BOBBY HACKETT is a short, slight, puckish man with a thin mustache and thinning hair. He is generally conceded to be one of a handful of great trumpet players (although he prefers the cornet) in this country. Often known as a "musician's musician," he combines phenomenal technique and control with a golden, lambent tone that is instantly recognizable and as distinctive as his signature. What is less well known about Bobby is that he is an audiophile of long standing. Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Bobby at his home in Queens, New York. At the rear of his home, what was once a large, solidly built brick garage had been converted to a stereo listening room and a place where he could practice. Bobby has air-conditioned the place and acoustically treated the ceiling and back wall. At one end of the room he has his stereo system. The rest of the place is a fascinating melange of cornets hanging on the wall, piles of records and tapes, bongo drums, music scores, a rack from which are suspended dozens of audio cables in every kind of configuration, a table with dozens of mouthpieces, and bric-a-brac too numerous to mention. Bobby is a pleasant man to talk to, singularly free of the pretensions and mannerisms affected by many top artists. The old cliche, "modest and unassuming," is in this case an apt description. I made a recording of a conversation with Bobby and he has kindly consented to my putting it in print.
BW-Bobby, I believe you've been in the music business over 40 years. Is that correct?
BH-Yes, and I'm going to stay in it "till I get it right."
BW-What was the first "name" orchestra in which you played?
BH-Oh, that would be Horace Heidt. I was one of his "Musical Knights." I stayed with him for a year and then I got time off for good behavior.
BW-You spent some time with what we called the Big Bands. Who were some of the leaders with whom you were associated?
BH-I was with Paul Whiteman for about 15 years, and played with Glenn Miller for a few years. But all during that time I had my own small groups, and for the most part, that's what I've been doing ever since.
BW-You mean by small groups, the famous quintets and sextets you have formed over the years, and through which most people are familiar with your playing?
BH-Yes, I feel more comfortable with a quintet made up of really top players.
We develop a style and feeling and eventually the rapport that is so important to good music making.
BW-Would you compare a jazz quintet as an analogous thing with a classical string quartet? I mean that in the sense of the musicians wanting to play for the fun of it, for the dedication that comes with such intimate, personal playing.
BH-I see your point. Yes, there is no doubt the really top guys like to play in small groups. You know, they dig each other, there is more freedom of expression, everybody stays loose and the result is good jazz.
BW-Bobby, I suppose with your various groups you must have played in every night club in this country and abroad as well.
BH-Well, I may have missed a few.
BW-I understand Vic Dickenson, who was a frequent member of your quintets, is now with the group called the "World's Greatest Jazz Band."
BH-Yes, Vic has gone from Bobby Hackett to Bobby Haggert. Actually Vic and I have worked on and off with each other for some 30 years.
BW-Didn't you and Vic make some of the very earliest pre-recorded jazz tapes? I believe they may have been issued by Livingston.
BH-If we did I don't remember. Vic did make some tapes with Rudy Braff, which I think were put out by Vanguard. I think he made some with Muggsy Spanier, too.
BW-Is that so? I recorded Muggsy years ago for Paul Weathers--we called the album "Dynamic Dixie," and at the time, it was recorded with some fancy mikes called Telefunken.
BH-I remember that album, because they were using it for demonstration at one of the early Audio Fairs.
BW-Bobby, when did you first get interested in audio?
BH-It was a long time ago, really at the inception of hi-fi. I remember using some early Fisher equipment and some Altec.
BW-Most of us figure hi-fi as we know it got underway about 1946 or so.
BH-I had one of the original Brush Soundmirror recorders. Anyhow, it all started long ago and I'm a hopeless case.
I'm hooked. I just love good sound.
BW-Do you remember the equipment you had in what you consider as your first really good hi-fi system?
------ Bobby Hackett (with his new Benge cornet) and Vic Dickenson
BH-Let me see ... I had a Fisher tuner, McIntosh pre -amp and amp, and I recall I was very partial to the Jensen Triaxial speaker. When stereo tapes arrived on the scene, I acquired a Wharfedale speaker and even though it didn't match with the Triaxial, it wasn't too bad and I sure enjoyed the stereo. Speaking of stereo let me tell you a story. As you know when stereo tapes first came out, they were spectacular things for big symphony orchestras-things like the "Firebird" and similar stuff. There was virtually no jazz on stereo tapes.
BW-Well, you know whose fault that was ... the musician's union.
BH-Oh, yeah! That was when they wanted a double fee to record because stereo was on two tracks!
BW-Yes, and that is when I went to Petrillo's office with the portable Magnecord stereo equipment and headphones and played classical and some bootleg pop stereo tapes for him. He listened for awhile, then ripped the phones off his head and roared that with canned music that good, musicians would soon all be out of business. When I pointed out that none of the old recordings could be converted to stereo, and this meant that even the old warhorses would have to be recorded in the new process, he calmed down. Shortly afterward the union gave the green light for stereo recording at the prevailing rates.
