{"id":4377,"date":"2013-01-15T00:40:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T08:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=4377"},"modified":"2013-01-24T17:52:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T01:52:49","slug":"when-harry-james-met-nancy-ames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2013\/01\/when-harry-james-met-nancy-ames\/","title":{"rendered":"When Harry James Met Nancy Ames"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scouring the web in search of something unrelated, I came across a clip from a 1967 Ed Sullivan show that brought to mind\u00e2\u20ac\u201das if a reminder were needed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHarry James\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4378\" alt=\"Harry James\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Harry-James.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Harry-James.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Harry-James-70x70.jpg 70w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Harry-James-110x110.jpg 110w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 130px) 100vw, 130px\" \/>stunning musicianship. The trumpeter teamed up with Nancy Ames in a performance of one of Ethel Merman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s signature songs from Cole Porter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>Anything Goes<\/em>. A couple of his licks in the piece emphasize James\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability as a blues player, an attribute often ignored by critics who downgraded him for his sugary playing in hits like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sleepy Lagoon.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d On the Sullivan broadcast, he showed his jazz side.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pciKxu0XLaA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><p>Ames seemed omnipresent on television for a few years. She came to fame on a program<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4379\" alt=\"Nancy Ames\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Nancy-Ames.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Nancy-Ames.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Nancy-Ames-70x70.jpg 70w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Nancy-Ames-110x110.jpg 110w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 130px) 100vw, 130px\" \/> called <em>Hootnenanny<\/em>, something of a sensation in the early 1960s. She also sang the introductory news summary on the US version of the satirical <em>This Was The Week That Was<\/em>. Ames was typecast as a folk singer, but her stylistic range was wide. Part of her appeal came from relaxation and naturalness reminiscent of Peggy Lee. When bossa nova was still making modest waves in popular music, Nancy Ames showed that she had a nice touch with Brazilian songs. Her duet on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So Nice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Summer Samba\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) with Andy Williams in a 1967 episode of his television show is an example. <em>YouTube<\/em> doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow us to embed the clip. To see it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Gym_GqPbtbU\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As for Harry James\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blues authenticity, he established it convincingly on record in 1938 when he was a 22-year-old making his name as a sideman with Benny Goodman. He validated his credentials on two sides of a 78 with the boogie woogie piano giants Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, drummer Eddie Dougherty and bassist Johnny Williams. Here are both takes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Boo Woo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Woo Woo.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Video of the original 78s is presented on <em>YouTube<\/em> by Emile Dumur, who takes pains to show you the labels with personnel listings before he plays the records.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GyVOFRys-iE?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Nw8QZNuvt4s?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><p>Less than a year later, in January, 1939, James left Goodman to form his own band. A string of hits lay ahead of him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scouring the web in search of something unrelated, I came across a clip from a 1967 Ed Sullivan show that brought to mind\u00e2\u20ac\u201das if a reminder were needed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHarry James\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stunning musicianship. The trumpeter teamed up with Nancy Ames in a performance of one of Ethel Merman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s signature songs from Cole Porter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Anything Goes. A couple [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}