Lazy River

“Up a Lazy River” – a lazy jazzy tune that has become beloved around the world – was first recorded by Hoagy Carmichael in 1930 and is credited to have been written by him and Sidney Arodin. Phil Harris and Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra followed shortly with recordings in 1931 and ’32 respectively. Woody Herman, Les Paul, Nat King Cole, Chet Atkins, Glenn Miller, The Platters and Hank Thompson are among the many famous artists representing most every genre of American music who have recorded “Lazy River.”

As it previously had for many others, “Lazy River” became a big hit for the Mills Brothers in 1952. The tune also became a favorite among American fiddlers. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded it in 1947. Almost forty years later, Danish jazz violin legend Svend Asmussen recorded his version in 1983. Asmussen and western swing fiddle pioneer Johnny Gimble performed it together on the popular television show Hee Haw. Texas fiddle great and world-champion fiddler Terry Morris often played this tune in the 1970s and ‘80s. World famous clarinetists Benny Goodman and Pete Fountain loved it too and both made significant recordings of it. It is interesting that Goodman’s and Bob Wills’ recordings were released in the same year -1947.

As is the case with many classic American tunes, it is not entirely clear who actually composed the famous melody. “Up a Lazy River” is the only known collaboration between Carmichael and Arodin – a very unlikely musical pair. Carmichael, a former lawyer, became one of America’s most well-known songwriters with “Star Dust” and “Georgia On My Mind” to his credit. He circulated in the top music circles in New York City and Hollywood, hobnobbing with George Gershwin and other music-industry notables. By contrast, clarinetist Sidney Arodin was largely unknown, scrambled for a living working on the riverboats out of New Orleans and reportedly sold or traded his tunes for whatever they would bring at the moment. In Carmichael’s other musical collaborations, he was known for composing the music with others contributing the lyrics. It was assumed, therefore, that this was the case with “Lazy River” – that Carmichael had written the melody and the unknown Arodin had supplied the lyrics. Using the music itself as evidence, however, it is more likely that something entirely different occurred.

The original melody line is filled with awkward leaps from a vocal perspective, but which work very well on the clarinet – and, indeed, on the violin. The melody possesses the quality of a clarinet solo and it is not surprising that it caught the attention of two clarinet greats who recorded it early on. Furthermore, it has been noted that some fiddlers have tried to imitate clarinet tone and phrasing when playing this tune. All of this does raise the question as to whether Carmichael actually wrote either the tune or the lyrics. Given Carmichael’s law degree, a simple signature could have added his name to the credits to help promote a musical gem produced by an unknown musician.

Sidney Arnandan (or Arnondrin) - better known as Sidney Arodin - was born in Louisiana in 1901. He began playing clarinet at age 15 and started making his living playing on New Orleans riverboats heading “up the lazy river” to New York City by the mid 1920s. Once there, he worked for Johnny Stein and Jimmy Durante. Carmichael moved to the City around 1929 when he was still polishing his songwriting skills. In the '30s, after the first recordings of “Lazy River” were released, Arodin was back in New Orleans on the Mississippi playing with Wingy Manone, Sharkey Bonano, Louis Prima and The New Orleans Rhythm Kings where he remained until his death in 1948. One hopes that he was able to hear Benny Goodman’s recording of “Lazy River” from the previous year.

Sidney Arodin must have loved rivers and river life. The river themes in his music date all the way back to his earliest days of working on the riverboats and nearly all the songs he wrote contain “River” in their titles. “Up a Lazy River” is, of course, the most famous of them. Another well-known song that can possibly be attributed to him is “Drifting on a River” which, interestingly, is based on the same chord progression as “Lazy River.” It is also reported by contemporaries that this particular chord progression is one that Arodin liked to play as a warm-up on his clarinet. Those who knew Arodin have reported that “Lazy River” perfectly matches his mood and character and the “style of his playing and personal expression.”

