“Harold in Italy”
Composition by Eddie Sauter based on a theme from Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italie; arrangement by Eddie Sauter.
Recorded by Ray McKinley and His Orchestra for RCA Victor on December 28, 1947 in New York.
Ray McKinley, drums, directing: Chuck Genduso and/or Joe Ferrante, first trumpet; Bill “Curley” Broyles and Joe Graves, trumpets; Vern Friley, Irv Dinkin and Jim Harwood, trombones; Ray Beller, first alto saxophone; Billy Ainesworth, alto saxophone and B-flat clarinet; Pete Terry and Sam Butera or Don Thomas, tenor saxophones; Deane Kincaide, baritone saxophone; John Potoker, piano; Johnny Gray, guitar; John Chance, bass.(1)
The story:
“When the post-war Ray McKinley orchestra opened at Hotel Commodore in Manhattan on February 21, 1946, they surprised just about everybody in the music business. …(Many) critics were there on opening night, and John Hammond’s review reflected the surprise of both dancers and visiting musicians: ‘The crowd was properly astounded since it expected a plethora of dixieland tunes; instead it heard a band that swings easily with a superlative rhythm section and at least three outstanding soloists, Peanuts Hucko on clarinet, Rusty Dedrick on trumpet, and a guitarist almost in Charlie Christian’s class, Jimmy (Mundell) Lowe.”(2)
Audiences were presumably expecting dixieland because drummer Ray McKinley had spent the 1930s in various dance bands, most notably the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (1934-1935), and then Jimmy Dorsey’s band (1935-1939). He also had co-led a band with trombonist Will Bradley in the years just before World War II touched the United States. Each of these bands played a bit of dixieland as a part of their overall presentations. Mac spent the War years in Glenn Miller’s Air Force band, and by then was an excellent, swinging drummer. All of that experience went with him as he launched his own new band in early 1946.
Many observers have been perplexed over many decades by the fact that in 1946 or at any time, Ray McKinley would have associated himself with an arranger as avant garde as Eddie Sauter. Similarly, many have been perplexed by Sauter’s earlier association with Benny Goodman, who has been regarded, quite inaccurately, as a musical conservative. My opinion on this is that both Goodman and McKinley were simply intrigued by Sauter’s music, and wanted to work with him to see what would be possible. In both cases, much marvelous, colorful music was created by Sauter, and brought vividly to life by the excellent bands led by both Goodman and McKinley that performed that music. (Above left: Ray McKinley and Eddie Sauter – 1947.)
Sauter’s music was first and foremost different from the vast majority of music that was being played by most bands in the immediate post-war period. But at the same time, music presented by a number of bands that was off the beaten path during those years included a small fraction of compositions and arrangements that were as different from Sauter’s music as they were from what was in the mainstream. We must remember that those were the years of Igor Stravinsky’s “Ebony Concerto,” composed for Woody Herman’s band; and of the musical experiments conducted by Stan Kenton with, at first, Pete Rugolo, later Bob Graettinger. Musical idealist Boyd Raeburn led a band that played music that was in many respects quite different from what was going on in the mainstream. Dizzy Gillespie was conducting his own experiments with how bebop could be performed using the instrumentation of a standard swing band. In short, the late 1940s were a period of musical ferment in at least a part of the world of swing.
The music:
Eddie Sauter composed his unique abstraction of a melody from Hector Berlioz’s eponymous concert piece sometime during World War II. He first submitted it to Artie Shaw in 1945. Shaw bought the arrangement and played it, but never recorded it. By the time Sauter and Ray McKinley established their collaborative relationship in early 1946, Shaw had disbanded his standing, touring band. Soon, Sauter’s “Harold in Italy” was being played by the new McKinley band.
Like many of Sauter’s compositions and/or arrangements from the period from 1944 through the late 1940s, “Harold in Italy” is a complex piece of music, and is off the beaten path. The pop music audiences that came to listen and dance to Ray McKinley’s band in the immediate postwar years found themselves on a musical see-saw. One minute McKinley was singing and charming them with some folksy novelty number; the next he was playing weird Sauter compositions like “Idiot’s Delight,” “McKinley for President,” or “Harold in Italy.” Audiences were baffled by Sauter’s music, and basically reacted negatively to it. Nevertheless, McKinley persisted. In fact, when confronted with a second musicians’ union recording ban that was to go into effect on January 1, 1948, McKinley recorded six of Sauter’s compositions at the end of December 1947 so he would preserve them for posterity. This was a very generous gesture on Mac’s part for which audiences of advanced swing music should be grateful. All of that music was challenging, but it was performed brilliantly by McKinley’s excellent band. (Above right: the musically schizophrenic Ray McKinley – late 1940s.)
Part of Ray McKinley’s band in April of 1947. Front, L-R: Deane Kincaide, Billy Ainesworth, Ray Beller, Michael “Peanuts” Hucko, Pete Terry; back: Vern Friley, Irv Dinkin and Jim Harwood.
