Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
American band leader and hot jazz musician.
On the island
Eight records
It features, for instance, Johnny Hodges on Alto Saxophone, and he's been a great source of lovely music as far as I am concerned. When I play the alto saxophone I sort of emulate Johnny, not nearly as well, but that's what I do.
Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald
This is a rather early tune written by Ellington, very early, as a matter of fact. However, this version is not that early. And it's a good one.
I like for several reasons. First of all, I like Hoagie Carmichael's music. This is one of his stardust. And I certainly always enjoyed Artie Shaw. Because I think he's a lovely clarinetist. And on this particular recording there's an excellent Rouen Soul by a man who I think was a very inventive and very original guy. His name is Jack Jenny.
Moonlight in VermontFavourite
Johnny Smith Quintet featuring Stan Getz
I think I would like to do one that I think is one of the most relaxing sounds in the world. It's a lovely tune, Moonlight in Vermont. And it's Johnny Smith's quintet, and it features the sound of Stan Goetz, who was the young man on the scene at the time. And a member of your band for some time. Oh, yes, yes indeed. He was one of the original Four Brothers.
this is one where we had the good fortune of uh doing a long lengthy tour with Frank Sinatra and it was our band and Frank, and this is a great old tune called I've Got You Under My Skin.
I've Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)
Woody Herman Band with Mary Ann McCall
This next tune is a great one, written by Duke Ellington, once again. I've got it bad, and that ain't good, and this young lady A great jazz singer was with me in the late thirties and returned when this record was made in the late 40s, Mary Ann McCall.
I think one of the most underrated singers in the entire world is the man we just lost just recently, and it's a great loss. His name is Johnny Hartman. And I think he's one of the people that should have been a gigantic star in the music world. Here he is to sing You Are Too Beautiful.
it's a record by Benny Goodman, whom I consider to be one of my clarinet teachers. And I think everybody else who's been around for any length of time has listened to Benny and been influenced by his great ability. He's a great classical player and a great jazz player. This is an original tune written for him by his arranger of that period, Eddie Sauter, and it's called Benny Rides Again.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:46Could you adjust yourself to loneliness?
Well, I'm a kind of a loner to begin with, so it wouldn't probably be a big uh adjustment. I spend a great deal of time by myself, and I rather enjoy it.
Presenter asks
4:07When did you change from vaudeville to music? Was that a conscious decision or did it just happen?
No, it just didn't happen. When I entered high school, I guess, uh, my first year in high school is about thirteen. And this is about the time that I started to find a very few records. Records were hard to come by back in those years and uh I found some early Red Nichols and some uh Dixieland Five group jazz records. Then I heard a band from Washington, DC and the man's name was Duke Ellington … And I was very much impressed by the originality of the sounds and the different rhythm patterns. And that's when I made up my mind to become a hot jazz musician. And I think when I first announced this to my parents, they went into a state of shock for days … [they] gave me a lot of uh rein to let myself do what I wanted to do.
Presenter asks
9:21How did you get shot? Were you involved in this or you were just an innocent passerby?
We were put upon by um three thugs, I guess you could call them. And we resisted. There was a bass player friend of mine and Fuzzy Knight, a comic who was playing on the bill with us at the Granada. So we gave these guys some resistance and the first thing I knew one of them pulled out a gun and let me have it. But fortunately it didn't do any great harm.
The keepsakes
The book
Duke Ellington
Well, I think I would like a copy of um the book that Ellington did called Music is My Mistress.
The luxury
Well, even if the island was so small that I couldn't really use it, but to touch and to feel of it. and remember how it would feel to be driving it. I would have a Jaguar X G six and um that would be my luxury.
Presenter asks
19:15You had an association with Igor Stravinsky that was rather exciting. How did that come about?
It came about through a mutual friend of mister Stravinsky and mine, a musician. who spent a lot of time socially with Stravinsky, and he would take our records up to mister Stravinsky's house in the hills in Hollywood and subject him to our mu music. And evidently he was impressed because one day While I was in New York, I received a lengthy wire from Mr. Stravinsky saying that he was writing a piece for our band, and it would be called Ebony Concerto, and it would be a three-section piece, and uh he would be in New York in December to rehearse it. And this would be his Christmas gift to the band and to me.
Presenter asks
23:55What is the main difference now between the musicians of today and the musicians of forty years ago when you were starting out?
Well, they're so far superior and so much better musically educated and so more professional than any of us were back in the olden days. I'm very proud of our musical education system, particularly in the States. I think they're doing a masterful job. We have some of the greatest jazz departments in all our state universities and in private schools. And it starts at the early age of junior high school, eighth and ninth grades. And then goes on to high school and they receive great instruction and great direction. So quite a number of your musicians have musical degrees. Oh, yes, almost everyone in the band has a music degree from one very good music department or another. And several have their masters, so they've done a lot of work before they meet me.
“Well, I'm a kind of a loner to begin with, so it wouldn't probably be a big uh adjustment. I spend a great deal of time by myself, and I rather enjoy it.”
“And I was very much impressed by the originality of the sounds and the different rhythm patterns. And that's when I made up my mind to become a hot jazz musician. And I think when I first announced this to my parents, they went into a state of shock for days because they felt that in the theater you had a fighting chance to be something, but not a jazz musician.”
“Yes, I did. Well, those were the days of Prohibition, uh the twenties. Yes, yes indeed. Well, thirties actually. I got there. I joined the band in nineteen thirty one. Yes. And I was with the band about two weeks when I was held up in a midnight kind of thing uh after I left the club. I used to go over to hear Earl Heinz band. At the Grand Terrace they played all night. And um when we left there that morning to go back to the hotel we were held up and I was shot in the leg.”
“It would have been, but this man is remarkable, and what he did, knowing that we were a jazz group, He a man who usually is a master of tempe, he might have a half a bar of six, eight and a bar of nine, twelve and so on. And he wrote this entire piece in four, knowing that that's the way we usually play it. And it made it much more accessible for us to uh be able to play it. However, it was a very, very difficult piece. But he had the patience of Job. He would count, whistle, clap his hands and count some more and hum it to us, or whistle it if necessary.”
“Well, they're so far superior and so much better musically educated and so more professional than any of us were back in the olden days. I'm very proud of our musical education system, particularly in the States. I think they're doing a masterful job. We have some of the greatest jazz departments in all our state universities and in private schools.”