Artist: Harry James Genre(s):
Jazz
Discography:
Jazz Masters 55 Year: 1996
Tracks: 16
Harry James - Greatest Hits Year: 1994
Tracks: 16
Wild About Harry Year: 1958
Tracks: 10
Swingin' With Harry James Year:
Tracks: 18
Harry James was one of the most outstanding instrumentalists of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet ferment at once identifiable. He was besides one of the well-nigh popular bandleaders of the first half of the forties, and he continued to lead his band until just before his death, 40 days later. James was the child of circus performers. His father, Everette Robert James, was the bandleader and trumpet participant in the orchestra for the Mighty Haag Circus, and his female parent, Maybelle Stewart Clark James, was an aerialist. Growing up in the carnival, James became a performing artist himself as early as the age of four-spot, when he began functional as a contortionist. He before long off to music, however, first base playing the snare drum in the stripe from virtually the age of six and pickings trumpet lessons from his father-God. At 12, he took over leadership of the arcsecond set in the Christy Brothers Circus, for which his class was then on the job. He attended grade school in Beaumont, TX, where the carnival fatigued the wintertime, and when he was 14 he north Korean won a nation music contest as a cornetist. That divine him to turn professional and begin playing in local bands. James' offset caper with a national set came in 1935 when he was chartered by Ben Pollack. In May 1935, he married singer Louise Tobin, with whom he had deuce children and from whom he was divorced in June 1943. He made his first gear recordings as a fellow member of the Pollack band in September 1936. Not long after, he was tapped by Benny Goodman, then ahead ane of the country's near popular bands, and he began working for Goodman by the end of 1936. He apace gained poster in the Goodman band, and by December 1937 he had begun to seduce recordings under his have nominate for Brunswick Records (later absorbed by Columbia Records). In early 1939, he left field Goodman and launched his own orchestra, premiering it in Philadelphia in February. That natural spring, he heard the then-unknown Frank Sinatra on a wireless pass around and hired him. The band struggled, however, and when the more successful bandleader Tommy Dorsey made Sinatra an proffer at the ending of 1939, James did non stand in his way. Around the same time, he was dropped by Columbia and switched to the flyspeck Varsity Records label. After deuce days of difficulties in maintaining his band, James changed melodious direction in early 1941. He added strings and off to a sweeter, more melodic style, meanwhile re-signing to Columbia Records. The results were non long in coming. In April 1941, he offset reached the Top Ten with the self-written instrumental "Music Makers." (His band was sometimes billed as Harry James and His Music Makers.) A second Top Ten hit, "Elegy to Love," featuring Dick Haymes on vocals, followed in August, and late in the class James reached the Top Five with an instrumental discussion of the 1913 song dynasty "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)." This was the record that established him as a principal. But with its sweet style and what was oft described as James' "drippy" trumpet performing, it was also, according to jazz critic Dan Morgenstern (as quoted in the 1999 life history Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James by Peter J. Levinson), "the record that the jazz critics never forgave Harry for recording." James was second only to Glenn Miller as the nearly successful recording artist of 1942. During the year, seven-spot of his recordings peaked in the Top Ten: the Top Five "I Don't Want to Walk Without You," with vocals by Helen Forrest; the number one instrumental "Sleepy-eyed Lagoon"; the Top Five "One Dozen Roses," with vocals by Jimmy Saunders; the Top Five instrumental "Rigorously Instrumental"; "He's My Guy"; the Top Five "Mister Five by Five"; and "Manhattan Serenade," the terminal trey with vocals by Helen Forrest. In September, when Miller went into the armed forces and gave up his radiocommunication show, Chesterfield Time, he handed it over to James, a symbolic transference of the title of top bandleader in the state. (Saint James was ineligible for military service due to a back wound.) Meanwhile, wartime journey restrictions and the recording ban called by the musicians union, which took impression in August 1942, had limited James' touring and recording activities, merely some other avenue had opened up. He began appearing in movies, starting with
Syncopation in May 1942 and chronic with
Private Buckaroo in June and
Spring in the Rockies in November. His following hit, "I Had the Craziest Dream," with vocals by Helen Forrest, was featured in
Springtime in the Rockies; it strike telephone number one and only in February 1943. The pic is besides memorable for having asterisked Betty Grable, whom James matrimonial in July 1943; they had deuce children and divorced in October 1965. "I Had the Craziest Dream" was succeeded at issue one in March 1943 by another James disc with a Helen Forrest vocal, "I've Heard That Song Before." "Velvet Moon," an instrumental, followed and did nearly as well, merely with that Columbia's stockpile of James recordings made simply ahead the start of the recording ban was virtually exhausted. The label went into its vaults and began reissuing senior James recordings. Frank Sinatra had of late emerged as a solo star, and in the leap of 1943, Columbia reissued "All or Nothing at All," a birdcall he had recorded as James' singer in 1939; the song reached the Top Five. Next, Columbia released "I Heard You Cried Last Night," a year-old recording with a Helen Forrest vocal; it besides reached the Top Five. Once again, James ranked as the second to the highest degree successful recording artist of the year, just behind Bing Crosby. Meanwhile, James was based in New York, doing his three-times-a-week radiocommunication show and appearance at major venues such as the Paramount Theatre and on the Astor Hotel Roof. He likewise appeared in the June 1943 film spillage
