Joe Newman was a fabulous trumpter, as well as a highly dedicated, multi-faceted jazz ambassador. He was destined for a jazz life, being born into a musical family in New Orleans in 1922. "I really became a musician because of my father. My earliest recollections of my childhood in New Orleans are of him playing music. He was a chauffeur, originally; the next thing I knew, he was playing piano, although I never was aware of him studying before that. Perhaps he was already a player before I was born; I’m not sure about that."(1) Newman started playing trumpet as a young child, by the time he was 13 he was winning talent concerts with his trumpet playing, and led his college's band on tour when attending Alabama State Teachers College. He started his career playing with Lionel Hampton at age 18 and after two years joined Count Basie, where playing with the likes of Lester Young and Sweets Edison had a huge influence on him personally and professionally. Newman also spent time with the bands of Illinois Jacquet and JC Heard, further developing his style, technique, and tone, before rejoining the Basie Band at the beginning of its next great era in 1952. (2)

He recorded and toured with many bands, most famously though with the the Basie Band, where over time he made a major mark for himself. He often led his own groups as well during this period, recording many leader sessions from the mid 1950s through the early 1960s. Playing with Young in the Basie Band, he said himself at length, was a major formative part of his musical life: "...although I wanted very much to play with the band, the big lure to me was Lester Young. And to be able to sit in there and play with Lester—that was really it. I’d loved his playing; I used to play his solos on trumpet, and try to make the trumpet sound like a saxophone. He, more than anybody in that band at that time, was the giant."(3)

Newman met his wife Rigmor during travel in Europe, which he loved. The two of them were integral parts of the founding and development of Jazz Interactions, a very unique organization dedicated to jazz primarily via performance and education. Founded in the early 1960s, Jazz Interactions sponsored performances and maintained a hotline directing fans to live jazz, but also organized programs and workshops for students and schools. The organization also created the Jazz Interactions Orchestra, whose most famous work was The Jazzhattan Suite, composed and arranged by Oliver Nelson and conducted by Newman.

The organization and its work meant a tremendous amount to Newman, and he described his time with it this way: "...I’ve spent twelve years of my life on this: in fact. I’m one of the founders of it. We founded the organization to promote jazz, because it was in such a serious plight at the time. Everybody talked about it, but nobody did anything to alleviate the problem. A number of us got together, and formed Jazz Interactions with the idea of promoting jazz on an educational basis. We thought we could do that best by going into the schools, getting with the young people, and acquainting them with jazz. Many of the kids carried pocket radios around, listening only to the rock’n’roll; there was a part of their heritage they knew nothing about."(4)

While rooted in New Orleans tradition (as evidenced by his tribute to Louis Armstrong, Salute to Satch), Newman had serious chops and also could beautifully accent quiet ballads as well. He was an extremely versatile player, working in big band and small group settings, with and without vocalists, and in all kinds of different styles.(5) The liner notes from his 1955 octet record All I Wanna Do Is Swing captured Newman's playing wonderfully, stating: "Whether on mute or open horn, Joe's work is a delight to the ears - not merely because it is sane jazz in the midst of much that today is either overwritten or vacuous, but because it is always fresh, always swinging, always blown from the top-drawer of inspiration."(6)

Newman stayed busy performing and touring through the 1980s, until felled by a stroke in 1991. He eventually passed away from complications the next year at age 69 in New York City.(7) He left behind a tremendous recorded legacy as a leader and as a prominent sideman with Basie and many others, as well as a very well-used passport from his frequent international travel. His career evolved over the decades from swing and bebop to a through embrace of the contemporary.(8) In addition to his work with Jazz Interactions, he played with the New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra, sat in pits on Broadway, and worked with names as diverse and huge as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, and Aretha Franklin among others.(9) Mr. Newman left behind a resume for the ages.

We are very pleased to present some of his small group session arrangements, available for the first time, with more to come, just as written by Ernie Wilkins, Manny Albam, and Al Cohn. The first four we have published are 'Careless Love', 'I Never Knew','The Sidewalks of New York', and 'Sometimes I'm Happy'. All of these are very accessible and have fairly standard instrumentation, so we highly recommend checking them out as they are approachable for developing groups, yet interesting enough for more advanced groups as well, and are great listening for any audience. They also have immense historic and academic value, as these charts perform the valuable task of distilling the classic Basie sound down to its core essence in a way that expertly balances tight ensemble work with an easy ability to open things up for extended solos.

And they all serve as buoyant vehicles for eternally transmitting the joy that permeated the music created by the always evolving brilliant musical mind of Joseph Dwight Newman. "My music is happy, and it makes other people feel happy; because when we get in a groove there’s just no way in the world that you cannot have a good, happy feeling about it."(10)

1-https://nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/explore/interviews/1277503-joe-newman-interview-1?

2-https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-joe-newman-1532241.html

3-https://nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/explore/interviews/1277558-joe-newman-interview-2?

4-https://nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/explore/interviews/1277503-joe-newman-interview-1?

5-https://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-newman-mn0000208035#biography

6-https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2016/06/joe-newman-relaxed-and-poised-trumpeter.html

7-https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/08/arts/joe-newman-70-a-versatile-trumpeter-in-jazz.html

8-https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-09-mn-2254-story.html

9-https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/08/arts/joe-newman-70-a-versatile-trumpeter-in-jazz.html

10-https://nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/explore/interviews/1277558-joe-newman-interview-2?