Given that Arodin played in several recording sessions, it is odd that he never recorded “Lazy River.” It is also curious that, on many cover versions by other artists, Arodin’s name was not included as a co-composer. Furthermore, because Arodin is reported to have “sold” many songs that he claimed to have written sometimes for as little as a bottle of wine, there is acknowledged speculation that Arodin might have sold “Lazy River” and all the recording rights to Carmichael for a pittance out of desperation to break into the music scene in New York City. Another source reports that Carmichael may have changed just one word in the title to claim “collaboration” and that all the rest – melody and lyrics - was really the work of Sidney Arodin.

A strange but perhaps not uncommon story: a spark of genius from a hard-working, relatively unknown musician traveling from New Orleans to New York City, catching the attention of a more well-known and wellconnected musician and becoming one of the great American hit songs of the 20th Century!

From Book III of the O'Connor Method
www.oconnormethod.com

Herman's Hornpipe

“Herman’s Hornpipe” (also called “Uncle Herman’s Hornpipe”) is a fiddle tune exemplifying a category of tunes based on a very old Celtic dance form called the hornpipe. This dance was originally a solo dance for men and characterized by folded arms and fancy foot and leg movements. The dance originated as a form of exercise for sailors on English ships. It is said that Royal Navy Captain James Cook (1728-1779) thought dancing was most useful to keep his men in good health during long voyages. When it was calm and the sailors consequently had very little to do, Captain Cook required his men to dance claiming that the notable freedom from illness on his ships could largely be attributed to this physical regimen. Since there was almost always a fiddle and a fiddler or two on board any ship, this type of dancing and the accompanying fiddle music was of course closely intertwined.

A few hundred years later, “Herman’s Hornpipe” became primarily associated with the Texas-Style fiddlers and was often heard at the National Old-Time Fiddler’s Contest in Weiser, Idaho. Benny Thomasson, one of this contest’s most notable champions, was closely associated with the origins of the most common modern version of “Herman’s Hornpipe.” After relocating to Washington State in the late 1960s, Benny Thomasson learned many Canadian fiddle tunes from local fiddlers who were influenced by the style just to the north of his new home. Thomasson arranged many of these tunes combining his own style of fiddle playing with these new melodies.

It is likely that during this time Thomasson encountered a Canadian tune called “Miss Supertest’s Victory Reel,” one of hundreds of tunes composed by John Durocher. The “A” part of “Herman’s Hornpipe” can be considered the same as the “A” part to this Canadian tune. John Durocher came to fiddling when he found a broken fiddle in the trash. A little repair work and he had his first instrument. A few lessons from a local teacher and he was hooked! Durocher went on to become a prolific composer of fiddle tunes. His music was picked up by Canadian fiddle star Don Messer who included many of his tunes in his broadcasts and printed collections, helping Durocher to become quite influential.

However, the 2nd and 3rd parts of “Herman’s Hornpipe” are difficult to trace. Durocher’s tune does modulate to the key of A major for its “B” part in much the same way as “Herman’s Hornpipe” does, thereby substantiating a general connection. The “C” part of “Herman’s Hornpipe” can be seen as a development of the first two parts.

Some members of the Thomasson family recall Benny having heard “Herman’s Hornpipe” played on the 1950’s television show Town & Country Time with Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats featuring “Fiddlin' Buck Ryan." Perhaps, but Benny most likely learned the basic tune from a local northwest fiddler who in turn learned it from Don Messer’s radio shows or recordings. As he did with many other two-part fiddle tunes, Benny probably began to work with “Supertest’s Reel” crafting his own variations and development. The arpeggios in the current most common version of “Herman’s Hornpipe” are certainly reminiscent of other Thomasson arrangements.

Thomasson is known mostly as an arranger of traditional fiddle tunes. However, in many instances, his creative process of fiddle tune development produced entirely new sections of simple tunes often lengthening their forms with these additional parts. The majority of what is known today as “Herman’s Hornpipe” is most likely an example of this creative process. Although on the matter of exactly who was “Uncle Herman,” no one seems to remember him and his identity remains a mystery!

