[Dixielandjazz] Hawaiian style

[dingle at baldwin-net.com]

Fred Spencer wrote:

> 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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>
>
>
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>
Och, ..."it's alright ye ken!"  Next thing we'll be "Roaming in the 
Gloaming" looking for an open pub that serves decent usque baugh!
Don Ingle -- though the old Scots spelled it Aingael.
To your Aloha I add Slainte.