1980, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week, our castaway is the jazz pianist.

Presenter0:33

Earl Hines.

Presenter0:34

Welcome ashore, Earl. How do you feel about this software on Terra?

Earl Hines0:37

Roy, it's a real pleasure for me to be here. And you kind of upset me when you told me how long it was when I was here before.

Presenter0:46

Twenty-three years have been

Earl Hines0:46

Twenty-three years ago, I didn't think I was that old.

Presenter0:50

Uh

Presenter0:50

Well you're

Earl Hines0:50

Well, you're in pretty good

Presenter0:51

Good Nickel.

Earl Hines0:53

Oh yeah.

Earl Hines0:54

We haven't

Earl Hines0:56

Well, I tried to watch that. I have put on some pounds, but I got rid of'em though. You know, th they showed me how to back up from the table, see. Yes. Because I used to sit there until I'd swell up. You know, I don't do that anymore. So now my place is getting away. But I love to eat and I and I realize that at my age now I can't carry it. So I I usually exercise quite a bit. What sort of exercise?

Presenter1:19

What's all

Earl Hines1:20

Well, I carry my own influence with me.

Earl Hines1:23

the, uh, stretching exercises and uh hand clips that I use for playing the piano and all that, do you know what I mean?

Earl Hines1:32

And uh it then of course the the regular leg stretching and arm stretching, what have you. But I I I c I wish it was televised, I could show you.

Presenter1:41

Right.

Presenter1:42

Now you know you're almost a a legendary figure in the jazz world, and I'm looking forward to hearing again about some of your past and present triumphs. Did you find it difficult to choose just eight discs to take with you?

Earl Hines1:55

Yes, I did, because uh over a period of years all the thousands of musicians or uh that I know, vocals,

Earl Hines2:05

And instrumental, and it really was different. Very difficult.

Presenter2:09

What's the first one you've got there?

Earl Hines2:11

The first one I have is uh Don Redmond.

Presenter2:12

Yeah.

Earl Hines2:15

And the reason I have Don Redmond is because he

Earl Hines2:18

was way ahead as far as uh music was concerned and uh he's always looking for new ideas. He's a young man at that time that played all the instruments in the band.

Earl Hines2:30

That is the brass and the reed instrument, and I remember one time his bass player didn't show up, and he played a left-handed bass.

Earl Hines2:37

And then they played left-hand guitar and I didn't believe it until I saw it. A lot of people didn't actually realize it.

Presenter2:42

And what instrument is he playing the sound?

Earl Hines2:44

We spend the alto on that.

Presenter3:14

Don Redmond, Chant of the Wee, and that was recorded in 1940. Do you remember the very first record you made yourself?

Earl Hines3:23

The first record I made?

Earl Hines3:26

Well, the first record I made was with uh Laws Depp.

Earl Hines3:30

And that was in Richmond, Indiana, on Jeanette Label.

Earl Hines3:35

and each instrument had their own horn.

Earl Hines3:38

And it was a room that was full of steam. They steamed that room for tone to in order to get sound. And we'd stand there about fifteen, twenty minutes, you have to take your coat and your shirt off, you know.

Earl Hines3:49

And uh then they had uh wax for records. We had to wait for the wax to be set up. And they uh it took about oh, around fifteen, twenty minutes before the wax was hot enough for to record.

Earl Hines4:02

And then we're the trouble was, it's not like tape now.

Earl Hines4:07

You had to be very careful of every little sound you made because if we had if it ruined, we had to wait another twenty-five minutes or thirty minutes before the other h wax was hot.

Presenter4:17

And then go back to the beginning.

Earl Hines4:18

Everybody's very, very careful and and waiting for that drummer, especially on the end, don't drop a cymbal or nothing, you know, and everybody's staying quiet and you sit there like a mouse, you see.

Earl Hines4:28

Well, that takes

Presenter4:28

Us back over fifty years, but let's go even further back than that. You were born in Pennsylvania.

Earl Hines4:34

Yeah, this works.

Presenter4:35

Uh

Earl Hines4:35

Pennsylvania, yeah.

Presenter4:36

And music-loving parent.

Earl Hines4:38

Well, I was surrounded by my father played cornet, my mother played organ, and my uncle played all of the brass instruments, and my

Earl Hines4:47

Auntie was in light opera.