Benny Thomasson (1909-1984) was born “fourth or so” in line of 13 children in Winters, Texas, just south of Abilene. Both his grandfather and father were contest fiddlers in the 1800s. When Benny was five years old, his father Luke let him “pull his good fiddle out” and rest the scroll on the edge of the bed while he figured out how to play it. At 19, thinking he was playing the fiddle pretty darn well, Benny entered a big contest competing against hundreds of other Texas fiddlers. He was perplexed when he came in somewhere near 60th place. He felt that his playing had been fairly accurate technically and decided that the old tunes themselves needed to be “rounded out and smoothed up” for better success.

As a result, Benny began taking old, simplistic fiddle tunes with two parts (“sectional binary forms”) and reconstructing them into musical masterpieces. Being almost completely self-taught, his creativity was wholly individual. Benny composed variations of traditional tunes often adding additional parts utilizing virtuosic displays of technique and sophisticated bowing and phrasing. At the same time, he greatly enhanced the intellectual content of the music. As Benny’s highly-developed fiddle tunes became more and more well-known, they began to be referred to as a whole new style of fiddling – “Texas Style.”

With his new style, Thomasson began winning state championships taking home the top prize at least 15 times. In 1955-57 he became the “World Champion” by winning three years in a row in Crocket, Texas. As news of Thomasson’s immense talent spread, the famous western swing bandleaders Bob Wills and Spade Cooley each offered him permanent positions in their bands. Columbia Records wanted to record Benny’s unique fiddle playing and Hollywood wanted him to appear in the movies
with Gene Autry. Thomasson, however, turned it all down choosing fiddle contests as his musical outlet instead. He continued to win championships in Athens, Gilmer, Hale Center and Burnet. 300 silver dollars was the prize the last time he won in Burnet. Benny competed against some very fine fiddlers, his toughest competitors being Vernon and Norman Solomon, Eck Robertson, Bryant Houston and Major Franklin. Benny claimed his father knew a thousand fiddle tunes by memory and people say Benny knew more than that.

In 1969, while working at Houston Kenworth, Benny injured his back, opted for a disability pension and retired. On a trip to visit his son Dale in the Northwest, Benny found that he liked the fishing there and decided to stay. It is there that “Herman’s Hornpipe” was crafted and became well-known. He longed for his native Texas, however, and a few years later Thomasson returned to be among his old friends who loved and admired him from earlier days. While playing on stage one evening, Benny lost his balance and fell backwards. His son Jerry, who was accompanying him on guitar, gracefully caught him and eased the fall. Making music was the last experience Benny remembered as he lost consciousness, dying just a few days later.

Many thousands of fiddle players have been directly or indirectly influenced by the talents of Benny Thomasson. His highly creative development and restructuring of an entire American fiddle tune repertoire resulted in the evolution of a pre-existing musical form into a new and distinct style, assuring that Benny Thomasson’s musical legacy will remain as significant as that of any other fiddle player in American history.

From Book III of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Hava Nagila

“Hava Nagila” is a Jewish song that became popular throughout the United States during the 1950s when African American popular singer Harry Belafonte incorporated it into his live shows. “Hava Nagila” was also included in Belafonte’s “Live in Concert at the Carnegie Hall” album in 1959. The song’s attractive melody and uplifting lyrics as sung by Belafonte became a nationwide hit and "Hava Nagila" began to be played and sung widely by many diverse musical and ethnic groups.

The tune originated from the area of Europe that is Ukraine today. "Hava Nagila" began as a wordless Sadigorer Hasidim melody (nigun) and traveled with Hasidic immigrants to Jerusalem in the early 1900s. Avraham Zvi Idelsohn - an immigrant to Jerusalem from the area of Russia that is present-day Latvia and an expert in Jewish musicology - wrote the lyrics soon after the melody arrived in Jerusalem.

