[Dixielandjazz] RE: Verses

[Hal Vickery]

I found an excerpt from the book "Stardust Melodies" that purports to refute
the Redman story on the Random House web site.  The book is a "biography of
twelve of America's most popular songs" and was written by Will Friedwald.
Here are the relevant paragraphs:

 

"It has also been widely reported (by Alec Wilder, among others) that the
verse was added only later, at about the time Mitchell Parish wrote his
famous lyric. But the verse is there on the 1927 premiere recording by Hoagy
and pals. Just listen: the disc opens with a guitar intro (the instrument
was just beginning to be widely heard in the new age of electrical
recordings; banjos had dominated in the acoustic era) before the trumpet
takes the now famous verse, which can be heard on virtually all the early
'jazz' versions of the tune. The apocryphal story of the verse being written
later on was to work against Carmichael: for years a rumor persisted that
the verse wasn't written by Carmichael at all but by Don Redman, a composer
and arranger who worked for Carmichael's publisher, Irving Mills. As with
the persistent gossip that Fats Waller actually wrote some of Jimmy McHugh's
songs, there's nothing to back it up.

 

"Although Redman didn't write the verse, that pioneering jazz orchestrator
(also saxophonist, bandleader, and novelty vocalist) does play an important
role in the career of "Star Dust." Redman, who had spent the earlier part of
the twenties as musical director for Fletcher Henderson's band, was by then
the leader of McKinney's Cotton Pickers. The McKinney's band, based in
Detroit, seems to have been the first to record "Star Dust" after
Carmichael, working under the pseudonym of "The Chocolate Dandies." (This
was in October of 1928, nearly a year after Carmichael had recorded the
entire song, verse included.) Carmichael brought his own chart to Detroit
and met with Redman, who, according to Sudhalter, "filled it out and
corrected the voicings," although he left it in Carmichael's key, D major.

 

"Apart from the evidence of the verse existing on the original Gennett
recording, there's the evidence of one's own ears. A single hearing of its
melody, which is even more meandering and ruminative than the chorus's,
should be enough to convince anyone that the verse is by the same hand that
penned the central chorus melody. The chord changes in the verse are
slightly more conventional than they are in the chorus, as we'll see, but
the melody of the verse is either the work of the same mind-it uses the same
kind of range and intervals-or the mind of a darn clever forger."

 

The really relevant portion seems to be the parenthetical statement in the
second paragraph.

 

Hal Vickery

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Bill Haesler [mailto:bhaesler at bigpond.net.au]

Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 10:23 PM

To: charlie at easysounds.com; Hal Vickery

Cc: dixieland jazz mail list

Subject: Re: Verses

 

Dear Charlie,

Regarding your comment: >I believe it was in James Lincoln Collier's "Louis
Armstrong" that I read about Hoagy and some musicians being at a recording
session and Redmond commenting that the song, allegedly theretofore without
a verse, needed one; and that he commenced to write the one credited to
Carmichael. < Thank you for that lead.

James Lincoln Collier does indeed say, in brackets -"It should be noted that
the wonderful verse,which so beautifully reflects the main theme, was not
written by Carmichael, but by Don Redman." (Page 246 Pan Books paperback
edition. 1985.) No mention though of where his information came from.

Your story may point to an early origin, perhaps picked up by Mr Collier.

Kind regards,

Bill.