MONEY JOHNSON: Duke's New Trumpet By Stanley Dance book to study. He progressed so rapidly Lips Cole was one of the trumpet*, that within a few months, he began to we had a fine drummer too. We used to play in Eddie and Sugar Lou's professional call him Pretty Daddy." group. Eddie Fennell sang and played gui• Johnson was with Calhoun's band at tar, and Sugar Lou Morgan played piano. least two years and says that it was with They rehearsed and played afterhours him that he thinks he first used a plunger parties at the house of Johnson's aunt, mute, something occasioned by Calhoun's around the corner from his mother's. He'd copying Ellington's jungle-sound arrange• go there on weekends or after school and ments. He left to play with John White, a remembers how "they'd dance at the par• trumpeter, who had a band about the size ties and have food, and the tunes would if Calhoun's. White could play all of be like You Rascal, You; Shine; Peanut .Armstrong's solos "and play them well, not Vendor; and Chinatown. My family used louse them up," Johnson said. White had a to buy Louis Armstri'P.g's records of those strong lip, he said, and "he'd play them numbers, and a next-door neighbor used to three or four times a night. It was amaz• let me borrow other records to study. . . . ing. His mother was a schoolteacher and "Eddie and Sugar Lou's band played by he never wanted to go no place. He just ear, and it was one of the most popular wanted to be a musician. He was a real bands around. Besides a trombone player good influence on me." named Ashby, Jerry Bates was on alto, Johnson's next band was also led by a and we had a tenor player whose name I trumpet player—Henry Thompson, nick• forget. Skagmo, who has since died, was named Skunny. Also born in Tyler, he had the drummer. I made some records with traveled the country before deciding to re• them and also did some broadcasts. Be• turn to Texas and form a band of three fore I joined, they had a weekly radio trumpets, trombone, three saxophones, and program over a station in Houston. There rhythm. wasn't any augmenting in those days, and "We went to the Tip Top Club in Okla• the regular band played all the dates. homa City. This would be in '36. I had They were mostly dance dates, and we'd met Charlie Christian and Henry Bridges, go all around, even as far as Amarillo. I the tenor sax player, in Dallas the year was still at school, and I'd have to be back before. They were in a show or some• there in the morning, but most of these thing, and we used to get together in the jobs were at weekends. afternoons. Oklahoma City was their horte. 'Tt didn't take me long to catch on, and now we got together again. Th..e p because I was so ini^iested. I felt com• was a lot of jamming after the job v»:»s pelled to do what I was doing, for it was over in an afterhours place across the what I had wanted to do all my life. street from the hotel we stayed at. Charlie Louis Armstrong was my first inspiration, was playing amplified guitar even in '36. and I'll never forget when he came to my It wasn't an amplified guitar like they home town. He played a dance at the have today, but you could hear him all state fair. I didn't have admission, but I over. He was working with his brother, stood outside and listened. It was Luis who was a good piano player. He's still Russell's band, and there were guys in it around, but for some reason he never did HAROLD (MONEY) JOHNSON is one of Ihosc like J. C. Higginbotham and Cliarhc reach the big time. Charlie used to work musicians who are better known within Holmes. Louis would be hitting all those for a trumpet player called Simpson, who the profession than outside it. Prior to C's, two or three hundred, and at that time had a band out there. joining Duke Fllington, he was. like for a trumpet player to hit a C was like "Bridges was free-lancing, and he and Snooky Young, l-rnie Royal and Jimmy a guy hitting a G or a B flat above the C harlie were pals. They'd be together on Nottingham, one of that corps of seldom- staff. It was something else, and I've never gigs and in different bands. They used to publicized brass plajers who form the forgotten it." call on me, and we'd work together and backbone of the New York studio scene Johnson had a cousin. Red Calhoun, have a ball." and who are not a little responsible for who played alto saxophone, lived in Dal• When Johnson joined Nat Towles in that city's reputation as a recording cen• las, and led a band there. "He was a Oklahoma City in 1937, it was a landmark ter. Arrangers who are enticed to Los grown man, and 1 was a kid," he remem• in his career, "a big step up," he said. Angeles by the prospect of greater finan• bers, "but he used to visit Tyler, and he "We had been doing a lot of head ar• cial rewards often sigh, in unguarded mo• knew I was learning trumpet. Leonard rangements with Skunny and Calhoun, but ments, for New York's brass, its depend• Parker was a great help to me, and I must we didn't do any heads in Towles's band. ability, flexibility, personality. have picked up pretty fast—I was still 15 He had hard music and several arrangers. Johnson has played in a lot of big when my cousin sent a telegram for me Buster Smith was one of them. Weldon towns and a lot of big bands, and it seems to join his band." Sneed, a very dear friend, a trumpet pla>- odd that he isn't more widely known. He His mother wanted him to stay home, er and fine musician, was another. Then has toured Russia and Europe with Earl and