Earl Hines4:48

Did your mother give you your first piano lesson? Yes, she did.

Earl Hines4:51

You played the organ in church yourself for a while. That's right, yes, uh-huh. For three dollars a month.

Speaker 44:58

Yeah.

Earl Hines4:58

Yeah.

Speaker 44:58

Uh

Earl Hines4:58

Uh

Speaker 44:58

Uh

Earl Hines4:58

Uh

Speaker 44:58

Uh

Earl Hines4:58

Okay.

Presenter4:59

Uh

Earl Hines4:59

70 cents a week. Oh, damn. I had arguments about that. You know, just talking if I miss one Sunday, a good grade off me missed one service, they'd say, Well, we're paying him three dollars a month, he missed the service.

Speaker 44:59

Uh seventy cents a week.

Presenter5:00

Oh

Earl Hines5:10

So I don't know what the deduction has been. My father used to collect my salary.

Presenter5:14

Uh

Presenter5:15

You toyed with the idea of being a concert pianist, I know. And and for a while you took up the cornet.

Earl Hines5:20

Well, I uh truthfully speaking, El Roy, I uh wanted to play any I in fact I fooled around with dad's all of his instruments that he had in the band.

Earl Hines5:31

And the reason I selected the cornet'cause he was playing it and he did a very good job on it. And uh the reason why I wanted to play it is because uh I felt that uh it didn't have no too much of an instrument to carry around with me and uh and I thought it was a sort of an instrument I could stand out front with, you know, see. And uh then I liked the tone of the cornet too, see.

Earl Hines5:52

But what happened after I tried to play it, they didn't have no non-pressure system. It used to hurt me behind my ears, so I put it down. And after I learned the piano,

Earl Hines6:01

We were playing a lot of halls and we didn't have amplification.

Earl Hines6:05

and they had upright pianos and they give me a solo and I'm trying to trying to play a little fingering like I used to do on my classical tunes and I couldn't be heard. So I thought of the trumpet style. I thought of what my father was playing to lead the band with. So I used trumpet style and orchestras on the piano and used trumpet style and I cut through the band. That's where all the pianists began to use the same thing.

Earl Hines6:26

How old were you when you had your first job? Sixteen. In a club?

Earl Hines6:29

Yeah, I was working in a club then. How much did they pay you?

Earl Hines6:32

Well, I think I got fifteen dollars a week and my uh room and board.

Earl Hines6:36

Yeah. Then It's Thank you.

Presenter6:37

We went to Chicago.

Earl Hines6:39

From Chicago, yeah, well, the the gentleman owned the club in Pittsburgh.

Earl Hines6:42

He had decided to open a club in Chicago, but he had a lot of trouble with the musicians' union there, and so he said, I'll go back and get my band. That's when I came to Chicago with a guy named Vernie Robertson, who had the band.

Earl Hines6:54

And then after Bernie uh and the proprietor didn't get along, they fired Bernie and gave me the band. Well, I didn't have a trio, so but nevertheless we was having a lot of fun anyway.

Presenter7:04

And that it was about then that you met Louis Armstrong.

Earl Hines7:07

Yes, yes, during that time, yes.

Presenter7:07

Yes, and became great friends.

Presenter7:11

Well, those records you made with him as the the Louis Armstrong Hot Five had a tremendous impact. They they they really got you launched.

Earl Hines7:18

Yes, I think.

Presenter7:19

I think so.

Presenter7:20

Right, let's have your second record. What have we got here?

Earl Hines7:24

Well, I'm gonna choose Jack Hilton next. And what do you want him to play? Well, I wanted Jack to play, uh.

Earl Hines7:30

one of the fine tunes of yesteryear.

Earl Hines7:33

And it was called uh

Earl Hines7:35

Have you met Miss Joan?

Earl Hines7:38

And the reason why I said that is because

Earl Hines7:41

I wrote a tune called Ann,

Earl Hines7:44

And uh her name is Ann Jones. So when Have You Met Miss Jones came out, I made a medley of it. So Have You Met Miss Ann Jones.

Presenter7:51

It was a very, very popular move, I'm sure.

Earl Hines7:54

Yeah.

Presenter7:54

And you knew Jack Hilton, of course, I knew very well.

