SwingDJs

Jerry, you'll have to put Rueben in his own category and not assume that his views represents all swing djs. Not to say that others might not also dislike Harry James, but their likes or dislikes aren't necessarily due to the difference between radio and dance djs. Some of those songs you mentioned as not having seen are listed on various Harry James compilations, including on the Chronogical Classics releases.

Harry James, 1937-1939
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... 1tk6kxqkr3
This CD, which has the first 22 selections that James recorded as a leader, starts off with eight numbers in which the trumpeter (still a Benny Goodman sideman at the time) uses many of Count Basie's top sidemen (including trombonist-arranger Eddie Durham, tenor saxophonist Herschel Evans and singer Helen Humes) for swinging performances highlighted by "Life Goes to a Party" and "One O'Clock Jump"; James' bands (particularly from the 1950s on) would often sound like a duplicate of Basie's. In addition, this CD has four tunes from 1938 in which James mostly uses Goodman players (plus baritonist Harry Carney), and he is also heard on the first six numbers by his big band (including "Two O'Clock Jump" and his earliest recording of his theme "Ciribiribin"). However, the hottest performances are four numbers in which James is backed by a boogie-woogie trio featuring either Pete Johnson or Albert Ammons on piano. This enjoyable CD is full of many examples of James' hot swing trumpet and is easily recommended to swing fans. — Scott Yanow

Harry James, Yes Indeed
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... fuxquhldte

Harry James, Record Session: 1939-1942
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... uj6j3171e0

I have to agree mostly with Reuben on this one. James is often cheezy. Great musician... I quite enjoy some of his contributions to other bands, but a lot of his own bands music is just cheezy. I have three James Albums, and a collection or two with some of his work. Some good stuff in there, but only a few songs on each album that I'd play.

An exception is much of the work of "Harry James and the Boogie Woogie Trio". -- "Boo Woo", "Woo Woo", "Jesse", and "Home James" are all good. (Of course "Boo Woo" might as well be Two O'Clock Jump). This might be a style preference though, I'm quite fond of Boogie.

(PS Reuben, I dig Bob Crosby's "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea"... It's different enough from the others that I think I prefer it, the rest of your list is all good though).

Boo Woo is the track on the Ray Charles Artist's Choice - I like it a lot - thanks for the reference Jesse.

Sorry we hit a nerve Jerry - thanks for all the stuff on Harry James.

So how many people DJ Harry James regularly? To the best of my knowledge, I don't hear him played a lot in Seattle.

djstarr wrote:So how many people DJ Harry James regularly? To the best of my knowledge, I don't hear him played a lot in Seattle.

I play Harry James regularly, most often the song being "Two O'Clock Jump" off of Trumpet Blues. Great song! In fact almost all of the James that I play comes from two albums, Trumpet Blues and The Silver Collection, where his band is playing in a similar style to Basie. I guess that's why I enjoy his music from this era so much.

A few other tracks that I play:

Barn 12 (Trumpet Blues)
Cotton Pickin' (Oscilattin' Rhythms)
I'm Beginning To See The Light (Trumpet Blues)
She's Gotta Go (Silver Collection)
Shiny Stockings (Silver Collection)
Strictly Instrumental (Trumpet Blues)

I've also still been meaning to pick up the following albums based off of great tracks I have heard spun by Rayned:

Dance Parade/Your Dance Date
The King James Version

I got excited when I saw this topic, "50s bands for swing dancing", as I love 50s big band recordings and play them all the time.

Sure some of Jame's material might not be to our liking as swing DJs, but that is true of many, if not all, artists. Yes some artists have a greater ratio of hard-swinging to cheesy material, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't always be searching out the gems and playing them.

Jesse

JesseMiner wrote:Sure some of Jame's material might not be to our liking as swing DJs, but that is true of many, if not all, artists. Yes some artists have a greater ratio of hard-swinging to cheesy material, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't always be searching out the gems and playing them.

Jesse

I find it interesting that people will exclude entire artists because some of their songs are cheesy or because they only have one or two good songs per cd.

