Bunny Briggs with Charlie Barnet

Bunny Briggs (1922-2017) had a remarkably long career as a dancer, lasting from childhood to his later years. He often appeared with big bands, notably Duke Ellington's, but also quite a few others.

Briggs sang as well as danced - we have already heard from him with Neal Hefti on my other blog. Today we find him with Charlie Barnet - two songs from 1947 on  the Apollo label and one from 1949 on Capitol.

On all these, Briggs intones a hybrid of scat singing and bop lingo - interesting to me because I never considered the Barnet band to be a bop outfit. On "East Side, West Side," Briggs is afflicted with a vocal backing by the band, while the instrumental arrangement is big-band R&B with Ellington and Kenton touches.

Bunny Briggs

Briggs and Barnet appear in a Snader telescription from about this time performing the same song. In it, Briggs plays a Western Union messenger who delivers a telegram to the bandleader and ends up dancing and singing. You can sort-of see this in an execrable YouTube print. (Is there any other kind?) I believe I discerned Doc Severinsen taking a trumpet solo amidst the murk.

Ellington's "Rockin' in Rhythm" is similar to the "East Side, West Side" single, but without the band vocal and featuring the screeching high-register trumpet playing that was then in vogue, here possibly by Severinsen. The arranger was Billy May.

The final side is "O'Henry," an original by its arranger, Gil Fuller. This one does have some section writing that is strongly bop influenced.

In 1950, Briggs appeared in the Universal short below with Benny Carter's band. It's a good example of his remarkable dancing skills.

Kay Starr with Charlie Barnet

Kay Starr first achieved popular success as a vocalist on Capitol records in the late 40s, but before that she was a band thrush (as Billboard termed them) with Joe Venuti, Glenn Miller, Charlie Barnet and a few other ensembles, making some records with Miller and Barnet.

Her Miller sides aren't that memorable. Starr was a temporary replacement for Marion Hutton and the material and arrangements were not well suited to her. She is, however, recognizably "Kay Starr" on this 1944 date with alto saxophonist Charlie Barnet.

The 78 couples two Doris Fisher-Allan Roberts songs that were actually big hits - but for other artists. And to make it worse, those hits were on Barnet's label, Decca. "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" was a success for Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots (principally Bill Kenny) and "You Always Hurt the One You Love" was a blockbuster for the Mills Brothers.

Kay Starr with Charlie Barnet

Both those competing sides have a panache that the blustery Barnet band cannot match. Charlie's boys start out forte and end up forte, never really swinging along the way. But then I've never been much of a Barnet fan. The sound is fairly good, though.

Starr soon became a single act and eventually moved along to Capitol. My other blog is featuring records she made for that concern from 1947-49.

Fran Warren with Charlie Barnet

I've been celebrating the recordings of the recently deceased Fran Warren on my blogs recently. Here is what I believe to be the singer's first record, made with Charlie Barnet's band in October 1945, when she was 19.

Warren had already sung with the bands of Billy Eckstine and Art Mooney. As far as I can tell, she made only two records with Barnet; this is the first. It certainly is a creditable effort, showing great promise.

Warren

Fran moved on to greater success with the Claude Thornhill aggregation - notably "A Sunday Kind of Love" - and as a solo artist. I have already shared some of her RCA Victor recordings here and on the Big 10-Inch Record, FYI.

Evans

The flip side of this Decca 78 is also of interest. It shows off composer Redd Evans' chops as a singer (he's a little like Johnny Mercer, another singing composer). However, Evans did not write the song, "Surprise Party", nor was he a member of the Barnet band. He did have a sideline as a music publisher, however - and as publisher of this particular song, he sold both it and himself to Barnet.

As a composer, Evans usually wrote with Dave Mann, and was responsible for among others, "No Moon at All" (a Page Cavanaugh specialty), "The Frim-Fram Sauce" (a Nat Cole hit), "If Love Is Good to Me" (a Jackie Paris favorite), and "Let Me Off Uptown" (Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge with Gene Krupa).