Book Review: Joe Harnell's Autobiography
Counterpoint - The Journey of a Music Man
by Joe Harnell and Ira Skutch
Xlibris Corporation, ISBN 0-7388-4990-1
Hard cover, soft cover and E-book
Available from www.Xlibris.com or 1-888-7-XLIBRIS
or amazon.com
Joe Harnell has written an honest and candid book about his life entitled “Counterpoint - The Journey of a Music Man.” The counterpoint Joe refers to in the title is the contrast between his professional life and his personal life. In a brief prelude he writes that, while “music brought harmony and comfort, my relationships brought dissonance and chaos.” Significantly, the book is dedicated to his fourth wife, Alice, who he credits with changing his life. The term “Music Man” is also well chosen. Joe has excelled at piano performance and music direction, as well as composing music for advertising, recordings, film and television. Many musicians would be content with Joe's success in any one of these fields.
With chapter titles such as “Drinking,” “My Sponsor,” and Psychiatry” Joe quickly informs the prospective reader of the nature of the problems dealt with in the book. It becomes clear from the first page that alcohol and a negative attitude were the two self-described destructive elements in Joe's life.
However, some of the other chapter titles include “Peggy Lee,” Marlene Dietrich,” “Maurice Chevalier,” and “Pearl Bailey.” Clearly Joe has worked with some of the greats of the music world. Also, he studied composition with, among others, William Walton, Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger. He attended Tanglewood, the prestigious summer institute associated with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, each year from 1947 through 1951. Yet following Joe's first acceptance at Tanglewood, he writes of feeling “in my heart of hearts that I wasn't truly qualified, and that I fooled them yet again.” Clearly there was a severe dissonance between the talent recognized by other professionals and Joe's harsh self-appraisal. This theme runs throughout the book.
My only quibble with the book is that I wish, as a fellow composer, that Joe had spent more time on his experiences with Walton, Copland, Boulanger, and at Tanglewood. However, this probably would have made the book more technical than Joe intended, and less accessible to the average reader.
Early in the book Joe describes his difficult relationship with his father. Joe's dad Philip had been in Vaudeville briefly before becoming a baker. Philip clearly had some issues with alcohol himself. By the time the Bronx-born Joe was thirteen, he played with his father in a klezmer band. Through the band Joe learned the Jewish, Society and Italian repertoire. Little did Joe realize how well this experience would prepare him for his career as a musical director.
Some of Joe's high school band mates included Shorty Rogers on trumpet and Hugo Montenegro on drums. By frequenting the jazz clubs of Manhattan and Harlem over time Joe became enamored of musicians such as Art Tatum, Count Basis, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. He worked with Dizzy Gillespie and Mugsy Spanier, among others. One interesting fact I had not known was that legendary trumpeter Wingy Manone occasionally smuggled marijuana across the Mexican border inside his prosthetic arm.
Joe's roommate at Tanglewood was Lucas Foss. Other classmates included Ned Rorem, Jacob Druckman, Irving Fine and John Corigilano, all major figures in 20th century American concert music. Joe alludes to himself as a “pot smoking jazzer” trying to learn and find acceptance from these classical musicians. He describes a wonderful first meeting with Leonard Bernstein which was followed by a devastating brush off. Joe speaks of being envious of Bernstein over the years while usually finding him to be annoying and condescending. It wasn't until after his death that Joe could set aside his resentments and acknowledge Lenny's true gifts.
It was while playing freelance sessions, Broadway shows and gigs with society band leader Lester Lanin in the 1950's that Joe became more and more aware of the difference between music and the music business. Still, Joe not only survived, while some of his peers did not, but actually thrived. It was not long until Joe became music director for Robert Goulet, Carol Lawrence and Julius La Rosa. Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee and Maurice Chevalier followed.
Joe was involved in a serious auto accident in 1962 which curtailed his pianistic abilities to a degree. Shortly afterward he met his future collaborator on “Counterpoint,” Ira Skutch, who was one of the producers of the daytime television show “Play Your Hunch.”
