BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER VOLUME XVIII BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1992 HELEN WARD INTERVIEW_______ The Interview The Background BBJ: How did Benny Goodman find you? A reader's letter gave us the incentive to get in touch HW: Through a mutual friend. His name is George with Helen Ward. The reader wanted her phone Bassman, and I met George socially through my number, and we were happy to oblige, but as is often parents at age 17, and he knew Benny as a staff the case, Helen Ward is under­ standably wary of talking to un­ known fans or having her number given out. We did find her, how­ ever, living comfortably with her husband in suburban Washington, DC. She's no longer singing pro­ fessionally, even though the urge is still there as you'll discover in the following interview. Since Helen Ward was the first singer with Benny Goodman ... acknowledged as the band starting the Big Band Era, her experience is rich and meaningful. She is, by association, the" Queen of Swing," and the pioneer of the big band singer's art, setting the pattern for all who followed. She mentioned in an album note for her last recording that Big Band singers were hired mostly to "Look pretty and sing the lyrics of the popular songs of the day." She recalls that Benny Goodman told her, "Sing the melody, Helen," whenever she Helen Ward took liberties with an ad-lib phrase now and then. As a single with a smaller group, musician at NBC. When Benny was forming his band, which Helen prefers, she sings the melody, but he said Benny was looking for a singer, and why don't interprets it with tasteful "liberties" allowing us to I go down and meet him? I sang for him, and the rest revel in her personal and captivating style. is history. A review of Helen's album is in the RECORDS TO BBJ: How did you get singing experience at that CONSIDER section of this Newsletter. young age? VOLUME XVIII BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1992 HW: I had already done some work in NBC date that I had a chance to do my thing. It turned out myself, and auditioned to sing with Enric Madriguera, so well. The songs I recorded with Gene were and all of this was before Benny. MUTINY IN THE PARLOR and I'M GONNA CLAP MY HANDS. Those tunes never made a lot of BBJ: Were your parents behind you in this effort? waves, but I had a ball making that record with Gene. HW : Very much so. I was a freshman at NYU, and BBJ: When you hear your records now, does it I had to promise my parents that if I didn't make it I'd sound to you as if you're listening to someone else? go back and finish college. As it turned out I was able to make good, and I never went back to finish, sorry HW: No, absolutely not. It does surprise me when to say. (Laughs) I hear those early records that I sang so high. In other words, my voice has lowered through the years. BBJ: What record was the turning point for you? BBJ: We also discovered you played pretty good HW: There wasn't any one record. I was very piano. secure right from the start. We just started out together. I'm proud to say that. HW: Not bad. I played piano before I ever thought of singing. I used to play for the kids in school when BBJ: Some say Benny was difficult to work with. they'd stand around and sing in the gym. My dad was Did you find him that way? a marvelous musician. He didn 't make a profession of it, but he played piano by ear. He taught me little HW: No, he was very fine to me. It was different chords. I'm blessed with having inherited his talent with the guys. But he would say, "That stinks. Do it and I'm able to play everything by ear. over again!" I couldn't take offense at that because he was looking for perfection. I'm not saying my singing BBJ: Do you have perfect pitch? was perfect; I'm just saying that he made us buckle down and get it right. HW : So they tell me. It was a blessing when I was working. Jess Stacy, God love him, used to be on the BBJ: You were on the Camel Caravan in 1939 with other end of the room and he'd run over and hit a note Johnny Mercer and that gang. on the piano and yell out, "What note is that?" I was able to tell him, and we used to have fun with that. HW: That was fun. I really enjoyed that. I always looked forward to Johnny's NEWSIE BLUSIES, and BBJ: Didn't you leave Benny because you were there was one time I was scheduled to go on the air engaged to get married? and five or ten minutes before I was to go on I developed a cramp in my toes, and I was in such HW: In December, '361 came down with the most agony, but I had to go on and managed to get through God-awful strep throat that ever happened, and I had it. Everybody was trying to rub my foot, and they to go to the hospital. If it hadn't been for that I'd have were only making it worse! I was on for about six been with Benny a little bit longer, because I didn't months. It was a good time. intend to marry immediately. Having been ill, I was away from the band. Then I got married, and that was BBJ: I was surprised to learn you sang briefly with it. That was just before Benny went into the Para­ Gene Krupa. mount, so I left at a time when everything was on the upswing. HW: Well, it was only on a record date. It happens that one of my favorite records that I did I made with BBJ: Later on you joined Harry James. Gene. I always preferred singing with a smaller group, and it was on Gene's small group recording HW: He called me to join his band out at the 2 VOLUME XVIII BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1992 Palladium in California in '43 or '44. I joined the get embarrassed when I see contemporaries of mine, band, but when I first did any work with Harry it was even feeling ill, going on. I think it's just better to only for a record date. The name of the tune I have people remember you the way you were. remember was DADDY. BBJ: Why do you think that's the case? BBJ: Weren't you with Hal McIntyre for a while? HW: Some people are hams, you know, and they HW: I was with his orchestra after my divorce. I have to be in front of an audience, but I never was built was with him for several months. It was after that I that way. It was never an obsession where I had to went with Harry. keep going, and I was lucky enough that I didn't have to. BBJ: When did you stop singing professionally? BBJ: How difficult was it when you were young HW: I never really stopped. I was in and out. In travelling with a bunch of guys in a bus? 1953 I had a phone call from Benny to join him for a tour. We ended up in Carnegie Hall. That was when HW: May I tell you that when you're that young, Benny took ill in the middle of the tour and Gene and having never been west of New Jersey, I had a Krupa then led the band, and we finished out, but we ball. There was no such animal as tired. Oh, we were never got to California as we were supposed to. The knocked out at times, but it didn't matter. Benny said whole spirit was gone without Benny. to me, "If we had to do that today, we'd be dead!" He was right. We were all just starting out and had such BBJ: You made an album in the last decade or so, high hopes and ambitions, and were dedicated to what didn't you? we were doing. The spirit there was so wonderful. HW: Yes. Bill, my husband, got after me to make We all became fast friends, and I regularly commu­ an album in 1979. The name of it is HELEN SINGS, nicate with those who are left to this day. We were HELEN SWINGS, HELEN WITH STRINGS. I part of a big family, and you don't find that today played the ukulele in that album. (Laughs) anymore. BBJ: Was that the last singing you did profession­ People like Jess Stacy and Toots Mondello and Dick ally? Clark who played tenor in the band; we're still writing to each other. HW: Yes. I also did a solo act, which I had never done in my entire life. I went into a little club called BBJ: What about the musicians today? MARTY'S in New York, and I'm proud and immod­ est enough to say the ropes were up every night. I HW: Bless 'em all and they should all do their couldn't believe so many New Yorkers remembered thing, but oh my! What has happened to music? It me.