Johnny Helms
Encyclopedia
Johnny Helms is an American jazz trumpet player and bandleader. Helms has performed with Chris Potter
, Tommy Newsom
, Bill Watrous
, Woody Herman
, Sam Most
, and the Clark Terry
Big Band. In 1989, he performed with Terry and Oscar Peterson
as a member of Clark Terry and Friends at Town Hall during the JVC Jazz Festival
.
.
, Helms mastered the hard bop
style and phrasing that was part of Brown's legacy.
Helms was a supporter of jazz saxophonist Chris Potter
, who began developing his talent at a young age while performing with Helms.
.
, Charleston, South Carolina
with the One O'Clock Lab Band
, Phil Woods
, Louie Bellson
, and Urbie Green
. The event marked the first time that the Spoleto festival had been held in the Americas. Since its 1958 founding in Italy
by Gian Carlo Menotti
, jazz had never been performed at a Spoleto event. Since its US spinoff debut in 1977 — Spoleto USA — jazz has played an integral role in what has become the largest performing arts festival in the Americas, dwarfing its Old World
parent. A recording of the performance was broadcast March 25, 1978, and September 28, 1978, on National Public Radio program, Jazz Alive.
Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)
Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
, Tommy Newsom
Tommy Newsom
Thomas Penn "Tommy" Newsom was a saxophone player in the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, for which he later became assistant director. Newsom was frequently the band's substitute director, whenever Doc Severinsen was away from the show or filling in for announcer Ed...
, Bill Watrous
Bill Watrous
William Russell Watrous III is a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known by casual fans of jazz music for his rendition of Sammy Nestico's arrangement of the Johnny Mandel ballad "A Time for Love," which he recorded on a 1993 album of the same name...
, Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
, Sam Most
Sam Most
Sam Most is a Los Angeles-based jazz flautist and tenor saxophonist. Along with Frank Wess, he is one of the first jazz flautists. He was born on December 16, 1930, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He has a brother, clarinetist, Abe Most, with whom he has performed.Early in his career he played...
, and the Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
Big Band. In 1989, he performed with Terry and Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
as a member of Clark Terry and Friends at Town Hall during the JVC Jazz Festival
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...
.
Jazz festival organizer
Helms was one of the organizers, and served as the musical director of, and performer at, the Main Street Jazz Festival in Columbia, South CarolinaColumbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
.
Growing up and early career
Helms displayed a talent for music at a young age when he was invited to perform with the University of South Carolina Band while in the ninth grade at Columbia High School. An early devotee of the jazz trumpet player Clifford BrownClifford Brown
Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...
, Helms mastered the hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
style and phrasing that was part of Brown's legacy.
Helms was a supporter of jazz saxophonist Chris Potter
Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)
Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
, who began developing his talent at a young age while performing with Helms.
Higher education
Helms earned his Bachelor of Music degree in 1973 from the University of South CarolinaUniversity of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
.
Spoleto Festival USA
Johnny Helms was a featured soloist at the 1977 (summer) Spoleto Festival USASpoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy...
, Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
with the One O'Clock Lab Band
One O'Clock Lab Band
The One O’Clock Lab Band for years has been the premier ensemble of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas College of Music in Denton. The band has performed and toured abroad in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway,...
, Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
, Louie Bellson
Louie Bellson
Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni , better known by the stage name Louie Bellson , was an Italian-American jazz drummer...
, and Urbie Green
Urbie Green
Urban Clifford "Urbie" Green is an American jazz trombonist who toured with Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Jan Savitt, and Frankie Carle....
. The event marked the first time that the Spoleto festival had been held in the Americas. Since its 1958 founding in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
by Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
, jazz had never been performed at a Spoleto event. Since its US spinoff debut in 1977 — Spoleto USA — jazz has played an integral role in what has become the largest performing arts festival in the Americas, dwarfing its Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
parent. A recording of the performance was broadcast March 25, 1978, and September 28, 1978, on National Public Radio program, Jazz Alive.
Selected discography
- Jazz at Spoleto '77 (with Leon Breeden and the University of North TexasUniversity of North TexasThe University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...
One O'Clock Lab BandOne O'Clock Lab BandThe One O’Clock Lab Band for years has been the premier ensemble of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas College of Music in Denton. The band has performed and toured abroad in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway,...
) Released in 1978 by the Left Bank Jazz SocietyLeft Bank Jazz SocietyThe Left Bank Jazz Society is a Baltimore, Maryland-based organization that promotes jazz in Baltimore. It formed in 1964, hosting a series of concerts featuring nationally acclaimed performers like John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. Tapes from these recordings were tied up in legal disputes and not...
- Perdido: The Columbia Museum of Art (with Clark TerryClark TerryClark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
trumpet and Bucky PizzarelliBucky PizzarelliJohn Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in...
guitar) Columbia, South CarolinaColumbia, South CarolinaColumbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
, April 28, 1974 (private recording)
- The Columbia Jazz Trio Plus Two (with Chris PotterChris Potter (jazz saxophonist)Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
, alto sax and Terry RosenTerry Rosen (musician)Terry Rosen was an American jazz guitarist, concert promoter, and radio DJ.Terry Rosen was born in Atlanta, GA but moved with his parents to Columbia, SC at the age of three. Picking up the guitar at the age of 14, he began sitting in on bandstands with local musicians in Columbia in 1956; he...
, guitar) a 1987 SCETV Production
- The Columbia Jazz Quintet Live at Pug's (with Chris PotterChris Potter (jazz saxophonist)Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
, alto sax and Terry RosenTerry Rosen (musician)Terry Rosen was an American jazz guitarist, concert promoter, and radio DJ.Terry Rosen was born in Atlanta, GA but moved with his parents to Columbia, SC at the age of three. Picking up the guitar at the age of 14, he began sitting in on bandstands with local musicians in Columbia in 1956; he...
, guitar) 1988 by Dig This Productions