“Mr. Ghost Goes to Town” (1937)

“Mr. Ghost Goes to Town”

Composed by Will Hudson; probably arranged by Paul Wetstein (Weston).

Recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra for Victor on January 7, 1937 in New York.

Tommy Dorsey, trombone, directing: Bob Cusumano, first trumpet; Steve Lipkins, Joe Bauer and Bunny Berigan(*), trumpets; Les Jenkins and Artie Foster, trombones; Freddie Stulce, first alto saxophone; Joe Dixon, alto saxophone and clarinet; Clyde Rounds and Bud Freeman, tenor saxophones; Dick Jones, piano; Carmen Mastren, guitar; Gene Traxler, bass; Dave Tough, drums. (*) Berigan plays solo trumpet only.

The story:

One of the “facts” that has been handed down over the last eighty-plus years is that Bunny Berigan was a regular member of Tommy Dorsey’s band in late 1936 and into 1937. A careful review of all relevant information in the White materials and elsewhere indicates that this was not really true. Bunny undoubtedly appeared with TD’s band on a number of its weekly NBC Raleigh-Kool radio programs which aired on Monday nights, and he most certainly made some records with Tommy’s band in January and February of 1937. But Tommy’s purpose in using Berigan at this critical time in the development of his band was to spice-up their presentations, especially on the sponsored network radio show they had just begun to appear on, and on the commercial recordings they would be making for Victor. TD used Berigan as a jazz soloist, not as a regular member of his trumpet section.(1) (Above right: Probably early 1937- backstage business meeting: L-R: Tommy Dorsey, Bunny Berigan, Bob Burns, TD’s publicity flack; John Gluskin, a man who invested in bands; and Arthur Michaud, personal manager then for both Dorsey and Berigan.)

But at the same time, Bunny continued to appear weekly on the CBS radio show Saturday Night Swing Club, where he was featured, and was stepping up his commitment to his own very new big band, which he was organizing then. Berigan, as usual, was a very busy man.

The Tommy Dorsey recording of “Mr. Ghost Goes to Town” is a cover version of the tune, but certainly not the first. By the autumn of 1936, the Hudson-DeLange recording had become a modest hit (1A), and several other bands, including Clyde McCoy’s, Woody Herman’s, Johnny Hamp’s and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, had made cover recordings. The sheet music for the tune was published by the ever-enterprising Irving Mills, who by late 1936, had one of his in-house lyricists, Mitchell Parish, write a lyric for it. Vocal versions were then recorded by Louis Prima and Midge Williams.

TD’s instrumental version, nevertheless, captured a specific time in his band’s evolution, from a rough-and-tumble road band to a more polished radio band. Very much a part of this evolution was Tommy’s evolution as a virtuoso trombonist who excelled at playing melodies and ballads in silken fashion. Consequently, his handlers at Music Corporation of America, his booking agency, began to bill him as That Sentimental Gentleman of Swing, a reference to his ultra-melodic and super-smooth theme song “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You.” Tommy completely understood that his band’s placement on the NBC Raleigh-Kool radio show was a golden opportunity for him to move his band forward as a performing unit that was expected to play all kinds of music on each of their weekly broadcasts. Consequently, TD’s band incorporated into its repertoire a very wide variety of music, much wider, for example, than Benny Goodman did, at least in his first couple of years on his CBS radio show, The Camel Caravan.(2)

The arranger of the TD version of “Mr. Ghost Goes to Town,” probably Paul Weston, makes use of “spooky” musical devices in the introduction for this performance. We hear the cup-muted brass tip-toeing, along with Gene Traxler’s bass and Dave Tough’s whispering cymbals, as Tommy plays a melodic fragment on his cup-muted trombone. As chorus one begins, another layer of sound appears, the reeds, led by Joe Dixon on clarinet. They set forth the main melody over sixteen bars. On the tune’s bridge, which appears to have two distinct eight-bar sections, there is some simple call-and-response between the reeds and the now-open brass on the first half, and then a bit more complexity in the second half. The music returns to repeat the main melody to finish the chorus. (Above right: Joe Dixon in the late 1930s. Photo courtesy of Carl Carbone.)

The second chorus opens with a more dynamically intense sequence involving the clarinet-led reeds, and the low, open trombones. This is followed by the same instruments playing much softer. Dave Tough then steps out with a colorful excursion around his drum kit, played against bright open brass bursts. The band then riffs, brass against reeds, leading to the climactic solo, played by Bunny Berigan on open trumpet. Notice how he is accompanied by the ever-alert Mr. Tough, applying just the right rhythmic sheen using his China cymbal. Bunny finishes his solo by working his way up into his high-register, and stomping-off, rhythmically, as the full band riffs on.

