Jazz Connection Magazine

Trumpeter Johnny Best, shown above in a 1986 photo from the Jazz at Ojai

Festival in Ojai, CA, played with the great swing bands of Artie Shaw, Glenn

Miller, Bob Crosby and Benny Goodman. His open robust tone was featured on

many ballads.

Whenever bandleaders needed a trumpet player who could swing and play sweetly, they looked to find the best - Johnny Best, that is.

Best was a standout with the Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Bob Crosby and Benny Goodman outfits during the height of the Swing Era and afterwards as a much-in-demand studio player.

"I enjoy playing," said Best, 86, via telephone recently from his home in La Jolla. CA. "I was very fortunate to have played with some excellent musicians with whom I was completely out of their class, I know that. It was an honor to have played with them."

Best, who describes his trumpet style as "mediocre Louis Armstrong," played on many of the Shaw and Miller hits that made their bands the most popular in America. With Shaw, Best helped to record such chart-toppers Nightmare (theme song), Begin the Beguine, Traffic Jam, Oh! Lady Be Good, Back Bay Shuffle, Deep Purple, Any Old Time, Indian Love Call, Serenade To A Savage and What Is This Thing Called Love? While with Miller, Best assisted to record such signature pieces as Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree, Pennsylvania 6-5000, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Tuxedo Junction, American Patrol, I've Got A Gal In Kalamazoo, Juke Box Saturday Night, A String of Pearls, Anvil Chorus, Moonlight Cocktail and Song Of The Volga Boatman.

Born on Oct. 20, 1913, in Shelby, NC, Best came to play the trumpet by way of his younger brother, Herman, who happened to bring home a cornet from school one day.

"I picked it up and started to play it and I liked it," Best said. "The next day the music teacher at school happened to switch Herman to the trombone and so I inherited the cornet."

After a few months of lessons, Best demonstrated such promising ability on the horn that his music teacher suggested to Best's father that his son start playing on a good instrument.

"My dad bought me a new Beuscher trumpet for $52," Best said. "Now that same instrument costs about $5,000!"

Best listened to a variety of music while growing up, especially to the trumpet playing of Henry Busse and Lebert Lombardo. Then he was introduced to the jazz music of Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke.

"I met some guys who knew something about jazz and told me about Louie and Bix and so I started listening to them," Best said. "I liked it very much. I heard of Louie after seeing him in a movie short. He was wearing a tiger skin playing Tiger Rag."

Best's first professional gig came at age 15 when he played in band led by the local barber in which he got paid a whopping $2.

"Dollar bills were a lot larger in those days," Best said with a laugh. "That was my start."

Although Best never set out on a career in music, it just evolved that way, he said.

Best gradually progressed to playing in college bands during the summer for room and board and for another $2 a week pay, he said.

By the early 1930s, Best made his way up from South Carolina to New York City and eventually hooked up with Artie Shaw and helping to establish him as a major bandleader.

"I was with a band that broke up in New York in 1936," Best said. "When I join Artie a short time later, his band was not a major band at the time."

During that year of 1936, Shaw had formed a band consisting of a string quartet, two trumpets, one trombone, a tenor sax and a rhythm section. It was billed as "Art Shaw and His New Music." That group had four future bandleaders in it - Lee castle on trumpet; Tony Pastor on tenor sax; Buddy Morrow on trombone; and Jerry Gray, who played violin and accordion.

After six months of struggle, Shaw scrapped the string quartet and formed a more conventional swing band which featured bigger and more blasting brass sections.

During this time, Best decided to apply for a musician's union card which required six months residency. After the third month, a musician can begin to work at descent jobs.

"The first three months you starve to death!" Best lamented. "During that time I worked one job and I got paid $10. I was able to stay with friends which helped and for 15 cents you could buy a meal."

At the end of the first three months, Best was visited by a fellow trumpet play with whom he had worked previously. Accompanying him was Shaw.

Shaw told Best that he was forming a new band and invited the trumpeter to join his outfit.

Best joined Shaw's new band, called "Art Shaw and his His New Music," in March 1937. Joining him were fellow trumpeters Malcolm Crain and Tom DiCarlo; trombonists Harry Rogers and George Arus; saxophonists Les Robinson, Art Masters, Fred Perry and Tony Pastor; pianist Les Burness; guitarist Al Avola; bassist Ben Ginsberg; and drummer Cliff Leeman.

