Background
Robert L. Hackett was born on January 13, 1915, in Providence, Rhode Island, one of nine children of poor but hardworking parents; his father was a railroad blacksmith.
(Digitally re-mastered two-for containing a pair of albums...)
Digitally re-mastered two-for containing a pair of albums from the Jazz legend. Contains the splendid 1959 quartet album the Bobby Hackett Quartet which features Hackett with the great Dave McKenna on piano, Bob Carter on bass and Dick Scott on drums. In addition to this outstanding LP, we have included Hackett's other 1959 quartet album for the same label, Easy Beat, which also appears here in it's entirety. Includes eight-page booklet. Jazz Plaza Music. 2010.
https://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Hackett-Quartet/dp/B003H5L6AI?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003H5L6AI
(The master of the mellow trumpet pays tribute to two of h...)
The master of the mellow trumpet pays tribute to two of his favorite artists on these two original LPs! He honors Satchmo with If We Never Meet Again; Wild Man Blues; Swing That Music , and more; among Tony's tunes are I Left My Heart in San Francisco , and Rags to Riches . 22 tracks!
https://www.amazon.com/Hello-Louis-Hackett-Bennetts-Greatest/dp/B00005J9UM?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00005J9UM
(Side 1 Good-Bye Blues Weary Blues Sugar Blues Blues in th...)
Side 1 Good-Bye Blues Weary Blues Sugar Blues Blues in the Night Baker's Keyboard Blues Wang Wang Blues Side 2 Limehouse Blues Davenport Blues Blues in My Heart Alcoholic Blues Bye Bye Blues Blues With a Kick
https://www.amazon.com/Blues-Kick-orig-issue-vinyl/dp/B00O7202VO?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00O7202VO
(Vinyl lp record. Epic BN 26080 Stereo.)
Vinyl lp record. Epic BN 26080 Stereo.
https://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Hackett-Plays-Music-Kaempfert/dp/B00KXAK4XU?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00KXAK4XU
(An extraordinary talent on jazz trumpet, Bobby Hackett in...)
An extraordinary talent on jazz trumpet, Bobby Hackett influenced many modern jazz performers. The two original LPs featured on this CD are from the late 60s and include his beautiful interpretations of pop hits Love Letters, Moonlight In Vermont and Chances Are.
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Beautiful-Horn-World-Night/dp/B001BN25PS?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B001BN25PS
(Georgia On My Mind, In The Mood and When It's Sleepy Time...)
Georgia On My Mind, In The Mood and When It's Sleepy Time Down South are highlights of these two original albums available on compact disc for the first time.2 LPs on 1 CD: A STRING OF PEARLS (1965)/TRUMPETS' GREATEST HITS (1965).Recorded in London, England in 1965. Originally released on Epic (26174) & Epic (26155).
https://www.amazon.com/String-Pearls-Trumpets-Greatest-Hits/dp/B000065AP2?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000065AP2
Robert L. Hackett was born on January 13, 1915, in Providence, Rhode Island, one of nine children of poor but hardworking parents; his father was a railroad blacksmith.
At the age of eight Hackett started playing guitar, ukelele, and banjo, then violin at the age of ten, and finally a cornet purchased at a pawnshop; he was deeply inspired by phonograph records of the jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong.
At fourteen Hackett quit high school after one year to play guitar in an orchestra at a Chinese restaurant in Providence.
Hackett moved on to two large orchestras in the city's two ballrooms. During a one-night performance by Cab Calloway, Hackett sat in on cornet, his first gig on that instrument. After a 1934 summer engagement at a Syracuse, New York, hotel with Herbie Marsh's band, mostly on guitar, he went with Payson Ré to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, improving his proficiency on cornet and scoring arrangements with clarinettist Pee Wee Russell.
After playing both instruments in various Boston clubs, in 1936 Hackett took over leadership of Marsh's group at the Theatrical Club, a prominent nightspot in that city. He achieved local success, using arrangements by trombonist Brad Gowans.
In 1937, Hackett moved to New York City, where he was heralded by the music critic George Frazier as the successor to the legendary cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who had died in 1931. By then, Hackett's command of the cornet had matured to a lyrical tone of exceptional clarity and inventiveness that rarely departed from the melody, whether he played "hot" Dixieland-style up-tempo numbers or delicately phrased intimate ballads. He rarely had the power to hit high notes, but his warm style of playing reflected his personality. These musical attributes soon became apparent in performances with several society bands and in small jazz recording combos accompanying singers, notably Red McKenzie, Dick Robertson, and the Andrews Sisters - especially on their first hit recording, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen. "
In October 1937, Hackett joined Joe Marsala's hot jazz band as guitarist at the Hickory House but was already jamming on cornet with the Chicago-style jazzmen centered around impresario-guitarist Eddie Condon.
