Editing Charlie Barnet

{{short description|American jazz saxophonist, composer and band leader (1913–1991)}}
{{distinguish|Charlie Barnett (actor)}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name            = Charlie Barnet
| image           = Charlie_Barnet.jpg
| caption         = Charlie Barnet in ''[[The Fabulous Dorseys]]'' (1947)
| birth_name      = Charles Daly Barnet
| birth_date      = {{Birth date|1913|10|26}}
| death_date      = {{Death date and age|1991|9|4|1913|10|26}}
| death_place     = [[San Diego]], California, U.S.
| birth_place     = New York City, New York, U.S.
| genre           = [[Swing music|Swing]], [[big band]]
| occupation      = Bandleader, musician, composer
| instrument      = Saxophone
| years_active    = 1932–1967
| past_member_of = [[Buddy DeFranco]], [[Roy Eldridge]], [[Neal Hefti]], [[Billy May]]
}}

'''Charles Daly Barnet''' (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American [[jazz]] [[saxophonist]], composer, and bandleader.<ref name="LarkinJazz">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=33/4}}</ref>

His major recordings were "Nagasaki", "Skyliner", "[[Cherokee (Ray Noble song)|Cherokee]]", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle".

==Early life==
Barnet was born in New York City, the son of Charline (Daly) and Willard Barnet.<ref name="bce">{{cite book|title=Britannica Concise Encyclopedia |date=2008 |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. |isbn=9781593394929 |page=169 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ea-bAAAAQBAJ&q=%22Charles+Daly+Barnet%22&pg=PA169 |access-date=25 March 2017 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Who Is Who in Music: A Complete Presentation of the Contemporary Musical Scene, with a Master Record Catalogue |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SWj0AAAAMAAJ&q=Charline+Daly+Willard+Barnet |year=1940 |publisher=Lee Stern Press}}</ref> His parents divorced when he was two, and he was raised by his mother and her grandparents. His grandfather was Charles Frederick Daly, a vice-president for the [[New York Central Railroad]], banker, and businessman.<ref name="Barnet">{{cite book |last1=Barnet |first1=Charlie |last2=Dance |first2=Stanley |title=Those Swinging Years |date=1992 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=0306804921 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFV4Y11QgZ4C&q=%22Charlie+Barnet%22 |access-date=17 August 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

Barnet attended boarding schools, both in the New York and Chicago areas. He learned to play piano and saxophone as a child. He often left school to listen to music and to try to gain work as a musician.{{r|Barnet|page1=7-10}} Although his family wanted him to become a lawyer, he chose to be a musician instead.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yanow |first1=Scott |title=Swing |date=2000 |publisher=Miller Freeman Books |location=California, San Francisco |isbn=9781617744761 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ntabwaEh2uQC&q=%22Charlie+Barnet%22+band&pg=PA15 |access-date=17 August 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

==Career==
{{More citations needed|section|date=July 2023}}
By sixteen, Barnet had played on tours with [[Jean Goldkette]]'s satellite band and was in New York, where he joined Frank Winegar's Pennsylvania Boys on tenor sax. Always restless, by 1931 he had relocated to Hollywood and appeared as a film extra while trying to interest local bandleaders in hot music, which was increasingly unpopular due to the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]. Late in 1932, aged 18, he returned east and persuaded a contact at [[CBS]]' artist bureau to try him out as an orchestra leader.

Barnet began recording in October 1933, during an engagement at New York's [[Park Central Hotel]], but was not a great success for most of the 1930s, regularly breaking up his band and changing its style. Early in 1935, he attempted to premiere [[swing music]] at New Orleans' [[Hotel Roosevelt]], where Louisiana's colorful Governor [[Huey Long]], disliking the new sound, had the band run out of town by luring them to a bordello, which was then raided.

Barnet arranged with [[Joe Haymes]] to take several of his now-jobless sidemen, while he himself went on a lark in [[Havana]], as an escort to well-to-do older women. 1936 saw another swinging Barnet edition, which featured the up-and-coming vocal quartet [[The Modernaires]] but quickly faded from the scene.

The height of Barnet's popularity—and his first truly permanent band—came between 1939 and 1941, a period that began with his hit version of "[[Cherokee (Ray Noble song)|Cherokee]]", written by [[Ray Noble (musician)|Ray Noble]] and arranged by [[Billy May]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> In 1944, Barnet had another big hit with "Skyliner".<ref name="LarkinJazz"/>

In 1947, he started to switch from swing music to [[bebop]]. During his swing period, his band included [[Buddy DeFranco]], [[Neal Hefti]], [[Lena Horne]], [[Barney Kessel]], [[Dodo Marmorosa]], [[Oscar Pettiford]], Wes Dean, and Art House, while later versions of the band included [[Maynard Ferguson]], [[Doc Severinsen]], [[Jimmy Knepper]] and [[Clark Terry]]. Trumpeter [[Billy May]] was an arranger in the Charlie Barnet Orchestra before joining [[Glenn Miller]] in 1940.

