Hoagy Carmichael

You speak of other people's songs, though, and learning other people's songs.

You had to learn Stardust for the reissue, which is the Hoagy Carmichael.

Beautiful, beautiful song.

And it's your favourite song of all time, perhaps?

Oh, yeah.

You know, I probably maybe might not have said that five years ago or ten years ago, but I became aware of it quite a while ago, but then just became more aware of it and started listening to different versions.

I remember having conversations with Tim Rogers, who's a friend of mine, about his favourite song and he loves this particular version that Hoagy Carmichael does, which is very early on.

It's just Hoagy on piano.

To a blossom-covered lane.

Cassandra Wilson circa 1986, early in her recording career, on a tune she'd revisit, Hoagy Carmichael's Skylark.

[singing] Haven't you...

She was then in her early 30s, showing all the markers of her mature style: the love of a drowsy tempo, a dusky tone quality, the dramatic lows her contralto voice could reach, and a sultry persona.

You know, one of the great directors of that time.

Hoagy Carmichael, a great jazz pianist, right? He's in here, yeah.

In this.

And Walter Brennan.

He's, he has a deep, deep understanding of the folk and blues tradition, and he's able to have a dialogue with that music without, um, without, uh, it seeming affected.

You know? He can write a song that sounds like Hoagy Carmichael from the '40s and not make it seem ridiculous.

He somehow makes it seem alive and new.

He can write a song called, um, Stompin' Tom or S- Stompin' tomconnors.com.

I think one of the greatest songs ever written in the American music.

Music canon and probably one of the most well-recorded, too, Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael.

And I wanted to do a couple of ballads on the album.

I really love playing ballads.

Which one is this?

It's Hoagland Carmichael singing Somebody Stole My Horse and Wagon.

Somebody stole my heart's little wagon.

My heart's heavy, my feet are dragging.

I'm walking down the trail I used to ride.

So I'm walking down the trail I used to ride.

Did you say that was Hoagland Carmichael?

Yeah.

And we heard the Benny Green feature again.

Really moving version of Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust, wasn't it? It was not just a slow ballad, but gave some real flavor and forward-moving motion.

Still treating it at the Slow Temple with the great American songbook feel for Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust.

The rhythm section was John Lewis at the piano, Charles Mingus on bass, and Art Taylor on drums.

And first off, we heard what was the major presentation of these sessions, which were just some blowing ensembles for the four trombones to work things out together and then take some long solos.

So, yeah, no, it was very complex.

And on this album, you're rewriting Hoagy Carmichael, you know, Duke Ellington, Gershwin, you know, Berlin.

I mean, my God.

These are iconic names in music, and they're not iconic because they wrote cigarette commercials.

And the next session that we will end the program with was from about a month later, well, several months later, in October, and it was called Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars.

So we're going to finish up this first session with a tune by Louis called Someday You'll Be Sorry, then another blues performance, the 5050 Blues, and then another old chestnut from the Louis Armstrong discography, Hoagy Carmichael's Rockin' Chair, which here is done as a duet, again, between Teegarden and Armstrong.

So that's our set, Someday You'll Be Sorry, the 5050 Blues, and Old Rockin' Chair.

¦

Which one is this?

It's Hoagland Carmichael singing Somebody Stole My Horse and Wagon.

Somebody stole my heart in a wagon.

My heart's heavy, my feet are dragging.

trail I used

to ride.

Did you say that was Hoagland Carmichael?

Yeah.