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Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James
Swing is back in style, and with it a renewed interest in the Big Band Era. And few players dominated that era more than Harry James, whose soaring trumpet solos and romantic hit tunes influenced popular music for a generation. Now, Peter J. Levinson, who knew Harry James personally, has written a revealing biography of this jazz icon, based on nearly 200 interviews with musicians and friends.
Harry James led a truly colorful life, and in Trumpet Blues Levinson captures it all. Beginning with James's childhood in a traveling circus, we follow the young trumpeter's meteoric rise in the 1930s and witness his electrifying performances with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. We see how James formed his own band in 1939, an incubator for many pop music stars of the 1940s and '50s, including Frank Sinatra, Connie Haines, Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest, and Kitty Kallen. Combined with James's superb musicianship, peerless trumpet technique and talented sidemen, this stellar group dominated the war years and the immediate post-war period. And James himself, especially after his marriage to film goddess Betty Grable, became one of America's most famous personalities and lived like true Hollywood royalty. Levinson describes their twenty-two-year marriage with insight and sympathy. But he shows how James's marriage--and his triumphant late-1950s comeback in Nevada's casinos--were slowly undermined by his penchant for compulsive gambling, womanizing, and alcoholism. He gives us the inside story of James's sybaritic life style, and probes the profound psychological reasons for James's destructive behavior.
The first biography ever written on Harry James, Trumpet Blues is a scintillating portrait of Swing's brightest star--his life, his loves, and the music that defined an era.
Harry James led a truly colorful life, and in Trumpet Blues Levinson captures it all. Beginning with James's childhood in a traveling circus, we follow the young trumpeter's meteoric rise in the 1930s and witness his electrifying performances with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. We see how James formed his own band in 1939, an incubator for many pop music stars of the 1940s and '50s, including Frank Sinatra, Connie Haines, Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest, and Kitty Kallen. Combined with James's superb musicianship, peerless trumpet technique and talented sidemen, this stellar group dominated the war years and the immediate post-war period. And James himself, especially after his marriage to film goddess Betty Grable, became one of America's most famous personalities and lived like true Hollywood royalty. Levinson describes their twenty-two-year marriage with insight and sympathy. But he shows how James's marriage--and his triumphant late-1950s comeback in Nevada's casinos--were slowly undermined by his penchant for compulsive gambling, womanizing, and alcoholism. He gives us the inside story of James's sybaritic life style, and probes the profound psychological reasons for James's destructive behavior.
The first biography ever written on Harry James, Trumpet Blues is a scintillating portrait of Swing's brightest star--his life, his loves, and the music that defined an era.
Book Details
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publish Date: May 24th, 2001
- Pages: 368
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.83in - 1.20lb
- EAN: 9780195142396
- Categories: • Music• Genres & Styles - Jazz• History & Criticism - General
About the Author
Peter J. Levinson, who knew Harry James for 24 years, was the foremost jazz publicist for nearly two decades, and still represents a few select clients. Currently, he is at work on a biography of Nelson Riddle. He lives in Malibu, California.
Praise for this book
"Trumpet Blues is an appropriate title for this book because it aptly describes Harry James' music and his troubled, tumultuous life....For all of its dark, personal detail, this is a lively read....It is a credit to Levinson's truthfulness and energy that he provides us with such a variety of assessments of Harry James from so many people who knew him."--The Mississippi Rag"While scattered stories have been written of James' personal life and professional life, it has taken Peter J. Levinson, a retired, respected entertainment-industry publicist, to write...the first and only account of the musician's life from start to finish.... Levinson has stitched together a fascinating profile of the tormented trumpeter."--North County Times"The book makes for fast and extremely interesting reading and appropriately concludes with a portion of the eulogy delivered at James' funeral by his erstwhile vocalist and dear friend Frank Sinatra."--Big Bands International"Long before there was sex, drugs, and rock and roll, there was sex, alcohol and big-band swing. And as this surprisingly absorbing biography suggests, trumpet player Harry James could have been the role model for Mick Jagger." --People Weekly"The surprise page-turner of the year is Peter Levinson's life of the swing-era star Harry James."--Gary Giddins, The Washington Post Book World