One Night Stand - Harry James

 

Mam Bongo

One Night Stand

Recorded At The Aragon Ballroom, Chicago

Columbia CL 522

Originator of The Modern Long Playing Record

1953

Trumpets: HarryJames, Nick Buono, Arthur DePew, Everett McDonald, Ralph Osborn

Trombones: Carl Elmer, Lewis McCreay, Gene Norton, David Wells

Saxes: William Masingill, Robert Poland, Francis Polifrani, Musky Ruffo, Herb Stward

Piano: Bruce MacDonald

Drums: Jackie Mills

Bass: Paul Morsey

Harry James plays the bongos in "Mam Bongo:

Thomas Gunina plays accordion in "The Flight Of The Bumble Bee"

From the back cover: No matter how exciting the record date – and Harry James has had some that number among the most magnificent – the interchange between players and audience that make live music so endlessly interesting is missing. A particularly relevant demonstration of this occurs in the Benny Goodman records, when Harry James was contributing genuinely sterling performances to that fine group: the record sessions were almost entirely eclipsed by the recording of the Carnegie Hall concert, and records made from tapings of broadcasts of some of the Goodman one-night stands. Something of the same happens in this James one-nighter, bringing the flavor of the James group through on records as it has rarely been caught before.

The James orchestra is, of course, one of the oldest currently in the music business. With the exception of one of two other tenacious gentlemen, Harry is the only one of the big name leaders from the great days of swing to keep his orchestra more or less constantly going up to the present. When the surge toward vocalists began around 1945, many of the old stand-by had been knocked about by the war to begin with, and the craving for vocalists rather than instrumentalists pulled the remaining props out from under many first-rate orchestras. However, Harry James kept the big-band torch burning, and with considerable brightness. His tours became shorter and less frequent, but the band was still in business and playing beautifully. And then, with the revival of interest in orchestras, there he was, playing just as brilliantly as ever and still great name in music.

This particular one-night stand on records is not quite an accident. During an Eastern swing by the Harry James orchestra in the fall of 1952, Columbia pop album director George Avakian huddled with James between sets in a dance hall to discuss future plans. Each discovered that the other was thinking along the same lines: to set up a session some time during an actual performance. Shortly thereafter, the band played in the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, where the Columbia Broadcasting System has a direct wire to its studio in the Wrigley Building. Avakian arranged with Columbia Records' Chicago engineering department to monitor the band's lat broadcasts to determine the quality of the sound in the ballroom. A tape was made of one of the broadcasts, and the line was left open for the rest of the evening. The results were so successful that it was decided to clear the experimental tape with the American Federation of Musicians as an actual recording session. The result you can now hear, a remarkable example of vintage James performances, including some of his most famous numbers. The orchestra has clearly caught fire from the audience in the required exchange, and the excitement comes through with telling effect. Moreover, the James trumpet is soaring as high and as free as ever, challenging the historic solos he contributed in the past.

The James background is too well known to require more than a swift listing here: his early days traveling with his family with a circus, where he learned the trumpet; his adolescence in Texas, playing with local bands; his discovery by Benny Goodman and his participation in the great music-festivals of that organization; his first, not-too-rewarding experiences with his own orchestra, and then the skyrocketing success in 1940 and thereafter. Since that time, he has made his fans and his business advisers happy with appearances in movies, on radio and records and  at theater dates, as well as his annual tours across the country. A marginal note on the James orchestra is that the members of the natives, and the boys pile out for a swift game. This athletic propensity is not common to musicians, a congenitally inactive group of people, and many to some extent explain the singular liveliness heard in the playing here. Instead of sitting doubled up in their bus all day, these men have taken time out of lope around a diamond, to arrive at the hall limbered up for the evening ahead.

Ultra

Blues from "An American In Paris"

Mam Bongo

Memphis Blues

The Flight Of The Bumble Bee

There They Go

Jackpot Blues

You Go To My Head

Don't Stop

Feet Draggin' Blues

Back Beat Boogie