BW-Fortunately it wasn't long after the introduction of classical stereo that pop and jazz started to appear. First we had the Vanguard tapes I mentioned earlier, then the dam really broke and we had all sorts of tapes, like the Dick Shory percussion spectaculars, and all those "ping-pong" tapes of pop music.
BW-You feel the recordings are great training and teaching tools?
BH-Just fantastic. You know, when we are up on the bandstand, we're concentrating on playing and entertaining the customers. We are doing things that we are totally unaware of until we play the tapes back.
BW-Doing these recordings also allows Bobby Hackett, recording engineer, to indulge in his favorite avocation?
BH-I'm a frustrated engineer, and I just love recording.
BW-You've got to be a pretty good recordist. Those tapes you played for me earlier were of superb quality, and all the more remarkable since you are obviously working under a handicap in most night clubs.
BH-Thanks for the compliment. After you've been doing this as long as I have, you sort of get the hang of it.
BW-What kind of mikes do you use?
BH-Mostly high -quality dynamic cardioids. With the tight pattern and the back cancellation, I can keep down the crowd noise.
BW-After you make your tapes do you do any work on them at home, try to improve them with editing, or adding reverb ... things like that?
BH-No, as a matter of fact I don't believe in tampering with my tapes. I want the original, with no gimmicks. I'll tell you, I don't believe in all this splicing and editing they do on commercial recordings. I have wanted to release an album of my own, free of editing. If there is a mistake, it proves we are human. I think we get a better, more spontaneous performance this way.
BW-But Bobby, on a recording if there are mistakes, one hears them over and over, and if you play the record a great deal, you get to anticipate the errors and this could drive you batty.
BH-Well maybe so, but one of these days I am going to make a record like that.
BW-Feeling like you do about tape gimmickry, you must he appalled when you walk into one of the modern recording studios where they may have up to 24-track recorders and each musician can be, and often is, miked separately and assigned to a specific channel.
BH-I don't know how they do it ...it's almost frightening. I should think some of the results would be very stilted and artificial.
BW-Bobby, you have been playing recently at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York at the 5 o'clock cocktail hour.
BH-Yes, the quintet plays up to 8 and then the "World's Greatest Jazz Band" takes over.
BW-I understand the cocktail hour bit was considered an innovation. That is funny. You remember years ago, you would be in an office and at day's end you would ask a chick to have a drink with you and you could go to a number of spots and there would be a group like you. Innovation indeed!
BH-Yeah, it is kind of a laugh.
BW-I've heard that the appearances of the "World's Greatest Jazz Band" and your quintet at the Roosevelt were partly subsidized by this fantastic young man, Dick Gibson.
BH-That's right.
BW-Isn't he the party who invented the "Water Pic," the teeth -cleaning device, and then eventually sold the rights to it for millions of dollars?
BH-Yes. Dick Gibson is one of the best friends jazz has ever had. He puts his money where his mouth is.
BW-I think he is doing a great thing. I feel if more of the young people could hear good jazz, both small groups and big band stuff, they would get over their rock neurosis. Maybe Mr. Gibson might sponsor some jazz concerts for the kids one of these days.
BH-Here is some news for you along those lines. Dick has interested the impressario Sol Hurok in the "World's Greatest Jazz Band," and Hurok is supposed to have booked more than a dozen concerts across the country.
BW-You mean concerts in a nice big auditorium, classical style?
BH-Absolutely. This could really get things moving in the jazz field.
BW-Bobby, speaking of the young people, do you ever play any rock? What is your opinion of their music?
BH-Very rarely. 99 percent of the rock stuff is junk, but the kids are gullible and they pay attention to what some people tell them to listen to.
BW-Don't you like any of the Beatles' stuff? Their music is supposed to be a few cuts above the usual rock.
BH-I'll take Cole Porter. Let me tell you something, Bert. I've had big bands I've led recently at colleges across the country. You know, the typical good music that people used to like to dance to. Well, at several colleges we were in one big hall and at the same time some rock groups were in an adjacent hall. I was told that there was very sparse attendance at the rock hall, while our hall was jammed. I think it is just a question of somehow exposing the young to good jazz and big -band music and we'll wean them away from the rock junk.
BW-What are your plans now, Bobby?
BH-I've got a very nice engagement at a fancy resort in New Hampshire for ten weeks this summer. I'll have a really swinging bunch in my quintet, too. I've rented a nice house up there and it has a big living room where I can play my stereo.
BW-You're taking a stereo system with you?
BH-I just acquired a big Kenwood receiver and I am going to use that with a pair of Bose speakers and my ReVox. I don't like to be without a playback system if I can help it.
BW-Bobby, I could spend hours more talking with you, but I know it's time for practice. Thank you for a most pleasant visit.
(Audio magazine, Sept. 1970; Bert Whyte)
= = = =