“Roll ‘Em”
Composed and arranged by Mary Lou Williams.
Recorded by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra for Victor on July 7, 1937 in Hollywood, California.
Benny Goodman, clarinet; directing: Harry James, first and solo trumpet; Ziggy Elman and Chris Griffin, trumpets; Sterling “Red” Ballard and Murray McEachern, trombones; Hymie Shertzer first alto saxophone; George Koenig, alto saxophone; Arthur Rollini and Vido Musso, tenor saxophones; Jess Stacy, piano; Allan Reuss, guitar; Harry Goodman, bass; Gene Krupa, drums.
The story:
By the time Benny Goodman and his band recorded “Roll ‘Em” in the summer of 1937, they had been on an upward arc of commercial success for over a year. Prior to that, in June of 1936, after almost two years of hard work beginning in the summer of 1934, they landed a spot on a weekly sponsored network radio show, one of the most popular of the 1930s, The Camel Caravan, replacing the Casa Loma band. This radio show would be the cornerstone of Goodman’s ever-increasing success until the end of 1939. While Benny was featured on The Camel Caravan, he and his band also toured, getting ever-larger audiences (and guarantees) on the road, including many lucrative week-long engagements at major theaters across the nation (including the famous Paramount Theater in Manhattan). They also made two Hollywood feature films. In January of 1938, they would appear at what is now regarded as a legendary concert in Carnegie Hall. In the late 1930s, BG and his band were hot, commercially, and musically.
Goodman bio-discographer Russ Connor provided a colorful synopsis of the Goodman band of mid-1937. Here it is: “…(T)he band’s personnel had been intact for almost half a year. In those six months they had logged an impressive amount of play. Through April 28, six long nights a week in the Madhattan Room (of Hotel Pennsylvania in New York) with as many as three sustaining broadcasts in an evening. (Beginning on March 3), they played six stage shows a day at the Paramount Theater, six days a week for two weeks. (After they vacated the Madhattan Room), the began a tour of theaters, ballrooms and hotels. Each week, there were rehearsals and broadcasts for the Camel Caravan. Fifteen talented musicians (including pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton) and their leader had worked together (with little rest), day and night, for half a year. (They were) the distillate of more than two years of upgrading of personnel. (They had) developed a rapport, an empathy, a mutuality of effort that blended their talents and skills into a single overpowering musical instrument. Honed by constant work, the Benny Goodman Orchestra reached its peak in mid-1937.” (1)
Benny Goodman and his band June 1937, probably at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore. Visible personnel – back, L-R: Gene Krupa, Harry James, Ziggy Elman, Chris Griffin; middle: Jess Stacy, Allan Reuss, Murray McEachern, Red Ballard; front: Vido Musso, Hymie Shertzer, Arthur Rollini and George Koenig. BG is in front. Benny’s bass-playing brother Harry is obscured by the stage curtain to Krupa’s right.
Benny, along with his business-savvy older brother Harry, who played bass in the Goodman band (and possibly owned a percentage of the band with Benny – shown at left), consistently made the right moves business-wise to keep the Goodman band’s commercial prospects bright.
On the musical side of the band however, it was Benny alone who called the shots. When the band first started in 1934, it had, aside from Benny’s clarinet, little of musical distinction. The arrival on the BG scene of Fletcher Henderson at the end of 1934 (at the behest of gadfly John Hammond), and his ongoing contribution of arrangements to BG well into 1935, gave the early Goodman band substantially more musical identity. But Fletcher, a bandleader himself long before his association with Benny, wanted to return to bandleading, and did so in late 1935. (Fletcher’s wonderful 1934 band broke up for lack of work toward the end of 1934.) In the wake of Fletcher’s departure, Benny, always on the alert for other arrangers who could provide the kind of music his band could swing, began buying arrangements from Jimmy Mundy, a sideman and arranger for the hard-swinging Earl Hines band in Chicago.
Although Benny enjoyed a warm relationship with Henderson, his relationship with Jimmy Mundy was strained. Nevertheless, Mundy managed to place more arrangements with BG over the years 1935-1939 than any other arranger.
