Nat Gonella – A Jazz Legend
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Nat
Gonella was born on the 7th March 1908 during the reign of King
Edward VII 1901-1910 a son of Queen Victoria, who was succeeded by King George
V until 1936, and that gives us some idea of what it must have been like living
then during the early part of the musical life-career of this very fine
trumpeter and personage, the epoch of dance bands covering the crossover days
when jazz was becoming popular in Britain, classed as the revivalist period.
From
Aberdeen and Inverness in the North to Brighton and Eastbourne in the South,
dotted throughout the towns and cities of the UK, one could find the finest of
luxurious dance halls and accompanying big bands and dance orchestras in
residence such as ones directed by Billy Cotton, Roy Fox, Ray Noble, Lew Stone
to name a few, those in particular that Nat Gonella became associated with in
principle.
It
was a period in our history when all taxis in Edinburgh were Rolls Royce’s,
Princess Street was lined with great teahouses run by famous bakeries, Mitchell
& Muir, McFarlane & Lang, Huntley & Palmer, McVite & Price and
more, when London taxis looked like hansom cabs and blended in like a horse and
carriage with the open trams as they encircled Piccadilly Circus, Leicester
Square and Theatreland rattling along to Charing Cross where many a musician
would catch the last one home to south of the river Thames.
I
never knew, nor did I ever meet Nathaniel Charles Gonella, and the only
connection happened before King George V1, the late husband of the present
Queen Mother who recently passed her 99th birthday, who both became
very popular during the WWII London blitz, died, was, that I worked at the
Monseigneur Grill in Jermyn Street, London, when two decades prior to that, Nat
was a member of the Lew Stone Band which had a residency at the Monseigneur
Restaurant, and in those heady days his name was always on my mind.
Memories
in those days were of the Crombie overcoat, the brown & white brogue shoes,
the afternoon drinking clubs around Soho, the Roller outside Kettners, the cuff
links, the tie stud, Alfie Marks, the high kicking theatre starlets, the street
cars, many like Bessie who couldn’t help it, enjoying the heat from the outside
kitchen grills in winter from the posh restaurants, the Music Halls, the
organ-grinders, and the old style dance floor times at the many palais houses
as close couples glided the floors, but that’s enough to be going on with to
set the scene and wet the appetite for anyone wishing to getting a hold of this
album to recall and learn about how it used to be.
Time
was restricted for the production of those early records and it will not be
surprising that over half of them are under three minutes, and the fading in
and out of them was a fad that was featured regularly, which happens on Oh,
Monah! the second track of the album and heard on the Roy Fox band which
has Al Bowlly playing banjo on it.
The
opening track, Bessie Couldn’t Help It by the Billy Cotton band features
a barbershop type choir performed by members of the band who are nicely in
harmony with Nat on vocals, on this exciting naughty ballad. An interesting observation here on this
album to study is the changing quality of Nat’s voice, his mannerisms and dialect
covering the 60 years span of the Gonella career in music. It’s all here. During this period, one never gave thought to the importance that
the banjo played and it is only by listening to Les Casey that brings it
out. Is that why stoically with broad
shoulders that its jokes have stood the test of time? Pity none has come from Prince Philip, we need the publicity
today, and we would not ask for apologies from him for voicing them.
Nat
takes the plunge and branches out on his own and he did very well up until 1939
as the next six titles reveal. The
Kneller Hall strong tonguing rapid-fire-cracking technique proved up to the
piano fingers street of Garland Wilson as they duet also in song on Nobody’s
Sweetheart, perhaps recorded when the pianist crossed England en route to
France with singer Nina Mae McKinney on tour. Three years later Garland Wilson
became leader of the resident band at the Shim Sham Club in Warder Street Whether Nat was aware, yes, he must have
been, of the Hoagy Carmichael Orchestra recording in New York of Rockin’
Chair in the 30s to be influenced by it, I believe so, for his voice on
this tune is wonderfully mature and mellow with Al this time on guitar and Tiny
Winters string bass, who with drummer Bob Dryden, now a member of the
Georgians and pianist Harold Babe Hood on Bugle Call Rag and Black
And Blue with Jimmy Mesene on guitar. The other two titles being Sing, and Singin’ The
Blues, with muted trumpet and guitar accompaniment – it’s really, really
beautiful, and the Monia Liter piano gives it potency.
Jim
Godbolt writes the liner notes in the booklet that goes with the album and
mentions that Nat “enjoyed a spell with Bob Dryden’s Louisville Band” in the
late 20s, and that the Georgians made 350 sides, a misprint perhaps, between
the four years running up to the beginning of world war two.
In
New York, in the opening month of that same year, Nat Gonella cut four tracks
with the John Kirby Orchestra. Those
four recordings set a new standard and acquired a special place in the annals
of jazz history, particularly so among the musicians on the opposite side of
the pond to where they were being produced – the USA.
