Casper Reardon - The First Jazz Harp Player

Casper Reardon (1907-41) didn't start out to become the first jazz harp player. He was a trained classical musician who had performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony.

But after a few of his Cincinnati students introduced him to the delights of popular music, he became interested enough that he began appearing on local radio playing jazz as "Arpeggio Glissando."

Eventually his avocation became a vocation, and he ended up in New York, in a recording studio with Red McKenzie and his group. That's where this story of Reardon's brief but eventful jazz odyssey begins.

This post covers 25 of the harpist's commercial recordings, including almost all of his output. Most of the other recordings, some airchecks and one film appearance are linked below. The recording used for this post are mainly remastered from Internet Archive transfers.

A biography of Reardon can be found on IMDb, written by Peter Mintun.

Early Recordings as a Sideman

Reardon's first recording session was in 1933, and involved musicians who have appeared several times on this blog - Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Pee Wee Russell, Bud Freeman, and Eddie Condon. Three songs were set down, none of them issued at the time, but "Mean to Me" appeared on a private compilation a number of years ago in noisy but listenable shape.

The leading light is trombonist Teagarden, who immediately makes apparent the similarity of Fred Ahlert's melody to the "St. Louis Blues." McKenzie is the serviceable vocalist.

Red McKenzie and Jack Teagarden

Teagarden must have liked what be heard from Reardon, for he had the harpist in the studio the following year for a session that included the trombonist's brother Charlie, Benny Goodman and Frankie Trumbauer.

From the downbeat of the blues "Junk Man," Reardon is front and center of the ensemble, keeping up with some of the finest musicians of the time. His rhythm and phrasing fit beautifully with the other musicians. 

The harpist is not as central to "Stars Fell on Alabama" and the generic "Your Guess Is Just as Good as Mine," but still makes his presence known. The songs are mainly showcases for Teagarden, who is in excellent voice.

Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden,
who looks like he may have swallowed his mouthpiece

Next, Paul Whiteman engaged Reardon for a two-day session in December 1934. The first two sides were devoted to compositions by the English pianist Reginald Foresythe, whose works were the type of high-toned popular music that Whiteman favored. The harpist does not play a pivotal role in these recordings, but they are interesting regardless.

The more ambitious is "Deep Forest (A Hymn to Darkness)," which Foresythe wrote with Andy Razaf and Earl Hines. (This performance does not include Razaf's lyrics. You can hear them in Foresythe's recording on YouTube.)

Reginald Foresythe

"Serenade to a Wealthy Widow" is a lively and memorable piece that is perhaps the best known of Foresythe's compositions. Its jaunty melody and irreverent title would seem to have inspired Raymond Scott's works.

The final Whiteman piece is "When I Grow Too Old to Dream." Vocally, the King's Men were a throwback to the 20s. Their singing is too impersonal for the lyrics; Kenny Sargent with Glen Gray is better. Both versions came out in 1935, timed to the release of the film The Night Is Young, with songs by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II. The studio was trying (and failing) to turn Evelyn Laye and silent-era vet Ramon Novarro into a second Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.

In early 1936, Reardon made four sides with the obscure Bob Terry for the Champion label. This collection includes two of them, both highly enjoyable although not well recorded. "It's Been So Long" is a Walter Donaldson-Harold Adamson song written for the film The Great Ziegfeld. "Sing an Old-Fashioned Song (To a Young Sophisticated Lady)" is by Fred Ahlert and Joe Young. Reardon has accomplished solos in both, albeit dimly reproduced. Bunny Berigan is the assertive trumpeter; Wayne Gregg the vocalist.

The 1936 Liberty Music Shop Recordings

The invaluable Liberty Music Shop label gave Reardon a chance to step out on his own, starting with an April 1936 date. He is the focus on the recordings, with anonymous backing that at least on these first songs includes the strings from Lud Gluskin's orchestra.

For his first number, the harpist chose one of Duke Ellington's best songs, "In a Sentimental Mood." It gets a lush treatment, with Reardon providing an obbligato accompaniment to a low-register clarinet and the string ensemble. This is followed by an up-tempo interlude where he swings the tune and the ensemble is the accompaniment. The song ends with flourishes from the harp player.

Will Hudson's "Tormented" is a nice complement to the Ellington song (and may have been influenced by it). Again, there are both slow and quick sections.