Barnet was one of the first bandleaders to [[Racial integration|integrate]] his band, with more black musicians working for him than virtually all of the other popular white bandleaders.<ref name="NYT1984">{{cite news |last=Gitler |first=Ira |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/29/books/all-this-jazz.html |title=All This Jazz |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 29, 1984 |access-date=June 1, 2021}}</ref> Trumpeters [[Roy Eldridge]] and [[Frankie Newton]] and bassist [[John Kirby (musician)|John Kirby]] joined in 1937. [[Lena Horne]] was one of Barnet's vocalists.<ref name="NYT1991">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/06/arts/charlie-barnet-77-saxophonist-and-a-band-leader-of-swing-era.html |title=Charlie Barnet, 77, Saxophonist And a Band Leader of Swing Era |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=September 6, 1991 |access-date=June 1, 2021}}</ref> Unusually, for a mainly white group, Barnet was booked to perform at the [[Apollo Theater]] in Harlem and established a new attendance record.<ref name="NYT1984" /> He was an outspoken admirer of [[Count Basie]] and [[Duke Ellington]]. Ellington recorded the Charlie Barnet composition "In a Mizz". In 1939, in a gesture that was warmly appreciated and admired, Count Basie (who was booked 2 days after) lent Barnet some of his charts after his instruments, notes and arrangements had been destroyed in the famous fire at the [[Palomar Ballroom]] in Los Angeles (October 2, 1939), which prevented Barnet's last show there.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levin |last2=Floyd |title=Levin, FloyClassic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians |date=2002 |publisher=UCLA Press |location=Berkeley, CA |isbn=9780520234635 |pages=234–240 |edition=1st}}</ref>

Throughout his career he was an opponent of syrupy arrangements. In the song "The Wrong Idea", he lampooned the "sweet" big band sound of the era. The song was written by Billy May, who later used the same satirical bent in his collaborations with [[Stan Freberg]] on Capitol Records including the [[Lawrence Welk]] satire "Wunnerful! Wunnerful!" Barnet's was a notorious party band where drinking and vandalism were not uncommon. While Glenn Miller enforced strict standards of dress and deportment, Barnet was more interested in having fun, according to his autobiography ''Those Swinging Years: The Autobiography of Charlie Barnet''.

In 1949 he retired, apparently because he had lost interest in music. He was able to retire when he chose because he was one of the few heirs in a very wealthy family. He occasionally returned from retirement for brief tours but never returned to music full-time. In 1956, he released an album, ''[[Dance Bash]]'', which was recorded over five years from 1947 to 1952.

Known for a unique sound and hard-swinging style on tenor saxophone, Barnet in the late 1930s added the alto saxophone to his arsenal, followed by the soprano saxophone, an instrument that had fallen out of favor after the 1920s and was not generally used in the big band era.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/>

In September 1964, Barnet arranged a private party for his musical hero, Duke Ellington, and orchestra to play at [[Palm Springs, California|Palm Springs]]' San Jacinto country club. At the door, a small sign painted by Barnet said: "Any complaints about loud music or requests for excessive use of mutes will be grounds for instant expulsion (to a table in the parking lot). Any requests for folk music, twist, [[The Watusi|watusi]], or rock and roll will result in instant execution by golf balls at 20 paces."<ref name=DownBeat>Leonard Feather, ''DownBeat''; Duke's diary, Ken Vail, vol. 2, p. 252.</ref> Barnet did not play at the gathering.

Barnet's theme song was "Redskin Rhumba".<ref name="bba">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Leo |title=The Big Band Almanac |date=1989 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=0306803453 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bigbandalmanac00walke/page/23 23] |url=https://archive.org/details/bigbandalmanac00walke |url-access=registration |quote=Charlie Barnet band |access-date=25 March 2017 |language=en}}</ref> His autobiography, ''Those Swinging Years: The Autobiography of Charlie Barnet'', written with [[Stanley Dance]], was published in 1984.<ref name="NYT1984" />

== Personal life ==
{{More citations needed|section|date=July 2023}}
Barnet was married eleven times and in his autobiography says: "I went through several more marital fiascos, but they were mostly Mexican marriages and quickly annulled, because they weren't legal in the first place."{{r|Barnet|page1=153}} His final marriage, to Betty Thompson, was for 33 years. He had one son, Charles D. Barnet Jr., and two grandchildren from an earlier marriage, Jennifer Ann Barnet and [[Darren Barnet|Darren Charles Barnet]]. During retirement, Barnet resided at homes in Palm Springs and San Diego, California. He kept a 46-foot boat in San Diego.

