1938 in jazz

In 1938 in jazz:

Standards

Deaths

Births

Bobby Hackett

Robert Leo "Bobby" Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was an American jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hackett is probably best known for being the featured soloist on some of the Jackie Gleason mood music albums during the 1950s.

Biography

Hackett was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to a family of Irish immigrants. He made his name as a follower of the legendary cornet player Bix Beiderbecke: Benny Goodman hired him to recreate Bix's famous "I'm Coming Virginia" solo at his (Goodman's) 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. In the late 1930s Hackett played lead trumpet in the Vic Schoen Orchestra which backed the Andrews Sisters. Bobby Hackett can be heard on the soundtrack to the 1940 Fred Astaire movie Second Chorus. In 1939 the talent agency MCA asked Bobby Hackett to form a big band with its backing. Unfortunately the band failed and Hackett was in substantial debt to MCA after it folded. Bobby Hackett joined the bands of Horace Heidt and then Glenn Miller to pay down this debt. To make matters worse, his lip was in bad shape after dental surgery, making it difficult for him to play the trumpet or cornet. Glenn Miller came to Hackett's rescue, offering him a job as a guitarist with the Miller Band. "When I joined the band and I was making good money at last, [...] [jazz critics] accused me of selling out. Hell I wasn't selling out, I was selling in! It's funny, isn't it, how you go right into the wastebasket with some critics the minute you become successful". Despite his lip problems, Hackett could still play occasional short solos, and he can be heard playing a famous one with the Glenn Miller Orchestra on "A String of Pearls".

Carl Kress

Carl Kress (October 20, 1907, Newark, New Jersey - June 10, 1965, Reno, Nevada) was an American jazz guitarist.

Musical career

Kress began his career with Paul Whiteman in 1926, and thereafter launched a successful career as a studio guitarist. He played in the late 1920s and 1930s with Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Eddie Lang, Miff Mole, Frankie Trumbauer, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, and Adrian Rollini. He played repeatedly with Dick McDonough as a duo in the 1930s. He later worked with Muggsy Spanier (1944), Pee Wee Russell, Bobby Hackett, and Pearl Bailey. He was also, for a time, a member of the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra alongside Louis Armstrong. His last years were spent playing with George Barnes as a duo.

Kress tuned his guitars in all-fifths tuning, which has perfect fifth intervals between its consecutive strings.

All-fifths tuning is used by mandolins and violins.

He was also a record producer for Capitol Records in the 1940s, producing among others, the original 1946 version of "The Christmas Song" by The King Cole Trio.