Idelsohn arranged and composed many “new” Hebrew-language songs based on traditional melodies. While serving as a bandmaster in the Ottoman Army during World War I, he selected the tune for a celebration concert performance in Jerusalem after the British army had defeated the Turks in Palestine. General Edmund Allenby, leader of the British forces, entered the Holy City on foot issuing a proclamation that promised to respect the rights of all three religions for whom Jerusalem has a special significance: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The fall of Jerusalem came just one month after the November 2nd British “Balfour Declaration” in 1917. This document included the language: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

These events inspired Idelsohn to write the words to "Hava Nagila" – words that would eventually be sung throughout the Americas:

English Translation:
Let us rejoice, let us rejoice; Let us rejoice and be glad
Let us sing, let us sing; Let us sing and be glad
Awake, awake brothers; Awake brothers with a joyful heart

Idelsohn first published the “new” song in a Hebrew song collection in 1922. It later appeared in Jewish children’s songbooks and Jewish folk singers began to release recordings of "Hava Nagila." By the 1940s, the song had become a staple of Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs around the world usually being sung and danced as an Israeli-style Hora folk dance.


Only in America though, a place where cultures and music are so intertwined and cross-pollinated, could a Jewish American named "Erving Berlin" compose the most popular Christmas song of all time - “White Christmas” (1942) - and just a few years later, a non-Jew create a national hit from a traditional Jewish song. Harry Belafonte sang "Hava Nagila" on numerous national television appearances and on several recordings making the melody familiar to most every adult and child in the U.S.

From Book III of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Rippling Water Jig

“Rippling Water Jig” is a tune popularized by Canada’s most famous fiddler – Don Messer. Messer and his band The Islanders (named for residing in Prince Edward Island in the Maritimes) recorded the tune in 1947. It soon became a hit all over Canada.

Donald Charles Frederick Messer (1909-1973) was born in New Brunswick and began learning Irish and Scottish tunes on the violin when he was five years old. After studying music formally for a few years in Boston, Messer returned to Canada and lived in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Ontario for the remainder of his life. He became a radio star in the 1920s and by the ‘30s he was broadcast regularly throughout Canada on the CBC. While in Halifax, Messer gained widespread fame through the success of his hit television show “Don Messer’s Jubilee.” Millions of viewers tuned in to watch and listen to Messer’s fiddling in the 1950s and ‘60s, often hearing the lively “Rippling Water Jig.”


Although it is unclear as to who actually composed this popular jig, it is widely known that Messer was the first to be commonly associated with it. The Islanders did perform many original tunes that were certainly written by Messer as well as those of other fiddler/composers such as Al Cherny, Andy DeJarlis, Jim Magill and Graham Townsend.

An American fiddle legend, Joe Pancerzewski, lived in Washington State and helped spread this tune in the northwestern United States by teaching it to young fiddlers. Pancerzewski originally homesteaded in North Dakota in 1909 and spent much of his early musical life in Saskatchewan becoming known for his Western Canadian fiddle style. In 1924, he moved to Bellingham, Washington, where he played popular dance band music on the fiddle. He also performed with the theater orchestra at the Pantages, a concert hall that still presents concerts to this day, and was known to perform occasionally a novelty solo act called the “Yankee Fiddler.”

Most great Canadian fiddlers – including Ed Gyurki - incorporated “Rippling Water Jig” into their regular performing repertoires. However, it was the superstar personality Don Messer’s playing of it on one of the most popular TV shows in Canada that introduced it to fiddlers all over Canada and America.

From Book III of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Over the Waves

“Over the Waves” by violinist/bandleader Juventino Rosas Cadenas – an Otomi Native American from Mexico – is one of the most popular waltzes in North America. This piece was published by Rosas in 1884 while he was in New Orleans performing with The Eighth Cavalry Mexican Band at the World Cotton Centennial World’s Fair. “Over the Waves” soon became a favorite in New Orleans and quickly found its way into the common jazz repertoire there. Rosas went on to become a well-known composer of Mexican salon music releasing a large number of sound recordings beginning as early as 1898.

