Chu Berry

A silver-plated Conn 'New Wonder' Series II tenor saxophone, with a serial number which dates manufacture to 1934. It is a very late "Transitional" model tenor sax with split bell-keys, and was manufactured just before production of the Conn 10M started. Berry played a tenor saxophone almost identical to this one. However, the front of the bell of Berry's saxophone was more ornately engraved with various art deco designs^[1]

Leon Brown "Chu" Berry (September 13, 1908,^[2] – October 30, 1941^[3]) was an American swing tenor saxophonist.

Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, commented that, "Considering the brevity of Chu's life, and that his recording career spans a mere decade, it is remarkable that his name continues to loom large in the annals of jazz. Had he lived, there is no doubt that he would be ensconced in the jazz pantheon alongside Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. He was that good."

Early life

Berry was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. He graduated from Lincoln High School, in Wheeling, then attended West Virginia State College, near Charleston, for three years.^[4] His sister Ann played piano and Chu became interested in music at an early age, playing alto saxophone, at first with local bands. He was inspired to take up the tenor sax after hearing Coleman Hawkins on tour. Although Berry based his style on Hawkins' playing, Hawkins regarded Berry as his equal, saying "'Chu' was about the best."

"Berry got his much-misspelled moniker (Choo, Chew) from musicians, because he chewed on his mouthpiece or had Fu Manchu facial hair or both", stated jazz historian Gary Giddins.^[5]

Big band career

Most of Berry's career was spent in the sax sections of major swing bands:^[6]

• Sammy Stewart, 1929–1930, with whom he switched to tenor sax
• Benny Carter, 1932–1933
• Teddy Hill, 1933–1935
• Fletcher Henderson, 1935–1937
• Cab Calloway, his best-known affiliation, from 1937 to 1941

"Although it has been stated in some publications that Chu Berry joined Count Basie's orchestra, this is erroneous. He did not take the place of Herschel Evans, but did, however, deputize for him at a recording date".^[7]

Session player

Throughout his brief career, Berry was in demand as a sideman for recording sessions under the names of various other jazz artists, including Spike Hughes (1933), Bessie Smith (1933), the Chocolate Dandies (1933), Mildred Bailey (1935–1938), Teddy Wilson (1935–1938), Billie Holiday (1938–1939), Wingy Manone (1938–1939) and Lionel Hampton (1939).

During the period 1934-1939, while saxophone pioneer Hawkins was playing in Europe, Berry was one of several younger tenor saxophonists, such as Budd Johnson, Ben Webster and Lester Young who vied for supremacy on their instrument. Berry's mastery of advanced harmony and his smoothly-flowing solos on uptempo tunes influenced such young innovators as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The latter named his first son Leon in Chu's honor.^[8] Berry was one of the jazz musicians who took part in jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse in New York City, which led to the development of bebop.

"Christopher Columbus", which Berry composed with lyrics by Andy Razaf, was the last important hit recording of the Fletcher Henderson orchestra, recorded in 1936. It is one of the most popular riff tunes from the swing era. It was incorporated into Jimmy Mundy's arrangement of Sing, Sing, Sing for Benny Goodman's band. This was used as the final showstopper in Goodman's first Carnegie Hall jazz concert of January 16, 1938.

While Berry was in various bands, 4 sessions were organized with Chu Berry as leader:

• March 23, 1937 yielding 4 songs for Variety Records (2 of which were subsequently issued on Vocalion in early 1938)
• September 10, 1937 yielding 4 songs for Variety (2 of which were subsequently issued on Vocalion in early 1938 and 2 were initially rejected and subsequently issued on a dubbed Columbia 78 in 1947)
• November 11, 1938 yielded 4 sides for Commodore
• September 1941 yielded 4 sides for Commodore

Death

On October 27, 1941, Berry was travelling by car between gigs in Brookfield, Ohio and Toronto. Visibility was poor due to heavy fog. Approximately 15 miles from Conneaut, Ohio, the car in which he was a passenger skidded and crashed into the end of a steel bridge. Berry sustained a fractured skull and other internal injuries in the accident. He was taken to Brown Memorial Hospital in Conneaut, where he died on October 30, 1941 aged 33.^[9]

Berry was survived by his wife, Geraldine Berry; mother, Margaret Berry, and sister, Anne Berry. Over a thousand people viewed Berry's coffin before his funeral at the Simpson Church. Cab Calloway came by plane from Rochester, N.Y. to attend the funeral.^[9] Hundreds of cars were in the funeral procession towards Peninsula Cemetery in Wheeling, West Virginia where Berry was initially interred. In 1964, due to construction work on the I-70 Wheeling Tunnel thoroughfare, his remains were exhumed and moved to nearby Mt. Zion Cemetery, where they lie in an unmarked grave in a grassy knoll section of the cemetery.^[10]

Author Jack Kerouac was a Berry fan, referring to him as "the great Chu Berry" near the beginning of The Subterraneans.

The "Chu Berry" saxophone

A straight-necked Conn C melody saxophone with split bell-keys and a serial number which dates manufacture to 1922. Note:- Chu Berry did not play the C Melody saxophone and in any case this example is a Conn New Wonder Series 1. Even so, some eBay sellers (wrongly) describe this instrument as a "Chu Berry saxophone"

A very late model "Transitional" Conn 6M alto with adjustable thumb-hook. It does not have the Conn microtuner or the 6M stamp. Again, some eBay sellers mistakenly refer to this alto as a "Chu Berry saxophone", even though Berry actually played a Conn tenor with an earlier transitional design featuring split bell-keys.