== Death ==
Barnet died from complications of [[Alzheimer's disease]] and [[pneumonia]] at San Diego's Hillside hospital, on September 4, 1991, aged 77.<ref name=DownBeat /><ref name="NYT1991" />

==Compositions==
Charlie Barnet's compositions included "Skyliner", "Southland Shuffle", "Swing Street Strut", "The Right Idea", "The Wrong Idea" (with [[Billy May]]), "Growlin'", "Scotch and Soda", "Midweek Function", "Oh, What You Said (Are We Burnt Up?)", "I Kinda Like You", "Tappin' at the Tappa", "The Last Jump", "Knocking at the Famous Door", "Lazy Bug" (with [[Juan Tizol]]), "Ogoun Badagris (Voodoo War God)", "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie", and "In a Mizz", which was also recorded by [[Duke Ellington]].

"Skyliner", arranged by [[Neal Hefti]], was written as the theme music for the late 1940s US [[Armed Forces Network]] program "Midnight In Munich",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=608 |title=Themes of the Big Bands (Vol.2) liner notes |website=ClassicsOnline.com |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918151759/http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=608 |archivedate=September 18, 2011}}</ref> broadcast from the [[AFN Munich|AFN station in Munich]], Germany, and hosted by Ralph Moffat. Thanks to the station's immensely powerful twin 100&nbsp;kW transmitters, AFN Munich could be heard as far away as the UK; this, and the popularity of Moffat's show, evidently helped "Skyliner" and many other contemporary American swing hits to gain wide popularity across Europe and become hits in the UK.<ref>''Billboard'', February 14, 1948, p.38.</ref> The title (which was originally printed as "Sky Liner") may be a reference to the practice of American pilots flying into Munich who used the radio station's powerful signal to home in on the city.

==Discography==
Barnet had 78's, 45's, and 10"/12" LP's from 1935 to his waning years. The record labels on which he appeared included: [[Bluebird Records]]/[[RCA Victor]], [[Decca Records]], [[Apollo Records (1944)|Apollo Records]], [[Capitol Records]], [[Columbia Records]], [[Mercury Records]], [[Clef Records]], [[Verve Records]], [[Everest Records]], [[Crown Records]], [[Vault Records]], Joyce Records, Ajax Records, and [[Calliope (record label)|Calliope Records]].

* ''The Best of Charlie Barnet (1942-1946)'' [The Decca Years] / MCA #2-4069 (1975)
* ''The Complete Charlie Barnet, Vol. 1 (1935-1937)'' / Bluebird #AXM2-5526 (1977)
* ''The Complete Charlie Barnet, Volume II (1939)'' / Bluebird #AXM2-5577 (1981)
* ''The Complete Charlie Barnet, Volume 3 (1939-1940)'' / Bluebird #AXM2-5581 (1981)
* ''The Complete Charlie Barnet, Volume IV (1940)'' / Bluebird #AXM2-5585 (1982)
* ''The Complete Charlie Barnet, Volume V (1940-1941)'' / Bluebird #AXM2-5587 (1982)
* ''The Complete Charlie Barnet, Volume VI (1941-1942)'' / Bluebird #AXM2-5590 (1982)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p6065}}
* {{IMDb name|0055825}}
* [http://www.swingmusic.net/Barnet_Charlie.html Barnet biography at swingmusic.net] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090331175405/http://www.swingmusic.net/Barnet_Charlie.html |date=2009-03-31 }}
*[https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu010031 Charlie Barnet collection of big band arrangements 1939-1949] at the [[Library of Congress]]
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/103503 Charlie Barnet recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]].

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnet, Charlie}}
[[Category:Swing saxophonists]]
[[Category:Swing bandleaders]]
[[Category:American big band bandleaders]]
[[Category:American jazz saxophonists]]
[[Category:American male saxophonists]]
[[Category:American jazz bandleaders]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from New York City]]
[[Category:Jubilee Records artists]]
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:Abbey Records artists]]
[[Category:Apollo Records artists]]
[[Category:Äva Records artists]]
[[Category:Capitol Records artists]]
[[Category:Vault Records artists]]
[[Category:20th-century American saxophonists]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:American male jazz musicians]]
[[Category:Bluebird Records artists]]
[[Category:Decca Records artists]]