The final tract includes a gradual return via open then muted brass to the quiet tones of the first chorus melody exposition.

“Mr. Ghost Goes to Town”

Recorded in performance by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra from an NBC Blue Magic Key of RCA broadcast emanating from Studio 8H in the RCA Building (now called 30 Rock, an abbreviation of its address, 30 Rockefeller Center), on Sunday January 31, 1937.

Tommy Dorsey, trombone, directing: Bob Cusumano, first trumpet; Jimmy Welch, Joe Bauer and Bunny Berigan(*), trumpets; Les Jenkins and Red Bone, trombones; Freddie Stulce, first alto saxophone; Joe Dixon, alto saxophone and clarinet; Clyde Rounds and Bud Freeman, tenor saxophones; Dick Jones, piano; Carmen Mastren, guitar; Gene Traxler, bass; Dave Tough, drums. (*) Berigan plays solo trumpet only.

The story and the music:

The Magic Key of RCA was a variety radio show that featured an unusually large and broad range of entertainment stars and other noted personalities. It was broadcast on the NBC Blue radio network from September 29, 1935, until September 18, 1939. The shows were broadcast on Sunday from 2 – 3 p.m. New York time. They were hosted by announcers Milton Cross and Ben Grauer, with a house orchestra directed by Frank Black from the show’s inception through 1938, and then by Nathaniel Shilkret for nine months in 1939.

The show was sponsored by RCA (Radio Corporation of America), which in the 1930s owned Victor Records. The advertisements on the show were for RCA radios and phonographs, and Victor and Bluebird Records.

In early 1937, Tommy Dorsey was a natural choice for an appearance on the Magic Key radio show. He had many connections with the sponsor of that show, RCA. He and his band were then beginning a long run on a sponsored NBC radio show. (RCA owned NBC.) He and his band were making records for Victor. (RCA owned Victor.) In fact, the Dorsey band had only two days before this broadcast made a record for Victor that would soon become a big hit, with “Marie” on one side and “Song of India” on the other side. Both of those sides featured great trumpet solos by Bunny Berigan.

In this performance, we hear solos by drummer Dave Tough and by Berigan that are different from those they played on the Victor recording of “Mr. Ghost Goes to Town,” made three weeks before this broadcast. Bunny’s solo is quite different, and stirring. (Above left: Dave Tough and Bunny Berigan – kindred jazz spirits.)

“Mr. Ghost Goes to Town”

Composed by Will Hudson; Hudson arrangement modified for the Berigan band by Joe Lippman.

Recorded live in performance by Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra from a CBS radio broadcast on May 10, 1937 emanating from the Madhattan Room of Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City.

Bunny Berigan, trumpet, directing: Steve Lipkins and Cliff Natalie, trumpets; Ford Leary and Frankie D’Annolfo, trombones; Sid Perlmutter, first alto saxophone; Hank Freeman, alto saxophone; Clyde Rounds and Georgie Auld, tenor saxophones; Joe Lippman, piano; Tom Morganelli, guitar; Arnold Fishkind, bass; George Wettling, drums.

The story:

The Berigan band that opened at the Madhattan Room of Hotel Pennsylvania on April 29, 1937 had been in existence for barely four months. At that time, Bunny had been a client of the powerful personal manager Arthur Michaud for about a year. Michaud was also Tommy Dorsey’s personal manager then, and would later represent Gene Krupa and Jack Teagarden, among others. With Michaud’s guidance, Bunny had been a featured performer on the now legendary CBS network radio program The Saturday Night Swing Club, appearing weekly on that program from its inception in June of 1936 until February of 1937, when his duties as a full-time bandleader made it impossible for him to continue with SNSC. (At right: Berigan and Jerry Colonna clown in a 1936 short film called “Song Hits on Parade.” Colonna was a first-rate trombonist who Bunny worked with at CBS in the mid-1930s. Always a talented comedian, Colonna went on to much success working with Bob Hope on radio and in movies.)

Michaud, initially with the assistance of the Rockwell-O’Keefe Booking Agency (later called General Artists Corporation), had secured a place for the Berigan band on the Mutual Broadcasting System weekly radio program called Fun in Swingtime. Bunny’s association with that show lasted from mid-March to mid-October of 1937. It was a sponsored (by Admiracion Shampoo) high-level program that was aired nationwide on Sunday evenings, and would provide much exposure for Bunny and his band, and continue the process of building the Berigan name with fans of swing music across the country. It also provided a financial base that allowed him to build the band’s library of musical arrangements, and secure the services of musicians who shared his strong jazz orientation, while at the same time were able to perform written music with accuracy and verve.

