Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians started out as a fine big dance band, then segued into emphasizing its Glee Club and choral arrangements. It was a smart move; his program on early television was a huge hit. (Photo: Randy Richards Collection, Mississippi Rag files)

Continued: Hawley Ades

One Ades arrangement of interest remains a puzzle: he gets arranger credit on Fats Waller's 1942 recording of "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (available on YouTube). Fats is backed by a male vocal group, so Hawley's involvement makes some sense, and Berlin did publish a number of Fats Waller compositions. But Hawley had no memory at all of this assignment, though he recalled meeting Fats once in August 1933 at the Berlin offices.

There were lots of opportunities to see bands around New York during the 1930s, of course. Hawley was particularly fond of the Benny Goodman band, which he heard often in 1936-37 at the Madhatten Room of the Hotel Pennsylvania. Another favorite was the Bob Crosby band. The standout in that group was Billy Butterfield -- "the other two trumpet players may as well not have been there," Hawley remembered. This, surely, must have been after Charlie Spivak and Yank Lawson, neither a quiet presence in any trumpet section, had left Crosby to join Tommy Dorsey in 1938.

The life of trumpeter Bunny Berigan, above, briefly intersected with that of Ades. (Photo: Randy Richards Collection, Mississippi Rag files)

Bunny Berigan

When Hawley's sister, Christine, found herself with the task of hiring a band for the "Sophomore Soiree" at Albany State Teachers College in March 1937, she asked brother Hawley for advice. He recommended Bunny Berigan, who had just started his own orchestra. Thus the Berigan band played in Albany at the Aurenia Club on March 16, a few weeks before its first Victor recording session. A few years later, Hawley was looking for an apartment in Queens, and was shown a place that Bunny Berigan had just vacated. The basement was chock full of empty liquor bottles, sad evidence of the affliction that killed Berigan in 1942.

Fred Waring

Also through George Terry, Hawley had met one of Fred Waring's arrangers, Frank Perkins. In 1937 Perkins was planning to leave Waring, and he recommended Hawley as his replacement. Hawley flew out to Kansas City for an interview with Waring. Waring, impressed by Hawley's arrangement of "The Toy Trumpet," hired him on the spot for $150 a week (double his salary -- which had never been increased -- from the notoriously tight-fisted Irving Berlin).

September 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag

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