Composed by Oscar Levant, music; and Stanley Adams, lyric; arranged by Joe Lippman.
Recorded by Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra for Victor on May 26, 1938 in New York.
Bunny Berigan, first and solo trumpet, directing: Steve Lipkins and Irving Goodman, trumpets; Nat Lobovsky and Ray Conniff, trombones; Robert “Mike” Doty, first alto saxophone; Joe Dixon, B-flat clarinet and alto saxophone; Georgie Auld and Clyde Rounds, tenor saxophones and B-flat clarinets; Joe Bushkin, piano and celesta; Dick Wharton, guitar; Hank Wayland, bass; Johnny Blowers, drums. Ruth Gaylor, vocal.
The story:
The time Bunny Berigan and his orchestra spent playing a residency at the Paradise Restaurant in Manhattan in the spring of 1938 (Sunday March 20 to Friday May 6), was a happy one for everyone involved. Bunny, as always, was focused on the music. His own playing then was superb. His band, despite a few personnel changes, was in excellent shape.
The atmosphere inside the Paradise Restaurant, which occupied the second floor of the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway at 49th Street, was pleasing to the eye. The room had been designed and decorated by Joseph Urban.(1) The show at the Paradise, which the Berigan band headlined, was fast-moving, with lots of beautiful girls dancing. The food and drink offered was of good quality. It was a place people wanted to come to.
Variety reported the basic information concerning the new Paradise “review” in its March 16 issue: “Bunny Berigan orchestra heads the show opening Sunday, March 20. Acts include Lionel Rand and his boys (rhumba band), Barbara Parks, Liberto and Owens, Alan Carney, McNally Sisters, Grand Quartet and Johnny Coy.” A dinner menu dated Saturday April 16, 1938, lists three shows nightly—“7:30 p.m., midnight, and 2 a.m. ‘Never a cover charge’ but there was a minimum ‘spending charge’ per person for dinner of $1.50. Saturday and Holidays: $2.00, Ringside: $2.50.”
Shortly after the show opened, Variety published this review: “A light and spring-like show, fittingly costumed and carrying special music, opened here Sunday (20th) night under a new policy to frequently change orchestras. Changes will be made probably every two weeks. Rudy Vallee is due in next. Management is making a pull for the dancing public. Figured that any deficits can be made up if the Paradise gets the younger generation. Bands will be booked with that in mind. The new floor show doesn’t include any name acts, but the Berigan band is being depended on for box office. However it’s an agreeably entertaining production with capable talent. Well rounded and moving along at a good clip, show is effectively emceed by Alan Carney. Special music is by Dave Oppenheim and Henry Tobias. Singers include Barbara Parks, Four Grand Quartet, while the McNally Sisters sing and dance. Johnny Coy also sings and tap dances.”(2)
Despite the Paradise Restaurant engagement being good in the sense that it provided the Berigan band with work for seven consecutive weeks without the rigors of travel, and allowed the band to be broadcast on radio for many of the nights during that period, it did not pay enough to offset all of the band’s expenses. Each week that Bunny remained at the Paradise, he had to dig into the reserves of cash he had been able to save as a result of the work he and his band had done on the road in late 1937 and early 1938, specifically including a number of very successful theater dates. By the time the Berigan band left the Paradise, Bunny needed to make some money in a hurry to put his finances back into a healthy state. After a few one-nighters in and near to New York City, the Berigan band opened for a week at the Paramount Theater on Times Square in Manhattan, May 11 to 17. Here are the details of that as provided much later by the band’s new guitarist/vocalist, Dick Wharton:
“The movie was ‘Stolen Heaven.’ Gene Raymond, Cass Daley, and the dance team of Nichols and Roberts were on stage with the band, but I wasn’t allowed to play the date because Gene Raymond, the big star, objected to any other male singer being on the same stage as him. Bunny, as part of the stage show did a bit using a hat, with Cass Daley called ‘Hot Pertater.’”(3)
Variety, as usual, had a reporter in the audience on opening night. Here is his report:
“Bunny Berigan’s orch; 40 minutes; band setting, Paramount, NY. Berigan’s hot trumpet originally came to attention through the swing sessions conducted by CBS. During the forepart of last year he was on the Admiracion Shampoo session over Mutual network with Tim and Irene. Aggregation which made its bow at the Paramount with him consisted of a crack brass four-some, a like number of reeds, a pianist, a drummer, a bass player and a guitarist. From this combination plus a number of fetching arrangements Berigan draws a jitter brew that’s up to the minute in tang and flavor. For stage purposes his layout’s in the groove. The items are so varied as to keep the interest on the upbeat. It’s straight music from start to finish, with no imitation of top-blowing or any other outbreak of nut behavior by some member of the band. Berigan blends a keen sense of musicianship with a hard grasp of the current trends in dansapation, and the outlook for him should be a bright one. Gene Raymond—Songs-patter 10 minutes, Paramount, NY. Date is Raymond’s first on Broadway since he quit the legit for films. While he’s no great shakes as a crooner, Raymond carries a tune easily enough…with the uke accompaniment filling in nicely with limitations and style. Between vocal numbers Raymond had several of the musicians out of the Bunny Berigan contingent join him and his uke in a jam session. The incident went big with the jitterbugs in the assembly.”(4)
Bunny did well once again(5) at the Paramount. Here’s how his gross for the week compared with two of MCA’s biggest box office draws: Kay Kyser, the week prior: $35,000; Hal Kemp, the week after: $47,000; Bunny Berigan: $32,000.(6) We must remember that $32,000.00 in 1938 would be about $480,000.00 in 2024 dollars.