Michaud, in conjunction with Rockwell-O’Keefe, had also been working to get Berigan a deal with a record company. But due to the politics of the record business then, they could not at first sign Bunny with the Victor label, the top record label of the 1930s, where both Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey had been recording successfully. (Placing Bunny with Victor been the goal of everyone involved with the Berigan band’s management from the beginning.) Finally, after complicated backstage maneuvering over a period of weeks in late February and early March 1937, Berigan ended up with a one-year Victor recording contract which was signed in mid-March. An agreement was also reached for the Berigan band to follow Benny Goodman’s band into the Madhattan Room at the end of April, with frequent sustaining (non-sponsored) CBS radio broadcasts. Those would also boost the Berigan name. Lastly, Bunny would be represented by Music Corporation of America (MCA), the largest and most powerful band booking agency in the nation. Thus, the business side of the Berigan band had reached maturity before its musical side. This greatly concerned Bunny, whose primary concern was always the music. (Above left: Arthur Michaud and Bunny Berigan – 1937.)

Berigan, contrary to popular mythology, was very serious about bandleading. He had a musical vision which was to build a band that would to the degree possible, reflect his own fiery musical persona, yet at the same time be a first-rate dance band. The dance band part was essential for any big band during the swing era, because dancers were the largest consumers of the music of all big bands then. So throughout the spring of 1937 and into the summer, he painstakingly improved the personnel of his band, chair by chair. But that was in the future in early May of 1937, when the aircheck from the Madhattan Room that is presented here was made.

This is what it looked like in the Madhattan Room of Hotel Pennsylvania in 1937 when Bunny Berigan and his band played there.

The performances of the Berigan band on the recordings made while they were at the Madhattan Room reveal a solid and enthusiastic band that was in the process of finding its musical identity. The arrangements, though quite good and varied, had no discernible style, and that was precisely what Bunny wanted. The band’s style was provided in large measure by his expressive trumpet. The ensembles are a bit rough at times, and the soloists other than Bunny, though clearly in control of their instruments, had a way to go to reflect their charismatic leader’s jazz sensibilities. Berigan’s own playing however is quintessential. In these performances we hear the same inspired jazz soloist whose indelible stamp had been applied to the countless recordings he made in the early and mid-1930s. The features of his trumpet style included glissandi, slurs, scoops, rips, half-valve effects, lip vibrato, growls and rasps. He also used a wide variety of muting devices, some conventional like straight and cup mutes, some unconventional, like a felt beret and a kazoo. Also on display are his lovely warm open trumpet sound in all registers, his acute sense musical form and drama, and above all, his irresistible, joyous swing.

The music:

This easy-going arrangement is a revision of the original Will Hudson arrangement that was recorded by the Hudson-DeLange band in mid-1936. It was written by the Berigan band’s pianist, Joe Lippman, who gradually became Bunny’s chief arranger during the early months of the band’s development. It was aimed directly at the feet of the dancers who were always strong supporters of Berigan’s various bands. Lippman’s arranging skills increased substantially in the two years he was associated with Bunny.

The rhythm section of Bunny Berigan’s band May-June 1937 on the roof of Hotel Pennsylvania. L-R: Tom Morganelli (later Morgan), Arnold Fishkind (later Fishkin), George Wettling, Joe Lippman (later Lipman). The building in the background is the Empire State Building.

“Mr. Ghost” opens with clarinets and straight muted trumpets playing alternately, stating the melody. Then there is a well-played Dixieland interlude followed by a few bars of George Wettling’s imaginative drumming, and a bit more Dixie. Tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld follows, playing a relaxed solo that indicates why Bunny featured him so generously: He clearly had a good feel for jazz and excellent command of his instrument. His jazz would improve constantly during his tenure with Berigan. Behind Auld’s playing we hear Wettling applying just the right rhythmic patina, using his China cymbal. Bunny himself plays an ultra-mellow solo which nevertheless swings mightily, with his velvety tone much in evidence. The band’s wrap-up reprises its opening.

The recordings presented with this post were digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.

Notes and links:

(1) Tommy Dorsey gradually upgraded his band starting in late 1936. The addition of Berigan as jazz soloist was one step in this direction. TD also hired veteran Manhattan studio musician Bob Cusumano to play the first trumpet book. But both of these moves were temporary. Cusumano, well established in the Manhattan recording and broadcast studios, would not leave new York for any bandleader. Berigan was in the process of starting his own band in early 1937. By March of 1937, as radio money continued to flow in, TD had hired Andy Ferretti as his lead trumpeter, and George “Pee Wee” Erwin as his jazz trumpeter. Soon, he would hire Johnny Mince as his jazz clarinetist. By mid-1937, Tommy Dorsey had a formidable band.

(1A) Here is a link to a post at swingandbeyond.com which presents and discusses the Hudson-DeLange band’s recording of “Mr. Ghost Goes to Town”: