Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert by Tackley Catherine;

Author:Tackley, Catherine;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2012-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

When James was asked why he didn’t play like Armstrong more often, he replied: “The way I play is my way and when people hear me they say, ‘Oh, that’s Harry James.’ They don’t say, ‘Oh, that’s the guy that copies Louis.’” (Levinson 1999: 51). James’s performance is pastiche; he makes no attempt to satirize, revere, or embody Armstrong, as with previous numbers focused on white musicians in “Twenty Years of Jazz;” nor does he produce a solo in his own style. The interest here is the spectacle of hearing James playing like Armstrong, a compromise that says little about either musician.

In the final piece in this section of the concert, not even pastiche was attempted but instead the originating musicians were included in the performing ensemble. For “Blue Reverie,” a 12-bar blues in F, Goodman called on Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney and Cootie Williams from Ellington’s band. Under the auspices of Cootie Williams and His Rug Cutters, these musicians, with the trombonist “Tricky Sam” Nanton and Ellington’s rhythm section, recorded this number in March 1937. Vernon Brown and the rhythm section from Goodman’s band stood in for the absent musicians at Carnegie Hall. Goodman also plays in the introduction and coda, as suggested by a photograph of a rehearsal printed in Metronome (Figure 2.3) and confirmed by photographs taken at the concert (Hancock 2008: 97).

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