"Chu Berry" is the unofficial name^[11] of a series of saxophones produced by the C.G. Conn company during the 1920s, though it is more accurate to refer to them as the Conn 'New Wonder' Series II. Even then, significant ambiguity remains.

First, C.G. Conn never used the term "Chu Berry" to refer to any of their saxophones. Furthermore, Berry actually played a model of tenor sax generally known as the Conn "Transitional",^[12] and is not known to have ever played a New Wonder Series II.^[13][14] Some saxophone owners (particularly on eBay^[15]) use the term "Chu Berry" in reference to any Conn saxophone made between 1910 and the mid-1930s, including soprano, alto, baritone and C melody saxophones, none of which Berry played.

The term "Chu Berry saxophone" is misleading (and therefore potentially meaningless) because it has no accurate and universally agreed definition. This easily causes confusion; for example, to non-experts, the Conn New Wonder Series II looks very similar to the New Wonder Series I or the "New Invention" model of around 1910. To complicate matters further, there was no abrupt cut-off point between the New Wonder Series II and the 6M or 10M. Instead, there was a gradual evolution in the design. Between 1930 and 1934 (approximately serial numbers 244700 to 260999) Conn manufactured around 17,000 "Transitional" (or "cross-over") models. Most of these so-called "Transitional" saxophones were altos and they combine some features of the New Wonder Series II with others from the later Conn 6M (alto) and 10M (tenor) designs - in varying percentages. For example, early transitionals can be 80/20 New Wonder II and 10M, others are 60/40 or 50/50, whilst the later ones are 30/70 etc.

Suffice to say a number of progressively different transitional Conn saxophones were produced as designs evolved.^[16] Sometimes these design differences are obvious; for example, early transitional models have split bell-keys compared to later ones with the single-sided 6M and 10M bell-key layout, whilst both types may have a "nail-file" G# key.^[17] A more subtle difference is that very late-production transitionals have a Conn 10M "shot glass" style octave-key vent on the neck as opposed to the earlier dome-shaped octave vent found on the New Wonder II.^[18] When examining early-model transitional saxophones the differences can be quite minor (closely resembling the New Wonder Series II, except for having a modified high E-key on the side) and therefore detailed background knowledge is required to correctly identify them. Unless the owner knows which design features to look for, both early and late-model Conn transitionals can be misidentified under the all-encompassing label of "Chu Berry saxophone". As a result, the official Conn model names used by the manufacturer are preferred, because there is a clear, accurate definition and therefore the possibility of misunderstanding is much reduced.

Discography

Although Berry's recording career spanned less than a decade, he is well represented on record.^[19]

Compilations

• Blowing Up a Breeze, Pearl
• Cab Calloway Best of the Big Bands, Sony Columbia
• Chu, Epic Japan
• Chu Berry 1937-1941, Classics
• Chu Berry Story, Epm Musique
• Classic Chu Berry: The Columbia and Victor Sessions, Berry plus various band leaders, Mosaic Records. Reviews:
  • The Seattle Times, December 9, 2007, retrieved on June 15, 2009.
  • Chu Berry's Legacy, Explored at Length, 7-minute NPR program, retrieved on June 25, 2009.
• Giants of the Tenor Sax, Commodore
• Penguin Swing, Jazz Archives
• Tenor Giant, Polygram
• The Indispensable Chu Berry, RCA

Ten selected 78rpm sides

• Sweet Sue, with Spike Hughes and His Negro Orchestra, 1933
• I Never Knew, with The Chocolate Dandies, 1933
• Blue Lou, with Fletcher Henderson, 1936
• Limehouse Blues, 1937
• Forty-Six West Fifty-Two, Chu Berry and his Little Jazz Ensemble, with Roy Eldridge, 1938
• Sittin' In, same
• Oh, Lady Be Good!, with Count Basie, 1939
• Sweethearts on parade, with Lionel Hampton, 1939
• Shufflin' at the Hollywood, same
• I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You, with Cab Calloway, 1940

Selected sideman appearances

• Count Basie, The Original American Decca Recordings (GRP, 1937-39 [1992])
• Count Basie, Swingsation, GRP, ca. 1937-1939 recordings
• Dizzy Gillespie, The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Bluebird, 1937-1949 [1995])
• Benny Goodman, The Centennial Collection, RCA, ca. 1936-1938 recordings
• Lionel Hampton, Hot Mallets, RCA Bluebird, 1939 recordings
• Lionel Hampton, Tempo and Swing, RCA Bluebird, 1939 recordings
• Lionel Hampton, Ring Dem Bells, RCA Bluebird, 1939 recordings
• Fletcher Henderson, Ken Burns Jazz, Sony, ca. 1936 recordings
• Fletcher Henderson, Wrappin It Up, Quadramania, ca. 1936 recordings
• Billie Holiday, The Essential Billie Holiday, Columbia, 1933-1939, recordings
• Teddy Wilson, The Noble Art of Teddy Wilson, ASV, ca. 1935-1939 recordings

References

External links

• cabcalloway.cc, with photo and biography.