BEAUMONTER HARRY JAMES PERSONIFIED THE BIG BAND SOUND
By Judith Linsley
"Just seven short years ago a 15-year-old boy stood on the stage of the Dick Dowling junior high school auditorium. One hand held a trumpet…the music made its rounds and came out…smoothly, melodiously, classically…surprising the trumpet tone that boy had."
Thus a 1937 Beaumont Enterprise described the public debut of renowned trumpet player Harry James.
Harry was born in Albany, Georgia, March 15, 1916. His father, Everette, played trumpet and was bandleader for the touring Mighty Haag Circus. Maybelle, his mother, was an acrobat.
At the age of one, Harry learned to play "simple march time" on a drum, and when he was four, he subbed for the regular circus trap drummer. His mother also taught him a "contortion act," where he went through a small hoop while balancing a glass of water on his head.
Eventually the family joined the Christy Brothers Circus, which had winter quarters in Beaumont. Harry learned the basics of trumpet playing from a circus band member, William James Jackson, an African American. Jackson recalled that "pretty soon, [Harry] was playing better'n me." In 1927, Everette taught Harry the circus tunes, and soon he subbed for his father as director. The contortion act was forgotten.
When the Depression shut down the circus, the James family decided to stay in Beaumont permanently. Everette became a private music teacher and the band director at St. Anthony Catholic School. Harry, a junior high student, was such a prodigy that the Beaumont High School band "borrowed" him.
When he actually got to Beaumont High, he received statewide recognition, but his creativity sometimes got him into trouble. He ignored the music, playing pieces the way they sounded in his head.
Harry's schoolmates recalled band practices, with classical compositions unexpectedly jazzed up by a red-hot trumpet. Soon after, Harry, horn in hand, would be sent to the principal's office. Harry never held it against the director, Dr. Lena Milam, though, calling her "the loveliest lady I ever knew."
Harry played with local jazz bands and toured the country with the Ben Pollack dance band before going with the legendary Benny Goodman. He formed his own group in 1939, and some of the singers he hired-such as Frank Sinatra-went on to vocal fame and fortune.
For years Harry's band performed at clubs and on radio and recorded several albums. The albums, million sellers, contained contemporary numbers and modern arrangements of classics (shades of Dr. Milam!).
The big band sound gave way to rock and roll, but Harry and his band could still draw crowds. He appeared on television and occasionally returned to the Beaumont area for a performance.
Harry James died of lung cancer in 1983, having played his last gig just a few weeks before.
Beaumont has produced its share of musicians, from classical to country to rock. But Harry James with his big band sound put Beaumont on the musical map.
Beaumont Enterprise, July 11, 1937. Bob Bowman, They Left No Monuments (Lufkin: Lufkin Printing Company, 1975). John H. Walker and Gwendolyn Wingate, Beaumont: A Pictorial History (Virginia Beach: Donning, 1991).
Harry James enjoys a visit with his parents, Maybelle and Everette James, at their home in Beaumont. From Beaumont: A Pictorial History and courtesy Tyrrell Historical Library, Beaumont, Texas.