Earl Hines7:56

I knew very well. I knew him very well and he was he's a happy go lucky fellow during those days. I guess we all were when we were younger, huh? But anyway, he he made such friendship.

Earl Hines8:07

with all the all the band leaders until they all every opportunity they had they'd go down and hear him and then he would slip off and away from his band and come hear us.

Earl Hines8:15

So that's the type of guy he was.

Presenter8:19

Have you met Miss Joan?

Presenter8:22

Someone said as we shook hands, she was just Miss Jo.

Presenter8:31

Then I said, Miss Jo

Presenter8:35

You're a girl who understands. I'm a man who must be free. And all at once I lost my breath. Jack Hilton in his orchestra with Sam Brown as vocalist.

Presenter8:50

Now going back to the Chicago days, Earle, there's a story that you and Louis Armstrong used to fill in bad patches by playing in a cinema for silent movies. Is that true?

Earl Hines9:01

While we played in the theater conducted by Erskine Tate,

Earl Hines9:06

And uh we uh well we're working in the Sunset Cafe at night, and we'd leave there around four o'clock in the morning and we'd have to open the theater about eleven in the in the morning. It was terrible, you know.

Presenter9:17

Yeah.

Earl Hines9:18

And we were playing for Silent Pictures.

Presenter9:21

I would love to have heard you two playing Hearts and Flowers. That would be a good idea.

Earl Hines9:21

I would love

Earl Hines9:24

Well well to tell you the truth about it, w it was so much fun. We were trying to watch the director, you know, and it's trying to look at the movies too. And Louis and I had never ha experienced looking at a movie, you know, in a theater like that. And when they get a good picture in there, instead of us watching the director, we're looking at the movies and we're running all over that. And he said he had to let both of us go.

Earl Hines9:45

We never did watch the conductor.

Presenter9:47

You were still in your very early twenties, I I think twenty three when you formed your own band in Chicago at Underground Terror.

Earl Hines9:53

Grand Terrace. That's right. Grand Terrace Cafe.

Presenter9:56

That was a big club, big floor show, radio broadcast and all the rest of it. That's right. Uh-huh.

Earl Hines10:00

No resident.

Presenter10:02

Now Chicago in the twenties, that was a tough era. I believe Al Capone owned a piece of the Grand Terrace as well.

Earl Hines10:09

So Al Capone came in after we were over about two years and he says we're going to take 25%.

Presenter10:16

Just like that.

Earl Hines10:17

That's like that's just like that and and the gentleman that owned the club was a guy that couldn't talk very good English.

Earl Hines10:24

And he says, what do you mean, take twenty five percent? He said, Well, we're going to take twenty five percent. We're going to give you protection. He said, I don't need no protection. Two years I've been making money and I don't need no protection now. I for one year I had to suffer.

Earl Hines10:37

I just now begin to realize that I'm making a living for my family and I. He said, Well, you got two children, you like them, don't you? He said, You wouldn't do that He said, No, I wouldn't, but uh unless we get twenty five percent So he gave him twenty five percent, and every night there'd be a man come in the back door,

Earl Hines10:53

two of them i uh on the floor and one in the front door.

Earl Hines10:56

And one was at the cash register. So that's all it took, twenty five percent. And he called a meeting one day and not him, but his uh lieutenant, for his name Fusco, and he called a meeting and said, I want to meet everybody that's in the o organization, the show people, the band musicians and the waiters.

Earl Hines11:14

And he said, I want all of you to be like the three monkeys. You hear nothing, you see nothing, and you say nothing. And that's what we did, and that's why we got along.

Presenter11:21

How long were you with the grand terrorist?

Earl Hines11:23

Twelve years from nineteen twenty eight to nineteen forty.

Presenter11:26

Was there any trouble with Capone when you w you wanted to leave?

Earl Hines11:30

No, uh Capone was the one that wanted me to stay there. He's the type of guy that uh he's a very congenial fella. The the the worst things that people say about him, I I have to say the good things about him because uh he says, you know, everything that's happened in Chicago, they blame it on me anyway. He said, But I got a big show I can carry.

Presenter11:37

Watch it.

Earl Hines11:47

'Cause I remember the time when Chicago had so much snow out there you had to dig a path to get to where you were going.

