Originals By Originals

Broadcast the week of 2/17/05

Benny Carter in an early publicity photo. Photo: © Benny Carter Collection

Improvisation is at the very heart of jazz. The jazz musician's lifelong mission is to cultivate an "improvising mind" capable of inventing new jazz melodies on the spot, by the boatload, night after night. The best jazz improvisation sounds spontaneous and playful—yet unfolds with the logic of a story. Improvisation is "composition on the fly."

And when a jazz player—off the bandstand, between gigs—sits down to actually compose a tune, he makes use of his highly developed ear for invention. Thus many jazz tunes have the loose, swinging feel of an improvised solo.

On Riverwalk Jazz, our guest artists are known as great improvisers, but on this week's show they show off their own jazz tunes, both written and improvised.

Benny Carter was a pioneer of the alto saxophone, playing in the bands of Fletcher Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and his own highly acclaimed ensembles. But he was also acknowledged during his lifetime as one of the great innovators of jazz composition and arranging. On our show this week, Riverwalk reprises his performances of two of his tunes, "I'm in the Mood for Swing" and "Wonderland."
Reedman Bob Wilber (right), a protégé of the great Sidney Bechet, has long been admired for his compositional brilliance. Here he performs three of his tunes, "The Rabbit Jumps," "Reverie," and a tribute to Benny Goodman, "BG."
Left: Milt Hinton. Photo: Duncan Schiedt.

The late Milt Hinton was one of the first bass players to record "walking" bass lines and to play featured solos out in front of a band. This week Riverwalk recalls performances of two of his originals, "Ebony Silhouette" and "Mona, Take Me Home."
Right: Bob Haggart. Photo: Duncan Schiedt.

Bassist Bob Haggart was a founding member of the Bob Crosby Bobcats, a popular hot band of the 1930s that took as their starting point the pure style of New Orleans jazz. Haggart's rock-solid 4/4 rhythm on the bass was a key ingredient. "He could have been another George Gershwin if he'd channeled all his talents into composing," said Bob Crosby. On our show, Haggart performs two of his well-known swing-era hit songs with the Jim Cullum Jazz Band: "My Inspiration" and "Big Noise from Winnetka."
Also included in our show are tunes composed and performed by Clark Terry, Dick Hyman, Jay McShann, and Harry "Sweets" Edison.