I
can well imagine how much Nat Gonella must have felt playing alongside those
American jazz artists, who were at the pinnacle of their profession, yet, when
I listen to those recordings on this album; Jeepers Creepers; Just A Kid
Named Joe; You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby and I Must See Annie
Tonight it comes over that Nat was held in high regard by those guys. Benny, Billy and Buster must have been aware
of the Decca recording in 1932 of Gonella on Georgia On My Mind with the
Roy Fox Orchestra seven years previous.
Carter, Kyle and Bailey may have heard Nat during his 1939 stay in New
York, after all they too had played in the Hickory House Club, situated just
off Seventh Avenue, in New York’s fabled 52nd Street, the street
that never closed, and which stood close to the Onyx Club which closed in 1937
and then became the Three Deuces, and so there we are, and why otherwise would
they not have taken to this charming, Cockney, Limey trumpeter form London,
England, but to welcome him into their midst.
Gonella
kicks off on Jeepers Creepers with absolutely no qualms coming from the
group. I will take any top class
violinist in any world classical orchestra and equate him with this
clarinettist for performance on these four Kirby recordings – the
violinists-clarinettist in this case rank equals. The citizens and Newspaper sellers of New York must have gone
wild when they heard Just A Kid Named Joe.
When coming to, You Must Have…
one begins to give analogue to Louis Armstrong in the period when
his vocals became the lead instrument of his All-Stars, and here with these
Kirby jazzmen including the trumpeter Nat Gonella, all are in superb empathy
with the vocalist Nat on all numbers.
Much recognition for this must go to the whole of the John Kirby
Orchestra in this regard. It also
speaks highly to how much the Gonella vocals were being appreciated. The cutting contest on I Must See Annie
Tonight is out of this world in musicianship, over in a flash, time-out
recording constraint was the cause, left me wanting more, and for Annie that’s
another story.
The
Georgia Jazz Band has a moving place in my heart, with Blues and Ain’t
Misbehavin’ calling the tune. As for
Georgia it is given moving, sentimental voicing.
Well,
it was ahead of its time. It was out of
its time. Its time has not yet
come. Perhaps it is now time for
television to take a look at it. I’m of
course referring to the 1946 Georgians orchestration of Murder during
the Gonella Bop period, which unfortunately did not bear him much fruit.
After
a successful revival trip arranged by Ted Easton to Holland in the late 70s
where he had a hit with an old favourite tune Oh Monah, soon after that,
Nat Gonella moved his abode from the north of England to live in Gosport,
Hampshire in the South, where he began to concentrate totalling on singing with
local jazz bands, having long since given up playing trumpet.
The
next 9 tracks recorded on the 8th of February 1998 at the Concorde
Club in Eastleigh shows how well the current top British jazz artists held in
high regard their leading 1930s top trumpeter jazz artist, now one nearing 90
year old – Nat Gonella. It was a feat
for one his age.
This ‘Georgians’ band backing Nat on vocals, although it does not say so, was likely to have been brought together by trumpeter Digby Fairweather (see collective personnel) and the tunes naturally most likely to have been chosen by Nat himself. Those who knew Nat Gonella closely would have known the significance of how special these nine tunes were to him
The
Digby Fairweather opening trumpet on I Can’t Give You Anything But Love Baby
serves as a sincere tribute to Nat Gonella and credit to him and his
accompanying Georgian jazz artists for giving highlight to this great jazz
veteran for the music produced by his group is out of this world. Shine opens with Dis Dizley guitar. Satchmo
Blues with Martin Litten piano, in which Nat controls the complete tune on
Scat vocals in honour of his mentor Louis Armstrong, complete with a lovely
solo guitar movement. Kenny Baker
shines on Margie, Slow Boat To China with Teddy Layton on clarinet and Stormy
Weather. The full band on Just A
Gigolo beautifully constructed with notable exquisite piano playing and
nice Jack Fallon bass beat inculcating pure rhythm, and on the last track,
When You’re Smiling. Note how the Jeepers
Creepers vocals are controlled with age and scat by a true
professional and master of his craft, which has given rise to superb jazz
instrumentational perfection.
What
is the significance of these Georgians and the John Kirby Orchestra in which
Nat was a member, and there is one, is in the manner that a lead jazz vocalist
and a lead trumpeter can relate to each other, yet act as one alone. In their own way, both Louis Armstrong and
Nat Gonella have shown us how this can be done.
I
would like to see a young budding trumpeter within our shores copy, yes copy,
note for note, and suggest he starts on Black And Blue above, and mimic
the vocals and voice nuances, nuance by nuance, and not be fazed by writers
complaining of him being a copyist, for one day we will have a trumpeter with
his own style, reminiscence of a great British jazz trumpeter legend – Nat
Gonella.
Ian
King