[Dixielandjazz] Stardust

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Which LUCKY are these latest mails about?  


As the son of English-speaking Caribbeans he was given an extravagant name, LUCKEYETH, and this was shortened to LUCKEY 


His JUNK MAN RAG has at least two excellent performances by others, to wit Willie the Lion Smith, and Glover Compton, the latter on a recording funded by Birchall Smith and available on his WINDIN' BALL label 

Wally Rose is on the other hand stiff and nearly mechanical.


The style of the music is virtuoso, as Rudi Blesh reports in THEY ALL PLAYED RAGTIME the problem when Luckey and Eubie Blake were composing for sheet music publishers is that they were producing unplayable scores. 

Of course this raises questions of whether Hoagy accessed Luckey's music on paper, or in relation to other and slightly older ragtime pianists from whom he might have learned.  I had never before heard the notion that Luckey composed and sold the basis of STARDUST to Hoagy, and I have no evidence of any contact between them. 


I just think it interesting to consider the musical evidence -- good to foster listening -- and come to no conclusion on the question. 
I don't want to rewrite history, I just want to be sure that what is written is actually history. 


I gather there is more on tape of Luckey, such as has been sampled on YouTube, and I did get a little bothered when in the past I mentioned the very great stride pianist Donald Lambert (see YouTube) and people assumed I was talking about the singer Dave Lambert, about whom Jon Hendricks could certainly pronounce with some authority. It is of course possible that Hoagy wrote STARDUST with some inspiration from Luckey Roberts. 


There is a HOMAGE TO DEBUSSY by Mel Powell which sounds to me very like Willie the Lion Smith, and there's also an extended performance of Hoagy's COSMICS by Frank Melrose, and there is no reason to suppose that Hoagy was influenced by no more than IN A MIST... I'm sure he was privileged to hear a great deal of music which would surprise people with access to only the limited amount of music actually recorded in the 1920s.


Robert R. Calder




>________________________________
> From: Lew Green <lewhorn at aol.com>
>
>As much as you all try to rewrite history there is nothing to prove that Stardust is not Hoagy's tune. Everybody copies everybody, that's what makes music so great. I hear you and am inspired, so I write something. You hear me and you don't....pity me!
>To start another conversation, Ferde Grofe wrote the theme movement (as an arrangement) for Rhapsody In Blue. He thought it needed soemthing that was lacking and when he was hired to do the arrangement he added that. I have his words on tape. Nuf said! 
>Anybody have Lucky on tape talking about Stardust?
> 
>Lew Green
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