Stardust Melody The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael

by Sudhalter, Richard M.

• ISBN13: 9780195131208
• ISBN10: 0195131207
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Georgia on My Mind, Rockin' Chair, Skylark, Lazybones , and of course the incomparable Star Dust --who else could have composed these classic American songs but Hoagy Carmichael? He remains, for millions, the voice of heartland America, eternal counterpoint to the urban sensibility of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Now, trumpeter and historian Richard M. Sudhalter has penned the first book-length biography of the man Alec Wilder hailed as "the most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented of all the great songwriters--the greatest of the great craftsmen." Stardust Melody follows Carmichael from his roaring-twenties Indiana youth to bandstands and recording studios across the nation, playing piano and singing alongside jazz greats Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and close friends Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong. It illuminates his peak Hollywood years, starring in such films as To Have and Have Not and The Best Years of Our Lives , and on radio, records and TV. With compassionate insight Sudhalter depicts Hoagy's triumphs and tragedies, and his mounting despair as rock-and-roll drowns out and lays waste to the last days of a brilliant career. With an insider's clarity Sudhalter explores the songs themselves, still fresh and appealing while reminding us of our innocent American yesterdays. Drawing on Carmichael's private papers and on interviews with family, friends and colleagues, he reveals that "The Old Music Master" was almost as gifted a wordsmith as a shaper of melodies. In all, Stardust Melody offers a richly textured portrait of one of our greatest musical figures, an inspiring American icon.

Author Biography

Richard M. Sudhalter is a widely respected jazz trumpet player and noted critic, broadcaster and Grammy-winning historian, who has performed and recorded Hoagy Carmichael's music all over the world. His Lost Chords (OUP) won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Citation for Excellence, and was voted a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He was co-author of the National Book Award-nominated Bix: Man and Legend, still cited as the definitive Beiderbecke biography. A Challenge Records recording artist, he lives on Long Island's North Fork.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Daybreak	3	(12)
Discovery	15	(17)
Initiation	32	(12)
Sunshine and Sock-Time	44	(10)
Monk	54	(15)
Bix	69	(16)
Washboard Blues	85	(18)
Stardust Melody	103	(21)
Big Town Blues	124	(21)
Coming of Age	145	(19)
Bread, Gravy, and Cream	164	(19)
Paradise Perceived	183	(22)
Quests Failed and Fulfilled	205	(20)
A Poke in His Pocket...	225	(24)
Movie Star	249	(19)
Tide: Rise and Ebb	268	(21)
Period of Adjustment	289	(21)
Loss	310	(21)
Ev'ntide	331	(16)
Notes	347	(54)
Acknowledgments	401	(4)
Credits	405	(4)
Indexes	409