Introduction: I am honored that Scott Healy has asked me to contribute a series of articles for the ASMAC community. In the coming months, I will explore forgotten composer/arrangers, interesting moments in arranging, technical fun creative things, legendary recording studios, and the evolution of scoring for popular and dance orchestras from the last 100 years when the techniques of these ensembles were beginning and evolving. I welcome your feedback on these journeys.
–Jeff Sultanof
We are still absorbing the concept that the work of the arranger/composer from the 1920s on constitutes an important stream of lasting music, and those who wrote for a variety of media deserve to rank among the great American composers of the century, celebrated and studied in classrooms live and online, and in articles of analysis. One of the key problems was always that much of the written music for radio, television and particularly big bands was thought to be disposable and was often destroyed or stolen from collections. It was only until the 1970s or so that big band libraries were donated to major universities, institutions, and archives so that they are now available for study and performance; re-evaluations of this music are now possible, as well as finally being published. Many mysteries have also finally been cleared up, but other conundrums continue to pop up.
I was fortunate to delve into some of this treasure trove at the New York Public Library, and later at the Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers University), and gave myself an education in arranging and composing, handwriting new scores from parts, and making corrections in the music. That eventually led to an editor’s position at Warner Bros. Publications for seventeen years, and now as senior editor at Jazz Lines Publications, where Rob DuBoff edits and oversees the publication of much important music. In his continued quest to find materials that deserve to be available, all sorts of music and information that he is not looking for come to light, too numerous to mention here. To say that we have finally cleaned up a set of Thad Jones compositions for the Harry James Orchestra has multiple reverberations as an example: more music from this important composer is now in circulation, and has also provided new additions for the Vanguard Band library to rejoin the classic music Jones wrote directly for that ensemble.
Our story today partially involves James. One of the top big bands of all time, he led an incredible orchestra during the war years that had a full string section, as did Tommy Dorsey’s ensemble; he even had a French Horn section for a few years. James of course was a trumpet star with Benny Goodman’s swing orchestra during the 1930s, started his own orchestra with Goodman’s backing, and introduced Frank Sinatra to the public at large. Still, when Sinatra asked James for his release to join Dorsey, James asked Frank if he could ask Tommy if he needed a trumpet player.
James added a string quartet, and with his big, schmaltzy sound, made a recording of a vintage song that was corny even when it was written many years before, “You Made Me Love You.” The label didn’t want to put it out, and James was advised that he wouldn’t be taken seriously as a jazz player anymore if he sold himself in this fashion. When your band is losing money, you are forced to do things to keep it going, so Harry didn’t need much convincing. The record was a smash hit, it introduced him to audiences that hadn’t paid much attention to the band before, turned him into a matinee idol, and helped get him a big radio show for Chesterfield cigarettes that Glenn Miller was leaving to become the leader of what was to become the AEF ensemble.
A big budget national radio program gave him the money to present high-quality music with excellent singers and arrangements, which was great, as James had a wide musical range – as he’d proved with his big hit record, if he liked something, he would play it (historian James Maher told me that James commissioned Alec Wilder to arrange Debussy’s “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” for one of his broadcasts). Other arrangers on the staff were Jack Mathias and LeRoy Holmes, who later became the musical director for MGM Records.
And there was one more arranger/composer who wrote excellent music for James who is barely remembered because he left Hollywood soon after 1950. His name is Johnny Thompson.
He was born on June 11, 1918 in Dallas, Texas, and was already working for radio station KRLD at the age of fifteen. He came north to study at Juilliard in the late thirties and studied the Schillinger System with Joseph Schillinger himself (the Schillinger System warrants an article on its own; this once-popular arranging method is now forgotten).
He arranged for the last big band that Red Norvo assembled in 1942, and most fortunately that ensemble left a broadcast and made four sides before the infamous AFM recording ban. Unfortunately, this recording of Mildred Bailey singing “I’ll Be Around” wasn’t released until the early 1960s.
