Ben Webster

• Born: March 27, 1909
• Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri
• Died: September 20, 1973
• Place of death: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

American jazz saxophone player and composer

Webster was a signature stylist on the tenor saxophone, showing off his expressive tone in ballads and blues.

The Life

Benjamin Francis Webster was the only child of Mayme Barker and Walter Webster, who divorced shortly after his birth. Raised by his mother and his great-aunt, Ben lived in comfortable surroundings, spoiled by doting relatives. At an early age, he demonstrated musical prowess, including perfect pitch, and he was given violin lessons. He expressed his initial interest in piano.

Fascinated with the new stride piano style, Webster made a point to hear the talented pianists who passed through Kansas City during his school days, picking up elements of their technique and using them to get into bands. After returning to his hometown following a year at Wilberforce University, Webster met pianist Bill (later Count) Basie, who was stranded in Kansas City. Webster beat Basie out of a job playing for silent films despite being well behind him in experience. Nevertheless, Basie gave Webster some informal piano instruction, and the two began a lifelong friendship.

In 1928 Webster began touring the Southwest in a succession of territory bands, including one led by Willis Young, which included his son, tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Webster had already been given some instruction on saxophone, but it was the Young family who taught him to read music and develop his instrumental technique. After beginning on alto, Webster switched to tenor by the time he played with Gene Coy, Jap Allen, and Blanche Calloway (with whom he made his first recordings) in 1930 and 1931.

Webster’s first big-name band was that of Bennie Moten, with whom he toured beginning in the fall of 1931. Following the breakup of that band in 1932, he played with Andy Kirk for about a year and a half before being summoned to join Fletcher Henderson in New York in July, 1934. This launched Webster into the front ranks of jazz. Henderson’s band broke up four months later, and most of his musicians joined Benny Carter’s band for a brief period.

Following this, Webster played for Willie Bryant (six months), Cab Calloway (two years), Henderson again (ten months), and Teddy Wilson (nine months) before joining Duke Ellington and His Orchestra in January, 1940. This proved to be the most important musical association of his life, lasting until the summer of 1943 and being immortalized in dozens of recordings, films, and airchecks (demonstration recordings). Webster credited the experience with reshaping his musical approach.

Webster spent the next five years based in New York, playing frequently on Fifty-second Street, both as leader and as sideman, before rejoining Ellington for nine months in October, 1948. It was around this time that his heavy drinking affected his performance, forcing him to stop playing briefly and enter a sanatorium. He returned to Kansas City in 1949 to care for his aging mother and great-aunt, playing in local groups and recording occasionally before relocating to Los Angeles in 1950. There he performed infrequently (occasionally with Carter), but he recorded often, usually backing vocalists such as Dinah Washington and Little Esther. Tours with the Jazz at the Philharmonic show kept him working, but for the remainder of the decade he bounced among New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in search of gigs.

A professional association with blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon occupied Webster from late 1959 until January, 1963, at which point his mother and great-aunt both died, plunging him into a depression that he tried to alleviate with more drinking. Two years of personal struggle ensued before he was engaged to play at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London in December, 1964. This booking led to a tour of Scandinavia, and Webster was never to return to America. At first settling in Copenhagen until 1966, followed by shorter periods in the Netherlands and England, Webster played and recorded constantly, enjoying audience appreciation he never found in the United States. He spent the last four years of his life in Copenhagen before dying while on tour in Amsterdam.

The Music

“Toby.” Containing one of Webster’s first long recorded solos, this recording of Moten and his orchestra demonstrates his early style, based on the punchy phrasing of 1920’s-vintage Coleman Hawkins style and a rough technical command of his instrument. Nevertheless, Webster shows a nascent grasp of phrasing and structure, proving himself to be on equal footing with most of his tenor-saxophone contemporaries.

“Cotton Tail.” This tune is one of the few Webster compositions not classified as a blues variation. It was, instead, based on George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” (1930). Ellington arranged it (with Webster’s input) as a tenor sax feature, and it remained in his band’s repertoire well into the 1960’s. One of his few really successful up-tempo features, Webster played it until the end of his life.

“Stardust.” Recorded on location at a dance with Ellington’s orchestra, this version of the Hoagy Carmichael standard (arranged by Webster and bassist Jimmy Blanton) is a three-chorus feature demonstrating Webster’s voluptuous tone and his refined melodic sense. Although he introduces numerous variations in this continuously building performance, Webster never loses sight of the melody.

“Danny Boy.” Done in the unusual key (for saxophones) of concert D, this Irish melody was loved by Webster, and he performs it in his classic ballad style. Almost completely unadorned, the tune is played twice by Webster, sounding cello-like on the second, higher-pitched one. The somewhat menacing finale serves to illustrate the remarkably dual nature of his music and his personality.

“Poutin’.” A blues composed by Webster showing off his feeling for the genre, this performance is by turns forceful and reflective, and it illustrates the range of expressive tone colors he could produce from his instrument.

Musical Legacy

Webster’s legacy rests primarily on his ballad artistry, although his abilities as a blues player should not be overlooked. His tone, phrasing, and breath control have served as benchmarks for tenor saxophone players since the 1940’s, although “Cotton Tail” (his best-known recording) shows the more forceful (even violent) side of his playing. Those two seemingly contradictory elements were amply evident in his personal nature as well.

Bibliography

Büchmann-Møller, Frank. Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. A thorough examination of Webster’s life, using interviews, reviews, and recording data to present a detailed picture.

Dance, Stanley. “Ben Webster.” In The World of Duke Ellington. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970. This interview with Webster from 1964, which appeared originally in Down Beat, concentrates on his years with Ellington and before.

Principal Recordings

albums:Ben Webster Plays Music with Feeling, 1945; King of the Tenors, 1953; Ballads, 1954; Consummate Artistry of Ben Webster, 1954; Sophisticated Lady, 1954; The Big Tenor, 1955; The Soul of Ben Webster, 1957; Soulville, 1957; Tenor Giants, 1957; Trav’lin’ Light, 1957; Ben Webster and Associates, 1959; Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson, 1959; Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster, 1959; The Warm Moods, 1960; Ben and Sweets, 1962 (with Harry Edison); Soulmates, 1963 (with Joe Zawinul); See You at the Fair, 1964; Blue Light, 1965; Duke’s in Bed, 1965; Gone with the Wind, 1965; The Jeep Is Jumping, 1965; Stormy Weather, 1965; There Is No Greater Love, 1965; Big Ben Time, 1967; Ben Webster Meets Bill Coleman, 1967; Ben Webster Plays Ballads, 1967; Ben Meets Don Byas, 1968; Ben Webster at Work in Europe, 1969; Blow Ben Blow, 1969; For the Guv’nor (Tribute to Duke Ellington), 1969; No Fool, No Fun, 1970; Did You Call, 1972; Makin’ Whoopee, 1972.