Harry Howell Carney (April 1, 1910 – October 8, 1974) was a jazz saxophonist and clarinettist who spent over four decades as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He played a variety of instruments, but primarily used the baritone saxophone, being a critical influence on the instrument in jazz.
Harry Carney | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Harry Howell Carney |
Born | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | April 1, 1910
Died | October 8, 1974 New York City, U.S. | (aged 64)
Genres | Jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | baritone saxophone, clarinet |
Years active | 1930s–1970s |
Carney was born on April 1, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] In Boston, he grew up close to future bandmate Johnny Hodges.[2] Carney began by playing the piano at age seven, moved to the clarinet at 14, and added the alto saxophone a year later.[1] He first played professionally in clubs in Boston.[1]
Early influences on Carney's playing included Buster Bailey, Sidney Bechet, and Don Murray.[3] Carney also reported that, for his baritone saxophone playing, he "tried to make the upper register sound like Coleman Hawkins and the lower register like Adrian Rollini".[4]
After playing a variety of gigs in New York City at the age of 17, Carney was invited to join the Duke Ellington band for its performances in Boston in 1927.[5][note 1] He soon recorded with Ellington too, with a first session in October that year.[5] Having established himself in the Ellington band, he stayed with it for the rest of his life.[1] The band began a residency at the Cotton Club in New York at the end of the year.[5]
After Ellington added more personnel in 1928, Carney's main instrument became the baritone saxophone.[5] He was a dominant figure on the baritone in jazz, with no serious rivals on the instrument until the advent of bebop in the mid-1940s.[7] Within the overall sound of the Ellington band, Carney's baritone was often employed to play parts of harmonies that were above the obvious low pitching of the instrument; this altered the textures of the band's sound.[8]
In January 1938, Carney was invited to play with Benny Goodman's band at Carnegie Hall.[9] Recordings from this event were released as The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. Carney also took up the bass clarinet around 1944.[3] He "co-composed "Rockin' in Rhythm" and was usually responsible for executing the bubbling clarinet solo on this tune".[3]
In 1957, Carney was part of a band led by pianist Billy Taylor that recorded the album Taylor Made Jazz.[10]
Carney was the longest serving player in Ellington's orchestra.[3] On occasions when Ellington was absent or wished to make a stage entrance after the band had begun playing the first piece of a performance, Carney would serve as the band's conductor.[citation needed] The Ellington orchestra typically travelled on a tour bus, but Ellington himself did not; he was driven separately by Carney, a "quiet, calm presence".[11]
Ellington wrote many showpiece features for Carney throughout their time together.[citation needed] In 1973 Ellington built the Third Sacred Concert around Carney's baritone saxophone.[12]
After Ellington's 1974 death, Carney said: "Without Duke, I have nothing to live for".[5] Carney's final recording may have been under Mercer Ellington's leadership, for the album Continuum.[3] Four months after Ellington's death, Carney also died, on October 8, 1974, in New York.[1]
Carney was an early jazz proponent of circular breathing.[12] He was also Hamiet Bluiett's favorite baritone player because he "never saw anybody else stop time" in reference to a concert Bluiett attended where Carney held a note during which all else went silent.[13] Two months after Carney's death, bassist Charles Mingus recorded Sy Johnson's elegy "For Harry Carney"; the track was released on the album Changes Two.[14]
With Rosemary Clooney
With Duke Ellington
With Ella Fitzgerald
With Benny Goodman
With Johnny Hodges
With Billy Taylor