Bandleader Benny Goodman enlisted Hackett to play a delicate cornet rendition of Bix Beiderbecke's 1927 solo on "I'm Coming Virginia" at Goodman's epic Carnegie Hall concert on January 16, 1938. After the concert, Hackett joined several Condon men to cut five tunes at the Brunswick studios. Released on the Commodore Record Shop label as the first independently made jazz records, they immediately introduced the listening public to freewheeling hot jazz in the Condon style; Hackett's solo on "Ja-da" brought him acclaim. These two performances established his reputation, and later that year he was hired to lead one of two jazz bands at Nick's night spot in Greenwich Village in New York City. He signed a recording contract for Vocalion with his own group but also was a prominent soloist on recordings of groups led by Condon, saxophonist Bud Freeman, and pianist Teddy Wilson. He backed vocalists Billie Holiday and Maxine Sullivan on records and became a fixture at Sunday afternoon jam sessions at Jimmy Ryan's on Fifty-second Street ("Swing Street").
Hackett formed a fourteen-piece swing band early in 1939, using arrangements by Buck Ram. It folded six months later, after having made only a few recordings. Deeply in debt, he joined Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights in September 1939, arranging, playing the third trumpet, and providing cornet solos that gave the Heidt band a swinging quality it had previously lacked. In 1940 he provided the trumpet solos acted out by Fred Astaire in the film Second Chorus and resumed leading the band at Nick's. Dental surgery forced Hackett to curtail his horn blowing, whereupon Glenn Miller hired him as his big-band guitarist in July 1941. Though Miller had him purchase an electric guitar, he never plugged in the amplifier and was rarely audible. As his gums healed, however, Hackett played gorgeously lyrical cornet solos on several ballads of the Miller band, notably "Serenade in Blue" and "Rhapsody in Blue" but especially his famous twelve-bar solo on the medium-tempo "String of Pearls. "
During the orchestra's appearances, Hackett played soft jazz for dinner engagements and late-evening duets with trombonist Miller at dances; over the winter of 1941 - 1942 he rotated between guitar and the trumpet section. While too weak in the latter role, he nevertheless occupied the fourth trumpet chair during the last ten days of the Miller band's existence in September 1942.
Hackett joined NBC as a staff musician, toured with the dancer Katherine Dunham's revue in 1944, performed regularly at the Eddie Condon Town Hall concerts for the Armed Forces Radio Service in 1944 and 1945, and played lush obbligatos behind the singer Lee Wiley in several albums. During two years with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (1944 - 1946), he stopped his alcoholic drinking, and in 1946 he began a fifteen-year association with the ABC musical staff.
Hackett, who had always idolized Louis Armstrong, provided background fills during Armstrong's band concerts and followed his advice to switch from cornet to trumpet. In 1951 he organized a studio orchestra of mostly strings, featuring himself on trumpet, for six romantic mood-music albums produced by Jackie Gleason.
During the 1950's and 1960's Hackett continued to record jazz under his own name; performed in concerts, on television, and at the Newport Jazz Festival; and toured with Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, and Tony Bennett. Ever versatile, he performed in a stunning session with bop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in 1971, the year he moved from the borough of Queens in New York City to West Chatham, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. There he played mostly locally, recording briefly under his own label, Hyannisport Records.
Robert L. Hackett died on June 7, 1976, in West Chatham, Massachusetts. A major force during the golden age of swinging and melodic jazz, Hackett has been characterized as the perfect blend of Armstrong and Beiderbecke, with his own unique technique.
(The master of the mellow trumpet pays tribute to two of h...)
(Side 1 Good-Bye Blues Weary Blues Sugar Blues Blues in th...)
(Georgia On My Mind, In The Mood and When It's Sleepy Time...)
(An extraordinary talent on jazz trumpet, Bobby Hackett in...)
(Digitally re-mastered two-for containing a pair of albums...)
(10" Vinyl 1950 Record)
(Vinyl lp record. Epic BN 26080 Stereo.)
book
Once pressed to comment on Adolf Hitler, Robert L. Hackett observed in typically subtle jazz humor that Hitler was at least "the best in his field. "
Quotations:
"I was swimming for the United States of America. I was swimming to beat Stephen Holland. "
"Louis Armstrong could only happen once - forever and ever. I, for one, appreciate the ride. "
Robert L. Hackett was a Freemason and was active with St. Cecile Lodge #568, a lodge specifically for musicians and artists.
Alec Wilder described him as a poet, "never aggressive or noisy; rather tender and witty. " A small man - five feet, four and a half inches and 125 pounds - who wore a thin mustache, he rarely had the power to hit high notes, but his warm style of playing reflected his personality.
Ever a gentle man, he was reputed never to have said anything critical about anyone.
In 1937 Robert L. Hackett married his childhood sweetheart, named Edna. They had a daughter, Barbara and a son, Ernie, who became a professional drummer.