Earl Hines11:53

And the real estate people were putting people out of their homes and setting the furniture out in the snow, and he used to bring a truck around there and pick up the furniture and get them a place to live until they could find the spot. And he had a restaurant over there twenty four hours a day for poor people. And didn't have to pay nothing, just go in there and eat. So these are some of the things that he did that was uh that I thought was very nice, and I didn't.

Earl Hines12:14

That's why I didn't dwell on the things that that people say he did, because we were working constantly all the time and uh we never did see any of these things happen.

Earl Hines12:23

And the Valentine Day, I was about a block away from that. Al Capone said they blamed me for that. I wasn't even nowhere, I wasn't nowhere around.

Presenter12:30

That was the massacre in in the garage.

Presenter12:34

In its later days your band had some

Presenter12:36

were extra distinguished members, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,

Presenter12:40

And uh there's a label stuck on it now, the cradle of beep op. Did you go along with what they were experimenting with?

Earl Hines12:47

No, I didn't like it, Roy. I uh it was getting away from the melody a lot.

Earl Hines12:54

But then we had to stay with what the young people were asking for at that particular time. And I knew these boys were ambitious and I always had I left a a field for any improvement if they want to do it.

Earl Hines13:08

And some of the things, I told him I didn't like these things, but Dizzy made me some arrangements, so did Charlie.

Earl Hines13:13

And I had about twelve bebop arrangements in my book, but I think what happened there was I think they gave it a bad title. At the end of the thing, uh, by the time they got to finishing it, they'd run out of breath.

Earl Hines13:27

And that's why they called it Bebop.

Earl Hines13:29

But it was a very bad name, I think. I think it would it would have gone farther than he did if it hadn't been for that. But then too, on the other hand, then the the arrangers got out of hand. They got completely away from the melody.

Earl Hines13:41

And the public didn't know what was happening. And then the music was fast, it was not danceable, and so that's what I think actually heard Bebop.

Earl Hines13:49

Let's have your third record. What's that to be?

Earl Hines13:52

Well, that third record will be a recording by a very close friend of mine. We used to exchange arrangements. And the reason I did is because he had uh a glee club that I liked.

Earl Hines14:03

the the coral group and uh

Earl Hines14:07

I was trying to figure out how in the world I would ever have something like that. I didn't know where I could find them, didn't know whether I'd have time to train them or not.

Earl Hines14:15

But we exchanged uh musical arrangements and then he gave me one one time with a with a choral group. He said, Well, go to your church and have the choir sing it, you know So I said, Well, I can't carry the choir on the road with me, you know.

Presenter14:22

Here's your

Earl Hines14:26

But uh

Earl Hines14:27

He was experimenting and he made a great job out of it, and that's Fred Raring.

Earl Hines14:33

And I love this choral group, and I love this style, and I love the showmanship that the group had on stage.

Speaker 414:59

The strength of

Presenter15:09

Sleep by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians with The Greek Club.

Presenter15:14

You gave up the responsibility of running the big band.

Presenter15:17

1948, I think it was. What did you do then?

Earl Hines15:20

Well, what happened?

Earl Hines15:22

is a little difficulty with an agency. And I won't say who the agency was, but because I didn't stay with an organization that they had,

Earl Hines15:32

he decided would blackball me. So he blackballed me for a couple of years. Well, then I thought, Well, I'll open up a club of my own.

Earl Hines15:40

But it wasn't a jazz club, it was a night club.

Earl Hines15:43

And uh not being able to handle everything. I was handling the band, I was handling the show, I couldn't handle the people in there. I had a manager, and he all he was interested is all the pretty young ladies were coming there. I couldn't find him after the time.

Speaker 415:57

Yeah.

Earl Hines15:57

So I had to finally finally find something to do to get away from the van. And then at that time, Joe Glazer came out.

Earl Hines16:05

Joe had been sending for me for time and time again and said, Earl, I am getting an organization together for all the band leaders.

Earl Hines16:12

says since the big bands have gone out of style,

Earl Hines16:14

I I thought that uh this would be a smart idea. He called me from New York and I said, Well, yeah, that's all right. I don't know. He said, Well, uh I'd like for you to join the band He said, All I want you to do is go spend eight weeks with Louie, four in New York and four in Europe.

Earl Hines16:31

And the four in New York was at the Roxy Theater in New York and then I was supposed to come over to France for uh uh p Panassee.

