[Dixielandjazz] Hoagy Carmichael 1930 Lazy River-liver

[Jack Mitchell]

>I have a great fondness for this, the first recording of Lazy River, by
> Hoagy and his band of NY studio musicians. It's interesting he gave the
> first chorus to clarinetist Jimmy Dorsey, since the tune was written
> (melody) by New Orleans clarinetist Sidney Arodin (who sadly never
> recorded
> it).

According to Drew Page in his book DREW'S BLUES Arodin (down in Oklahoma 
with Teagarden) had been playing his tune as a clarinet solo, which he 
called LAZY NIGGER. "Simply and affectionally" according to Page.   Not very 
nice, but easy enough to get away
with back then. What seems surprising is that it has been said on more than
one occasion that Arodin was coloured, passing for white. If his skin colour
was pale enough for him to "pass" obviously he was more white than black,
but in those days, maybe still today, anyone with any Negro ancestory was
regarded as coloured.

It seems that the "creoles of colour" looked down on the true blacks, which
might account for Arodin's unfortunate title. In 1928 when police raided a
flat in Melbourne where white Australian girls were partying with members of
Sonny Clay's Plantation Orchestra, one young lady, when interviewed, said
that her gentleman friend was a Creole, not a Negro. Not necessarily meaning
that he was prejudiced, probably just spinning a line.

When I was in New Orleans in 1976 the young white lady showing us around
really bristled when I mentioned creoles-of-colour. She very aggressively
told me that there was no such thing - that creoles were the first offspring
of white settlers. End of story. That of course was indeed the original
meaning, but it's long since become the norm to refer to the issue of mixed
race unions as creoles.

Anyway, Hoagy changed the song title to LAZY RIVER, wrote the words and led
to its great success. Page said that a newspaper report when Arodin died 
said he got only eight hundred dollars of all the money the song made, which 
is a bit hard to believe when Arodin was credited on all the record labels, 
and presumably the sheet music.

Best wishes
Jack Mitchell