Monster high "G" by Harry James "A Taste of Honey" 1966
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- Опубликовано: 29 июл 2011
- The note that Harry James hits at the end of "A Taste of Honey" on "Live at the Riverboat" has become legendary. After improvising an absolutely flawless cadenza to start the arrangement, Louis Bellson kicks the band into over-drive. Harry plays a brilliant jazz solo, then the band lampoons Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. As the band vamps toward the end, Harry hits a high "G" of monumental proportions!
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I heard Harry play double Bbs on Moten Swing that took the ROOF off the club! The man had all the high range of Maynard Ferguson with such amazingly good taste and great technical and jazz chops, too!
For anyone in doubt, Harry created the huge lead trumpet sound emulated by guys like Bunny Berigan, Maynard Ferguson and Doc Severensen (and they've all said so in no uncertain terms).. He was most certainly the real deal. Wish I could have heard him live in his prime...
Actually Bunny pre-dated Harry. Both incredibly great.
Great Harry James ❤️❤️❤️
Love the way Louie Bellson propels the band.
I heard Harry James in person. His high notes were powerful and wide open.
Musicman2016Now you damn right!!
Don't forget Louis Bellson [Mr. Pearl Bailey] - among the elite of the elite Swing drummers.
even thought i wound up a tenor sax player i was brought up and weened on harry james . wanting to be a trumpet player my dad didnt know the difference between horns and came home with my first alto sax which i started playing for some time including a couple of army bands as lead alto soloist . but i always loved harry ..
truly one of the greatest trumpet players of all time. he had the register, the technique, the sound, everything! as well as the most important thing every trumpet player must better understand(including myself): RESTRAINT
Harry didn't hit high notes just to prove he could do it. However, I heard Harry scream even into the 1970's. Check out my audio on "Harry James Live at the Blue Note...Here's One." At 2:37, Harry blasts out an Ab, followed by a G, an F#, and an F!!
And on "Harry James Live in Miami 1970...Take The A Train" Harry hits a high A at 3:56, although it's a little flat. I was 16 years old at this gig and I was in awe!!
Harry had pizzazz! I went to see him in the late 1960s in high school, and my friends were shocked, but he was a great musician.
Hoo boy, dat some hot blowin' by The Maestro. If I tried that, I'd need surgery.
Obviously the title is "tongue in cheek!"
However this note is legendary among Harry James fans. Harry had a sound that only a handful of trumpet players could even approach.
It is the most identifiable sound in all of jazz.
I love Harry James and that statement about having the most identifiable sound is correct. I try emulating it when I play but I’m not even close. Usually a fast vibrato can get on your nerves. But not Harry’s. It’s Gorgeous.
Miles Davis once said that about Herb Alpert! He was correct. So are you. Harry was in a league all his own.
What a clean performance.
I never implied that this was the highest note ever. LOL Just an epic powerful G by Harry!
How far above the staff is that G?
Jazzy Crescendo one octave
JACKSchannel1100 Thanks :)
thanks for posting all these great videos. When I was growing up Herb Albert was all the rage and I loved listening to the TJB. My dad always said Herb and Al couldn't compare to Harry. Funny how you find out years later dad was right.
+david hulse Always!
Wow. This guy took the Arban method to heights never conceived by the 19th century cornetist.
Great track! I've got to find this lp. I'm a drummer and Louis Bellson is one if my influences.
I just posted the entire album Jeff...enjoy!
ruclips.net/video/zJ-p7tA8f-4/видео.html
+Chuck Par-Due Thanks! I appreciate it!
Monster, defined.....
Harry James Big Band, Live Riverboat 5-22-66 - SAXES: Fred Haller(L), Joe Riggs, Arno Marsh, Corky Corcoran, Bob Achilles(b) -- TPTS: Allan Yeager, Carl Saunders, Phil Gilbert, Tom Porrello -- BONES: Joe Cadena, Ray Sims, Richard Winter -- P: Jack Perciful, D: Louis Bellson, B: Tom Kelly, V: Ernie Andrews
btw guys Harry did this with dentures, the cat was amazing.
Once you learn to not shove the mouthpiece into your chops so hard, teeth are much less of an issue. It's taken me years to learn, but my teeth are thanking me.
By the way, Harry plays a "double ' high G. Just thought I would add my 2 cents. John Phillips.
I saw and heard Harry James play several times. Once at the Riverboat. he was my first and greatest inspiration as a trumpet player. No-one can ever duplicate his sound or style perfectly. (The same is true of Louis Armstrong's style.)
Hal Wheeler Doc got pretty close but I totally agree with you
Hal Wheeler I
Formidables morceaux d'écoute
The note on Sing, Sing, Sing was a half step higher. However I heard Harry play higher in person.
Out of curiosity, have you heard the nigh note that James hits on the re-recorded Sing, Sing, Sing done with the BG orchestra and released on Capitol for The Benny Goodman Story? I'd read somewhere (probably the infamous Trumpet Blues) that this was considered his highest recorded note. Agree? Disagree? Thanks :)
Excellent. Interesting that someone in the section keeps clamming the same note that they do on the studio album version.
I know what you're talking about, although I've never heard the studio version. Clunked it every time right from the top. He got it cleaned it up a little towards the end, but I was thinking, Harry's not gonna put up with this for long!
