[Dixielandjazz] Hawaiian style

[Fred Spencer]

Dear Anton and Bill,
This is from a book review I wrote of "Hula Blues" (1948).

"Toward the end of 1933 a young man named Tommy Harrison came to Johnny 
Noble with the music and lyrics of a song that was destined to stir the 
imagination of people from Maine to California." Noble rearranged the tune 
with Harrison and a lyricist, Bill Cogswell, and it became My Little Grass 
Shack In Kealakekua, Hawaii.* A Los Angeles recording made in December, 1933
by Noble's friend, Ted Fio Rito, introduced the number to mainland America. 
This was followed by a more swinging version by Ben Pollack, whose band 
contained the "later-to-become" Bob Crosby sidemen CharlieSpivak, Matty 
Matlock, Edddie Miller, Nappy Lamare, and Ray Bauduc. Ben Pollack's apparent 
interest in Hawaiian music may have accounted for the choice of his theme, 
Song of the Islands. This composition by Charles Edward King, another 
Hawaiian composer and band leader, was recorded by Henry "Hot Lips" Levine's 
Dixieland Octet (the Barefoot Philharmonic) on the NBC 1940's radio show,The 
Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. Other recordings were made by 
Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and The Three Keys, trio led by Bon Bon 
(George Tunnell), Jan Savitt's popular vocalist. In Brian Rust's Jazz 
Records .1897-1942 (ed.4. Arlington House, 1978), there are two entries for 
Song of the Islands in the index, separated by Song of the Plow. I think 
that the second Song of The Islands should be Song of the Sands, played by 
Jimmie Noone and his Club Ambassadors Orchestra. This misprint should 
perhaps be blamed on the proof reader or publisher not Rust, whose 
impeccable scholarship is legendary.
*Captain James Cook, the English explorer, was killed by natives at 
Kealakekua Bay in 1779, one year after he discovered the Hawaiian Islands.
Cook named them the Sandwich Islands in honor of John Montagu, 4th Earl 
ofSandwich, who was "a corrupt politician, remembered as the inventor of 
sandwiches, to eat at the gaming- table" (Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 
1978).

One line from "Wee Deoch-An-Doris", written and made famous by Sir Harry 
Lauder, is--"If ye can say it's a braw, bricht, moonlicht, nicht..." Cheers.
Fred

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anton Crouch" <anton.crouch at optusnet.com.au>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 11:34 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Hawaiian style


>
> Hello all
>
> Bill Haesler wrote:
> <I have that "Clownin' The Frets" [Farewell Blues] by the Los Angeles
> Biltmore Hotel Trio on 'Honolulu to Hollywood' (The Old Masters CD mb 123)
> which listmate Anton Crouch talked me into buying some years ago.<
>
> Yes, guilty as charged   :-)
>
> And why not? Nice transfers of the Andy Aiona Novelty Four sides (listed
> in
> Rust) and the ultimate in cross cultural jazz, from Sol Bright.
>
> I refer to "A Wee Doech an Doris" - a song about Scotch, sung in Gaelic,
> Hawaiian style! I wonder if Don Ingle's dad and the Spike Jones outfit
> knew
> this record. They would have loved it.
>
> Aloha
> Anton
>
>
>
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