The Artie Shaw Band (1938): saxists Ron Perry and Les Robinson; drummer Cliff Leeman; trumpeter

Claude Bowen; trombonist George Arus; saxist-vocalist Tony Pastor; Shaw; trumpeter Chuck Peterson;

pianist Les Burness; trombonist-arranger Harry Rodgers; trombonist Russell Brown; bassist Sid Weiss;

saxist Hank Freeman; and trumpeter Johnny Best.

Shaw's new band waxed their first sides on April 29, recording twenty-six tunes for radio transcriptions. On May 13, the band cut its first commercial recordings on the Brunswick label with All Alone, Because I Love You, All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm, and It Goes To Your Feet (the latter two with Tony Pastor doing the vocal duties.)

Peg LaCentra returned from Shaw's first band to record more transcriptions. Later, Delores O'Neill and Anita "Nita" Bradley were hired as the band's girl vocalists.

In the early fall of 1938, Shaw hired Helen Forrest as his band vocalist. Forrest also helped to establish a "Shaw Songbook" of sorts with her great singing style on such hits as Deep In A Dream and Thanks For Ev'rything (both on Nov. 17, 1938), Deep Purple (March 12, 1939), Day In, Day Out (Aug. 27, 1939), and All The Things You Are (Oct. 26, 1939).

Also joining the band 1938 was legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday. Shaw was bold at the time in his approach to racially mix his band with Holiday. Although some were resentful of Shaw's idea, overall, Holiday was accepted by the public. While with Shaw, Holiday cut a superb rendition of the pop tune, Any Old Time (recorded Jan. 24, 1938), which also featured a very tasty trumpet solo by Best.

"Both were great singers," Best said of Forrest and Holiday. "Billie used to ride in my car when we traveled. Drummer Zutty Singleton, whom Artie used as a feature act, also drove in my car as did Les Burness, our piano player. I didn't encounter many problems driving with the Black musicians in my car. When we went down South, we had separate rooms, but we were not always down South."

Some of the more frustrating moments with the Shaw band during those early days came not as a result of racial problems but of managerial ones. Best explains:

"One of the first places the band played when it started out was at a ballroom in Carbondale, PA. The manager of the ballroom had heard Artie's previous band with strings. He hired the band based on listening to the string section. The band now was a much different band and very loud. The manager was fit-to-be-tied.

"The stage on which we were performing was about three feet from the floor. All during the dance the manager was heckling Artie. Having had enough, Artie squatted down and pointed his clarinet at the manager's ear and played a high note! The man hopped on stage and started swinging! We went out of there with a police escort!"

Although Shaw's was a swing band, Best is of the opinion that his best playing were on ballad pieces such as Clown's Love or Moon Ray (June 22, 1939, with vocal by Helen Forrest) rather than on the faster tunes, he said.

Best's first stint with Shaw lasted a little over three months do to a misunderstanding between the bandleader and his trumpeter.

According to Best, when he accepted the job with Shaw, he told Shaw that he had three months time on his union card in New York and that he didn't want to loose that time by traveling on the road.

"Artie told me not to worry about it because he knew Jacob Rosenberg, the union president, who was his personal friend and that he'll see to it that my time goes on," Best said. "Based on that assurance, I took the job."

But when the end of the next three months were up, Best asked Shaw's band manager if he could go back to New York to get his union card, he said.

"The band manager said to me, 'Are you kidding? The card was withdrawn the same day you agreed to go with Artie,'" Best said. "This infuriated me. From that point, I was mad at Artie for lying."

The band was rehearsing in Wildwood, NJ, for a scheduled recording date the following morning in New York. Best had a solo on one of the songs to be recorded and after playing it, he received kudos from his fellow band members. But Shaw was dissatisfied.

"Fine, as of right now, you can do every solo that I have in the book," Best shot back.

"It means I will leave tonight or give you two weeks notice, which ever you prefer," Best retorted.

