Special Hoagy Carmichael Q&A with Joe Lang (Part III)

Special Hoagy Carmichael Q&A with Joe Lang (Part III)

Happy belated birthday to the legendary composer Hoagy Carmichael, who if still alive, would’ve turned 123 this year on November 22nd!

In honor of the multitalented songwriter, we are wrapping up our chat with Joe Lang, who writes for the New Jersey Jazz Association.

JK: Tell us more about your interest in Hoagy Carmichael.

JL: He was my favorite songwriter. I became aware of him as a little kid because my dad used to sing around the house, and one of the songs he sang was “Stardust.” I was maybe four years old when I learned the words to “Stardust” and I used to go around and sing it to everyone and people thought what is this, a little kid singing about reverie?

Hoagy was the first person in the entertainment world I was aware of and over time he became a hero of mine. You know there’s an awful lot of great songwriters in American song—Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Ira Gershwin, Harlen Howard, and I love them all, but I love Hoagy more than anybody.

Somebody once asked me who my three favorite songwriters were and my answer kind of flustered a lot of people because I said Hoagy, Stephen Sondheim, and Thelonious Monk and they didn’t see the connection. But you know I’m not a musician I’m a fan, so I’m not technically able to talk about music but I’ve listened to enough that you pick a lot up. For me, though, music is a very emotional experience rather than a technical experience, so a lot of songs strike me a certain way. I always tell people my favorite female singer was June Christie, not because I think she was the best female singer but there was just something about her singing that struck me emotionally—the sound of her voice, the phrasing, the fact that she kind of sang flat some of the time, it was kind of intentional and just was the thing that I react to.

And of course, I love a lot of Hoagy’s songs and lyrics, and I sat next to Hoagy Carmichael at his 80th birthday tribute and that had to be one of the greatest thrills of my life—to meet Hoagy, well not only meet him, but there were several performers on the show that he was not familiar with that he was asking me about, so I was educating him in a way. And early in the show, I think it was the second song they played, Bob Crosby introduced one of the earliest songs that Hoagy wrote and recorded, and it was called “March of the Hoodlums,” and I knew Hoagy’s music well, but I just didn’t remember having heard that song. Then about halfway through the sang, Hoagy jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow and said, “You know I don’t remember a damn note of that thing—I’m not even sure I wrote it! And so, I go home, and I had an album with early Hoagy Carmichael material on it and sure enough that song was on it, and there was also a recoding of that same song by Duke Ellington, so it was not an unknown song in its day, although it’s not one of Hoagy’s songs that has continued on.

It was funny that one of the guys who was on the program at the birthday tribute was Dave Frishberg. Now I thought that Frishberg was a latter-day Carmichael but when Frishberg came out, Hoagy had no idea who he was. Now Frishberg is a wonderful songwriter—he has a lot of songs that are a little bit different; that don’t follow a formula, and Hoagy was the same way—I think that’s one of the things that appealed to me about him. It wasn’t like you’d hear a song by him, and you’d think oh that’s a Hoagy song. He wrote so many different styles of songs and all so well. And he continued writing into the fifties. He probably kept writing after.

JK: I’d like to switch gears a bit here to talk about your short review of Night Is Alive’s album My Ship.

You wrote that Willie Jones II is “among the premier drummers on the scene today and demonstrates on this album that he also shines as a leader who knows how to put together a superior band. You will dig sailing on My Ship.”

Now I am wondering—what is your favorite son on the album?

JL: You know I’d have to look at the album again because I review 10-12 albums a month and I listen to many more that I get in the mail all the time.

JK: There was “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “God Bless the Child,” “My Ship,” “Broadway,” “Taking a Chance on Love,” “Star Eyes,” “Wave,” “I Should Care” and “Christmas Time Is Here.”

JL: Hmmm but I would say the song “My Ship” was probably the one I liked best if I had to pick one.

Hoagy Carmichael Q&A with Joe Lang

Special Hoagy Carmichael Q&A with Joe Lang (Part II)

We’re back this week to continue the conversation with jazz journalist and Hoagy Carmichael aficionado Joe Lang.

JK: So, for those of us who are unfamiliar with Hoagy Carmichael—would you mind giving us a brief rundown of his career? How and when did he begin composing?

JL: Well, he did so many things. I mean he’s primarily known as s songwriter, but he also did a lot of recordings, mostly of his own songs, but sometimes of other people’s songs. He did a dozen or so movies; he always seemed to play the same character—himself, but yeah, he had charm.

