Harry Carney
Harry Carney | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Harry Howell Carney |
Born | (1910-04-01)April 1, 1910 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | October 8, 1974(1974-10-08) (aged 64) New York City, U.S. |
Genres | Jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | baritone saxophone, clarinet |
Years active | 1930s–1970s |
Harry Howell Carney (April 1, 1910 – October 8, 1974) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinettist who spent over four decades as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He played a variety of instruments, but primarily used the baritone saxophone, being a critical influence on the instrument in jazz.
Early life
Carney was born on April 1, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] In Boston, he grew up close to future bandmate Johnny Hodges.[2] Carney began by playing the piano at age seven, moved to the clarinet at 14, and added the alto saxophone a year later.[1] He first played professionally in clubs in Boston.[1]
Early influences on Carney's playing included Buster Bailey, Sidney Bechet, and Don Murray.[3] Carney also reported that, for his baritone saxophone playing, he "tried to make the upper register sound like Coleman Hawkins and the lower register like Adrian Rollini".[4]
Later life and career
After playing a variety of gigs in New York City at the age of 17, Carney was invited to join the Duke Ellington band for its performances in Boston in 1927.[5][note 1] He soon recorded with Ellington too, with a first session in October that year.[5] Having established himself in the Ellington band, he stayed with it for the rest of his life.[1] The band began a residency at the Cotton Club in New York at the end of the year.[5]
After Ellington added more personnel in 1928, Carney's main instrument became the baritone saxophone.[5] He was a dominant figure on the baritone in jazz, with no serious rivals on the instrument until the advent of bebop in the mid-1940s.[7] Within the overall sound of the Ellington band, Carney's baritone was often employed to play parts of harmonies that were above the obvious low pitching of the instrument; this altered the textures of the band's sound.[8]
In January 1938, Carney was invited to play with Benny Goodman's band at Carnegie Hall.[9] Recordings from this event were released as The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. Carney also took up the bass clarinet around 1944.[3] He "co-composed "Rockin' in Rhythm" and was usually responsible for executing the bubbling clarinet solo on this tune".[3]
In 1957, Carney was part of a band led by pianist Billy Taylor that recorded the album Taylor Made Jazz.[10]
Carney was the longest serving player in Ellington's orchestra.[3] On occasions when Ellington was absent or wished to make a stage entrance after the band had begun playing the first piece of a performance, Carney would serve as the band's conductor.[citation needed] The Ellington orchestra typically travelled on a tour bus, but Ellington himself did not; he was driven separately by Carney, a "quiet, calm presence".[11]
Ellington wrote many showpiece features for Carney throughout their time together.[citation needed] In 1973 Ellington built the Third Sacred Concert around Carney's baritone saxophone.[12]
After Ellington's 1974 death, Carney said: "Without Duke, I have nothing to live for".[5] Carney's final recording may have been under Mercer Ellington's leadership, for the album Continuum.[3] Four months after Ellington's death, Carney also died, on October 8, 1974, in New York.[1]
Influence and legacy
Carney was an early jazz proponent of circular breathing.[12] He was also Hamiet Bluiett's favorite baritone player because he "never saw anybody else stop time" in reference to a concert Bluiett attended where Carney held a note during which all else went silent.[13] Two months after Carney's death, bassist Charles Mingus recorded Sy Johnson's elegy "For Harry Carney"; the track was released on the album Changes Two.[14]
Discography
As leader
- Harry Carney with Strings (Clef, 1954;[1] reissued by Verve as Moods for Girl and Boy)
- Rock Me Gently (Columbia Records, 1960; recorded as "Harry Carney and the Duke's Men")
As sideman
With Rosemary Clooney
- Blue Rose (Columbia, 1956)
With Duke Ellington
With Ella Fitzgerald
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (Verve, 1957)
With Benny Goodman
- The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert (Columbia, 1938)
- The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World (Pablo, 1967)
With Johnny Hodges
- Used to Be Duke (Norgran, 1954)
- Creamy (Norgran, 1955)
- Ellingtonia '56 (Norgran, 1956)
- Duke's in Bed (Verve, 1956)
- The Big Sound (Verve, 1957)
- Johnny Hodges with Billy Strayhorn and the Orchestra (Verve, 1961)
- Johnny Hodges at Sportpalast, Berlin (Pablo, 1961)
- Triple Play (RCA Victor, 1967)
With Billy Taylor
- Taylor Made Jazz (Argo, 1959)
Notes
External links
- Harry Carney recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Willard, Patricia (October 4, 2012), Carney, Harry (Howell), Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2227923
- ^ Gioia, Ted (2011). The History of Jazz (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-19-539970-7.
