Swing is back in style, and with it a renewed interest in the Big Band Era. Few players dominated that era more than Harry James, whose soaring trumpet solos and romantic hit tunes influenced popular music for a generation. In this book, Peter J. Levinson, who knew Harry James personally, offers revealing biography of this jazz icon, based on nearly 200 interviews with musicians and friends. Harry James led a colourful life, and Levinson aims to capture it all. Beginning with James's childhood in a travelling 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 musicianship and trumpet technique, this stellar group dominated the war years and the immediate post-war period.

Table of Contents

Preface. Acknowledgments. Everette and Maybelle. Louise and Ben. The Kingdom of Swing. Ciribiribin. You Made Me Love You. Trees, The Legs, and The Lip. Hollywood Royalty. The In-Between Years. Back to Basie. I Don't Want to Walk Without You. Notes. Bibliography. Index

Reviews

An engrossing, swinging biography of a jazz icon, this book traces the life of Harry James, a trumpeter and bandleader who played in Benny Goodman's Orchestra in the '30s, and who led the country's most popular big band during World War II. Levinson, a jazz publicist who knew James from 1959 until the latter's death in 1983, presents the life of the flashy trumpeter as one of fame, fortune and eventual self-destruction. Born in Georgia in 1916 and raised in Texas, James had an insecure, peripatetic childhood. His mother was a trapeze artist and his father a circus bandleader, and James played in the circus band. Taking Louis Armstrong as his musical role model, James, who was white, was recruited to play in Benny Goodman's band, then left to form his own hugely acclaimed band, marrying film star Betty Grable and acting in movies himself. Over the next two decades, his star waned, but he staged a comeback of sorts in the late '50s, playing in Nevada casinos and continuing fitfully to reinvent his band throughout the next two decades. James's three marriages were ruined by addiction to alcohol, sex and gambling. Grable divorced him in 1965 following a 22-year marriage marked by his constant infidelities, neglect of their two daughters and, according to Levinson, by violent abuse. While many jazz critics dismiss James's romantic bluesy style and wide vibrato as schmaltzy and sentimental, Levinson disagrees. This robust biography offers a heady plunge into the swing era and a vivid portrait of a daring and inventive artist. Photos. (Oct.) FYI: A companion CD from Capitol Jazz, annotated by Levinson, features 16 of James's hit songs. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

"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
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