For his second Liberty Music Shop session that same year, Reardon was accompanied by a similar ensemble, this time with oboe and bass clarinet. For "Summertime," the instruments of the ensemble again take the main melody line, with the harp providing both secondary melodies and obbligato accompaniment. It's effective.

For "If You Can't Sing It (You'll Have to Swing It)" (aka "Mr. Paganini") Reardon essentially accompanies uncredited vocalist Bea Gierdorf. Presumably this song was chosen because it combines something approaching jazz with a nod to classical music. Introduced by Martha Raye in the film Rhythm on the Range, it was a hit for Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb's band.

In late 1936, Reardon appeared live with a group called the Three T's (Jack and Charlie Teagarden, Frankie Trumbauer). An aircheck of a few of their numbers can be found on YouTube.

1937-8: A Film Appearance, LMS and Master Sessions

Reardon's only film role was in 1937's You're a Sweetheart, which starred Alice Faye. The harpist was cast as "Cousin Caspar" (sic), who had a featured spot where he played "Ain't Misbehavin'" and the "St. Louis Blues." He's introduced as "the only man living who can play hot music on a harp." The clip can be seen on YouTube.

'Cousin Caspar'

Another version of "Junk Man" was recorded for the film, but is not in the final release. It can be heard from a playback disc, also on YouTube.

Reardon's final session for Liberty Music Shop was in May 1937. His first selection was "Washboard Blues," a 1925 Hoagy Carmichael song. For contrast the harpist chose Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?", a 1929 song that was influential with jazz artists. For these songs, his backing musicians are mainly limited to accompaniment in the former song, but make themselves known in the Porter tune.

Reardon's next record date was with the small Master label, which had a well-chosen array of artists, including Duke Ellington, Raymond Scott, Willard Robison and Adrian Rollini. Even so, it didn't last long.

There is some dispute about when the sessions took place - 1937 or 1938 - and even which ones involved Reardon. But we do have one disc that combined his recording of Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'" with his second of Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood." Both are with a large band playing busy arrangements by Franklyn Marks, who worked for Charlie Barnet and others. Reardon's harp is a bit under-recorded, unfortunately.

One source I consulted suggested that Reardon also appears on two songs recorded at the time time, one issued by Master under Marks' name (another "Washboard Blues") and another apparently led by Lou Raderman ("A Blues Serenade") that may not have been issued. I haven't been able to locate either.

In 1938, Reardon appeared in Rodgers and Hart's I Married an Angel. He is not heard on any of the commercial recordings associated with the show, such as the ones I posted a year ago, but Peter Mintun has found airchecks of him playing the title song on two occasions, plus an interview and a performance of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," all of which can be found on his Soundcloud site. Peter has a 1935 radio interview as well.

The Final Recordings

Reardon made some of his finest recordings for the Schirmer label in 1940. His first Schirmer session, in February 1940, was with a small ensemble and yielded four sides, all standards - "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "I Got Rhythm," "Easy to Love" and "They Didn't Believe Me." The latter two have vocal solos by Loulie Jean Norman, who sounds slightly ill at ease.

Reardon also recorded two classical works for Schirmer - Debussy's "En bateau" and a piece by the harpist's teacher, Carlos Salzedo. The Debussy can be found on Peter Mintun's site.

Casper Reardon and Dana Suesse

Mintun, an authority on Dana Suesse, says that Reardon had met Gus Schirmer in 1939 through Suesse, whose compositions were recently celebrated on this blog. She recalled to Peter, "Casper told me about having an engagement with the Philadelphia Symphony and wanted me to write something for him." She decided to compose a suite with the title, "Young Man with a Harp." The title is a play on the popular 1938 book "Young Man with a Horn," based on Bix Beiderbecke's life.

The session with the Philadelphia Orchestra was at Robin Hood Dell, conducted by Alexander Smallens. There also was a performance by the Rochester Civic Orchestra led by Guy Fraser Harrison.

78 album cover

Schirmer agreed to record the piece in 1940, although not with orchestra. The performers were Reardon, Suesse on piano and Chauncey Morehouse on percussion instruments. The work comes off quite well. The movements pay homage to the instrument's ancient history ("Processional - Thebes 1300 BC"), its historic association with Ireland ("Evensong - Ireland 1300 AD"), and its use in modern popular music ("20th Century Madrigal"). The suite is a brilliant showcase for the harpist.

Casper Reardon died of undiagnosed kidney disease in 1941 at age 33. Dana Suesse wrote a memorial for him, "Coronach," a beautiful work that can be found on Peter Mintun's site. He writes, "It was Dana's musical way of saying farewell to a significant friend and colleague."