But eventually, Benny sought out other arrangers. One he contracted with in early 1937 to provide four or five original compositions/arrangements was Mary Lou Williams. Ms. Williams, in addition to being an excellent jazz pianist, was a very talented arranger and composer. She had been a member of the Andy Kirk band for several years, but was becoming disenchanted as a result of their endless touring, and the relatively poor compensation that she received. The patronage that Benny Goodman provided for her gave her career a substantial boost. One of the originals she wrote for BG was the blues “Roll ‘Em.”(2)
“Roll ‘Em” came into the Goodman repertoire in early March of 1937. Benny rehearsed it with his band carefully, as always. They liked it from the beginning, as it provided them with an excellent framework within which to swing. They began to play it on the job at the Madhattan Room of Hotel Pennsylvania, and sensed immediately that audiences liked it. Benny wanted to record it, but for various reasons, he could not get around to doing that until he and his band arrived in Los Angeles to work on the Warner Brothers film Hollywood Hotel, and play at the Palomar Ballroom for the third consecutive summer.
Here is a blurb written by John Hammond that appeared in the June 1937 issue of Tempo, the official publication of the United Hot Clubs of America – courtesy of swing era expert David Fletcher. The Goodman band received constant coverage in the print media. (Note: The absence of new Fletcher Henderson arrangements at that time was hardly noticed.)(3)
The music:
One of the many remarkable things about Benny Goodman was his ability to play a piece of music dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, and yet continuously bring fresh inspiration to it. This may have been a personality trait of his that was related to his unending desire to practice playing his clarinet. Without digging too deeply into BG’s psyche, I think it is safe to say that he truly loved music and loved playing his clarinet, and he derived great satisfaction out of playing the clarinet well. Beyond that, he was constantly seeking inspiration so that his jazz playing would be as good as he could possibly make it. Very often in the 1930s, Benny derived inspiration from performing with other jazz musicians whose playing he respected. A list of these musicians would certainly include: Bunny Berigan, Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, Pee Wee Erwin, Vido Musso, Lionel Hampton, Ziggy Elman, Harry James, Dave Tough, Bud Freeman, Jerry Jerome, Nick Fatool and Charlie Christian.
By the time Benny made this classic recording of “Roll ‘Em,” he had already played it dozens of times since it first came into his band’s repertoire in early March of 1937. How then did he continue to find new inspiration to play this blues in F so well so often? I think we can find some answers to that question by listening to the Victor commercial recording, and then comparing it with what was undoubtedly one of the first public performances of “Roll ‘Em,” which took place some four months earlier.
The Victor recording captures a performance that is superb in all respects: ensemble unity and swing, jazz solos, and a magical, joyous spirit. It begins with an eight-bar introduction, brass on top, reeds chugging beneath. As the first chorus begins, the reeds continue chugging along suggesting a boogie-woogie rhythm. It is the brass however, led with panache by Harry James, who carry the melodic and rhythmic ball through the first three choruses.
Pianist Jess Stacy, an fine jazz player who all to often was relegated to rather rare eight or sixteen-bar solos in the Goodman band, has a bit of a chance to stretch out here, playing two excellent eight-bar choruses of the blues, after he plays the brief transition. He too felt the pull of boogie rhythm in the first couple of bars of his solo, but then shifted into a straight-ahead 4/4. Notice how drummer Gene Krupa accompanies Stacy, clicking away on his closed high-hats.
Another transitional passage played largely by the two trombones and the saxophones, rolls out the red carpet for Mr. Goodman. His solo here is a great one, building for two choruses, backed by rhythmically intense oo-ah brass and intensifying Krupa drumming. Benny is followed immediately by Harry James, who continues the excitement through his first chorus, and then ratchets it up a notch in the second chorus.
The explosive finale has BG playing an upward swoop into the brass (hear them shake), then they go into their high register for the climactic ending.
This is a marvelous example of big band swing: everybody in the Goodman band brought their best at the same time. Benny, in addition to playing a great solo, must be given full credit as leader for facilitating this performance.
The Benny Goodman band that recorded “Roll ‘Em”: back row, L-R: Jess Stacy, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Ziggy Elman, Chris Griffin; middle: Harry Goodman, Allan Reuss, Murray McEachern, Red Ballard; front: Vido Musso, Hymie Shertzer, Arthur Rollini and George Koenig. BG is in front. This photo was taken on the set of the 1937 Warner Brothers feature film Hollywood Hotel.
As a special treat, here is what may be the first broadcast performance of “Roll ‘Em” by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra.
“Roll ‘Em”
Composed and arranged by Mary Lou Williams.
