MP3 Big Mama Sue & Mr. Excitement - A Tribute To Walter Donaldson

Popular songs of early tin pan alley played by sizzling stride piano and a red hot vocalist.

16 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Traditional Jazz Combo, JAZZ: Stride

Details:
Why choose to do a tribute to songwriter Walter Donaldson? Because he wrote some of the most enduring tunes of his time, although his name was never a household word. And most of his tunes were written during a period of American musical development that Mr. Excitement and I both love: the transition of ragtime to Tin Pan Alley, the hot jazz of the 20âs and the early swing of the thirties. He was a prolific writer, and his work is so varied in style that it was easy to select a program to record.

Born in 1893, Donaldson was a contemporary of Irving Berlin and knew all the big names of early Tin Pan Alley. While serving as a corporal in WWI in Europe, he met Irving Berlin while they were both entertaining the troops, and Berlin encouraged him, actually publishing Donaldsonâs first successful works. He later formed his own publishing company, and, in turn, helped publish many promising new composers and lyricists.

âHow Ya Gonna Keep âEm down on the Farmâ (1919), and âYouâll Have to Put a Nightie on Aphroditeâ (1920), lyrics for both by Sam Lewis and Joe Young, are great examples of early Donaldson hits, borrowing the syncopated styling of ragtime, and putting it firmly on the vaudeville stage.

âHeâs The Last Wordâ (1927), âMy Baby Just Cares For Meâ (1930), and âSleepy Headâ (1934), are all great examples of his long collaboration with lyricist Gus Kahn. The tunes written with Kahn are considered by many to be his best works.

âTaint No Sin to Dance Around In Your Bonesâ, and âReaching For Someone (And Not Finding Anyone There)â (both written in 1929), are collaborations with famous Tin Pan Alley lyricist Edgar Leslie, although the tunes are worlds apart in style.

âAt Sundownâ (1927), âBorneoâ (1928), âBecause My Baby Donât Mean Maybe Nowâ (1928), and âYouâre Driving Me Crazyâ (1930) were written entirely by Walter Donaldson, both music and lyrics. âMy Blue Heavenâ (1928) with lyics by George Whiting was probably one of the most financially successful and enduring tunes he wrote. We include the seldom-heard verse in our arrangement.

Donaldson wrote for such big name stars as Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Ruth Etting, Annette Hankshaw, Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, Paul Ashe, âUkulele Ikeâ and Paul Whitemanâs Orchestra featuring the Rhythm Boys: the biggest names of the day. In 1920 after the huge Broadway success of âWhoopeeâ he moved to Hollywood to do the film version (the first screen credit in the long career of Busby Berkeley). He spent the balance of his career in California writing for movies. âYouâ (1935 ), âItâs Been So Longâ (1935), and âDid I Remember?â (1936) all with lyricist Harold Adamson, are stellar examples of this period of his career. The latter, from the movie âSuzyâ was nominated for an Academy Award. Walter Donaldson died in 1947, an untimely death from poor health undoubtedly caused by a life fully and generously lived. âMexico Cityâ (1943) with lyricist Mort Greene, was one of his last published works, and shows the new direction his music might have taken if he had continued.

Mr. Excitement, Chris Calabrese is a dynamic stride pianist, whose lightening-fast interpretations of this music have been compaired to the stylings of Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson in their complexity and dexterity. He appears with Big Mama Sue at festivals and events nationally, and is a veteran of the Disney Japan bicycle piano for several seasons.

Big Mama Sue Kroninger is a bandleader, singer, washboard player/percussionist, whose knowledge of the Tin Pan Alley music of pre-WWII days is extensive. She is a star of the traditional jazz festival circuit nationally, has toured France four times, and Sue has the distinction of being the first and only washboard player to be honored as Musician of the Year at Dixieland Monterey. An avid collector of sheet music, she has a huge collection of original Walter Donaldson tunes.

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