LINK 

The Songs of Dana Suesse

Dana Suesse in 1932

For today's post we examine the songs of Dana Suesse (1909-87), who wrote popular works while maintaining an interest in classical music, which her success in pop music later allowed her to pursue.

Suesse was versatile: her best known piece is "You Oughta Be in Pictures," but also popular is the gorgeous, moody "My Silent Love," which began as an instrumental.

We have recordings of both works, along with many more worthy songs in this collection of 21 of her compositions dating from 1929 to 1954.

About Dana Suesse

Like many songwriters, Dana did not start out to compose popular music. Classical music was her inspiration and aspiration. But in the 1930s, there wasn't much of an appetite for her "serious" works.

"I had arrived in New York with a trunk full of instrumental music ... I quickly found that there was no market for them; publishers didn’t want things like that. They were too expensive to publish and they simply were not going to be popular with the public. So I looked around and saw that people were making money writing popular songs."

She found out she was good at it, too, and began working with noted lyricists such as Edward Heyman and Leo Robin. But her initial efforts were focused on instrumental music.

"At that time popular instrumentals were in vogue, sort of a hybrid between a serious piece and a pop tune. Duke Ellington, Lou Alter, and Rube Bloom were writing these kinds of works. There was a very distinctive, certain style and form to this kind of melody."

Our collection starts with just such a composition.

1929-32 Recordings

"A Syncopated Love Song" was the title of the first recording in the set, a 1929 work that is listed as a collaboration between Suesse and Nathaniel Shilkret, although it's not clear how much of it was Shilkret's work. Even so, he was an proficient musician who was director of light music for Victor and a prolific recording artist.

It's a strikingly well-wrought piece, with a memorable main strain. Dana presumably wrote that melody, for the credit to Shilket was nowhere to be found a few years later when it was turned into the torch song "Have You Forgotten?" with lyrics by Leo Robin and recorded by Ruth Etting.

Rudy Vallée

Also from 1931, "Whistling in the Dark" has another catchy melody and words by Allen Boretz, whose later claim to fame was writing the hit farce Room Service. Presenting the song was bandleader Rudy Vallée, who hadn't much of a voice, but did have a polished band, fine taste in music and a record contract. He must have liked Dana's songs - he appears later in the collection as well.

George Gershwin, Paul Whiteman and Dana Suesse

Suesse continued to compose works that were the classical-jazz hybrid that George Gershwin favored. In 1932, Gershwin champion Paul Whiteman commissioned her to write a "Concerto in Three Rhythms" for one of his concerts. The New Yorker proceeded to dub her the "girl Gershwin.” You can hear the piece on YouTube.

Loyce Whiteman

With "Ho Hum!" Dana attracted the attention of another important figure, bandleader Gus Arnheim, who engaged vocalists Loyce Whiteman and Bing Crosby for the record. Whiteman was then 19; it was her first record. This is the first song in this collection with lyrics by the young Edward Heyman, a distinguished figure with whom Suesse would work extensively. 

"Jazz Nocturne" is a second instrumental that would become a popular song. Nathaniel Shilkret is again the leader but does not share the songwriting credits for this one. With Heyman's lyrics, the work turned into "My Silent Love," an exceptional song. We will get to it later in this collection.

Edward Heyman

1933-35 Recordings

For our first selection from 1933, Rudy Vallée returns with "Free," a good pop song with one of the bandleader's better vocals. Heyman was again the lyricist.

Also from 1933, we have a recording of "Moon about Town," written for the Ziegfeld Follies production that opened in early 1934. It's not one of lyricist Yip Harburg's best efforts, although the song is occasionally revived. 

Another song from the same show, introduced by the same singer, Jane Froman, is "You Oughta Be in Pictures." An irresistible combination of clever words and cheerful music, it became a huge hit.

As far as I can tell, Froman did not record either song. Our version of "Moon about Town" is the one for Columbia by society bandleader Emil Coleman with a vocal by Jerry Cooper. 

For "You Oughta Be in Pictures," we return to Rudy Vallée for his popular recording. One oddity is that Vallée's Victor label says the song is from a film called New York Town. I can't find evidence of such a film from that year, nor of the song being used in another movie of the time. Also, IBDB does not list "You Oughta Be in Pictures" as being part of the 1934 Follies, which may mean it was added after the opening. In any case, Vallée's disc was not recorded until March 5, 1934, a few months into the run of the 1934 Follies.

