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Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 780
EAN: 9780195142396
ISBN: 019514239X
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: May 24, 2001
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Review:
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Harry James-one of the greatest trumpters of all time!
This book is something that has long been over due,a look at the life and career of arguably the greatest horn player of the bigband era and of all time.The cover for both the hardcover and paperback edition,along with a new greatest hits CD released around the same time,is taken from the cover of one of Harrys' better 50s Capitol Albums "Harrys Choice".
Often maligned by critics for being schmaltzy and too commercial(a cheap tactic used much too often to put down those they didn't like or ... Read More
Rating:  - UNDERRATED BY SOME CRITICS, TOPS WITH HIS PEERS !
I originally bought this book when it came out in 1999 and actually spoke with Mr. Peter Levinson putting him on to several contacts when the book was in preparation. I have not chosen to send in my review until now after having reread the book several times.
Harry James was a phenomenon in the music world: a musician who reached the pinnacle of success in record sales, popularity with the masses, stardom in the glory days of Hollywood musicals and longevity in the big band arena long after ... Read More
Rating:  - Artie Shaw had it right: DEPRESSING!
I met Harry in 1974, when I was 14, in between sets at the South Shore Music Circus. He had two trumpet cases, one for his horns and another for something clear he was drinking. As a young trumpet player, he was my idol, and musically still is. The accompanying CD to this bio has some terrific releases on it, but would have been even better had they included "Countin," "One on the House," "Blues for Harry's Sake," and "Bangtail," the key charts from his ... Read More
Rating: - A needed and superb biography of a titan
Harry James was a titan of the trumpet and Big Bands. We have sorely needed a biography, and I think that this first biography is absolutely superb. Harry James has always been my #1 favorite. "Trumpet Blues" confirms for me James' extraordinary musical contributions but also fleshes out his story with a rich, full treatment of the realities - both good and bad - of his professional and personal lives. Included are excellent materials on his grand musical history, his first wife, the appealing ... Read More
Rating: - TRUMPET BLUES
Having known Harry James from 1963 on, as well as being a professional player myself, I enjoyed the book tremendously. There are a couple of glaring inaccuracies however. One was the statement that Harry's solo on "Shine" was left out of the "Benny Goodman Story" just isn't so. I have the movie, and it's in it. Another was the reference to the get-well card signed by all of the top trumpet players in Hollywood to Harry. The author stated that Conrad Gozzo signed it. That would have been a neat trick, ... Read More
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