Best headed back to Shelby to work at his father's furniture store and also played with local college bands on weekends. He even bought a number of Louis Armstrong records and memorized all his solos off the records, hoping to improve his style and technique, he said.

Six months later, Shaw called Best asking him to come back with the band. He went.

The band went on to record good record after good record, many of them outstanding show tunes: Lover, Come Back To Me, My Heart Stood Still, and Rosalie (all three on Jan. 17, 1939, the latter tune with vocal by Tony Pastor); The Carioca and Bill (both on Jan. 23, 1939, the latter tune with vocal by Helen Forrest), Alone Together (Jan. 31, 1939), and many more.

The band went to Hollywood to work on its first movie, Dancing Co-Ed, starring Ann Rutherford and a very young Lana Turner, who would eventually become one of the eight Mrs. Artie Shaw's.

Toward the final days of December 1938, drummer Buddy Rich joined the band, replacing George Wettling. An exuberant drummer, Rich projected such a propulsive beat that it inspired the other musicians to greater heights.

"I thought Artie was a great musician," Best said. "I was very happy to have worked with him. I learned a lot about musicians like how to get along with bandleaders and to stay away from their girlfriends, things like that."

"Glenn offered me a job a year earlier while I was still with Artie but at the time I wasn't interested," Best said. "When Artie fired me, the band was in Boston. A friend of mine suggested that I try to either hook up with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey or Glenn Miller. I went to New York. Benny was on the West Coast. Tommy had just rehired a trumpet player, so that was out. I stopped at the Glen Island Casino to see Glenn about a job. Glenn already had three trumpets but he offered me a job as an added trumpet playing relief lead and soloing on slow songs."

One of the first major performances that Best participated in with his new boss was a concert at Carnegie Hall. The occasion was a Festival of American Music, sponsored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary. Various musicians and well-established bands of Benny Goodman, Fred Waring and Paul Whiteman were spotlighted during the week-long concert series with the Miller band closing the festivities on Oct. 6.

"That was a wonderful event," Best said. "Glenn's band was on the rise at that time and I remember the audience going wild when we played In The Mood, which was recorded two months earlier."

Other members of the Miller band participating in that Carnegie Hall concert were Dale "Mickey" McMickle, Leigh Knowles and Clyde Hurley, trumpets; Tommy Mack, Al Mastren and Paul Tanner, trombones; Jimmy Abato, Al Klink, Wilbur Schwartz, Hall McIntyre and Tex Beneke, saxophones; J.C. "Chummy" MacGregor, piano; Richard Fisher, guitar; Rollie Bundock, bass; Maurice Purtill, drums; and Marion Hutton and Ray Eberle, vocals.

Johnny Best smiles broadly as he is seated far left, back row, with the Glenn Miller band in 1940. Sitting next to Best

is trumpeter/arranger Billy May. Ray Anthony is seated in the second row, second from left. Saxophonists Tex

Beneke and Al Klink are seated in the back row, far right, respectfully. Best helped to recorded many Miller hits

during his three-year stay with Miller.

Three days after the Carnegie Hall concert, Best waxed his first commercial recording with Miller on a Benny Carter arrangement of Bluebirds In The Moonlight on the RCA Bluebird label.

During his three-year stint with Miller, Best helped to make Miller's band tops in the nation. The band was doing three radio programs a week for Chesterfield Cigarettes, complete with rehearsals. Two sessions, totaling five hours of music per night and six on weekends at a hotel. And four and sometimes five shows a day at the Paramount Theater. In January 1940, the Miller band opened the Cafe Rouge in New York City's Hotel Pennsylvania.

Best also appeared in two films with the Miller band - Sun Valley Serenade (1941) starring John Payne and Sonja Henie and Orchestra Wives (1942) starring George Montgomery and Ann Rutherford, where Best's warm trumpet was featured on the soundtrack solos for Montgomery.

"I didn't get to do many solos while with Glenn except for the slower tunes," Best said. "Glenn liked the way I played prettier songs and so he featured me on those kind of numbers."

In late October 1940, Miller beefed up his trumpet section with the addition of two new trumpeters: Billy May, who came over from Charlie Barnet's band (he would also work with Miller and Bill Finegan on arrangements), played excellent jazz trumpet, and twenty-year-old Ray Anthony, whose warm low register sound made him a very capable fourth trumpet man.