- ^ a b c d e "Harry Carney". AllMusic. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
- ^ Sudhalter, Richard M. (2001). Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915–1945. Oxford University Press. p. 172.
- ^ a b c d e Lorre, Sean. "Carney, Harry". Archived from the original on September 19, 2011.
- ^ Spring, Evan (2014). "Duke Ellington Chronology". In Green, Edward (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington. Cambridge University Press. p. xiv. ISBN 978-0-521-88119-7.
- ^ Berendt, Joachim-Ernst; Huesmann, Günther (2009). The Jazz Book: From Ragtime to the 21st Century (7th ed.). Lawrence Hill. pp. 339–340. ISBN 978-1-55652-820-0.
- ^ Williams, Martin (1993). The Jazz Tradition (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-19-507815-2.
- ^ Berish, Andrew (2014). "Survival, Adaptation, and Experimentation: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra in the 1930s". In Green, Edward (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington. Cambridge University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-521-88119-7.
- ^ Taylor, Billy (2013). The Jazz Life of Dr. Billy Taylor. Indiana University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-253-00917-3.
- ^ James, Stephen D.; James, J. Walker (2014). "Conductor of Music and Men: Duke Ellington Through the Eyes of His Nephew". In Green, Edward (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington. Cambridge University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-521-88119-7.
- ^ a b Cottrell, Stephen (2012). The Saxophone. Yale University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-300-10041-9.
- ^ "Jazz | All About Jazz". 23 October 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-10-23. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ Santoro, Gene (2000). Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus. Oxford University Press. p. 417. ISBN 978-0-19-509733-7.
- ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (1992). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette (1st ed.). Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-015364-4.
- ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
- v
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- Harlem Jazz, 1930
- Ellingtonia, Vol. One
- Ellingtonia, Vol. Two
- Braggin' in Brass: The Immortal 1938 Year
- The Blanton–Webster Band
- Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band
- Smoke Rings
- Liberian Suite
- Great Times!
- Masterpieces by Ellington
- Ellington Uptown
- The Duke Plays Ellington
- Ellington '55
- Dance to the Duke!
- Ellington Showcase
- Historically Speaking
- Duke Ellington Presents...
- The Complete Porgy and Bess
- A Drum Is a Woman
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- Such Sweet Thunder
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- Featuring Paul Gonsalves
- Midnight in Paris
- Studio Sessions, New York 1962
- Afro-Bossa
- The Symphonic Ellington
- Duke Ellington's Jazz Violin Session
- Studio Sessions New York 1963
- My People
- Ellington '65
- Duke Ellington Plays Mary Poppins
- Ellington '66
- Concert in the Virgin Islands
- The Popular Duke Ellington
- Far East Suite
- The Jaywalker
- Studio Sessions, 1957, 1965, 1966, 1967, San Francisco, Chicago, New York
- ...And His Mother Called Him Bill
- Second Sacred Concert
- Studio Sessions New York, 1968
- Latin American Suite
- The Pianist
- New Orleans Suite
- Orchestral Works
- The Suites, New York 1968 & 1970
- The Intimacy of the Blues
- The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
- Studio Sessions New York & Chicago, 1965, 1966 & 1971
- The Intimate Ellington
- The Ellington Suites
- This One's for Blanton!