With Bunny’s business and musical fortunes in a positive phase, he was poised to take his band to a new level of musical excellence and financial success. His first step on that road was to battle Artie Shaw’s band for a second time. In their first encounter, which took place on April 9, 1937, Bunny’s new band pretty much overwhelmed Shaw’s even newer band. Since that time, both bands had become much more solid, with Berigan’s being more well-known and financially successful in the spring of 1938. This second battle took place at Danceland Ballroom, Ocean Beach Park, New London, Connecticut on Sunday May 22, 1938. This showdown was more of a battle, for many reasons.
After more than a year of scuffling, Shaw had forged his group of mostly young unknown musicians into a formidable performing unit. Unlike the Berigan band, Artie Shaw’s band had not enjoyed several months on a sponsored network radio show, and they had not played at some of the top theaters in the nation for a week or more at a time. Indeed, since the end of 1937, they had not had a recording contract. Instead, Shaw had played widely scattered one-nighters until March of 1938, when, with vocalists Tony Pastor and Billie Holiday, he opened at the Roseland State Ballroom in Boston, broadcasting from that location only on Tuesday and Saturday nights. On other nights, Artie took whatever gigs Si Shribman (7) could get for his band around the New England territory. If that didn’t cover the weekly “nut,” Shribman would cover the shortfall.(8)
At the time of this meeting between the Berigan and Shaw bands, Shaw was once again cast in the role of underdog. But even though Artie and his boys played very well that night, they still weren’t strong enough to overcome Bunny, and his contingent of strong jazz soloists which now included Georgie Auld, tenor saxophone; Joe Dixon, clarinet and alto saxophone; Ray Conniff, trombone; Joe Bushkin, piano; the flashy and exuberant bassist Hank Wayland, and Johnny Blowers on drums. In one department however, Artie had the much stronger performers: Tony Pastor excelled at singing/swinging lighthearted novelties, and Billie Holiday sang the songs of love and loneliness as only she could. The consensus was that the hard-swinging Berigan band edged Shaw’s group that night, but not by much. Berigan’s musicians sensed that the Shaw band was “happening.” They were right. Artie’s first record date for RCA Bluebird two months later would include “Begin the Beguine,” “Indian Love Call,” “Back Bay Shuffle,” and Billie singing “Any Old Time.”
After this contest, the Berigan band again hit the road, playing one-night dance jobs until May 25, when they returned to New York to rehearse for a Victor recording session the next day.
The music:
The White materials indicate that the Berigan band was in the studio from 9:30 to 1:30 on May 26, but the Victor session sheets did not specify whether this was a.m. or p.m. I think this session started at 9:30 p.m. because the band apparently did not work elsewhere that night, and its next engagement was in New York City the following night. Jazz musicians are night people, and they prefer to work at night, whenever possible.
“Wacky Dust” is a fun tune with music by one of Bunny’s friends from his early days at CBS, the manic pianist Oscar Levant (9), and words by Stanley Adams. Levant would frequently come into the Paradise while the Berigan band was in residence there, and add to the general atmosphere of hilarity there. Levant persuaded Bunny to introduce this freshly-composed song, so Berigan had Joe Lippman make an arrangement on it, and began playing it at the Paradise Restaurant. Despite Bunny’s promotion of it which included the recording presented with this post, and another recording of it by Chick Webb with an Ella Fitzgerald vocal, the song did not catch-on in the pop music marketplace.(10) Nevertheless, it provides a good snapshot of the Berigan band shortly after they left the Paradise Restaurant.