In May the following year, cornetist Bobby Hacket joined the band, also doubling on guitar.

During this period, Miller cranked out acme of his biggest hits, including Tuxedo Junction (Feb. 5, 1940), Pennsylvania 6-5000 (April 28, 1940), Anvil Chorus (Dec. 13, 1940), Song Of The Volga Boatman (Jan. 17, 1941), Chattanooga Choo-Choo (May 7, 1941), A String of Pearls (Nov. 3, 1941), Moonlight Cocktail (Dec. 8, 1941), Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree (Feb. 18, 1942), American Patrol (April 2, 1942), (I've Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo (May 20, 1942), and Juke Box Saturday Night (July 15, 1942).

Although Best admits that Miller was a bit of a task master and wanted things sharp and polished, it was because he wanted to satisfy his audience, he said.

"I guess Glenn had more of an entertaining-type band," Best said. "He was out to please the public more than what Artie was."

After Miller and his orchestra gave their last performance as a civilian band on Sept. 27, 1942, at the Central Theater in Passaic, NJ, Best hooked up with Bob Crosby for a six-week stint before entering the Navy.

While in the Navy, Best was once again reunited with Shaw, who also enlisted and was leading the Navy Ranger Band. Shaw put together a terrific band. In addition to Best, the trumpet section was also sparked by Conrad Gozzo, Frank Beach and Max Kaminsky. Sam Donahue stood out among the saxes. Davey Tough played drums while Claude Thornhill played piano and wrote some of the arrangements.

"It was a good band," Best said. "We played a lot of Artie's old arrangements. We were in the Pacific with Artie for a year."

Johnny Best, back row, second from right, in Artie Shaw's Navy Ranger Band No 501 playing at Ft. De Russey, Oahu, Hawaii, on Jan. 30, 1943.

Other members of the brass section are, front row, left to right: Dick LaFave, Tasso Harris, Vahey "Tak" Takvorian, trombones; Back row:

Dave Tough, drums; Frank Beach, Conrad Gozzo, Best, and Max Kaminsky, trumpets.

The band saw plenty of action. It played in jungles, in airplane hangars, on decks of ships and even in outdoor areas camouflaged for protection from enemy attack, Best said.

"We even played on board the North Carolina after it was repaired having taken a torpedo at Guadalcanal," Best said. "The guys were really appreciative of our playing for them. We brought them a little bit of home."

After Shaw was given a medical discharge in 1944, the band he formed continued under Donahue's direction and emerged as one of the great units of its era.

"It became a real swinging band after Artie was discharged," Best said. "We never used Artie's book again and we built up our own library using a lot of different arrangements."

The band was eventually transferred to the European Theater and was staged in a "Battle of the Bands" with Glenn Miller and British bandleader Ambrose and his orchestra.

"Sam's band gave Glenn a run for his money," Best said. "We were quite popular over there."

After the "battle," Best and Miller got together at a party at the Queensberry Club and "knocked" a few (drinks) back. They were to be sad farewell drinks, just a week or so before Miller's fateful flight on Dec. 15, 1944.

"I was glad that I was there to say goodbye to Glenn," Best said. "His loss was a big loss to the music world."

"I was very happy to get the job after spending three years in the Navy," Best said. "I enjoyed working with Benny. There were times when he had his moments, but overall, it was a good time."

During his 14-month association with the "King of Swing," Best recorded with well known jazz musicians that filtered through the Goodman ranks such Conrad Gozzo, Billy Butterfield, Bernie Privin, Kai Winding, Chauncey Welsch, Stan Getz, Peanuts Hucko, Mel Powell, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, Joe Bushkin, Cutty Cutshall and band vocalist, Liza Morrow.

From the fall of 1945 to the fall of 1946, Best helped Goodman to recorded such tunes for Columbia and for "V" Discs as Lucky (You're Right, I'm Wrong) and Rattle And Roll (both on Dec. 19, 1945), Swing Angel (Jan. 30, 1946), All The Cats Joined In (Feb. 6, 1945, with vocal by Liza Morrow, Goodman and band), Oh, Baby! (May 14, 1946), with vocal by Goodman), Fly-By-Night (July 18, 1946), and Put That Kiss Back Where You Found It (Aug. 7, 1946, with vocal by Goodman).

