“Let ‘Er Go” (1938)

“Let ‘Er Go” (1938)

Composed by Larry Clinton and Julian Kay; arranged by Joe Lippman.

Recorded live in performance by Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra from the Paradise Restaurant in New York on April 8, 1938.

Bunny Berigan, trumpet, directing: Steve Lipkins and Irving Goodman, trumpets; Sonny Lee and Al George, trombones; Mike Doty, first alto saxophone; Joe Dixon, alto saxophone and B-flat clarinet; Georgie Auld and Clyde Rounds, tenor saxophones; Joe Lippman, piano; Tom Morganelli, guitar; Hank Wayland, bass; Johnny Blowers, drums.

The story:

Between the time of the Berigan band’s engagement at Pennsylvania Hotel in the spring of 1937, and the spring of 1938 when they played a lengthy engagement at Manhattan’s Paradise Restaurant, both they and the swing era had picked up a lot of momentum.  In this interim, Bunny and his band made several successful tours of the eastern U.S., played many major theaters, including a three-week engagement at Manhattan’s Paramount Theater, and made many records for Victor.

One of the most fortuitous (for Berigan fans) developments to have occurred while the Berigan band played at the Paradise Restaurant was the recording of many of their sustaining broadcasts emanating from that location. They reveal much more clearly the capabilities of the mature Berigan band, and the true breadth of their repertoire, balancing in large measure the distorted and limited picture that one gets by listening only to their Victor recordings from 1937 and the first few months of 1938. The Berigan band on these live recordings had an ensemble assurance and élan that bordered on swagger. That is the way Bunny liked it. (Above right: A photo of the Paradise Restaurant exterior in the late 1930s. This venue was located on the second floor of the Brill Building, 1619 Broadway at 49th.)

During the first year of his band’s existence, Bunny built a very strong ensemble whose personnel remained stable from the summer of 1937 through much of 1938. Notable performers who came into the band in early summer of 1937 included Thomas Ball “Sonny” Lee, a veteran trombonist who was a first-rate lead player and jazz soloist; Robert “Mike” Doty, an experienced and very strong lead alto saxophonist; much respected bassist Frederick “Hank” Wayland; and the young and exciting jazz clarinetist/alto saxophonist Joe Dixon. Joining the Berigan band just days before they opened at the Paradise on Sunday March 20, 1938, was drummer Johnny Blowers (pronounced like flowers), who replaced the fabulous Dave Tough, who had replaced George Wettling. Berigan had a thing for drummers: He liked great ones. (Buddy Rich would follow Blowers into the Berigan band. Later, Jack Sperling drummed for Bunny.) Blowers, though less well-known than Bunny’s other great drummers (largely because he spent the vast majority of his long career doing studio work), was nevertheless a splendid, colorful drummer, as the Paradise Restaurant Berigan airchecks show.

The music:

“Let ‘Er Go” is a pop tune that was composed in 1937 by Larry Clinton and Julian Kay. Although some sources have attributed its arrangement to Clinton, I doubt that. I think this chart, which was originally arranged as Gail Reese vocal for Bunny’s August 1937 Victor recording of it, was written by Joe Lippman.  Then, over a period of months, it evolved in “head arrangement” fashion in the Berigan band. The notable changes were elimination of the vocal chorus, and expansion of the jazz solos. Here they are by Georgie Auld on tenor saxophone, Berigan, with several tracts of bracing jazz, and Sonny Lee on trombone.

This exuberant performance starts with a few bars of Johnny Blowers’s tom-toms, then a brief introduction. The first chorus has the open brass carrying the melody for the most part for sixteen bars. The saxophone quartet skates through the first half of the eight bar bridge playing the secondary melody, with the brass finishing the job. Berigan then plays a melodic paraphrase on the last eight bars of the first chorus on his open trumpet.

After a brief full band interlude, Georgie Auld steps forward to play jazz for a full chorus in the jabbing, bouncing style he used well into 1938. Rhythm was Auld’s main business until he discovered Herschel Evans in the Count Basie band in the summer of 1938. Then he began to smooth out his jazz playing and work more with chord changes. His playing was evolving. But we must remember that he was still only 19 years old in 1938.

Berigan then swaggers into his open trumpet solo, covering much of the range of his horn with playing that can accurately be called hot and swinging, for two full choruses of jazz. The humming, undulating saxophones provide him a cushion that supports his playing, without in any way impeding it.

An ensemble blast then springs trombonist Sonny Lee into his half chorus jazz solo. Lee, a few years older than Bunny, was the second most accomplished jazz soloist in the early Berigan band, with Bunny being the most accomplished. Georgie Auld and Joe Dixon were talented youngsters whose ability as jazz soloists advanced greatly during the time they spent in the Berigan band. After Lee finishes playing, Bunny jumps in for eight more ecstatic bars.

The finale has the reeds, with Joe Dixon in the lead on clarinet, playing tag with the open brass.

As one of my musical mentors used to say after a particularly swinging performance: “if that doesn’t move you, you need a blood transfusion.”

The recording presented with this post was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.

Links:

Here are links to other Berigan performances from the Paradise Restaurant in 1938:

“Shanghai Shuffle” (1938)

Berigan at the Paradise Restaurant (1938) “Royal Garden Blues”

Berigan at the Paradise Restaurant (1938 ) “Back in Your Own Back Yard”

Berigan at the Paradise Restaurant (1938) “Louisiana”