[Dixielandjazz] FW:"Star Dust"

Sat Apr 23 16:08:25 PDT 2005

Thanks, Russ, your version was quite nice albeit short - you and Mark make a
good duo. Maybe one day I'll hear your extended version. However, I still
prefer the versions I've mentioned. Let me add one other favorite to the
list - Fats Waller's. Are you familiar with it? If not, I'll send you an mp3
copy.

Stan
Stan Brager

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Russ Guarino" <russg at redshift.com>
To: "Stan Brager" <sbrager at socal.rr.com>
Cc: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>; "dixieland jazz mail list"
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] FW:"Star Dust"

> If you are interested, go to my web site and listen to my duo.  I start
with
> Stardust, and it is the best recording I've ever heard. [ Why be
modest? ].
>
> www.classicswingband.com
>
> Mark Allen Jones and I play it.
>
> Russ Guarino
>
> Stan Brager wrote:
>
> > Thanks for posting this article, Bill and a belated "Happy Birthday".
> >
> > My favorite versions of "Star Dust" or "Stardust" are by Lionel Hampton
> > (recorded at a Just Jazz concert in 1947 with a great contingent of all
> > stars including Willie Smith, Barney Kessel, Slam Stewart, Charlie
Shavers,
> > Tommy Todd, Corky Corcoran, and Lee Young) and Ben Webster (2 versions -
one
> > recorded with the Johnny Otis band and the other with Duke Ellington at
> > Fargo, North Dakota).
> >
> > When I first played the Hampton version on KLON, someone called shortly
> > after it ended and trashed me for playing it saying that it was the
worst
> > version he'd ever heard. About 20 minutes later, another person called
and
> > said that it was the first time in many years that he's been so
transfixed
> > by a piece of music and wanted to know how to buy the recording.
> >
> > I guess that's why jazz is considered an art form.
> >
> > Stan
> > Stan Brager
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
> > To: "dixieland jazz mail list" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> > Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 2:40 AM
> > Subject: [Dixielandjazz] FW:"Star Dust"
> >
> > > Dear friends,
> > > This interesting article courtesy of our Australian Dance Bands list.
> > > Kind regards,
> > > Bill.
> > > ______________________________________________________
> > > Maybe If It Had Some Lyrics: A Century of 'Star Dust'
> > >
> > > by David Hinckley
> > > New York Daily News, April 22, 2005
> > >
> > > Like all smart music publishers who honed their chops in Tin Pan
> > > Alley, Irving Mills knew no song would be a hit if you didn't work
> > > it.
> > >
> > > In 1931, then, he decided to dust off a composition that had already
> > > done pretty well for Mills Music, an instrumental called "Star Dust"
> > > by a kid from Indiana.
> > >
> > > Maybe if it had some lyrics, Mills figured, he could promote it into
> > > a new round of recordings. The composer, one Hoagy Carmichael, had
> > > recently moved to New York. Carmichael wasn't a lyricist, though, so
> > > his arrival didn't bring the song any closer to a set of words.
> > >
> > > Mills first tried to write "Star Dust" lyrics himself. When they all
> > > turned out lousy, he assigned the project to one of his staff
> > > writers, Mitchell Parish.
> > >
> > > Parish later remembered that he took on this job only reluctantly --
> > > but in fact, writing lyrics "cold" like this was more or less his
> > > specialty. Over the years he added lyrics to hundreds of melodies,
> > > from "Sophisticated Lady" to "Deep Purple" and "Sleigh Ride."
> > >
> > > As an instrumental, "Star Dust" had been performed two ways. The
> > > Chocolate Dandies and Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra had done it as
> > > a "hot" tune, while Isham Jones slowed it down to waltz tempo.
> > >
> > > For his part, Parish heard it as a sad song.
> > >
> > > An unbearably sad song.
> > >
> > > And he wrote lyrics to match:
> > >
> > > Sometimes I wonder why I spend
> > > The lonely nights
> > > Dreaming of a song.
> > > The melody haunts my reverie
> > > And I am once again with you
> > > When our love was new, and each kiss an inspiration.
> > > But that was long ago, and now my consolation