Earl Hines16:39

Uh yeah.

Presenter16:40

Yeah

Earl Hines16:42

And uh I uh ended up being with him uh three years.

Presenter16:46

We got to know you in person over here when you were with Jack Teegard in nineteen fifty seven. You played the first foot hall, I remember, at the Coliseum. Since then you've done many overseas tours and you played the Far East. Is that rewarding?

Earl Hines17:00

Far East? Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, Hong Kong and Tokyo and what have you. Oh, I love them always.

Presenter17:06

And talking of the Far East brings us to the title of of the next number you've chosen.

Earl Hines17:11

Oh yeah, East of the Sun.

Earl Hines17:13

I like Easter Sunday because it was Tommy Dorsey, who's my very close personal friend.

Earl Hines17:19

And uh we used to stay at each other's home. And Tommy was a guy that the reason I loved him so much is because he was a guy at one time I don't know whether you're familiar with the fact that he used to play trombone and trumpet.

Earl Hines17:31

and when he got to the place where he's playing trumpet Louis made him put his trumpet up.

Earl Hines17:35

And uh he sang trombone. I forgot the trombone player at that time, but very hot, and he made him put his trombone up, so he went in the woodshed and come out with this beautiful tone.

Earl Hines17:44

And that's what put him back in the spotlight, and I always loved him for that because he never did give up.

Earl Hines17:50

And that's why I thought that this Easter Sun would give the people an idea of what I'm talking about, the tonation this man has, because during those years,

Earl Hines17:57

The musicians that played instruments tried to sound it as close to the human voice as they possibly could. You can tell it by this trum also on East of the Sun.

Presenter18:38

East of the Sun, Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.

Presenter18:42

For many years, Earl, you've had the nickname Father. Earl Father Hines. Why, Father? You had this when you were a young man. How did it start?

Earl Hines18:50

Well, it was uh given to me by Ted Pearson.

Earl Hines18:54

I was doing a network from Chicago

Earl Hines18:57

to New York and from Chicago to California. The broadcasting. Broadcasting. And uh so we'd sign on at uh eleven o'clock and play from Chicago to New York. Then we'd sign off and then we'd sign back on and play to California.

Earl Hines19:10

And uh there was a guy that was very mu musically inclined.

Earl Hines19:14

That was our engineer as well as the announcer.

Earl Hines19:18

And he had a habit, a drinking habit, that I didn't know anything about,'cause now we call him winos'cause he liked wine, you know.

Earl Hines19:25

I didn't know anything about it, but the president of the network said to me, Earl, if you like this fellow, you better talk to him because we fired him twice and the third time to charm. I said, Well, what's the trouble? He says, No, I'll just tell you now, just talk to him. And so I I still didn't know what was going on, so I went down before the show. And what we have there in the Grand Test, we had a big show that went on.

Speaker 119:42

Yeah.

Earl Hines19:45

before the uh broadcast. It would come off to about fifteen minutes to uh eleven and we'd have fifteen minutes intermission, then we'd go on the broadcast.

Earl Hines19:54

So I went down and I said, Ted, tonight the boss is listening, let's put on a good show And he says, Well, we put on a good show every night. What are you trying to tell me something? I said, No, I just wanna know just really let's really put a show on a lady and be very proud of it. He says, So one way we pass on, we went on and did this show. I come off the stage on the mission, the drummer said he's laying on the table.

Earl Hines20:15

I said, What? I got fifteen minutes. I ran down there and oh, boy, I told I told him everything I could think of. We had to get hot coffee, cold towels, ice and everything else to get him together. And my theme song was Deep Forest. So he thought himself getting back at me.

Earl Hines20:31

He said, Here comes Father Hines through the forest with his little children. So the head of the network said, Leaving in.

Presenter20:37

You collaborated on on Deep Forest with with a Scotsman who was very well loved in this country.

Earl Hines20:43

Oh, yeah, yeah. Rachel Adams. He came over to the United States with a vocalist called Walter.

Presenter20:44

Yeah, that was a

Earl Hines20:50

Richardson, he was a background for him.

Earl Hines20:53

And uh so he stayed at my house.

Earl Hines20:56

And uh we got together and uh

Earl Hines20:59

He was a very good pianist, and a very good arranger.

Presenter21:00

Very good.