Thompson moved over to the Benny Goodman band, where he arranged “Serenade in Blue” for Dick Haymes. For years, Eddie Sauter was credited with the arrangement since it was such an unusual treatment of the song. It is a far cry from the Miller performance.
Thompson may have connected with James while that band played the Astor Roof in New York City in August of 1942. Perhaps Alec Wilder brought the two together, since Wilder liked what Thompson did with “I’ll Be Around.” He is listed as writing for James as early as January of 1943. As stated earlier, James used his Chesterfield show to play all types of music he liked, and even though Thompson’s “Harpie’s Bazaar” is in a danceable tempo, James introduces it as “for your listening pleasure,” showing that he thought of it as more than an arrangement for dancing. Unfortunately, this recording has become a tough item to get – it has never been issued on CD.
From the Chesterfield show on November 2, 1943, this is “The Gravy Train.” Corky Corcoran is the tenor soloist.
Once again, James reaches back to play an old standard. Here is “On the Alamo” from a live broadcast dated June 15, 1944, which was issued on a V-Disc, the governmental program that sent 12” vinyl 78s to servicemen for morale purposes since there were no commercial recordings to be had (shellac was also hard to find during the war). V-Discs were supposed to be destroyed after WWII but many survive in excellent shape.
Thompson seems to have been released from the James band temporarily to write for one of the great radio programs of its era – Mildred Bailey’s “Music ‘til Midnight.” Accompanied by an all-star studio orchestra conducted by Paul Baron, no doubt it was Alec Wilder once again who worked things out so Thompson could join the arranging staff, and Wilder was devoted to Mildred. One of the other arrangers for the program was Eddie Sauter.
Here is where modern research finally clears up misinformation. Juan Tizol played with the Duke Ellington band, and he later joined the James crew. He was a composer (“Perdido” is his), but too often he was credited with arranging his own music. When Rob DuBoff explored two collections of James music that Harry donated as tax write-offs, he discovered Thompson’s original manuscript of Tizol’s melody “Keb-lah,” so the historic record is now correct. You can look at the first page of Thompson’s score here. Willie Smith and Tizol are the solos.
Thompson arranged this concerto-like “St. Louis Blues” for James.
When the recording ban ended, Duke Ellington did something he rarely did – he offered first recording rights to Harry James for a song Johnny Hodges co-wrote, “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” knowing that James could turn it into a smash hit.
My favorite Thompson/James arrangement is “I’m in Love with Two Sweethearts.” As the title suggests, this is a corny song about a man singing about the two women in his life, his wife/girlfriend and his mother. What Thompson does with this is a great example of a bad song in the right hands which is unforgettable. I use this in my arranging classes to prove that if you use your imagination with challenging material, you can create something magical.
When Rob was reviewing the James material, I asked him if he could find anything on this and a few other titles for my own study. Happily, he was able to find the original parts to this arrangement, and I’ve written up an edited score of it. Among other things, the instrumentation tells us that the 4thsaxophone chair was both a tenor and baritone sax chair, no doubt to get wider voicings given the extra lower instrument.
Something else we learn from the manuscript: originally, this arrangement had two extra bars in rhythm as the ensemble held the final chord. James wisely knew the record needed a big finish, so he held the chord and stopped the rhythm.
By 1950, Thompson was arranging for Tommy Dorsey. For an album of Cole Porter songs, he even got label credit.
Jeff Sultanof
And then the trail is lost. Details are sketchy, but apparently Thompson returned to Dallas to get into local television. By that time, he’d married Dorothy ‘Jimmie’ Gumm, who was Judy Garland’s sister. Jimmie had a daughter from a previous marriage to musician Bobby Sherwood. Her marriage to Johnny was a happy one. She passed away in 1977; Thompson reportedly passed away a couple of years later.
While it is certainly frustrating when a talented creator of music seemingly drops out of sight, we can celebrate the wonderful music he created, which of course lives on in recordings. Thompson was a major talent, and perhaps this presentation makes him a bit less mysterious.