When he was a kid, he played piano and he was from Bloomington, Indiana and his mother played piano, and I guess when he was in college, he just started writing songs and playing music. He was basically a jazz musician, and he was just absolutely blown away by Bix Beiderbecke. He became good friends with Bix, and Bix died when he was 29 years old from drinking himself to death, but yeah, he hung around with Bix a lot when he could.

He was very special. He went to school at the University of Indiana. He got a law degree, and then he moved down to Florida, where he was working in a law office when he walked by this open window and heard this song “Washboard Blues” being played, which was one of his songs. He didn’t even know that recording had been made, so when he heard it, he said, “Gee! I think I’m going to concentrate more on songwriting.” So, he moved from Florida up to New York and became a songwriter and, you know, went on from there.

When he recorded “Washboard Blues,” it was for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and the interesting thing about that was that when they were going to record it, Hoagy was going to sing it, but Paul Whiteman had Bing Crosby standing by in case they felt that Hoagy couldn’t do it, because it’s a very sophisticated song the way it’s written—it’s just not a normal song, it’s a wonderful song. But Hoagy nailed it, and they put the record out with Hoagy singing it. That was the record that really got him to realize that he had real potential as a professional songwriter. Interestingly enough the lyrics to that song were written by a guy who was a stonecutter somewhere in Indiana—I don’t know whether he sent the lyrics to Hoagy, if he was aa friend or if he ever wrote another lyric—but it’s a very fun lyric, it’s very kind of deep in its way.

Hoagy didn’t write many lyrics. He wrote a few lyrics but mostly he worked with other lyricists, most notably, Johnny Mercer. His most famous song is “Stardust,” which is one of the most recorded songs ever and when he wrote that, he actually wrote it as a midtempo instrumental, a bouncy little instrumental, but when Mitchell Parish added the lyrics, they made it a ballad. Most people think of “Stardust” as a romantic song but if you listen to the lyrics, it’s a very sad song. It’s about a love affair that went bad, as are many love songs.

Special Hoagy Carmichael Q&A with Joe Lang (Part I)

Special Hoagy Carmichael Q&A with Joe Lang (Part I)

Did you know that Hoagy Carmichael’s birthday is on November 22nd? That’s right, the famous Tin Pan Alley songwriter is a Sagittarius!

In honor of the multitalented entertainer, we sat down to chat with jazz journalist Joe Lang, who reviews CDs, books, and live performances for the New Jersey Jazz Society’s magazine “Jersey Jazz.”

Lang, who has been listening to jazz since his early teens, is a huge Hoagy Carmichael fan. He remembers becoming attached to “Stardust” when he was only four years old. Over the years, Lang has watched many of Carmichael’s movies, read his biographies, listened to his songs, and even gave a presentation at his local library about the accomplished composer.  

So, you can imagine that Lang was overjoyed when, at Carmichael’s 80th birthday celebration concert during the 1979 New York Jazz Festival, Lang discovered he was seated directly next to the guest of honor! How serendipitous, right?

JK: What is it about Hoagy Carmichael that you love so much?JL: I just like his songs—I never get sick of listening to them. I listened to that [1979 birthday] concert before we had the interview, and I’ve probably listened to that concert dozens of times and I never get sick of it. Of course, there’s a lot of nostalgia involved because I was there and sitting next to him. That was kind of special.

JK: What was Hoagy Carmichael like in person? Was he everything you had imagined?  

Well, yeah. He was a character. His wife had passed away and he had remarried and this lady who he was married to was sitting next to him and she kept getting so embarrassed because he kept shouting things out. I remember they were playing a lot of relatively obscure songs and at one point he yelled out, when are you going to start playing my hits? He was just a character.

if you saw his movies, that pretty much captured what he was like. He had a TV show in the fifties—I wish I could find it—for a short time he was the host of a variety show, but I don’t remember watching it when it was on, and I’ve never been able to find it, but it would’ve been interesting to see that because I bet with that little bit of that recording, you’d really get a flavor of what his personality was like.  

JK: Is Stardust still your favorite Hoagy song?

You know, it’s hard to pick out one song. I like a quirky little song that he wrote that’s not that well known now—it had its popularity in its time—it’s a song called “Little Old Lady.” I just always found it charming. And he wrote a musical with Johnny Mercer called Walk with Music that didn’t get to Broadway as far as I know and the rest of the score most people haven’t heard, but the title song “Walk with Music” is one that got picked up by a lot of singers and I like that song a lot.  

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