Earl Hines21:02

And so uh he did s I introduced him to Paul Whiteman and when he left my organization he went with Paul Whiteman. And he did a great job. He was a great boy and I I was really crazy about him.

Presenter21:09

Plan

Earl Hines21:14

Very fine.

Presenter21:15

Let's have another record. We've got to number five. Watch that.

Earl Hines21:18

Number five is Bill Farrell.

Earl Hines21:21

This is a strange thing for me to make a remark about because I've always loved male vocals to be a male vocalist. He was no crooner, he was a singer.

Earl Hines21:31

And I used to hear him with Bob Hope when Bob Hope had a big show, a radio show there in the United States.

Earl Hines21:38

and he uh he was getting such a big reputation

Earl Hines21:42

And people began to like him so well until he started to show his colors and.

Earl Hines21:47

and uh throwing his weight around around Bob Hope. So Bob Hope blackballed him air for a

Earl Hines21:52

the rest of his life. I guess he's never been back and and I and I hadn't heard no more about him until I was in Canada.

Earl Hines21:59

And I just went out to buy some records. I had bought a new record machine.

Earl Hines22:04

And I said, I'm going to get some records. So I went down to the store and this lady said, well, you have some vocals here that you want to hear. And I put his voice on. I said, oh, man, this is something.

Earl Hines22:13

So I picked up those records and carried them with me.

Earl Hines22:17

And I never enjoyed a voice any better than I did his, and I still love his style.

Speaker 422:23

It isn't fair for you to count me.

Speaker 422:31

How can you make me care this way?

Speaker 422:38

It isn't fair for you to want me.

Speaker 422:45

If it's just for a thing.

Presenter22:51

Bill Farrell singing It Isn't Fair. Just lately you've written a book or or dictated a book.

Earl Hines22:57

Yeah.

Earl Hines22:58

There's a book called The World of Earl Hines. And that was done to a very personal friend of mine, also Stanley Dance. He's been a representative of mine.

Earl Hines23:07

Now for going on fifteen years. And what a gentleman he is. He's from England.

Earl Hines23:13

And uh he's the cause of me going back into band business because I was giving up.

Earl Hines23:19

the band. I was gonna give up my music and all. I got sort of discouraged with agents and what have you and Stanley says, No, he says, I if I were you, I wouldn't He said, Because you're one of the guys that we need around, a giant of jazz, and we need fellows like you to keep the to keep the pace going.

Presenter23:38

Apart from music, what are your relaxations? You used to be crazy about baseball. Do you still have to do that?

Earl Hines23:42

Well, I like all sports. Well, I came up in the sports world. My father opened a boys' club when I was a youngster and I most of the things I was doing is boxing, amateur boxing. And I learned that uh because my father wanted me to know how to protect myself. Also good for health.

Earl Hines23:59

because of the training that you have to do to be a boxer.

Earl Hines24:03

And then I uh used to travel with uh a a black team called the Homestead Grays baseball.

Earl Hines24:10

And then I loved football in college.

Earl Hines24:12

I was a sprinter, to tell you the truth about it. I was I ran and they couldn't catch me after they gave me the ball, I was gone. So I was playing the end on in and on the football team. There was uh one team put two two hundred pound boys on on that side to wait for me. So my father said, That's the end of it. No more.

Speaker 124:27

M

Earl Hines24:29

No more football, but I love it anyway and I love sports and and I think that's been my my success and keep my health.

Presenter24:36

We've now got to disc six.

Presenter24:38

Watch that.

Earl Hines24:39

I was a very close friend of uh Nat Cole.

Earl Hines24:42

And that u and I used to sit and talk quite often in regards to different compositions that he thought that should have made some kind of a a print in the music world.

Earl Hines24:54

And he said that I don't know why this number never did hit. He said that it's a favorite of mine called It Happened to Be Me.

Earl Hines25:00

And the man that's playing is also a close friend of mine.

Earl Hines25:04

And he always come round and he used to take his two fists and hit himself in the chest and say, I'm the bear, you know, and think he was the baddest guy in the world. And very few people could talk to him after he'd had a couple of little tastes, you know.

Speaker 125:12

Yeah.

