11 I'm Gonna Do It If I Like It: The Jazz Age
This chapter starts with a passage about George Gershwin but then all about musical comedies in 1924. The author lists a number of (still) popular songs but are any of these jazz? This book is all over the place. Then when we get to the UK, it's all about Noel Coward. Certainly not jazz. And then we only get a passing mention for the Paul Whitman Orchestra who are really in the jazz bracket (see later). Then after pages and pages about artists of whom I had never heard (are any jazz?) all of a sudden we hear about a truly great jazz musician. Bix Beiderbecke was a trumpeter who played with Paul Whiteman and we hear about his background and playing with The Wolverines. There are few recorded solos with Paul Whiteman, but I have an EP of his somewhere. On YouTube he plays on The Wolverine's Riverboat Shuffle. He died at 28. Unfortunately we are back to musicals at the end.
12 In A Silent Way: Race Records
This is all about The Blues. An introduction is followed by a passage about all those black female singers. The part about Bessie Smith is the most interesting. There are recordings made by John Hammond in 1933 where she is backed by a band that included Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden.
13 Invisible Airways Crackle With Life: Radio
An interesting section about the early days of American Radio. From primarily playing classical at first, it was advertising that became the major source of revenue. And this brought about the songs of the day. And so their networks grew, by 1931 NBC had 67 affiliated radio stations and CBS had 95. We get a run down of who was played. In the UK, it was the BBC who was the single license holder. Led by Calvinist Lord Rieth, the music was definitely "Light". But later in this chapter, I found it quite strange for the author to introduce Vaughn De Leath as "the first lady of radio .... she deserves a book all to herself". Never heard of her.
14 Trying hard to recreate what had yet to be created: Hillbilly
Before Nashville, there were instrumentalists playing only fiddle and acoustic guitar, "millions of people right across North America knew country music intimately and instinctively". Now I had heard of thirty one year old Ralph Peer (although forgotten the name) the New York executive for Okey Records who toured America recording "every conceivable immigrant community". In 1923 in Atlanta, Georgia, he happened to record Fiddlin' John Carson's The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane. Back home in New York it was not expected to sell but it did. Apparently it was Ralph who came up with Hillbilly.
However, the author then explains "it had become almost impossible to be a country singer in 1923. You had to be able to sight read to be able to enter The American Federation of Musicians and every venue could only use union musicians. But when he talks about "real" country and "hard" country, I just don't want to know. And a section all about Jimmie Rogers is quite boring, as well as all the name checked country artists such as Gene Autry.
15 Black and Tan Fantasy: Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club
(I get a little frustrated when the book alternates between a genre and an artist and back again). As well as Louis Armstrong (mentioned above) I have also seen Duke Ellington and his Orchestra live at the Hammersmith Odeon where he performed with Ella Fitzgerald on 12th February 1967. Fortunately I still have the programme.
The author gives us a potted history of The Duke, playing piano in a six piece band at The Kentucky Club on Broadway. It was his compositions that stood him apart such as Black and tan Fantasy. He toured Europe as well as America. "No one had comparable skill for blending jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, even folk and classical".
16 Learn to Croon: Rudy Vallee and The Dawn of the Electric Era
"Rudy Vallee and the crooners who followed him were disruptive and corruptive." They were the first male pin ups. And it was all down to the invention of the carbon microphone. One of the biggest hits of 1927 was Gene Austin's My Blue Heaven. He was the first million selling crooner. He recorded As Time Goes By in 1931, way before Casablanca. It was a shame that the BBC hated crooners, their "nightly wailing".
17 All Hollywood and All Heaven: Talking Pictures
Oh no! We hear about Al Jolson (not again) with an advertisement for The Singing Fool at The Lounge Cinema, Margate. Fortunately we are at the birth of musicals for the cinema. Perhaps this chapter should be called "Broadway in LA" as the New York music industry moved the west coast. We hear about the early days of putting songs on the big screen, learning how to film them and how to move the camera. This chapter ends with Rogers and Hart off to London for the opening of their hit musical Evergreen that includes the big hit Dancing on the Ceiling. But then in 1929 musicals were struggling.
18 Ten Cents A Dance: The Great Depression
"As the 1930's began, a quarter of Americans were out of work". However, Yip Harburg who had lost his business, found a new vocation. He wrote the hit song Brother, can you spare a dime". We hear of other successes such as Hoagy Carmichael. But just too much information here.
19 Nothing But Blue Skies: Bing Crosby
Here we go again with a section about an artist. But Bing Crosby is a legend, at first singing with Paul Whiteman's band in 1930's The King of Jazz. There is a great clip of Bing as one of the three Rhythm Boys. At twenty four he sang in the film Showboat, songs such as Ol' Man River and Make Believe. In the 1940's Bing was huge on the radio and in films. (He was in three of the highest grossing movies of 1946). He had thirty seven number ones between 1931 and 1948. Incredible.
We hear about all his radio shows and then those movies with Bob Hope. An Oscar for Going My Way and dancing with Fred Astaire in Holliday Inn. The big song White Christmas that also became the title of it's own movie. But then the author says "Can someone who meant so much to so many people for so long have nothing to say to us now". Who is this person. Bing has lots to say to us now, his films and songs are played every Christmas. Who else can say that. His legacy is assured.
20 Industrial Light and Magic: The Movie Musical
Why on earth would the author pinch the creation of George Lucas for the title. Bob Stanley suggests "the movie musical made the stage seem obsolete". Why does he say these things. Musicals have always packed out theatres. However, he goes on to say that even those musicals that were not a success on Broadway were made into films. Busby Berkeley was the star choreographer. But instead of some detail, we are off to the UK where there was nothing like a Hollywood musical. Instead there was Gracie Fields with her huge hit from 1931 Sally in our Alley. But the biggest star in the UK over six consecutive years? None other but George Formby. (What taste our ancestors had). He starred in eighteen films from 1934 to 1946.
Back in Hollywood, it was Leo Robin (of whom I had never heard) who wrote the 1938 Oscar winning Thanks for the Memory, for Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in The Big Broadcast of 1938. It became Bob's signature tune. Similarly did we know of composer Harry Warren? One of the greatest songwriters ever. The musical 42nd Street is full of his songs. Warren was nominated for the Oscar for best original song on eleven occasions and won three times. When he went to collect the Oscar for Lullaby of Broadway, he couldnt get in as nobody recognised him. Other songs included I Only Have Eyes For You and Dean Martin's That's Amore. Leo Robin was born on Christmas Day "with the Capricornian fear of public appearances". He lived until he was 88.
A last word here about Pal Joey from Rogers and Hart. At first it was a failure and only later did it become revered. With songs such as I Could Write a Book and Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered. That included the line "I'll worship the trousers that cling to him".
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