In 1963, Joe's bossa nova arrangement and recording of “Fly Me To The Moon” led to a Grammy and his biggest commercial success. The record became one of the best selling instrumental hits of all time. Would the record have been as successful if Joe had not changed the original title of the tune, which was “In Other Words?” And would an arranger who was not a licensed pilot, as Joe had been since the 1940's, have changed the title?
In one of the strange ironies of our business, Joe was later hired to be the pianist for an Andre Kostelanitz “cover version” of his own arrangement of “Fly Me To The Moon.” Joe arrived at the session having not been told in advance. On top of that, he was instructed to play the solos just as he had on his own recording. Being a pro, Joe did as requested.
Following a few years working at an ad agency on some of the biggest ad campaigns of the 60's Joe took a job with the Mike Douglas show from 1967-1973. In some ways this chapter is the most interesting of the book. Acts from Judy Garland to John Lennon and Yoko Ono appeared as guests on the show. Barry Goldwater once performed on the trombone. Of the Lennon-Ono week as guest hosts, Joe reflected, “It was a week everyone was very relieved to see end.” Guest hosts who proved to be a sincere pleasure included Louis Armstrong and Tony Bennett.
Joe describes Mike Douglas as a very insecure television host. Even the word was “Hello” was on a cue card. He preferred to sing the same limited repertoire of songs over and over again and was preoccupied with money. On camera Mike “established an impression of closeness” with Joe. Off camera was a different story. Mike had “that singular gift of looking, behaving and speaking as if he really cared.”
It was in April of 1973, while still music director of the Douglas show, that Joe's troubles with alcoholism came to a head. A concerned fellow musician, referred to only as “Eddie,” took Joe to his first meeting. Joe discusses the slow process of recovery very candidly, as he does his four marriages and four children. It was also in 1973 that Joe left the east coast and came to California to pursue a career in film scoring.
Shortly after arriving in town Joe got a meeting at Universal, set up by John Cacavas, with the music department head, the late Harry Garfield. Harry told John, “Joe makes records. He plays the piano. he is not a composer.” Welcome to Hollywood!
Undismayed, Joe sought an opportunity to attend the legendary Earle Hagen's film scoring workshop, taught in his home to small groups of industry pros. Normally the tuition was a dozen Titleist golf balls but Earle waived the “fee” in Joe's case. As Earle said, “Joe, you bought me my first Rolls Royce,” through the royalties earned by the appearance of “Harlem Nocturne” as the “B” side of “Fly Me To The Moon.” On a personal note, it was during these class sessions where I first became acquainted with Joe.
Eventually, through producer Ken Johnson, whom Joe knew from “The Mike Douglas Show,” Joe got a shot a scoring for television. The series for which Joe wrote dramatic underscore included “The Bionic Woman” and “The Incredible Hulk.” Again, Joe thrived in yet another facet of the music business, despite not getting a real opportunity until the age of fifty. We don't have the space in this review to mention Frank Sinatra, Anthony Newley, Shirley MacLaine, Quincy Jones, Dave Brubeck, “Name That Tune,” teaching at USC, etc. Enough careers for several musicians, yet all accomplished by one man.
This is not merely another “And then I wrote . . .” glossy show business book. The “counterpoint” of personal problems and subsequent recovery runs throughout. Joe candidly talks about the difficulty of slowly learning to be comfortable inside his own skin. He credits his AA sponsor of 27 years and his marriage to his fourth wife Alice as being primal positive forces in his later life. Both helped lead him to the realization that the road to the goal is more important than the goal itself.
While parts “Counterpoint” are brutally honest and revealing, it is certainly not without humor. Included are many often hilarious anecdotes, frequently having to do with the absurdities of the music business. Having been an active participant in the business of music at the highest levels for more than fifty years, Joe certainly qualifies as an expert observer of the musical scene. Yet, if Joe had confined himself to music business anecdotes we wouldn't get a true picture of the man. Thanks to his commitment to rigorous honesty, we do.
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A listing of some of the numerous awards and honors Bruce Babcock has received.
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