lenn Miller was a well-trained and tal-ented musician who also had a shrewdbusiness sense and a keen ability to rec-

ognize talent in others. In 1941, Miller added JerryGray, a multi-talented composer and arranger, to hisstaff.l It rvas a wise move, along with his decision (atthe recommendation of reed section leader ErnieCaceres) to hire Bobby Hackett, a diminutive younggurtarist rvho doubled on cornet. In all, Hackett wasrlith Glenn Miller a little more than a year, fromJulv 10. 1941. to September 27 , L942, when the groupdrsbanded. The frrst few months he was with thegroup. he plaved rhlthm guitar while recovering fromdental surgery.

Glenl \Iiller and his Orchestra recorded six tunesi''r \-:ctr,r'. Bluebird label in New York City on No-;e:r-ber -1. 1911. Hackett \ras presumably in the:r-,-:h:r :+.:r-n. b,;t his guitar plaf ing is hardly au-i'i-. -.- .:-,- :: :he recordings. AJthough Miller pro-',*-':: :-r:- ;'-::r a sta:e-of-the-art amplifier. Hackett

. . -,:,, --:-:::-.= --'--;'3- :

Bobby Hackett'sString of Pearls

Cnanr,ns Tbnwrn

said, "I never plugged it in." Gray's String of Pearls isthe only song from the session on which Hackett'scornet playing can be heard.2

Occasionally, Hackett would play a cornet solo atdances and supper shows, and on several Glenn Millerrecordings, he can be heard "noodling around" be-hind singers and vocal groups. Recording techniquesof the day could not accurately capture the subtletyor nuance of his playing, but his skill in improvisingtasteful obbligati was unique. String of Pearls is un-doubtedly the most celebrated of the solos Hackettrecorded with Glenn Miller,3 although his lyrical in-troduction to Rhapsody in Blue was also well-known.One of his most effective solos with Miller *a.a-superb chorus of Stardust on a radio broadcast airedon November 8, 194\. Unfortunately, the arrange-ment was never recorded in the studio and the "aircheck" was not issued on disc untii 33 years later.a Itis a shame that Hackett never recorded a featurenumber in the studio with Glenn Miller, as he did

Photo by Jack Bradley

June 2000 / ITG Journal 55

with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra a fewyears later.5

Hundreds of trumpet players, amateur and profes-sional, have played String of Pearls and have taken a"crack" at the classic solo. It looks relatively simpleon the page: three four-bar phrases ofmodest arpeg-gios at a medium-bounce tempo, covering a mereoctave and a fourth. As is often the case, however, thenotation doesn't really give a clear representation ofthe form and inherent logic of the music. Like so

many of Hackett's solos, it is a marvel of construc-tion and has a subtle sense of logic.rThe famoussolo is not technically challenging, but playing itwith Hackett's lilt, swing, and feeling of inevita-bility is, of course, another story. Tli'e String ofPearls solo of November 3, 1941, is generally tran-scribed in dance band arrangements as seen inExample 1.6

On November 8, 1941, five days after the studiorecording of String of Pearls, the Glenn Miller Or-chestra made a radio broadcast from the Caf6 Rougeof the Hotel Pennsylvania. Glenn Miller introducedString of Pearls to the radio audience as follows:

Now folks, if smooth music with a little jumpin it is your fancy, we've got one coming upthat's especially designed for your listeningpleasure, String of Pearls.It was written byone ofour arrangers, Jerry Gray, and it's oneof our latest recordings. And I think you'denjoy listening for Bobby Hackett's cornetIater on in the piece.T

Hackett's solo was a note-for-note duplication ofthe one he had played on the studio recording fivedays earlier. In fact, the radio broadcast recordinggives support to the story that Miller was so taken bythe beauty of Hackett's solo that he asked him to play

Example 1

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l'0lt ullla'?fl ulll f'nl ulrExample 1 : All examples are lrom String of Pearts, solo by Bobby Hackett (transposed to B{lat cornet pitch). Music by Jerry Gray. Copyright @ 1 941 ,

1942 by l/utual Music Society, lnc. Copyright renewed and assigned to Chappell & Co. lnternational Copyright Secured- All Rights Reserved. Used bypermission from Hal Leonard Corporation. Examples typeset by James Olcott.

