Bix And Hoagy

TO BE WRITTEN

Piano Pedal Rag

Rich J wrote yesterday and told me about the time Hoagy was invited to the Bix festival in Davenport.

Jim Arpy was reading some of his old articles and found one about Hoagy. Don O’Dette had invited Hoagy to the Bix Festival back in the ’70s and Hoagy sent a reply saying that health problems prevented him from attending but, Hoagy enclosed a home recording of an original tune that he had written entitled “The Piano Pedal Rag.” Hoagy said it was unpublished and he wrote it thinking of Bix and how he would have played it.

It turns out that the score and the recording of “Piano Pedal Rag” are available in the Hoagy Carmichael archives. Here are details of the recording.

• Title: Piano pedal rag [sound recording] / [composed and performed by] Hoagy Carmichael.
• Composer/Performer/etc: Carmichael, Hoagy, 1899
• Publication info: [1972]
• Physical description: 1 sound tape reel: analog, 15 ips, full track; 10 in.
• Note: Title from container.
• Performer note: Hoagy Carmichael, piano.
• Event note: Master tape recorded July 11, 1972, at Paramount Recording Studios in Hollywood Calif.
• Subject headings: * Ragtime music. * Piano music (Ragtime).  *Hoagy Carmichael Collection.

The complete score is found at: https://digitalcollections.iu.edu/concern/archival_materials/c534g152z?locale=it&query=piano+pedal+rag

In his biography of Hoagy, Sudhalter writes, in connection with a concert (June 27, 1979) in celebration of Hoagy entitled, “The Stardust Road-A Hoagy Carmichael Jubilee.” “Crosby (Bob) motioned the guest of honor (Hoagy) to join him on stage. Hoagy needed no coaxing. Sitting beside Mike Renzi at the piano, he went through an impromptu performance of his Bix-flavored confection”Piano Pedal Rag.”

Stardust

Of course, this is not the first time that Hoagy has written a piece of music under the inspiration of Bix; the immortal “Stardust” is another example.

Here is an excerpt of a CBC 1964  interview of Hoagy where he talks about Bix, Stardust, and other fascinating topics.

Is it true that Stardust is a series of arpeggio (I thought the plural of arpeggio was arpeggios)? It seems to me that, often, a sequence of notes in Stardust does not all belong to a given chord, but I will defer to the experts. Also note that Hoagy tells that he helped invent jazz.