> > > Is in the stardust of a song...
> > >
> > > Critics thought the whole thing was brilliant, 26 seamless lines
> > > rich
> > > in metaphor and yet beautifully direct in their sense of aching
> > > loss -
> > > - crushing sorrow expressed so exquisitely it almost makes you want
> > > to go on living:
> > >
> > > Though I dream in vain, in my heart you will remain
> > > My stardust melody
> > > The memory of love's refrain.
> > >
> > > There is some evidence Mills didn't share that initial enthusiasm.
> > > He
> > > waited two years, until 1933, to send the lyrics to the Library of
> > > Congress for copyright.
> > >
> > > He did, however, immediately put them into circulation.
> > >
> > > Within days the song, with its new words, was being performed on a
> > > remote broadcast from the Cotton Club by Mills' Blue Rhythm Band,
> > > fronted by Irving's brother Sidney Mills. The Blue Rhythm Band was
> > > also the first to record it, in May 1931, with Chick Bullock on
> > > vocals.
> > >
> > > By August, Bing Crosby had chimed in, and soon it had become a
> > > favorite with sweet bands. Eddy Duchin played it as a theme during
> > > his long run at the Central Park Casino. In November, three "hot"
> > > versions recorded by Louis Armstrong gave "Star Dust" a new
> > > dimension: hip glamour.
> > >
> > > Daily Mirror columnist Walter Winchell, whose prestige and reach
> > > made
> > > him one of the most influential music critics of the day,
> > > declared "Star Dust" a song against which all other popular songs
> > > would be measured.
> > >
> > > And indeed, far from fading away in the manner of most popular
> > > music, "Star Dust" just kept twinkling.
> > >
> > > In 1936, RCA had two of its most popular artists, Benny Goodman and
> > > Tommy Dorsey, record versions it put back-to-back on a 78 rpm
> > > single.
> > > Goodman's was instrumental, Dorsey's vocal, and RCA reported it was
> > > the company's best-selling record of both 1936 and 1938.
> > >
> > > Interestingly, the most popular version, recorded in the late '30s,
> > > was an instrumental, by Artie Shaw. To this day, many
> > > traditionalists
> > > consider Shaw's to be the definitive "Star Dust."
> > >
> > > In fact, many traditionalists respect anyone who can do a good "Star
> > > Dust," for the song was never easy for anyone to record. Carmichael
> > > himself had tried to record it at a 1930 session where his musicians
> > > included Bix Beiderbecke, and he finally gave it up, saying he and
> > > the band could never find a comfortable enough groove.
> > >
> > > But that didn't stop the flow, and by the late '30s "Star Dust" had
> > > itself a reputation. Orson Welles' famous "War of the World" radio
> > > broadcast on Halloween night 1938, a fiction written as if a series
> > > of real news bulletins were interrupting real programming, included
> > > a
> > > musical segment with a hotel remote of "Star Dust" by "Ramon
> > > Raquello's Orchestra."
> > >
> > > Soldiers landing in the Philippines during World War II were greeted
> > > by a native combo playing "Star Dust." The song became Glenn
> > > Miller's
> > > first V-Disc. Soon it had been translated into 36 languages.
> > >
> > > And Mitchell Parish grew to be a very old man, and still the world
> > > was playing his song.
> > >
> > > By the early 1990s, more than 1,200 versions of "Star Dust" had been
> > > recorded -- not counting Ramon Raquello's, but including Frank
> > > Sinatra's, Elke Sommer's, Lionel Hampton's, Wynton Marsalis' and
> > > Liberace's. Parish always said there was only one version he never
> > > liked much, Ringo Starr's.
> > >
> > > And by now an evening sky full of Broadway luminaries had mounted a
> > > Parish tribute show, brimming with the most famous of the hundreds
> > > of
> > > standards he had put words to over the many years. "Star Dust," of
> > > course, was the standout -- and that, of course, was what the show
> > > was titled, six decades after Parish put the words on paper.
> > > _____________________________________________________________
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Dixielandjazz mailing list
> > Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> > http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>