56 ITG Journal I June 2000 @ 2000 lnternational Trumpet Guild

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it the same way every time. Hackett was far tooimaginative to be content repeating himself, and it isnot diffrcult to imagine how he must have felt aboutMiller's request. At the famous Carnegie Hall concertof 1938, Benny Goodman hired Hackett to play anote-for-note imitation of Bix Beiderbecke's solo on|m Comin'Virginiag - now Glenn Miller asks him toplay a note-for-note imitation of himselfl Hackettrecorded String of Pearls several times during hiscareer, and the solos he played are remarkably var-ied. In a recording from 1965, he played his originalsolo "upside down" by inverting the triplet arpeggios(descending figures going up and ascending figuresgoing down).e He played an entirely different solo ona L972 recording with the Glenn Miller Orchestra,directed by Buddy DeFranco.lo

The primary aspect of String of Pearls that holdsthe listener's interest, undoubtedly contributing toits commercial appeal, is the relatively simple synco-pated pattern in Example 2.

This is scored for the saxophone section through-out the opening segment of the piece and twice forthe trombones immediately before the cornet solo.The trombone section continues the rhy'thmic pat-ter-n during the cornet solo. Hackett's solo falls alter-natel1- in and out "of phase" with the distinctiverhl.thm of the accompaniment. This is a clear ex-ample of poly'rnetrical texture, which was rare in.{merican popular music of the 1940s.

It is likel1' that Hackett's experience playing thegrdtar. along with his solid rh5.-thmic sense, enhanced]ris vast kno*-ledge of tunes and chord structure.Bsernple 3 i"" an analysis of the solo that reduceseach of the arpeggios in the melodic line to chordnames ,as thel- rvould be notated in a guitar part)

? 21C.1 -:.erzt:ra Trurre: Guild

and shows the interesting relationship of the ostinatoswing rh5.'thm to that of Hackett's solo.

Hackett's solo on String of Pearls did much toestablish his reputation with the public and his fel-low musicians and entertainers such as LouisArmstrong, Lee Wiley, Tony Bennett, and JackieGleason. He was a master improviser whose liquidtone, relaxed style, and use of melodic sequence couldmake an indelible impression in just a few measures.His playing has been aptly described with a varietyof superlatives. Historian James Collier calledHackett's famous tone "a sound as pure as springwater," and composer Alec Wilder said of his impro-visatory skills, "I have never heard him play a phraseI would prefer to have heard otherwise." Long afterHackett's death, Vic Dickenson, who played with himas much as any horn player, was asked what hemissed most about Hackett. His response was, "thesimple perfection of his playing." He was a gem andleft us pearls.

Notes

Glenn Miller undoubtedly hoped that Gray's skillas an arranger could do as much for the GlennMiller Orchestra as it had for other groups. ArtieShaw's recording of CoIe Porter's Begin theBeguine had first put Shaw on the map in 1938.Its success was rightly attributed to Shaw's in-spired playing, but it also owed much to JerryGray's splendid arrangement, a swing era classicif there ever was one.This performance is included in countless GlennMiller anthologies, too numerous to list here. Itcan be found in a recent Hackett antholog'y on com-pact disc; the CD is even entitled String of Pearls(Topaz TPZ 1053). Glenn Miller was not the onlybandleader to record String of Pearls. Other re-cordings include those by Woody Herman, ClydeLucas, and Benny Goodman. Goodman's, with anexcellent arrangement by Mel Powell, is outstand-ing. These are all detailed in Roger D. Kinkle'suseful work The Complete Encyclopedia of Popu-lar Music q.nd Jazz 1900-1950 (New Rochelle:Arlington House, I97 4).They are all documented in Harold Jones'bookBobby Hackett: A Bio-Discography (Westport, Con-necticut: Greenwood Press, 1999). It is a little-known fact that a second complete take of Stringof Pearls (matrix number BS 068068-2) was madein the Victor studio that day in 1941 and, accord-ing to Jones, has actually been issued in Germany:Electrola WDLP 1024 (LP).Glenn Miller, A Legendary Performer. RCA CPM2-0693 (2-LP set).