The dizzying interplay between the saxophones, muted brass and open brass in Sauter’s introduction for his arrangement on “Harold in Italy” provides an ample preview of the colorful music that is to follow. In the first chorus, we hear the main melody being carried by the Harmon-muted brass, with sly rhythmic background touches added by the saxophones, Johnny Gray’s electric guitar, and McKinley’s bass drum.
L-R: John Chance, Mac’s deputy drummer Paul Kashishian, Nick Travis, Chuck Genduso, Joe Ferrante and Curly Broyles – April 1947.
There follows a brief transition into Ray Beller’s alto saxophone solo. The backgrounds Sauter used behind this solo are varied, colorful and swinging. After this there is a descending transition led by the open brass, which leads into a romping open trumpet solo probably played by Chuck Genduso or possibly by Joe Graves. The three-way (saxophones, trombones and trumpets) background he plays against is quintessential Sauter.
The transition into the next sequence is also played by Genduso or Graves. The solo following that is played by Billy Ainesworth on his B-flat clarinet. Sauter used Deane Kincaide, playing his baritone saxophone here in conjunction with the trombones, the open trumpets to add colorful syncopated rhythmic kicks. (At left: Billy Ainesworth plays a clarinet solo while Ray McKinley listens.)
Sauter returns in the next sequence to the Harmon-muted trumpets and other devices he had deployed in the first chorus. The finale consists of a swirling sonic mix of Ainesworth’s clarinet, a vortex of saxophone sounds, some blasting open brass, and finally a rustle in McKinley’s lower-pitched drums.
The recording presented with this post was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) The personnel listing at the top of this post comes from the Ray McKinley discography published in 1974 by big band historian Christopher Popa. Mr. Popa received assistance from Ray McKinley in preparing that discography.
(2) Liner notes for the 1987 Savoy Jazz SJL 2261 LP set The Ray McKinley Orchestra …”The Most Versatile Band in the Land,” Compositions and Arrangements by Eddie Sauter, by Jack McKinney.
Here are links to other great arrangements written by Eddie Sauter and played brilliantly by various bands:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2022/09/08/idiots-delight-1947-ray-mckinley-eddie-sauter/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2019/10/05/benny-rides-again-1940-benny-goodman-and-eddie-sauter/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2024/06/29/the-maid-with-the-flaccid-air-1945-artie-shaw-eddie-sauter/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/10/11/reads-and-re-reads-the-protean-mr-gershwin/
Ongoing thanks, Mike, for this superb series.
I lived in Olean, New York, from 1970 to 2018, doing a fair amount of small-group and big-band gigging in those years on tenor saxophone, and starting in the 1980s, Rusty Dedrick retired to his native western New York–specifically Delavan, south of Buffalo (Olean is a bit further south), and I got to know Rusty well. He often spoke of the great bands he’d been in, among them Red Norvo’s in the late 1930s, Claude Thornhill’s before the war when Gil Evans was arranging for it, the Thornhill and Ray McKinley bands after the war. He was very proud of that McKinley band, and it’s wonderful to see your mentioning Rusty here in the same phrase with Peanuts Hucko and Mundell Lowe.
Rick, thanks for your kind words about swingandbeyond.com. I also appreciate you recalling your times with Rusty Dedrick. Unlike so many veterans of the swing era who did not talk much about their experiences during that magical musical time, Rusty did, and influenced many of his students in a positive way. That is what inspired teaching is all about!
Thanks so much for find great post, Mike!
This sounds to me like Sauter is taking Lunceford’s band on an acid trip.
Since we are fellow Sauter-ites, you’ll be happy to know that I recorded an album of unrecorded Sauter charts written for the Norvo/Bailey of the 30’s over the summer, and it’ll be coming out next Spring. I think you’ll like it.
Loren, it is good to hear from you. Thank you for following developments at swingandbeyond.com. I am indeed a Sauter-ite, and have had the pleasure of posting several of his great creations here over the years. I look forward to hearing what you have done with Eddie’s early music, written for the Norvo/Bailey band of the late 1930s. I have a delightful Mildred performance with that band in the pipeline that combines her talents with those of Red Norvo and Eddie Sauter. Keep swinging!
I’ve loved the music of Eddie Sauter since that day in 1960 (when I was 13) I came home with a 12″ Columbia 78 Benny Goodman record of “Benny Rides Again/The Man I Love” that I bought at a Goodwill store for 10 cents. And one of the more memorable musical events of my life was hearing Loren Schoenberg lead an all-star band of West Coast studio musicians performing “La Rosita” in the plaza in Long Beach in the late 1990’s. I am really looking forward to hearing Loren’s upcoming album of Sauter charts! And I want to say a word about Ray McKinley. Here was a man who just loved to entertain and lead bands. He was on the road performing for more than 50 years! I saw him leading the New Glenn Miller Orchestra in the early 1960s and leading another big band at Disneyland in the 1980s.