- Up in Duke's Workshop
- Duke's Big 4
- Mood Ellington
- Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live
- Black, Brown, and Beige
- The Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943
- The Carnegie Hall Concerts: December 1944
- The Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1946
- The Carnegie Hall Concerts: December 1947
- Ellington at Newport
- Dance Concerts, California 1958
- Dance Dates, California 1958
- Newport 1958
- Jazz at the Plaza Vol. II
- Duke Ellington at the Alhambra
- Live at the Blue Note
- Hot Summer Dance
- The Great Paris Concert
- A Concert of Sacred Music
- In the Uncommon Market
- Soul Call
- Yale Concert
- 70th Birthday Concert
- Togo Brava Suite
- Live at the Whitney
- Third Sacred Concert
- Eastbourne Performance
- Blue Rose
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book
- Side by Side
- Back to Back
- The Great Summit
- First Time! The Count Meets the Duke
- Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins
- Money Jungle
- Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
- Serenade to Sweden
- Ella at Duke's Place
- The Stockholm Concert, 1966
- Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur
- Francis A. & Edward K.
- It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing
- "African Flower"
- "All Too Soon"
- "Azure"
- "Black and Tan Fantasy"
- "Black, Brown and Beige"
- "C Jam Blues"
- "Come Sunday"
- "Cotton Tail"
- "Creole Love Call"
- "Day Dream"
- "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"
- "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me"
- "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"
- "Drop Me Off in Harlem"
- "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo"
- "Echoes of Harlem"
- "Everything but You"
- "I Ain't Got Nothin' but the Blues"
- "I Didn't Know About You"
- "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)"
- "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart"
- "I'm Beginning to See the Light"
- "I'm Just a Lucky So-and-So"
- "In a Mellow Tone"
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- "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"
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- "Just Squeeze Me (But Please Don't Tease Me)"
- "The Mooche"
- "Mood Indigo"
- " Prelude to a Kiss"
- "Rocks in My Bed"
- "(In My) Solitude"
- "Sophisticated Lady"
- Queenie Pie (unfinished opera)
by Billy Strayhorn |
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by Juan Tizol |
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members
- Hayes Alvis
- Cat Anderson
- Ivie Anderson
- Harold Ashby
- Alice Babs
- Shorty Baker
- Butch Ballard
- Art Baron
- Aaron Bell
- Louie Bellson
- Joe Benjamin
- Barney Bigard
- Lou Blackburn
- Jimmy Blanton
- Wellman Braud
- Lawrence Brown
- Harry Carney
- Johnny Coles
- Willie Cook
- Buster Cooper
- Kay Davis
- Wild Bill Davis
- Wilbur de Paris
- Bobby Durham
- Mercer Ellington
- Rolf Ericson
- Jimmy Forrest
- Victor Gaskin
- Peter Giger
- Tyree Glenn
- Paul Gonsalves
- Sonny Greer
- Fred Guy
- Jimmy Hamilton
- Otto Hardwick
- Shelton Hemphill
- Rick Henderson
- Al Hibbler
- Johnny Hodges
- Major Holley
- Charlie Irvis
- Quentin Jackson
- Hilton Jefferson
- Herb Jeffries
- Freddie Jenkins
- Money Johnson
- Herbie Jones
- Wallace Jones
- Taft Jordan
- Al Killian
- Queen Esther Marrow
- Wendell Marshall
- Murray McEachern
- Louis Metcalf
- James "Bubber" Miley
- Harold "Geezil" Minerve
- Ray Nance
- Tricky Sam Nanton
- Oscar Pettiford
- Eddie Preston
- Russell Procope
- Junior Raglin
- Betty Roché
- Ernie Royal
- Al Sears
- Joya Sherrill
- Willie Smith
- Elmer Snowden
- Rex Stewart
- Billy Strayhorn
- Billy Taylor
- Clark Terry
- Juan Tizol
- Norris Turney
- Ben Webster
- Arthur Whetsel
- Cootie Williams
- Nelson Williams
- Skippy Williams
- Booty Wood
- Jimmy Woode
- Britt Woodman
- Sam Woodyard