The rhythmic arrangement by Joe Lippman ingeniously blends two clarinets, and a tenor and baritone sax in the intro and on into the first chorus. Bunny plays the eight-bar bridge in the first chorus on his open trumpet. Poor Ruthie Gaylor had to contend with not only the rhythms in the music, but also a rather brisk tempo, in addition to trying to clearly enunciate the words of the lyric. (What is this wacky dust stuff anyway? I think the lyric provides the answer.)(11) After the vocal, the improvement in the trombones becomes obvious: Nat Lobovsky was an exceptionally fine first trombonist, and Ray Conniff was clearly superior to his predecessor, Al George. When playing the brass tuttis here the five-man brass section plays as a unit with authority. Those horns are ringing. At last Bunny had an entire brass section to play up to his lead. He had to be pleased by this development. Pianist Joe Bushkin switches to the celesta for an additional bit of fun before the reeds and brass wrap-up this performance. This recording ranks as one of the best novelties the Berigan band ever made.
As a special treat, I am also presenting Bunny Berigan’s Thesaurus Transcription recording of “Wacky Dust.” It was recorded on June 27, 1938 in the Victor Records studio on East 24th Street in Manhattan by the same personnel that made the Victor recording a month before. Nevertheless, there are many differences between the two recordings. Most notably, there is no vocal in this performance. Instead, Bunny, using his Harmon mute, buzzes away joyously, playing tag with trombonist Ray Conniff. Tenor saxophone soloist Georgie Auld also makes an appearance, playing the eight-bar bridge in the second chorus.
It is also notable that Berigan, trying for one of his stylistic nuances while playing the melodic solo on the tune’s bridge in the first chorus, quasi-fluffs a couple of notes. Bunny could easily have played this solo straight, and safe. But that was not how he worked. He constantly tried to use many different trumpet techniques to add color to his playing. This risk-taking sometimes resulted in accidents. But when he tried for those patented Berigan effects and was successful, he was making music the way he wanted, his way.
It is also interesting to hear the difference in the two recordings of how the Victor/Thesaurus recording engineers recorded the Berigan band. The potent two-trombone section of Nat Lobovsky (playing lead) and Ray Conniff is much more prominently recorded in this Thesaurus performance.
This jubilant romp is yet another bit of evidence of how good the Berigan band was in the summer of 1938.
The recordings presented with this post were digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes and links:
(1) More about Joseph Urban (1871-1933) can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Urban
(2) Variety: March 30, 1938.
(3) White materials: May 11, 1938.
(4) Variety: May 18, 1938.
(5) The Berigan band had had a very successful three-week stand at Manhattan’s Paramount Theater in December of 1937.
(6) International Musician: June 1938.
(7) Si Schribman was a businessman who, with his brother Charlie, owned a number of ballrooms in the New England area during the swing era. In addition to employing bands in his ballrooms, he would on occasion invest in fledgling bands that he thought had a bright future. Two such bands were Artie Shaw’s and Glenn Miller’s.
Some researchers have asserted that Si’s actual first name was “Cy.” Based on the information I have received from swing era research expert David Fletcher, specifically that Si Shribman’s name appeared in multiple census reports as “Simon Shribman,” my judgment is that his actual first name was indeed “Si.” (My thanks to David Fletcher for digging into this question and finding persuasive evidence. Once again David, your efforts have helped to make the historical record a bit clearer.)
(8) Shaw and Shribman later (after the Shaw band became a success) had a disagreement over whether Si was buying small pieces of the Shaw band, or merely loaning Artie money. This was settled amicably by Shaw paying Shribman a sum of money in exchange for Si releasing all rights he may have had in the Shaw band.
(9) Pianist Oscar Levant was born on December 27, 1906, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began his musical studies as a child in Pittsburgh, then continued them after he moved to New York in the early 1920s. By the late 1920s, Levant was composing musical scores for films, but began to concentrate more on his career as a concert pianist after he met and became very close friends with composer George Gershwin in the late 1920s. Nevertheless, in the mid-1930s, Levant studied with Joseph Schillinger (at Gershwin’s recommendation), and with Arnold Schoenberg, and composed several classical pieces. After Gershwin’s death in 1937, Levant became more of a personality (albeit an extremely neurotic and brilliant one), and began appearing regularly on network radio, in films, and by the 1950s, on television. Unfortunately, Levant became progressively addicted to various drugs, and this caused his career as a concert pianist to grind to a halt by the late 1950s. Oscar Levant died on August 14, 1972, in Beverly Hills, California.
(10) The vocal group The Manhattan Transfer, known to revisit swing era songs, made a recording of “Wacky Dust” in 1979. (See below.)
(11) Stanley Adams, who wrote the lyric to “Wacky Dust,” emphatically denied that this title or the lyric he wrote had anything to do with the drug culture. (Given the predilections of the composer of the music to “Wacky Dust,” Oscar Levant, this denial is rather dubious.) The only other artist who recorded it during the late 1930s was Ella Fitzgerald. However, much later, in the 1980s, the singing group Manhattan Transfer recorded it, and it became a hit in Europe. See Let’s Dance— Popular Music in the 1930s, by Arnold Shaw, edited by Bill Willard, Oxford University Press (1998), 129.
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