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JazzWords > Bunny Berigan
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Bunny Berigan was dead before most of us were born. So why listen to his music? Because his
best work is some of the most compelling solo trumpet ever recorded...
Bunny Berigan had the sound of jazz in his trumpet. He understood how to phrase, how to swing, how
to bend a note, and how to play with a fire matched by few others - Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis,
to name a few who could also play at a level "above the crowd." You can start with "I Can't Get Started"
and learn something of Berigan, but it's better and more satisfying to pick some of his worst recordings and
listen to the brilliance he could bring to a sad, forgettable song. Like Fats Waller and Billie Holiday
(both of whom Berigan recorded with in the mid 30s), he could take bathtub gin and make it champagne.
If you can find it, listen to the RCA Victor recordings on the Bluebird reissue (CD 07863 66615-2) entitled
"The Pied Piper." It includes some early Berigan from 1934 and 35 (check out "King Porter Stomp" with
Benny Goodman's band prior to Harry James). Also listen to the bounce he adds to Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle
Rose" from 1937 with the composer himself at piano and Tommy Dorsey on trombone. And listen again to "I
Can't Get Started." It is 4:46 minutes of pathos, drama, beauty, suspense, climax
and denouement. Most trumpet players would give everything to capture as much in one solo. It encapsulates
33 years of Bunny's life in a snapshot that, like his life, was much too short.
Not all that Berigan recorded was altogether listenable, and some of his own band's output was miserable. But
with others and on most records he made under his own name, Bunny seemed to shine through with something fresh
and worthwhile.
Personally, Bunny was an alcoholic who worked, played and drank himself to death. But his talent was evident
in everything he did musically. Here's what Benny Goodman said in 1981 (from the copyrighted liner notes from
"The Pied Piper," ©1995 BMG Music, written by Richard M. Sudhalter):
"It was like a bolt of electricity running through the whole band. He just lifted the whole thing. You can
explain it in terms of his tone, his range, musicianship, great ideas. Whatever you want, it's all of that - and
none of it. It's a God-given thing."
©1998 Dave Leonnig
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