"Missouri Misery" from the Dorsey Brothers is much different. Pianist Peter Mintun, who edited a collection of the composer's works, said that "Suesse preferred this over any other commercial recording of 'Missouri Misery.' She liked the bluesy treatment rather than the danceable versions." Singer Bob Crosby, who was working with the Dorseys at the time, did not care for the record; he thought the key was too low for him. Harburg was the lyricist.

Another miniature concert piece is next, with Dana on piano accompanied by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. It's the highly enjoyable, Gershwinesque "Blue Moonlight."

The next two songs come from a 1935 film called Sweet Surrender, filmed in Astoria, New York, and featuring radio and stage personalities such as Frank Parker and Tamara. It's a shipboard musical with a labyrinthine story line and seven numbers from Suesse and Heyman.

First we have the Jan Garber band and singer Lee Bennett with "The Day You Were Born," a predictable song in a grainy pressing. Much better, musically and technically, is "Love Makes the World Go Round," which may not have been the first time that was used for a title and certainly wasn't the last.

The Al Donahue Band; the leader is up front with violin

Even so, it's a pleasing song in a creditable performance from the Al Donahue band and singer Tommy Norato.

1936-37 Recordings

In 1936, Suesse spent three months in Fort Worth, Texas, composing the music for impresario Billy Rose's Casa Mañana, an attraction for that city's Frontier Days Celebration, which was designed to compete with Dallas's concurrent Texas Centennial Celebration. Casa Mañana was a 4,000-seat outdoor dinner theater and stage show that turned out to be very popular.

The big hit from the show was one of Dana's greatest songs, "The Night Is Young and You're So Beautiful," with lyrics by Rose and Irving Kahal. The story is told that Rose ran into Kahal in the lobby of his Fort Worth hotel and convinced him to stay and write with him and Suesse.

Our first version of "The Night Is Young and You're So Beautiful" comes from Jan Garber, this time with vocalist Russ Brown. It starts off with a martial cadence, for some reason, but Garber quickly turns things over to the overripe saxophones and choppy brass that were favored by the sweet bands of the time. Brown is a little too ripe himself, but this period piece nonetheless has its charm. We'll have a better performance later in the program.

Jolly Coburn

Also from the Casa Mañana show is "Gone with the Dawn," from the Jolly Coburn band, with a vocal by the pleasant Bill Hawley, who sounds like he could have been from Texas himself. Coburn hailed from New York, where his band played at the Rainbow Room.

There is a 20-minute short with excerpts from the Casa Mañana show on YouTube.

The Aquacade on Lake Erie

Rose next turned his attention to the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, where he dreamed up an "Aquacade," another dinner amphitheater, this time with a water show along the shores of Lake Erie. "Happy Birthday to Love" comes from the score, heard here in the version by Tommy Dorsey with the talented Jack Leonard on the vocal. Dana worked with four different lyricists to concoct this number.

Post 1937 Recordings

Bob Allen and Hal Kemp

Rose transported his Aquacade concept to the 1939 New York World's Fair, bringing Suesse along to provide the music. She worked with the impresario and lyricist Ted Fetter on "Yours for a Song," the Aquacade theme, which we have in a recording by Hal Kemp and his orchestra. The vocalist is Bob Allen, who had replaced Skinnay Ennis the year before. Kemp was to die in an auto accident the following year.

Dick Todd

For our next number, we greet the sonorous Dick Todd, "Canada's Bing Crosby," as he was called, with a fine recording of "A Table in a Corner," which Dana wrote with the experienced Sam Coslow. Todd was in the midst of his brief heyday, when he recorded prolifically for Bluebird.

Next is one of Dana's most accomplished songs in one of the standout performances in this set - "Time for Me to Put My Heart Away," in a Liberty Music Shop disc from the esteemed cabaret singer Greta Keller, with backing by a Cy Walter band.

Greta Keller

In addition to the music, Suesse apparently wrote the lyrics for this song, which she seldom did. "Lyrics, I think are very difficult," she once said. "It took me approximately 20 years of apprenticeship to write what I’d term a presentable lyric. What I mean is, a lyric that satisfied me, that was up to the standard I felt a lyric should be. I learned a great deal from Billy Rose, and I worked with some extremely competent and gifted writers such as Yip Harburg, and the wonderful, creative Ira Gershwin."