Bobby Hackett with the author's father, trumpeter Lloyd Turner,at the Doral Hotel in Miami, Florida (1963)

June 2000 / ITG Journal 57

After You'ue Gone and Maybe come to mind, al-though both are all but forgotten today. Certainly,these are among the Glen Gray recordings mostworthy of reissue.Surprisingly few of Hackett's improvisations havebeen published. Tll'o excellent solos (-In a MellowTone and Embraceable You), transcribed by KenRattenbury, lvere printed in Crescendo and JcrzzMusic 32:6 (December 1995-January 1996),36-37and ibid., 34:3 (June-Jul5. 1997t, 38-39, respec-tively. While the solos are imagrnative and thetranscriptions excellent, the actual recorded per-formances are very difficult to frnd. Hackett's 1na Mellow Tone (1971t appears on his o\r'rr unsuc-cessful Hyannisport label tHR 1001), and Em-bracea,ble You (7952) is an air check only avail-able in Denmark rStorF.ille STCD 6042).Transcribed b1- the author from RCA CPM2-0693,Glenn Miller: A Legendarl' Perfonner.Goodman's personal recording of the entire con-cert was, of course. released man)' years later.Hackett was never pleased his performance wasbeing circulated. He rvas onll'23 1'ears old at the

time, nervous, and "in over my head," as he put it.The Goodman concert was a special case, butHackett did have just cause to complain about in-explicable delays in issuing his recordings to thepublic. By the time they had a chance to be heard,appreciated, and requested at concerts, he wouldsometimes have little recollection of them.Epic BN26174. T}l.e album is titled, not surpris-ingly, String of Pearls.For discographical details ofall the Srring ofPearlsrecordings, see Harold Jones'Bobby Hockett: ABio-Discography, previously mentioned.

About the Author: Charles Turnerstudied at the University of Texas andIndiana University (Ph.D. 1986) andis associate professor of music historyat the Hartt School, University ofHartford. His published research cov-ers a variety of topics, from propor-tion in the Medieval motet to 19th

century American music. He recently returned totrumpet playing after a 25 year hiatus.

10

ITG is proud to announce that Sean Hennessy of ColoradoSprings. Colorado has been awarded the June 2000 ITG YoungArtist Arvard. Sean is a junior at Cheyenne Mountain HighSchool and u'as nominated by his band director Jack Yonce, andF. Joseph Docksey, Director of the Lamont School of Music,University- of Denver. Sean has studied trumpet with WyntonMarsalis, Phil Smith, Ray Mase, Manny Laureano, Roger Voisin,and Doc Severinsen.

He was a finalist in the Young Concert Artists competition inNew York City and was the first young artist in the UnitedStates selected for the Kennedy Center Young Performing Art-ist Showcase. Sean performed the Hummel Concerto with theColorado Sl'rnphony and the Walla Walla (Washington) Sym-phony. He attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in the sum-mer of 1998. He also performs with the Colorado Springs YouthSymphony and the Denver Young Artist Orchestra.

In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments, ITG willprovide Sean with a complimentary one-year membership. Co-ordinator Del Lyren extends his appreciation to adjudicatorsJay Coble (University of South Florida) and David Scott (McNeese

State University).Nominations for the Young Artist Award are accepted through-

out the year. Please see page 54 for details or visit the ITG rvebsite at www.trumpetguild.org.

58 ITG Jourruq.I I June 2000 O 2000 lnternational Trumpet Gurld