he had to talk to her, explaining tlial there was C . Q. Price, the alto player from Hines and South America with Panama "this way I could do more for her." He Buffalo, who later was with Count Basie. Francis. He has been in sliow bands at convinced her but because he still was of And two weeks after I joined, Sir Charles places like Basin Street East, the Copa- school age, he had to transfer to high Thompson came in. He learned how to cabana, and the Apollo Theater. Last year, school in Dallas, 108 miles away. wiiie between C. Q. and Weldon Sneed. he was at the Newport Jazz Festival and "Dallas was quite a jump for me," he TheN told him what he shouldn't do and at Las Vegas with Duke Ellington and this said. "What went on in Tyler was mostly what he shoidd do. Before he left the year, in June, he took over Cat Anderson's roses, cattle, cotton, and oil. Red Cal• band, he was writing things you wouldn't chair with the band. houn's band was very popular around Dal• believe such a kid could do. He and I He was born in Tyler. Texas, on Feb. las. He used to play all of Duke Elling• were the youngest in the band." 23, 1918, and as far back as he can re• ton's hits, and take them off the records Among the other musicians were Siki member, always wanted to play trumpet. himself. He had three trumpets, three Collins (alto), Casey Smith (banjo), Leon• When he was 15, a friend gave him an saxes, and four rhythm. Sometimes he had ard Talley (baritone), N. R. Bates (first old, battered, taped-up cornet. No music a trombone, but he had three trumpets all trumpet), Lee Pope and Bob Dorsey (ten• was taught in his high school, so he took the time. We worked quite a lot, and we or saxophones). Nathaniel Mack or "Lit• the horn to a teacher named Leonard used to play in an upstairs ballroom tle Mack" (drums), and trombonists Parker, who played in the town band. called the Dallas Rhythm Club. There .Archie Brown and Henry Coker. "Coker Parker gave him exercises to do and a weren't reallj any name* in the band. Hot was out of sight when they discovered 18 • DOWN BEAT ••' - tliiiiiiiliiiliittii

him," Johnson observed. "He came from Always Be In Love W 'H You. Emmett at dances the band played many instra< Dallas, a part of the suburbs called St. Berry played the trumiwt on Ain't Mis- mentals. Louis, and he was playing so much trom• behavin', C. Q. Price »t«d to write for In 1954, Johnson went to South America bone they couldn't believe it. Before him, Horace, too, and eventually we got Elmer in a band led by drummer Panama Fran• there had been a guy we called Trombone (Stomp) Whitlock as » kind of staff ar• cis and including Elmer Crumbley, trom• Buddy, who used to play with Lawson ranger. He was a bc*«tiful little cat, a bone; Arthur (Babe) Clark, tenor; Charlie Brook's big band in Dallas, and he was the trumpet player who had worked with Louis Bateman, piano; and LaVern Barker, baddest of the trombone players. He Armstrong. He's still out there some• bass. worked with Earl Hines at the Grand where." "About that time," Johnson recalled, "1 Terrace, but he gave up the music business Johnson noted that **ien he went back decided to quit traveling and stay around and is, now, I think, a mail clerk back in to Omaha four or fivt years later with the city. The road is rough, man, but it Dallas. They thought no one could follow Bull Moose Jackson, ^hmgs weren't the gets into your system to the point where him, but after they heard Lorenzo—as he same. "Everybody had l«ft, and there was being on the road is your normal life. Like then was—Coker, they forgot about Trom• nothing there, nothing," he said. the life the guys with Duke live. There's bone Buddy. "We played one-nighters with Horace, always that thing about getting out from "After Coker left, Towles got another working around New York. We played under. You're alwavs coming and going, great trombone player—Fred Beckett. Beck• at the Savoy from time to time for two and there's no sense messing with the ett was wonderful, too, and he had a or three years. Once when Basie was bringdowns about the upkeep at home, etc. beautiful conception, but he loved to playing downtown, Buddy Tate and all the Plus there's the fact when you're out on drink. He would stay up 'til all times at guys came by and caught us at the Savoy. the road you land up somewhere where night, come around to see his friends, Buddy had been with Towles for years, you've got pals, and you meet up with and have himself a ball. I think it was but he left to go with Basie before I them, and drink, and its beautiful, and one of those cases where a man has some• joined. He's a beautiful human being." you're gone again next morning." thing on his mind—maybe a woman—and When the Henderson band broke up. For several years, Johnson was a reg• thinks he can drink and drown out his tenorist Bob Dorsey contracted a job in ular member of the Reuben Phillips Band troubles. But it can't be done. I don't Rochester for a group including Johnson, at New York's Apollo Theater, buf de• knCharles Thompson can e in on piano and ices increasingly conflicted with appear• sleep finally killed him, .After he left our they stayed in Rochester for two years. ances there, so he quit the band. He band he was with Harlan Leonard and Then Johnson rejoineu Towles, who had worked a number of gi.cs with Buddy Lionel Hampton, a job at the Rhumboi ,, .e in Chicago. Johnson's small band and was always "While I was in Omaha, I worked with "That was where Ba^e heard and