"Cutting Sessions" by Rex Stewart

© Introduction Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected, all rights reserved.

“This was a beautiful period for the music and the players. There was little jealousy and no semblance of Jim Crow or Crow Jim in the sessions. Musicians were like fraternity brothers, despite their being aware of the distinction that was strongly maintained by white agents, bookers, and the public. The jazzmen were bound together by their love for the music — and what the rest of the world thought about fraternizing did not matter.”

• Rex Stewart, Jazz Masters of the 1930’s

I was around for Jam Sessions, but I must admit that Cutting Sessions were before my time.

I mean for a drummer, Jam Sessions could be bad enough as you might have to play time to All The Things You Are for an hour or more while everyone sitting in took their choruses.

But fiercely competitive cutting sessions could go on for days!!

The following is drawn from Jazz Masters of the 1930’s which was authored by Rex Stewart. Rex, who died in 1967, played trumpet and cornet with Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, knew personally all the giants of jazz in the 1930s and thus his judgments on their achievements come with unique authority and understanding.

As a good friend, he never minimizes their foibles; yet he writes of them with affection and generosity. Chapters on Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins, Red Norvo, Art Tatum, Big Sid Catlett, Benny Carter, and Louis Armstrong mix personal anecdotes with critical comments that only a fellow jazz musician could relate. A section on Ellington and the Ellington orchestra profiles Ben Webster, Harry Carney, Tricky Sam Nanton, Barney Bigard, and Duke himself, with whom Rex Stewart was a barber, chef, poker opponent, and third trumpet.

Finally, he recounts the stories of legendary jam sessions between Jelly Roll Morton, Willie the Lion Smith, and James P. Johnson, all vying for the unofficial title of king of Harlem stride piano. It was the decade of swing and no one saw it, heard it, or wrote about it better than Rex Stewart.

Memories of a time gone by, never to come again.