Best Foot Forward. Decca Records settled with the musicians' unification in 1943, which gave its recording stars an advantage, but while Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and Jimmy Dorsey (all on Decca) were the meridian transcription artists of 1944, James came in quartern without always stepping into a recording studio. His instrumental "Cerise," recorded in 1942, became a Top Five gain early in the yr; "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)," recorded in 1941 with Dick Haymes on vocals, gain turn one in June; and he had eight other chart records during the year. He also continued with his wireless show through March and had 2 films,
Two Girls and a Sailor and
Bathing Beauty, in release in June. The 2 odd major labels, Columbia and RCA Victor, came to terms with the musicians' conjugation in November 1944, freeing James to return to the transcription studio. This resulted in septenary Top Ten hits in 1945: the number unmatchable "I'm Beginning to See the Light"; "I Don't Care Who Knows It"; "If I Loved You"; "11:60 P.M."; the Top Five "I'll Buy That Dream"; "It's Been a Long, Long Time"; and "Waitin' for the Train to Come In." "If I Loved You" had vocals by Buddy DiVito; all the rest had vocals by Kitty Kallen. That was sufficiency to make him the tierce almost successful recording artist of 1945, behind only Bing Crosby and Sammy Kaye. Meanwhile, he and his band became regulars on the Danny Kaye Show wireless series in January 1945, and he hosted its summertime surrogate programme from June to September. James scored 2 Top Ten hits in early 1946 -- the Top Five "I Can't Begin to Tell You," which featured a pseudonymous vocal by his married woman Betty Grable, and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," with a vocal by Buddy DiVito -- just then his recording success began to decline, though he managed one more Top Ten gain, "This Is Always," with Buddy DiVito on vocals, in the flow. Having appeared in a number of films, he formally signed a film contract with 20th Century Fox, resulting in larger parts in
Do You Love Me?, released in May, and
If I'm Lucky, verboten in September. He also took to the road for the number one time since the end of the warfare. The declining popularity of the big bands lED many to break up in December 1946, James' orchestra among them. But in January 1947, his All Time Favorites aggregation was at the top of the record album charts, indicating he was still broadly popular, and inside months he had reorganized his band, reducing the number of strings (and shortly eliminating them entirely), and pickings a more jazz-oriented plan of attack. He scored only unmatchable Top Ten gain in 1947, "Heartaches," with vocals by Marion Morgan. And he appeared in the plastic film
Andrew Carnegie Hall in May. James appeared in the plastic film
A Miracle Can Happen (aka
On Our Merry Way) in February 1948, the same month he became a regular on the wireless show Call for Music, which ran until June. He was non much seeable in 1949, simply in February 1950, his trumpet playing was heard in the cinema
Young Man with a Horn, though the man fingering the trumpet onscreen was Kirk Douglas. The
Loretta Young Man with a Horn soundtrack, credited to James with Doris Day, gain turn one in May 1950. Repeating that pairing, Columbia teamed James with Day for "Would I Love You (Love life You, Love You)," which hit the charts in March 1951 and reached the Top Ten. Similar succeeder was achieved with "Castle Rock," which paired James with Frank Sinatra and reached the charts in September. Meanwhile, James had his possess TV series,
The Harry James Show, which ran on a Los Angeles station for the first gear sestet months of 1951. From this pointedness on, James maintained his band as a touring unit, though he was less often glimpsed in the media. He played himself in the cinema biography
The Benny Goodman Story in 1955, the same year that, having moved to Capitol Records, he released
Ravage James in Hi-Fi, an album of re-recordings of his hits that reached the Top Ten in November. (The 1999 compiling
Trumpet Blues: The Best of Harry James combines tracks from this album and its follow-up,
More Harry James in Hi-Fi.) By like a shot, he was measuredly trying to reach his band sound like Count Basie's. He was back onscreen in November 1956 in the celluloid
The Opposite Sex. He made his first gear major term of enlistment of Europe in October 1957, and in ensuing days he alternated national and outside tours with extended engagements at Las Vegas hotels. There were two more film appearances,
The Big Beat (June 1958) and
The Ladies Man (July 1961). James performed regularly through the early '80s. He was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1983, just continued to play, fashioning his last show only when nine-spot days before his expiry at 67. Led by cygnus buccinator Art Depew, his band continued to perform. No one questioned James' talent as a jazz trumpeter, though later his commercial ascendency in 1941 many jazz critics pink-slipped him. After his period of sterling success, he turned back up to a more than jazz-oriented expressive style, which failed to change the boilers suit impression of him, if entirely because he was no thirster as much in the populace eye. Nevertheless, his swing hits stay among the most popular music of the epoch. In plus to the Columbia recordings from his flush, there are numerous former titles in his discography, notably many airchecks, though his recordings of the '50s are besides worth quest out.