Recorded live in performance from a CBS radio broadcast emanating from the Madhattan Room of Hotel Pennsylvania on March 10, 1937.
Benny Goodman, clarinet, directing: Harry James, first trumpet; Ziggy Elman and Chris Griffin, trumpets; Sterling “Red” Ballard and Murray McEachern, trombones; Hymie Shertzer, first alto saxophone; George Koenig, alto saxophone; Arthur Rollini and Vido Musso, tenor saxophones; Jess Stacy, piano; Allan Reuss, guitar; Harry Goodman, bass; Gene Krupa, drums.
The music:
It is always interesting to compare a classic recording, like Benny Goodman’s Victor recording of “Roll ‘Em,” with others of it that were made both before and after. The one presented here was made four months before, and there are notable differences. First of all, this live version clocks in at 3 minutes and 33 seconds, whereas the Victor recording runs 3:11. Very often, unless more or longer solos are added to a performance, which did happen here – Jess Stacy plays for 24 bars in this performance, swinging instrumentals tended to become more compact the more often they were played. Usually this was a result of a gradual speeding-up the tempo, (the result of the musicians having become more familiar with the music), which did not happen here. Well then what did happen? (At left: Benny Goodman in the Madhattan Room of Hotel Pennsylvania. Behind BG is CBS announcer Bert Parks; the guitarist is Allan Reuss.)
Fiirst, there is a four-bar transitional saxophone passage into Stacy’s solo that Benny deleted. Then Stacy plays three eight bar choruses, which was reduced to two for the Victor recording.
There is also a significant difference in the sequence of jazz solos. In this early performance, Jess Stacy’s piano solo was first, as it was on the Victor recording. But here, the second solo is a stirring two twelve-bar chorus romp by tenor saxophonist Vido Musso, which BG greatly enjoyed – hear him express his approval vocally between Vido’s two choruses. (Vido Musso is shown in the Madhattan Room with the Goodman band at right.) This is followed by the climactic solo played by Benny (two twelve bar choruses) on clarinet.
On the Victor recording, after Stacy plays, Benny solos, with the final solo being taken by Harry James on trumpet. My opinion is that Benny made the changes in solos because he saw and heard how audiences reacted to Harry James’s trumpet playing, and thought James could provide just the right amount of fire in final jazz solo. Harry did not disappoint. James also immediately resumed his role as lead trumpeter in the explosive finale. This man had serious chops.
The recordings presented with this post were digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) Benny Goodman …The Record of a Legend, by D. Russell Connor (1984), 82.
(2) For more about Mary Lou Williams, check out these links:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/09/19/mary-lou-williams-first-woman-of-swing/
The words roll em in the world of swing referred to a pianist and sometimes a band playing boogie-woogie, which developed as a variant of the 12-bar blues. It is characterized by a steady, repetitive ostinato figure in the left hand of piano music.
(3) John Hammond’s advocacy on behalf of Fletcher Henderson in late 1934 with Benny Goodman was basically the reason that Benny decided to start buying arrangements from Fletcher (and his brother, the talented Horace Henderson), at that time. The Henderson arrangements proved to be popular with audiences on Benny’s first radio show, NBC’s “Let’s Dance,” which ran from late 1934 through May of 1935. They also were popular on Benny’s early Victor recordings in the years 1935, 1936, and into 1937. Benny liked Fletcher Henderson as a person, but that would not have made any difference if audiences had not liked his arrangements.
Here are some links to other great Benny Goodman performances from 1937 and into early 1938:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2023/02/22/ridin-high-1937-benny-goodman-with-harry-james/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2022/08/20/oh-lady-be-good-1937-benny-goodman-1939-artie-shaw/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/07/09/sing-sing-sing-1937-benny-goodman/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/01/01/reads-and-re-reads-benny-goodmans-1938-carnegie-hall-concert/
Hi Mike, Could the title have been given with the Goodman band’s motion picture work in mind? Doesn’t a director yell “roll ‘em” when he wants the rolls of film to begin operating? P.S. – the Victor record label of “Roll ‘Em” that you included appears absolutely pristine! 2nd P.S.- Harry James recorded a quite similar arrangement for Columbia in 1952 and again for Sheffield Lab around 1979. And Benny Goodman reprised it, with guest Mary Lou Williams at the piano, during his “40th Anniversary Concert” at Carnegie Hall in 1978.