Frederick Hodges - Turn on the Heat

Dancing Tambourine At the beginning of the 20th century, New York-born composer William C. Polla (1876-1939) published piano rags and salon music under the name W.C. Powell and ran a Chicago-based publishing house under his own name. He also headed the W.C. Polla Orchestra, which recorded a few sides for Columbia in the mid-1920s. Although his classic "Dancing Tambourine" is one of the most delightful piano novelties ever published, it represents a revolutionary departure from the genre. By the late 1920s, the evolved canon stated that the piano novelty should be written in the key of D major and have a melody that is studded with triplets and voiced in intervals of fourths. Polla bowed to tradition by inserting a triplet in the third measure of the first phrase of the piece, but in other respects, he broke all the rules. The result is an iconoclastic masterpiece that, when new, attracted such pianistic talents as Pauline Alpert (Victor 21251 and Duo-Art piano roll 713430) and Rube Bloom (Okeh 40901). Continued entyhusi9asm for the piece was ensured with it's publication as a song with words by Phil Ponce. It was also recorded in orchestral transcription by such dance bands as Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (Victor 20972) and Sam Lanin and his Famous Players (Okeh 40874). Moonlight on the Ganges Since the classical era, Westerners have been captivated by the mysterious allure of the Orient. The "orientalizing" era of Classical Greece was on manifestation of this attraction; the "oriental fox trot" of the early twentieth century is another. "Moonlight on the Ganges" was not the first and certainly not the last song of this genre, but it certainly was the most successful example of it's kind in 1926. Deep Night "Deep Night" reveals the more melancholy, pensive, and passionate side of the popular music of the 1920s. The song's lyricist was none other than popular band leader Rudy Vallée, who featured the song on his Fleishmann's Yeast NBC Radio Show in 1929 and recorded it for Victor (21868) as well. The composer, Charlie Henderson (1907-1970), was a Harvard graduate who studied composition with Walter Piston. He had a successful career as a pianist, arranger, composer, and musical director for radio, film, stage, and television. Up in the Clouds Thinking of You Upon it's opening on 10 October 1927 at the 44th Street Theater, Broadway was entranced with the 5 O'Clock Girl, starring Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton. Running for 280 performances, it was by all measurements a smash hit. The book was written by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson. The song writing team of Bert Kalmar (1884-1947) and Harry Ruby (1895-1974) filled the score with tuneful, up-lifting, and subtly "gershwinesque" songs, of which "Up in the Clouds" is a representative example. "Thinking of You" was the great ballad number from the show. Flapperette Few novelty piano pieces ever matched "Flapperette" for sweetness and charm. The classic canons of the form are observed but without descending to mere formula. Native New Yorker Jesse Greer (1896-1970) was largely known as a composer of popular songs, but he also wrote songs for such Broadway productions as Earl Carroll's Vanities (the 1926 and 1928 editions), Say When!, and Lovely Lady. In the late 1920s, Greer was especially active writing songs hits for such MGM talking pictures as the Hollywood Revue of 1929 and Marianne (1929). Meditation Lee Sims (1898-1966) was a gifted pianist, arranger, and composer whose heyday was the 1920s. He also composed the scores to a number of Hollywood movies such as Dinner at the Ritz (new World, 1927), starring David Niven. Though strictly a solo piano composition, "Meditation" contains the stylistic innovations that distinguished the interpretive approach Sims took to popular songs. Sims employed a successful and faultlessly executed juxtaposition of opposites, e.g., slow and fast; sweet and hot; rubato and a tempo, etc. "Mediation" also reveals Sims' masterful handling of advanced chord structures and rhythmic patterns, influenced by the music of Debussy, ravel, and Stravinsky. Zwei dunkle Augen, zwei Eier i'm Glass! After arriving in Hollywood in the 1930s, German-born composer Friedrich Hollaender (1896-1976), who Americanized his name to Frederick Hollander, composed the scores for such Paramount films as The Jungle Princess (1936), True Confession (1937), and the Columbia surrealist classic, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953). Hollaender's greatest international success, however, was the 1930 UFA film The Blue Angel, starring Marlene Dietrich, who immortalized the film's hit song, "Falling in Love Again." Prior to this, Hollaender had already enjoyed a stellar career writing songs for the German cinema, the Berlin musical stage, and for cabaret shows. At the age of 18, he had been appointed the associate conductor at the Prague Opera House. The haunting tango "Zwei dunkle Augen, zwei Eier i'm Glass!," for which Hollaender also wrote the lyrics, and whose enigmatic title translates into English as "Two dark eyes, two eggs in the glass!," reveals a satirical and refreshingly self-mocking side of Berlin cabaret life. Innocent Ingenue Baby George Gershwin's (19898-1937) 1922 song, "Innocent Ingenue Baby," was introduced by John Merkyl and ensemble in Our Nell, which opened at the Nora Bayes Theatre in New York on 4 December 1922, closing after only 40 performances. In 1923, the song was reused in the Empire Theatre, London, production The Rainbow after being renamed "Innocent Lonesome Blue Baby" and given a new set of lyrics by Clifford Grey. Rooster Rag To radio audiences in the 1930s, Muriel Pollock (1895-1971) was the staff organist of the NBC radio network. She was also an accomplished pianist and duo pianist in partnership with Constance Mering. Together, they recorded piano rolls for Duo-Art and gramophone records for Columbia. In the 1930s, Pollock teamed up won the radio with pianist and composer Vee Lawnhurst to form an entertaining duo piano team. In 1921, she joined the Aeolian company as editor, arranger, and recording artist of player piano rolls for the prestigious Duo-Art label. She was also an accomplished songwriter. In addition to composing a number of independent songs, she contributed songs to John Murray Anderson's Jack and Jill in 1923 and, in 1929, wrote the score for the Schubert revue Pleasure Bound at the Majestic Theatre. The harmonic intricacy and balance of "Rooster Rag" gives ample evidence of Pollock's extensive classical training. Though rare today, this rag was not entirely unknown in it's day, having been recorded by Frank Banta for Duo-Art (1549). Dancing the Devil Away "Dancing the Devil Away" was first introduced on 22 March 1927 at the New Amsterdam Theatre by Mary Eaton in the Broadway show Lucky, whose plot centered on the life of a female pearl diver named, surprisingly enough, "Lucky." The show closed after only 671 performances. The best song from the show, however, was given a new chance for success three years later in the 1930 Radio picture The Cuckoos, starring the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey. Looking for a Boy George Gershwin's show Tip Toes opened on 28 December 1925 at the Liberty Theatre and ran for a healthy 194 performances. The star, Queenie Smith, introduced "Looking for a Boy" to the sparkling accompaniment of Victor Arden and Phil Ohman, who recorded the song with their Orchestra in the same year (Brunswick 3035). Idawanna In the rush to fill the popular demand for piano novelties, the San Francisco-based publisher Sherman, Clay & Company published a suite of modernistic and tuneful pieces under the striking title, Synco-Thots, from which "Idawanna" has been drawn. The contrast between the "European," classical, genteel, sparkling triplets of the first section and the "African," jazzy, bass-driven, but tamed blues of the last section strongly appealed to music-lovers of the day. This combination of these two disparate musical elements formed the