Bandstand Stories

When Harry Met Owen
by Henry Mason Harry James Orchestra

A little over a year before his death Harry James made a concert appearances at a local Atlanta high school. The event was staged in the school's gym which doubled as auditorium. The SJO was honored to be asked to perform as the one of the opening acts...the school's stage band had the first 15 minutes, and we performed the last 45 minutes before the main concert. Harry's band was on the main stage with curtains drawn, while we were down on the gym floor, and a little to the right of center stage.

Our turn came and we proceded to strut our stuff for the crowd. We even had a vocal quartette perform with us as we did a Dorsey style arrangement of Sunny Side Of The Street. Our "closer" was the very definition of chutzpa...Benny Goodman's"Sing, Sing, Sing"! (Was it courageous confidence or sheer folly? We'll never tell.)

Of course, as all know, Harry James had played the trumpet solo on "Sing, Sing, Sing" during the legendary 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert. Our version was to feature Owen Omundsen recreating that James solo. The closer we got to the number, the more all of us began to realize that James himself was standing just a few feet from us...just behind the closed curtain!

The moment finally came and Owen stood and began to play the familiar chorus. He did it flawlessly and as he began to sit, his eye was caught by a barely perceptible movement of the still closed curtain. As he glanced over, he saw the curtain parted a few inches and Harry's smiling face was looking right at him. Just below the smiling face was a hand...sporting an upraised thumb!

SJO at Druid Hills

The curtain closed with the audience totally unaware of the silent exchange.

The memory still lives vividly in the mind of one very happy SJO trumpet player and those few of us privileged to witness it. A gracious Harry James, sans tux, invited the entire SJO backstage after the performance and was more than generous with his remarks about our performance. Owen then asked him to autograph the trumpet part on Sing, Sing, Sing. He did so, and that autographed part is still a treasured possession.

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