This waltz was adapted to most every musical genre from Tejano to Italian accordion music. It became a popular ballroom dance tune and, in 1927, was recorded in St. Paul Minnesota as “The Moonshiner’s Dance.” Further incarnations of “Over the Waves” made this waltz tune even more well-known across the United States reaching millions of listeners. An arrangement by Kennedy & Finn with the title “Merry-Go-Round Waltz” and a cultural association with funfairs and trapeze artists added to its fame in the 1940s. It was also one of the featured tunes on the Wurlitzer line of fairground organs (calliopes). An MGM film from 1951 – “The Great Caruso” – featured actress Ann Blyth singing new lyrics to the melody as “It’s the Loveliest Night of the Year.” Television star Lawrence Welk featured the song for his national variety show.

Perhaps the waltz’s most substantial and long-lasting value, however, was established through the fiddling of southern and southwestern musicians such as Clark Kessinger (West Virginia) and Benny Thomasson (Texas). At the National Old Time Fiddler’s Contest in the 1970s, “Over the Waves” was heard as frequently as any other waltz in the competitions. It has been the fiddlers who have kept the tune alive to the present day.

Sadly, at the age of 26, while touring Cuba with an Italian-Mexican ensemble, Rosas contracted a serious illness and died there. This poor Native American-Mexican boy who had taught himself music, had fiddled for a living in the streets from age 7, who reportedly sold his waltzes for shoes and who died at such a tragically young age, nevertheless made a significant contribution to American violin music. The city where he was born in Mexico has been renamed in his honor: Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas.

From Book III of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Rubber Dolly Rag

 “Rubber Dolly Rag” is an American tune that has touched nearly every corner of the American music scene since the melody first appeared in 1900. Danish-born American violinist/composer Jens Bodewalt Lampe, after becoming the first-chair violinist for the Minneapolis Symphony at age 16, moved to Buffalo NY in the 1890s and began to lead dance band of his own. Almost immediately after becoming aware of Scott Joplin’s new “Maple Leaf Rag,” Lampe composed his own syncopated piece entitled “Creole Belles.” This brand new type of music, which later came to be called “ragtime,” was variously described as “cakewalk,” “march” and “two-step” music during its early history. “Creole Belles” was performed widely by pianists, ragtime bands, brass bands and military bands. John Phillip Sousa championed this piece and by 1902, the Danish American had become one of the most well known ragtime composers – perhaps second only to Joplin.

Early in the 1900s, the second strain of “Creole Belles” began to be picked up by fiddlers all across America and the catchy melody began to adopt alternative names including “Back Up and Push” and “Rubber Dolly.” The tune was so popular that most Appalachian string bands who were recording in the 1920s & 1930s released some version of it. Gid Tanner’s Skillet Lickers and Uncle Bud Landress made recordings of this tune in the early '30s. Perry Bechtel and His Boys, known for their recordings on the “Race” and “Hillbilly” series popularized in that era by the record companies, recorded this tune in Atlanta. Some of the most often quoted lyrics are from the Light Crust Dough Boys, a band that featured one of the greatest Texas swing fiddlers of the time – Cecil Brower.

This tune represents one of the most amazing of the many cultural cross-pollinations in our American musical history. After Western Swing bands and Texas Style fiddlers adopted and popularized the tune with its characteristic swing and ragtime rhythms, the great African American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald recorded it using the white string-band lyrics. Fitzgerald’s “Wubba Dolly” was recorded in 1939. Famed African American blues guitarist and singer Mississippi John Hurt, who often collaborated with Anglo American fiddler Willie Narmour in the early 1920s, brought the original title of this tune to the forefront again by adapting the lyrics of “My Creole Belle” to the new tune and rhythm. Hurt was known for playing square dance and ragtime music during the same period that he was recording early blues music for Okey Records. His interest in different styles of American music resulted in this tune being introduced to a much wider audience. The lyrics of “My Creole Belle” are often sung to the tune of “Rubber Dolly Rag.”

