BEN WEBSTER: when the Frog worked for Cab (2/2)

Ben WEBSTER (March 27, 1909-September 20, 1973)
Tenor saxophone in Cab Calloway’s orchestra
from September 1935 to July 24, 1937

In this second part of our article on Ben Webster’s years in Cab’s orchestra, we look at how the daily grind of the Cotton Club, along with a lack of solo opportunities, led Webster to give up a lifestyle beyond his wildest dreams (one he would never know again!).

1936 1231 Cab au Cotton Club1 — *The audience, dancing on New Year’s Eve, seen from the bandstand, almost from Ben Webster’s seat… (December 12, 1936)*

Back to the Cotton Club routine…

After a grueling tour of the South in June and July 1936, Cab Calloway’s orchestra returned to the Cotton Club for six months, this time for the 27th revue.

Holding a chair in Cab’s orchestra didn’t keep Ben Webster from recording with others, notably Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Teddy Wilson.

Apart from a couple of tunes performed during the nightly broadcasts (“Hot Stuff” on January 26, 1937, as well as “Nagasaki” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which Bob Inman noted in his scrapbook), the evenings at the Cotton Club must have felt long to Ben, with almost no chance to solo during the revues, or even to be challenged… Since he loved jam sessions, he would head out with his saxophone alongside young Milt Hinton, who drew from those outings a real sense of listening to others.

Playing hooky with other jazzmen? Out of the question!

Ben Webster was taking real risks, because Cab did not like it, not one bit, when his musicians strayed like that. Buchmann-Moller notes that on October 21, 1936, when Teddy Wilson wanted to set up a session for Billie Holiday with Irving Randolph, Milt Hinton, and Ben Webster, Cab threw a fit. He chewed everyone out, but Ben wasn’t about to back down: “If that’s how it is, I’m leaving the orchestra!” In the end, Cab admitted he was rather proud that so many others wanted his musicians at their side (and besides, doing without a saxophonist as successful as Webster would have been sheer madness!).

In March 1937, after several months in New York, mostly at the Cotton Club, Cab’s orchestra set off on a new four-month tour: Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis… It was in Minneapolis that Ben Webster and Milt Hinton spotted another young bassist, Oscar Pettiford (just 14 years old!!). They were so impressed that they invited him to play in front of the orchestra the very next day.

Chu Berry au pupitre — *It wouldn’t take long for Chu Berry to become Cab’s favorite…*

Ben introduces his successor: Chu!

Once in Chicago, Ben Webster took advantage of Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra being in town to announce his resignation to Cab. Like any self-respecting bandleader, Cab asked Ben to find a replacement of a good enough caliber. And who happened to be at Henderson’s at that moment? The young and already prodigious Leon « Chu » Berry! He accepted the offer to swap chairs. For Chu, it meant discovering a whole new way of life (and the salary that came with it). For Ben, it finally meant the chance to play for a bandleader who left room for solos.

After giving Henderson two weeks’ notice, Chu Berry joined Cab’s orchestra in Cleveland at the end of July 1937. Ben made a point of staying by his side for two nights to show him the finer points of Cab’s repertoire, then left for Chicago to join his new orchestra.

That is how Ben Webster left Cab’s sax section. For many years, he kept in touch with his former bandmates, especially Milt Hinton. Toward the end of Ben’s life, when he was reduced to misfortune and heavy drinking, Milt even took him into his home and put him up for many months.

Other circumstances brought Ben back into contact with Cab. By then, Ben had joined Duke Ellington. The two orchestras went on tour together and hitched their Pullman cars together to cross the western United States. Members of each band were thus able to play together and swap ideas, and Ben found time to tell Milt Hinton that he’d written a great tune, one that would become « Cotton Tail. »

Ben Webster stayed with Duke Ellington for three years, becoming one of his principal soloists (he returned to the band from 1948 to 1949). He then carried his balladeer’s style from one ballad to the next, notably with Art Tatum. In 1964, he left the US for Denmark, where he spent his final years, sinking into alcoholism. He died in Amsterdam, penniless, on September 20, 1973.