Earl Hines25:15

And I used to go out and say, now come on, fella, you know better than that, you know. And I'd finally get him straightened up. And any time anything would happen, they'd call me, no care where I was. Earl, come down and get him, you know. But what a musician he was. He's the greatest tenor player that I've heard in a long while. He had a style of his own. And that's Ben Webster I'm speaking about. And he played this tune, and it's called It Happened to Be Me.

Speaker 425:39

Um

Speaker 426:05

Can I come up with

Presenter26:29

It Happens to Be Me by Ben Webster. Let's go straight into your seventh record. What have we got next?

Earl Hines26:36

Well, next is a no number that I I always did love.

Earl Hines26:41

But uh there's a girl here that really knew what feeling was. She didn't record just for the money and it she didn't care about the money end of it.

Earl Hines26:51

She recorded because she felt these songs.

Earl Hines26:54

And she had a style all of her own, and I'll always love her for her way she sang because she didn't try to copy nobody.

Earl Hines27:02

And the way she felt the song is the way it was expressed on this tune called Trust in Me, and that's Dinah Washington.

Speaker 427:10

Trust in me in all you do.

Speaker 427:17

Have the faith I have in you.

Speaker 427:23

Love will see us through.

Speaker 427:27

If only you trust in me.

Speaker 427:36

Come to me.

Speaker 427:38

When things go wrong

Speaker 427:42

Claim to me and

Speaker 427:45

I'll be strong

Speaker 427:49

We can get along.

Speaker 427:53

As long as you trust in me.

Presenter27:57

Trust in Me by Dinah Washington. Earl, how are you going to make out on this desert island? Could you look after yourself?

Earl Hines28:04

Oh, yeah, because uh what I'm going to do out there, I'm going to carry all of my uh exercise implements that you have, and I'm going to uh do a little walking around the island.

Earl Hines28:17

And I'm also going to do the running around the island if it's possible. Could you build a hut, a shelter of some sort? Oh, yes. I'd like to have a shelter or something, you know, and uh I don't know exactly what it's gonna be, but it'll be something that I'll like.

Earl Hines28:32

Would you try to escape?

Earl Hines28:33

No.

Earl Hines28:35

Not as long as I have this type of recording.

Presenter28:37

Yeah, sit in the sun and listen to what's your eighth recording.

Earl Hines28:40

Well, I'll tell you the one I'd like to play now is a guy that uh well, who doesn't love him? Everybody loved him. And he was a man who was a great master of ceremonies a and a he played an awful lot of piano. A lot of people didn't realize how much piano he could play.

Speaker 428:54

Mm.

Earl Hines28:55

He used to tell me time and time again, he says, Earl, there's no money to be made off of Big Band nowadays just here recently. He says, but I just love to hear the band. And he says, and I'm going to continue to have the band as long as I'm able to to carry an organization touring. He says, of course, I do a lot of writing for other people. He says, but my band is always going to be with me.

Earl Hines29:16

And he'd sit down and write s such beautiful things. Here's one here that's called Satin Doll. And what a style and what an arrangement and what a guy. That's Duke Ellington.

Presenter30:17

Duke Ellington's orchestra playing his composition Sat in Dahl recorded in nineteen fifty three. If you could take only one disc out of this eight, which would it be?

Earl Hines30:28

Aw, Roy, why tighten me up like that? You know, all them beautiful recordings. But tell you the truth about to make me reminisce a lot.

Earl Hines30:37

and think about the days and the wonderful days I've had.

Earl Hines30:41

I would say Dinah Washington.

Presenter30:43

Dinah Washington singing Trust in Me.

Earl Hines30:45

Yeah.

Presenter30:46

Now, you're allowed to take one luxury, but I think you've already chosen that. You said you wanted to take your physical culture.

Earl Hines30:52

So that's your luxury.

Presenter30:53

So that's your luxury. And you're allowed one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, and we don't want a big encyclopedia. Now, anything else you like.

Earl Hines31:00

The closest friend I ever had in my life, Duke Ellington's book.

Earl Hines31:04

Yeah.

Presenter31:04

Did he write it himself?

Earl Hines31:07

No Stanley Dance

Earl Hines31:08

Wrote this book as well as writing mine.

Presenter31:12

The world of Duke Ellington, and thank you, Earl Hines, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Earl Hines31:17

Well, thank you, Roy, for giving me the opportunity. I certainly appreciate it. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 131:30

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.