@@randysteele6741 My old sax teacher Harry Bright told me once about when he and the other horns in a band he was in (another tenor and and alto) were playing C Jam Blues - I expect you know it's a simple enough riff, just G repeated, ending in a C, and every time they hit the C the other tenor player just got a squeak. He said by the end of the first twelve bars he could barely draw breath for laughing, let alone play a solo!
I've played this for years, many arrangements, lead trumpet.
And?
It's a good G. The whole thing with recorded high notes is we never really know how loud they are due to the electronics and whatnot. Especially today.
I know a couple of otherwise first class trumpet players whom while being very proficient in the upper register can not play a High G louder than a mezzo forte. Thus even with their nice RECORDED Double C's and even ABOVE? You wouldn't hear them cut through a big band w/out amplification. A lot of these kinds of players tend to come out of the Caruso brass studies though ALL of them would deny they have weak tones. Funny and sad at the same time as we trumpet players tend to be an ego driven group. .And there's a REASON WHY Caruso students tend to blow only whisper-like high notes although it takes too long to exlain in a short post like this. Also, some of the Stevens-Costello advocates didn't exactly have a big sound upstairs either. The forward jaw chop setting, while often more favorable to playing high notes easily tends to LIMIT the volume and richness in tone. I believe that the reason for this is that the low lip guides the upper a longer distance in the forward jaw/Stevens-Costello embouchure. That while helping the upper lip sustain very high notes easily the lower lip also limits the distance the upper lip can travel to and fro when air is blown between it. Thus shortened by this limitation? Less air can be displaced in each vibration. Less air displaced = smaller sound. Once in a while you find a cat who can REALLY displace a whole ton of air AND blows the hell out of Double C's. He usually plays either with a straight out horn angle or an ever so slightly downward angle. Like "3:30" on the clock dial. Maynard played that way.
I was privileged to have heard Harry James in 1976, when he was 60. It may have been past his prime playing days, but he was plenty powerful and stood right in front of me with no microphone. That G is not all that huge in the recording, but his overall playing was powerful. His was not a watered-down sound that only worked with heavy amplification. I've discussed this with Fred Radke, who leads the Harry james Band (ghost band) these days and played lead in Harry's band for several years. Fred, who at 71 can still get up to Double C and beyond - big as a house - insists that HJ has about as big a sound as anyone. Having played with Dennis Noday and John Harner - both of whom played with Stan Kenton and play so loud that your brain really can't function, I know what a powerful sound is and Harry had it! It is also not about overblowing with a lot of extra air. Roger Ingram is another powerful lead player that can play way up there and he is quite economical with his air. There is a lot to playing high notes and the key is being able to play in every range, a lot of practice, flexibility and the right embouchure for your physiognomy.
Mark Schwartz I'd love to say that one approach works for everyone, but it doesn't. However, I might suggest you consult Larry Meregillano's new book: Chops a Trumpet Legacy. He gets into the development of range and power, with exercises designed to build both. He DOES have a pretty big sound, too.
Mark Schwartz Jeanne Pocius - see below - also has a wonderful book on building chops, called: Trumpeting by Nature. She can blow the roof of a place and play up there all night and never get fatigued. She also plays classical pieces with nuance and appropriate style for the periods represented. I truly believe a great trumpet player is able to play all the various styles, can play in all ranges and doesn't look for "shortcuts."
Jorge Callico You can tell the difference between a squealed note and one that's played big. They don't have the same character. That G is huge.
Mark,
Does Ingram really have a big sound? I've listened to a video of his and while his control of the upper register was good he didn't quite fill the tone up such as I'd like to hear. Of course I can understand why people like him. Same as Pat Hessions: Both can bang out the high ones day and night without seeming to ever get tired. However I haven't yet heard the full spectrum of harmonics coming out of their horns. A lot of sound depends upon the quality of the sound system. Especially the microphone ..
A retired, VERY good lead player (world's best next to Maynard really...) once wrote me and explained that when he was out on tour in a trumpet section led by Al Porcino that Al started cracking up laughing. Was upon hearing another band's lead trumpet player blow his part so softly that: "the notes just barely leaked out the end of the horn" lol... The opposing lead player pretty much buried the bell of his horn in the microphone.
Al Porcino of course was well known for having a HUGE sound in the upper register. As well as enjoying a puff of Marijuana once in a while. "Let's go up and have some air" was Porcino's cue to his buddies that he was going to have a smoke..
I know of a half dozen Caruso advocates who can not blow a fortissimo High G to save their life. Plenty of high notes but never heard unless amplified.
.
Wow! Was Louie subbing for Sonny Payne?
Did HJ play Parduba mouthpieces for most of his career?
From 1938-1983 he played a custom Parduba. Before 1938 he played a Heim 2.
Interesting how people judge trumpet players on how high they can play. People used to say that Maynard was just a screamer but he was a fantastic improvisor. Judge the whole not just the screeching! Harry can do it all!
All this baloney about how "strong the high G" was. Play 1 and hold it. Then another. Then another. Play 10 in a row. Then play a ballad in the staff. Point being, if he went for it, he seldom if EVER missed it or anything else he aimed for. He played choruses on dance dates that were way ahead and ridiculously tasty.
Aw man he should've put a Double 'A' on the ending chord. And he could've.
I always thought cat Andersen was the cat who hit the highest note on trumpet I guess I learn something new today
That high "G" is actually an "F"!
No actually on a trumpet that is a G.
It's an F in "concert pitch" on a piano or violin. But it's a G on trumpet!
Ehhhh I'd say James Morrison's High G is louder v=uInnt3bqN5E