My Creole Belle, I love her well
My darling baby, my Creole Belle
When the stars shine, I’ll call her mine
My darling baby, my Creole Belle.

 And the cross-pollination doesn’t end there! Whereas the original “Rubber Dolly” lyrics probably derive from Anglo American children’s games of the late 1800s, they made their way into a Top-10 record in 1965. In that year, African American soul singer Shirley Ellis recorded the Rubber Dolly lyrics used by the Light Crust Dough Boys and other Appalachian string bands as “The Clapping Song.” Folk music pioneer Woody Guthrie, as well as many others, recorded the Creole Belle version also adding to the popularity of the tune among the newer generations.

The appearance of alternate versions of lyrics in American songs, especially originating from different racial groups, is a long-standing American music tradition. However, in this case, having both versions of the lyrics covered by both black and white singers for over a century is particularly interesting. From its very beginning, fiddlers continued to play this tune from coast to coast and generation to generation, establishing it as one of the truly classic examples of the American Music System.

From Book III of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Florida Blues

“The blues” is a music style that developed in the late 1800s among African Americans living in areas like the Mississippi Delta plantations in the American South. Black musicians combined their own African traditions with their slave work songs and field hollers, ring shouts (spontaneously singing or praying in a circle while clapping hands) and Negro spirituals to create a new form of musical expression - a new style of music that would become one of the most influential in the world.

There are many different types of African American blues music. The many traditional forms and variants can be grouped, however, into a few general categories: “classic blues” and “rural" or “delta blues” from the turn of the 20th Century and “urban blues” and “rhythm and blues” dating from the 1940s. In the earliest era of blues music, subgenres included: “barrelhouse blues,” “gut-bucket blues,” “hokum blues,” “piedmont blues,” “reels/breakdowns,” “blues rags,” “boogie-woogie blues,” “risque blues” and “up-tempo jump blues” - just to name a few.

The archetypical blues form is defined by a pattern of 12 measures in 4/4 meter divided into three lyric phrases. Many tunes exhibit the blues spirit but deviate from the fundamental 12-bar format. The improvisational tradition that developed with the early playing of the blues allows for self-expression within the context of communal participation - call and response. This spontaneous dialogue of improvisation between players established a brand new musical tradition and is one of the foundations of jazz.

Although other chromatic “passing tones” are often used, the basic sound of the blues centers around a “blues scale” which involves flatting the 3rd and 7th degrees of a major scale. In the language of the blues, these notes are characteristically played by sliding up to the desired pitch. The gliss or portamento from one specified pitch up to another, and down from from one specified pitch to another can also be applied to any note of the blues scale. The technical vocabulary of “bending” notes thereby accentuating microtones (pitches between the semitones of the Western scale) adds a provocative emotional dimension to this music.

“White” Appalachian fiddlers have long admired African American folk music. The intertwining of these musical cultures produced the American “hoedown” among other forms. Much “Black” music - especially ragtime tunes and religious pieces as well as many other vocal and instrumental techniques - was easily absorbed into the “White” repertoire. The blues music was no exception, however the “pure” blues styles had a more difficult time assimilating into “white” music culture. Slow-tempo blues ballads were the result of early cross-pollination, and faster-spirited versions of the blue became an integral part of the old-time fiddling of the early 1900s.

Enter Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith of Tennessee (1898-1971). Smith was an Anglo-American old-time fiddler and an accomplished composer and songwriter. He made his solo debut as a fiddler on the Grand Ole Opry in 1927. Smith was very influential and an inspiration to many fiddlers because of his “long bow” style which electrified radio audiences for years. Even though he had many opportunities to become a full-time professional musician, Fiddlin` Arthur Smith worked as a linesman for a railroad company in Dickson, Tennessee, for most of his life.

Although the evidence is not conclusive, Smith has been credited with composing the famous “Florida Blues.” We do know for certain, however, that he wrote many great fiddle tunes and played up-tempo blues tunes often helping to establish this fiddle blues style.

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com