The Viennese Keller had come to the US in 1938 and was already a feature in some of New York's top locations. Her voice may remind you of Marlene Dietrich; that's because Dietrich based her singing on Keller. Whatever you may think of her voice, her identification with the lyrics is total.

"This Changing World" was one of the composer's own favorites. "In 1940, I wrote a song called 'This Changing World,' with a wonderful lyric by Harold Adamson," she said. "The song is so relevant even today, and the lyric, as well as the melody, was ahead of its time. It had a strong harmonic progression, although simple in structure, but the song didn’t go anyplace. There were several recordings, but it just didn’t hit the charts the way I had hoped." The fluent performance is by Ginny Simms with the Kay Kyser band.

In the 1940s, Dana continued her association with Billy Rose, writing songs for his Diamond Horseshoe club, which operated from 1938-51 in New York's Paramount Hotel. Following the war, she studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris for three years.

Dick Haymes, who appears to be orbiting the moon

I wanted to include two later recordings of Suesse songs that were discussed above. First we have Dick Haymes' disc of "My Silent Love," made in 1947 with the backing of Gordon Jenkins. The second is Ray Anthony's 1950 recording of "The Night Is Young and You're So Beautiful," with a sterling vocal by Ronnie Deauville.

Finally, two recordings of the theme song from the hit stage production of The Seven Year Itch, which opened in late 1952 with incidental music by Suesse. First "The Girl Without a Name," performed by pianist Art Lowry and his orchestra. The published version lists lyrics by Dana and Scott Olsen, but I haven't found a recording of that version. The Lowry record credits "Engvick" presumably lyricist William Engvick, along with Suesse, but it's an instrumental.

There's yet another version of the tune. Eddie Bracken, who had succeeded Tom Ewell in the leading male role on Broadway, wrote his own words for  Suesse's music and recorded it under the name "That Girl" for the R&B label Chance, where he and Barbara Cooke coo to one another. (Update: my friend Geoconno informs me that "Barbara Cooke" is actually the wonderful Barbara Cook, in what must be one of her first recordings.)

Most of these recordings were remastered from Internet Archive 78s.

LINK

More by Dana Suesse

In 1941, Dana contributed to an album of "Modern American Music" put together by then radio conductor Meredith Willson. Her composition was "American Nocturne," a lovely piece somewhat tentatively played by the ensemble. You can hear the work - and the entire album - newly remastered via this post. "American Nocturne" is a different composition from the "Jazz Nocturne" above.

Finally, I am preparing a post of recordings by the short-lived jazz harpist Casper Reardon that will include Suesse's suite "Young Man with a Harp." I hope to finish that project soon. 

Meredith Willson and 'Modern American Music'

Paul Whiteman's 1924 Aeolian Hall concert is famous primarily for having introduced Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. But that event was just the beginning of what the conductor called his "Experiments in Modern American Music," with concert music commissioned from composers with pop and jazz roots. There were to be a total of eight such concerts, the last being held in 1938.

Whiteman's efforts inspired at least one other bandleader to undertake a similar endeavor, and this album is the result. In 1939, Meredith Willson was a radio conductor on the show Good News, which was primarily a showcase for M-G-M talent. For the show, Willson commissioned 10 notable pop composers to produce new works in a variety of forms, including the minuet, waltz, march and so on. Participating were Harry Warren, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Peter DeRose, Duke Ellington, Louis Alter, Sigmund Romberg, Morton Gould, Dana Suesse and Ferde Grofé. Ellington, Gould and Grofé had all contributed compositions to Whiteman's 1938 concert.

Meredith Willson

Willson convinced Decca to make an elaborate album of the resulting commissions, which contained two 10-inch and three 12-inch 78s. Willson and band (or "concert orchestra," as both he and Whiteman were then calling their ensembles) recorded the compositions in one session in early January 1941. The results are certainly listenable, although none of the pieces has become well known. But that was the case as well with the works that Whiteman commissioned - he never achieved a success to match Rhapsody in Blue, at least not with anyone but George Gershwin.

Willson's biggest triumph was to come many years later, with the hit musical The Music Man, which has at least five songs that became better known and loved than any of the compositions on this album. His own concert pieces, while enjoyable, will never be considered his main contribution to music.

Cover of 78 set

This transfer is from an early LP reissue of the 78 set, with good sound, now (March 2024) newly remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK to ambient stereo remaster