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(left to right:) Tedd Firth, Barbara Lea, Lynn DiMenna,
Richard Sudhalter The New York Sheet Music Society presented a program on the life and music of Hoagy Carmichael Saturday, April 10th. Special guests for the afternoon were Dick Sudhalter, author of the award-winning biography Stardust melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael, and Barbara Lea, singer extraordinaire, who was celebrating her 75th birthday that very day. Tedd Firth was the accompanist. Lynn DiMenna, a vice president of NYSMS, was host for the afternoon, and she introduced her guests after first singing Skylark, a Hoagy Carmichael song that started her on her career when she won a contest singing it for WNEW-AM host Ted Brown. Before Dick and Barbara began their portion of the program, singer/songwriter John Wallowitch presented another Carmichael song (music & lyrics) I'm Only Happy, That's All, a 1957 tune that John's partner Bertram Ross often performed. (with his wonderful philosophy: "I may look beat, but don't send flowers, I'm only happy that's all.") Sudhalter, a noted coronetist and jazz historian, contributed biographical information as Barbara sang the music and often the lyrics of Carmichael, one of the great jazz composers of the 20th century. Music historians were not sure how to categorize Hoagy, who had come from the jazz world, but his music eventually inhabited its own category. Hoagy was most influenced by listening to Bix Beiderbecke, who eventually became a close friend. Songs included: Washboard Blues, Come Easy, Go Easy Love, Sing It Way Down Low, Old Man Harlem, Lazy Bones, One Morning in May, Bread and Gravy, Skylark, Moon Country, Memphis in June, Ole Buttermilk Sky, Small Fry, I walk with Music, Oooh! What you Said, I Get Along Without You Very Well, Two Sleepy People, In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, Baltimore Oriole, Stardust |
