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from The Hoagy Carmichael Collection  HOAGY CARMICHAEL  In the
preface to his Carmichael biography, Stardust Melody, Richard M.
Sudhalter quotes William Zinsser. "Play me a Hoagy Carmichael song and
I hear the banging of a screen door and the whine of an outboard motor
on a lake - sounds of summer in a small-town America that is long gone
but still longed for." Even if those of the present generation might
not be able to immediately rattle off a list of Carmichael's hundreds
of original compositions, one would be hard pressed to find someone
unfamiliar with "Star Dust" or "Georgia on My
Mind;" someone
not
enthralled by their timelessness. Nearly every six year old learning to
coordinate
his right and left hands pounds out "Heart And
Soul" on his piano. Remember that one? Hear the banging of that
screen door yet?Born in Bloomington, Indiana in 1899, Carmichael studied to be a lawyer before settling his heart in the realm where it rightly belonged - music. Like Duke Ellington, Carmichael was a composer and a performer, deeply rooted in jazz. Early influences included a close friend, cornetist Bix Biederbecke. Amongst those he early-influenced included one of Beiderbecke's peers, Louis Armstrong, who recorded Carmichael's "Rockin' Chair" in 1929. A few years later and Carmichael was lauded and loved as one of America's great songsmiths. By 1950, Carmichael had established a strong presence in Hollywood - for his acting talents, as well as his musicianship. He appeared in movies like To Have and Have Not, and Young Man With A Horn, alongside a young Kirk Douglas. But at the same time, the emerging rock n' roll culture heralded a change in popular music. Composers like Carmichael felt displaced. By the 1960s the entertainment industry that Carmichael had thrived within for over thirty years was a different place altogether. Perhaps even foreign. Luckily the composer's eldest son, Hoagy Bix Carmichael, was in tune with what made the kids tick, and he was determined to keep his father's music fresh. In the late 60s, a project would emerge at Boston public television station WGBH that would change the perception of a small number of Carmichael standards forevermore. Comrades Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop video One Hoagy With Everything by Kurt B. Reighley Hoagy on the David Frost TV show 1970 Hong Kong Blues from the 1944 movie TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT 
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