Harry James featuring Dick Haymes
NY World’s Fair 1940 & Hotel Lincoln 1941
Hep Jazz Records 88
www.hepjazz.com
By George W. Harris

For some strange reason, both trumpeter Harry James and his vocalist
Dick Haymes seem to get overlooked when talking about great artists in
jazz. For James, who made his name by playing with Benny Goodman and
marrying Betty Grable, it’s possibly due to his schmaltzy recordings
that he made once he hit the big time. For Haymes, who replaced Sinatra
in more ways than one (he married Rita Hayworth and took over Sinatra’s
spot with James), it could simply be that his style of slow to mid
tempo ballads is reflective of a different generation, far removed from
today’s angst-ridden groaners.

These recordings, recorded “live” and just before James’ band hit the
big time, show a band that imbibed deeply from the waters of Ellington
( “Answer Man”) Basie (“Tempo de Luxe”) and Lunceford (“I’m Nobody’s
Baby”) in terms of harmony, swing and tempo respectively. James himself
was one of the last trumpeters that actually sang through his horn; his
work on the string laden “Frenesi” and “La Paloma” are as bel canto as
anything from La Traviata. Together with the whole band, they do a
rendition of “Georgia On My Mind” that ranks as a real tour de force,
worth playing over a dozen times. Whew!

Haymes, meanwhile, is a mix of Bing Crosby’s crooning, Frank Sinatra’s
lilt and Billy Eckstine’s depth, as he so amply displays on tunes like
“Do I Worry” and “Fools Rush In.” He knows exactly how to deliver a
lyric, and sings it like he means it on a cleverly reworked “The
Nearness Of You.” Between him and James, you could honestly say that
this band had two vocalists, and with Vido Musso on tenor for most of
the tunes here (dig his solo on “Beyond The Moon”), you’ve got a disc
that you won’t want to let go of. A reflection of a period of when
“it’s not what you say, but the way that you say it.”