[Dixielandjazz] Hoagy Carmichael 1930 Lazy River-liver

[Marvin Ipswich]

Hi, Jack,
I have heard that story about the title. As it turns out, Arodin was not
black nor a Creole - his heritage was French. The original family name was,
I believe, Arnondin. The idea of his being Creole was due to Wingy Mannone
calling him "that little Creole boy" on a record date. I seem to recall
reading that the family's history didn't go all that far back in Louisiana;
perhaps to Sidney's grandparents who emigrated from France.

But Sidney was certainly not a racist. He was good friends with trumpeter
Lee Collins and they used to hang out together after their gigs. Their
friendship is the reason Collins suggested Arodin play on the Dave Jones-Lee
Collins Astoria Hot Eight session for Victor. I tend to feel that session
represented some of Sidney's best playing on records.

It's very clear there has been, and likely always will be an attitude of
superiority amongst the Creoles in New Orleans. Just think of Jelly Roll!
Plessy vs Ferguson caused huge changes, but, IMO, one of the good things
that came out of it was so many Creole musicians "jumping the line" and
working with Black musicians - playing that "head music" as Bunk put it.

Cheers,
Marvin



On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 8:47 PM, Jack Mitchell <fjmitch at westnet.com.au>wrote:

> 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
>
>