liked called when Mercer Ellington was putting Alphonso Trent once. This was after his iny pla>ing and got n;e to join him in bands together. When Mercer became road big-band days were over, and it was one of New York," Johnson aid. "I took the manager for his father's band, he didn't those gigs like when you go up in the place of Buck Clayton who was leaving forget Johnson. mountains and play with two or three for the .Army, but 1 was more or less "I've sometimes been approached about pieces. He's come down in the v,orld quite playing in Harry Edison s style, and Basie going on the road with Duke," Johnson a bit, but it was great for me, because I'd found he didn't need two of the same. He said shortly before making his decision, heard of him when I was a kid in knee- and Cootie Williams were good friends, "but I don't really know whether I'd want pants. As a pianist, he wasn't any Faiha and when Cootie needed a trumpet player, to or not. The band is tops, and I've al• Hines, but maybe like F letcher Henderson Basie sent me over \o join him. At the ways loved it, because so many of those in his day," time. Cootie was doing theater one-night• guys play so good. But the road is some• ".My seven years with Towles were the ers in a package with the Ink Spots, Ella thing else. Those guys are used to it, and most important part of my career, Cal• Fitzgerald, and Nat Cole. I was once the same way. It isn't family houn gave me a foundation, but I learned I was with Cootie about a year, and reasons really. We don't have children. more in the Towles band. They were all being with him gave me an itch to play We had a boy, but he had rheumatic fever experienced guys, and they took a liking plunger again. He set-ned to like what I and passed some years ago." to nie, and tried to help me, and I ap• did with it, like little things behind Ella. Johnson made the State Department preciated this, Lee Pope was my room• Cootie had a sextet within the big band, tour of Russia with Earl Hines in 1966 mate, and he gave me my nickname, be• and he would do his own plunger thing and was a big success—and surprise— cause he used to borrow money from me, with the sextet. He had two tenor players, playing his plunger-muted version of Can't I was 17 when I joined, 24 when I left, Lockjaw Davis and Sam Taylor, and they Si; Down. He joined Hines again in the "Horace Henderson was scouting for a would alternate. The rhythm section was fall of 1968 for .m extensive European big band, and he probably heard Towles Bud Powell, Norman Keenan (now with tour, impressing audiences as a soloist on had a good bunch of musicians. He came Basie), and Sylvester Payne. the same number and in a sensitive inter• out with just Emmett Berry and Israel "Around '47, I joined Lucky Millinder, pretation of It's the Talk of the Town. Crosby, He cleaned out Towles's band, then went back to Cootie, and back again Like several of his colleagues, he took took everybody he needed—except the to Lucky. Both bands were big then, but up the fluegelhorn a few years ago. "I like rhythm section—and hired Debo Mills on Lucky gave me more to play, featured the sound," he said. "There are certain drums. Nat Towles didn't have any con• me more, and paid a better salary. Lucky things for this horn, and others for the tracts with us then. If you were working always had a name for paying guys. We trumpet. The bore in the fluegelhorn for a leader in those days, you could just worked the Savoy and did a lot of one- mouthpiece is ditferent from the trum• give him two weeks' notice, and be would nighters with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who pet's. They feel the same, but the differ• accept it. You can't do that nowadays was hot then." ence is inside. It has to be a little bigger Naturally, Towles didn't appieciate what After a lengthy stay with Millinder, on the fluegelhorn, because the horn is a Horace did. Johnson continued to work at the Savoy, little deeper. To get the fluegel sound, you "The way it happened was that the guj s this time in Lucky Thompson's band. Oth• have to use a fluegel mouthpiece. Some had been in Omaha so long, and when er engagements followed with Sy Oliver guys are not doing this, and that's why Horace said he was going to take the and Herbie Fields, and he remembers re• they don't .sound like fluegelhorn players. band to New York—well, everybody want• cording Chinese Lullaby, among other You don't blow as hard on the fluegel• ed to go to the big city. Horace had his titles, with Fields for Victor. He then horn as on the trumpet. It's a real mellow own book, so we rehearsed right there in joined a group fronted by Bull Moose horn when it is played right." Omaha, did one-nighters, and came on Jackson that was organized by Lucky On tru.mpet or fluegelhorn. Money John• into New York. That was the first time I Millinder, for whom Jackson had made son always sounds a part of the richest came East, and it meant a whole lot to several hits as a vocalist. jazz tradition, demonstrably a musician me. The instrumentation was trumpet, alto, with a story to tell and the ability to tell "When we recorded for John Hammond two tenors, piano, bas:.. and drums. Frank it. Perhaps his association wih Ellington (on Okeh), I soloed on Smooth Sailing— Wess and Jackson played the tenors. Re• will bring him the recognition he deserves. written by Sir Charles—and sang on /'// cordings emphasized Jackson's vocals, but

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