Jerry_Jelinek wrote:Capitol Years: 1955-1958
Street Scene - Sentinmental Rhapsody - Classical feel to ballad - breath taking performance
April in Paris - This different hard swing arrangement gives Basie a run for his money
Ram's Horn - James Composition, Basie style swing
September Song - Slow swing, very clever arrangement by Ray Conniff
Somebody Loves Me - Hard Swing - great arrangement by Ernie Wilkins
In a Sentimental Mood - FANTSASTIC ballad performance by Willie Smith on Alto
Blues on a Count - Great hard Basie type swinger
Blues for Sale - ditto
Willow Weep for Me - slow bluesy - another great showcase for Willie Smith

One of my favorite songs ever is "Blues for Sale" by Harry James on the Big Band All-Stars: The Sullivan Years disc.

I'd love another recording of it, is the Capitol Years album available on CD?

CafeSavoy wrote: I find it interesting that people will exclude entire artists because some of their songs are cheesy or because they only have one or two good songs per cd.

Who would do such a thing?

Oh duh, I just realized you said you had them on a Mosaic set. I'll pick it up whenever I have a house I can get a second mortgage on.

I would DJ more Harry James but I haven't DJed since my shopping trip at Binge.

Some famous black musician said he was the only white trumpeter he ever heard who sounded black, which was high praise for the time. Wish I could remember the exact quote. Might have been Basie, but I dunno.

To me James was the Buddy Rich of trumpet. Unmatchable technique, iron chops, sometimes played really crappy, commercial music (ever heard Buddy Rich's big band doing "The Beat Goes On" with his 13 year old daughter singing it? Now that's cheese...and actually I like that song. Like I said many posts ago, I like a lot of bad music. I just know it's bad.)

I find it interesting that some artists may have a not-so-great reputation based on some cheese they recorded while others maintain great reputations in spite of their recorded cheese.

Basie Meets Bond or Hamp's Saturday Night Jazz Fever, anyone?

I don't DJ any James, but it's because I don't have any. Been reading the debate with interest though. I hope to eventually make my own decision on the man's "cheese" factor.

Tina

I played some James last night. A version of Sweet Georgia Brown that if I remember correctly Reuben once called "a doped up version." Or something like that. Yeah, it's pretty cheesy. But hey, most dancers love cheesy stuff.

Hi all,

I've been so busy with work (these darn day-gigs), that I haven't had
time to add my voice to the discussions.

First, like many of you, I'm amazed that anyone can completely dismiss
an entire career worth of music based on a small sampling. I hope
that the next person who first discovers Duke Ellington music by
listening only to the sacred works, will not base their entire like
or dislike of Ellington upon these select pieces.

Next, thanks to Reuben and Rayned on the James CDs. Rayned, you found
a couple rare ones indeed. Also the Classics release of James
1937-1939 is part of my collection. I agree with Scott Yankows
impressions 100%. As Scott mentioned, the James band of the 50s was
very much based on Basie. I'm going to have to pick up a few more
James CDs for the collection.

Ryan, you reference my comments on the Mosaic set. That set has 4 CDs
of Gene Krupa's band from the mid 1940s. Then it has 3 CDs on Harry
James from mid 1950s. Dynamite set. With these Mosaic things, it is
best to get them while you can. In looking back at past releases,
that are now unavailable, I get upset to think of some of the music I
don't have.

Last is a question for everyone. I'm a huge fan of big band sounds of
the 1950s. The quality of studio releases is generally very good.
And you still have a lot of the people who played in the era itself.

So I have a proposal. I'm willing to run a blind fold test on
occassion. Maybe once or twice a month. Put up maybe 10 selections
of big bands from the 1950s. These would be MP3 format of maybe 1
minute per track. Then everyone can discuss the music and bands etc.
Then post the bands and CDs that I grabbed the music from after a week
or so of discussion.

Might be a nice way to help introduce other bands, that are more
obscure, but might make for nice swing dance music.

What does everyone think of this idea?

Hey, go for it. That's why most of us read this board--to learn more about the music itself.

I imagine there aren't many soundclips posted because not everyone has server space and wants to bug a friend every time they feel like putting an MP3 on the web. If you can, however, it can only make discussions better!

kitkat wrote:Hey, go for it. That's why most of us read this board--to learn more about the music itself.

I imagine there aren't many soundclips posted because not everyone has server space and wants to bug a friend every time they feel like putting an MP3 on the web. If you can, however, it can only make discussions better!

Ditto!

Tina