But the post-war Goodman band or any established band for that matter, could not enjoy the success it once had. The era of the Big Bands was coming to a close.

"This was during the time when all the big ballrooms started closing down," Best said. "I think Benny was asking $3,000 guarantee a night. Harry James and Tommy Dorsey were getting $4,000."

The collapse of the ballroom circuit seemed to happen all at once, according to Best.

Trumpeter Johnny Best, seated, third front left, performs as one of the Bob Cats with leader Bob Crosby, far right, at the

Ojai Jazz Festival in Ojai, CA, in 1986. Joining Best are (l-r) Abe Most, clarinet; Eddie Miller, tenor sax; Bob Haggart,

bass; Dick Cathcart, trumpet; Bob Havens, trombone; and Nick Fatool, drums. Not pictured at far left is Ray Sherman,

piano. Best's association with Crosby lasted over 50 years.

We were playing at one place in a little town in Pennsylvania and Benny had to have $3,000 on his guarantee and there was only $700 collected," Best said. "Benny had to take his band off the road. We were also doing a radio show with Victor Borge at the time and that's what kept the band going - that, and our recordings."

He landed a good job working in radio for five years for his former boss, Bob Crosby.

"Bob and I got along beautifully together," Best said. "He was real relaxed and wanted his musicians to have fun playing. Over the years I've played in his big band at Disneyland and was part of his Bob Cats small group at jazz concerts and festivals like at Ojai, CA. We were neighbors here in La Jolla right up until the time he died (in March 1993)."

Best also teamed up with former Miller alumnus Billy May on his 1958 Grammy-winning album, Big Fat Brass (Capitol) and with Pete Fountain on his 1959 album, The Blues (Coral Records), the first solo record the celebrated clarinetist made after leaving Lawrence Welk.

Giving him something else to do on the side, Best also bought an orchard in the San Diego area, he said.

Since moving to the San Diego area and joining the musician's union there, Best has gotten a lot of work playing at various events, he said.

"Once a month we'd get some great musicians to come down and play at this ballroom-type restaurant that was up the coast from here," Best said. "We'd get guys like Eddie Miller, Abe Most and Nick Fatool to come play. We did this for about a year. It was great."

During the early 1970s, Best was also a part of the Time/Life Records series, The Swing Era, a compilation of original big band recreations recorded in stereophonic sound. One of the leaders of those recording sessions was May, who is now retired and living in San Juan Capistrano, CA.

"I still keep in close contact with Billy as well as Ray Anthony, who was also in the Miller band with me," Best said.

Best considers some of his better playing were on recordings done with Ray Conniff that were sold outside the United States, he said.

During the early 1980s, Best suffered a tragic fall that broke his back leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Confined to a wheelchair, the accident, fortunately, has not affected Best's ability to play the trumpet.

"Physically, I have so many damn things wrong with me," Best said. "At least I'm still able to play. My right hand is partially numb. One thing leads to another."

In 1992, Best was presented with the "Jazz Man of the Year" award in a ceremony in San Diego where he has led his own small group in that city until four years ago.

In 1996, Best's wife, Mary Lou, died suddenly from a ruptured appendicitis while on a musical tour of Australia.

"Since Mary Lou died, I've played very few jobs for pay," Best said. "I practice with tapes here at the house. It's no fun, but I hated to give up playing."

Best is currently working with a professional writer on a book of his memoirs of the band days. A possible title for the book he's considering is Best Of The Big Bands, he said.

"I've just been very lucky to have played with the musicians I have," Best said. "I don't think they'll ever be another era like it. They were all originals. I don't how I got to be a part of it but it sure has been fun."

Trumpeter Johnny Best has helped to make his musical contribution to the history of American popular music by playing in

established bands that made such music widely accepted in its generation. Best has helped to recorded such standards from

the Big Band era with the orchestras of Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Bob Crosby and Benny Goodman. Best is pictured above,

seated, performing as one of the Bob Cats with Bob Crosby, far right, at the 1986 Ojai Jazz Festival in Ojai, CA.