Harry Carney

Carney was born on April 1, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts.{{Citation |last=Willard |first=Patricia |date=October 4, 2012 |title=Carney, Harry (Howell) |publisher= Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2227923 }} In Boston, he grew up close to future bandmate Johnny Hodges.{{cite book |last=Gioia |first=Ted |author-link=Ted Gioia |title=The History of Jazz |year=2011 |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-539970-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia/page/119 119] |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia/page/119 }} Carney began by playing the piano at age seven, moved to the clarinet at 14, and added the alto saxophone a year later. He first played professionally in clubs in Boston.

Early influences on Carney's playing included Buster Bailey, Sidney Bechet, and Don Murray.{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/harry-carney-mn0000948458 |title=Harry Carney |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=November 24, 2018}} 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".{{cite book |last=Sudhalter |first=Richard M. |title=Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915–1945 |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=172 }}

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.{{cite web|last=Lorre |first=Sean |url=http://www.jazz.com/encyclopedia/carney-harry-howell |title=Carney, Harry |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919003241/http://www.jazz.com/encyclopedia/carney-harry-howell|archive-date=September 19, 2011}}{{refn|group=note|The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington states that Carney joined the band in 1926, and rejoined it the following year.{{cite book |last=Spring |first=Evan |chapter=Duke Ellington Chronology |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Edward |title=The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington |year=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88119-7 |page=xiv }}}} He soon recorded with Ellington too, with a first session in October that year. Having established himself in the Ellington band, he stayed with it for the rest of his life. The band began a residency at the Cotton Club in New York at the end of the year.

After Ellington added more personnel in 1928, Carney's main instrument became the baritone saxophone. 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.{{cite book |last1=Berendt |first1=Joachim-Ernst |author-link1=Joachim-Ernst Berendt|last2=Huesmann |first2=Günther |title=The Jazz Book: From Ragtime to the 21st Century |year=2009 |edition=7th |publisher=Lawrence Hill |isbn=978-1-55652-820-0 |pages=339–340 }} 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.{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Williams (writer) |title=The Jazz Tradition |url=https://archive.org/details/jazztradition00will_491 |url-access=limited |year=1993 |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507815-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jazztradition00will_491/page/n119 101] }}

In January 1938, Carney was invited to play with Benny Goodman's band at Carnegie Hall.{{cite book |last=Berish |first=Andrew |chapter=Survival, Adaptation, and Experimentation: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra in the 1930s |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Edward |title=The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington |year=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88119-7 |page=115 }} Recordings from this event were released as The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. Carney also took up the bass clarinet around 1944. He "co-composed "Rockin' in Rhythm" and was usually responsible for executing the bubbling clarinet solo on this tune".

In 1957, Carney was part of a band led by pianist Billy Taylor that recorded the album Taylor Made Jazz.{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Billy |author-link=Billy Taylor |title=The Jazz Life of Dr. Billy Taylor |year=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-00917-3 |page=206 }}

Carney was the longest serving player in Ellington's orchestra. 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|date=November 2018}} The Ellington orchestra typically travelled on a tour bus, but Ellington himself did not; he was driven separately by Carney, a "quiet, calm presence".{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Stephen D. |last2=James |first2=J. Walker |chapter=Conductor of Music and Men: Duke Ellington Through the Eyes of His Nephew |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Edward |title=The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington |year=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88119-7 |page=44 }}

Ellington wrote many showpiece features for Carney throughout their time together.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} In 1973 Ellington built the Third Sacred Concert around Carney's baritone saxophone.{{cite book |last=Cottrell |first=Stephen |title=The Saxophone |year=2012 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-10041-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/saxophone0000cott/page/199 199] |url=https://archive.org/details/saxophone0000cott/page/199 }}

After Ellington's 1974 death, Carney said: "Without Duke, I have nothing to live for". Carney's final recording may have been under Mercer Ellington's leadership, for the album Continuum. Four months after Ellington's death, Carney also died, on October 8, 1974, in New York.

File:Jimmy Hamilton and Harry Carney, Aquarium NYC, Nov 1946 Gottlieb 03801.jpg and Harry Carney, Aquarium NYC, c. November 1946. Photo by William P. Gottlieb.]]

Carney was an early jazz proponent of circular breathing. 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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/bluiett.htm|title=Jazz | All About Jazz|date=23 October 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051023050027/http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/bluiett.htm|access-date=25 July 2021|archive-date=2005-10-23}} 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.{{cite book |last=Santoro |first=Gene |title=Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-509733-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lccn_99046734/page/417 417] |url=https://archive.org/details/lccn_99046734/page/417 }}

• Harry Carney with Strings (Clef, 1954; reissued by Verve as Moods for Girl and Boy)
• Rock Me Gently (Columbia Records, 1960; recorded as "Harry Carney and the Duke's Men")

With Rosemary Clooney

• Blue Rose (Columbia, 1956)

With Duke Ellington

{{Main|Duke Ellington discography}}

With Ella Fitzgerald

• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (Verve, 1957)

With Benny Goodman

• The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert (Columbia, 1938)

With Jazz at the Philharmonic

• The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World (Pablo, 1967)

With Johnny Hodges

• Used to Be Duke (Norgran, 1954)
• Creamy (Norgran, 1955)
• Ellingtonia '56 (Norgran, 1956)
• Duke's in Bed (Verve, 1956)
• The Big Sound (Verve, 1957)
• Johnny Hodges with Billy Strayhorn and the Orchestra (Verve, 1961)
• Johnny Hodges at Sportpalast, Berlin (Pablo, 1961)
• Triple Play (RCA Victor, 1967)

With Billy Taylor

• Taylor Made Jazz (Argo, 1959)

Main sources:{{cite book |first1=Richard |last1=Cook |author-link=Richard Cook (journalist) |first2=Brian |last2=Morton |author-link2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette |year=1992 |edition=1st |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-015364-4 |title-link=The Penguin Guide to Jazz }}{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 }}

{{reflist|group=note}}

• [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/103190 Harry Carney recordings] at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

{{Reflist}}

{{Duke Ellington}}

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Category:1910 births

Category:1974 deaths

Category:20th-century American clarinetists

Category:20th-century American saxophonists

Category:American jazz clarinetists

Category:American jazz saxophonists

Category:Duke Ellington Orchestra members

Category:Jazz baritone saxophonists

Category:Jazz musicians from Massachusetts

Category:Musicians from Boston

Category:Swing clarinetists

Category:Swing saxophonists

Category:DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame members