Darktown Strutters Ball

As we dissolve into Dick's lonely hotel bedroom there is a confused sound of music emerging out of the Darktown Strutter's Ball into In A Mist which immediately begins to change gear..... Tender Is The Night Fimscript in the Cinema of Malcolm Lowry Edited by Miguel Mota and Paul Tiessen



"Darktown Strutters' Ball" is a popular song by Shelton Brooks, published in 1917. The song has been recorded many times and is considered a popular and jazz standard.

The landmark 1917 recording by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band which was recorded on May 30, 1917 and released by Columbia Records as catalog number A-2297 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006. There are many variations of the title, including "At the Darktown Strutters' Ball", "The Darktown Strutters' Ball", and just "Strutters' Ball". Read more including a list of various recordings

Willard Robison

As I have mentioned in previous posts on Lowry's film script to Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night Lowry infuses the script with jazz music to fit the "Jazz Age" in which the novel is set.



In one of the early scenes of the script in Antibes, Lowry originally wanted to use music by Bix Beiderbecke. However, while he was writing the script, Michael Curtiz's movie of Bix's life was released. Lowry became conscious that the piece he wanted to use In A Mist may have been used in Curtiz's A Young Man With A Horn. Instead, he suggested using a piece by Willard Robison. He doesn't mention one in particular so I have chosen I'm More Than Satisfied from 1927 featuring Bix Beiderbecke (c); Frank Trumbauer (Cms); Don Murray (cl); Frank Signorelli (p); Eddie Lang or ? (bj); Vic Berton (dm/harpophone); The Deep River Quintet (voc.



Willard Robison (September 18, 1894 - June 24, 1968) was an American composer of popular song. Born in Shelbina, Missouri, his songs reflect a rural, melancholy theme steeped in Americana. Their warm style has drawn comparison to Hoagy Carmichael. Many of his songs, such as "A Cottage for Sale", "Round My Old Deserted Farm", "Don't Smoke in Bed", and "Old Folks", have become standards and have been recorded countless times by jazz and pop artists such as Peggy Lee, Nina Simone, Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstine, and Mildred Bailey. "A Cottage for Sale" alone has been recorded over 100 times.

In the early 1920s, Robison led and toured with several territory bands in the Southwest. He met Jack Teagarden in this period, whom he befriended. In the late 1920s, Robison organized the Deep River Orchestra, later hosting a radio show entitled The Deep River Hour in the early 1930s.

During the 1920s, Robison recorded extensively for Perfect Records, with scores of vocal recordings accompanying himself on piano (displaying his rather eccentric stride piano style), as well as "Deep River Orchestra" recordings using standard stock arrangements. In 1926-1927, Robison recorded an interesting series of 6 mood pieces with the umbrella name of "American Suite" (for example, "Tampico" was American Suite no. 5). Between 1928 and 1930, he recorded for Columbia, Harmony and Victor. He also recorded a session in 1937 for Master Records.

Jack Teagarden recorded a critically-praised album of Robison's songs in 1962 entitled Think Well of Me. Robison died in Peekskill, New York in 1968, aged 73. Wikipedia

Gershwin's Somebody Loves Me

From a window in the tower - doubtless still a barracks - we hear a gramophone playing jazz music very faintly: Gershwin's Somebody Loves Me. Tender Is The Night - a film script by Malcolm Lowry

Lowry's film script of Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night opens in Antibes. As stated by Miguel Mota and Paul Tiessen, in their excellent The Cinema Of Malcolm Lowry, A Scholarly Edition of Lowry's Tender Is The Night(1990, Lowry's film script is less an adaption of the Fitzgerald book "than an extension of Lowry's own fiction."

As Rosemary Hoyt, one of the characters of the novel, wanders around Antibes, we are given by Lowry a cinematic journey around the town.

There have been many versions of Gershwin's song. Here is a delightful one:



Below are some postcards which compliment Lowry's descriptions of Antibes that you can browse as you listened to the above.


















I don't think Lowry ever visited the town. This is unusual in that most of Lowry's fiction is autobiographical though I suppose we have to realise he was adapting Fitzgerald's text.

Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue

Lowry wrote to his teenage friend Carol Brown:

A gramophone playing "Rhapsody In Blue" reminding me of you awfully. Letter To Carol Brown April/May 1926 Collected Letters Of Malcom Lowry Vol. 1

Malcolm is writing to Carol from the Leys School. We can only imagine that they may have shared moments together when the song was played on his trips back to the Wirral on school holidays. Lowry often uses music as others have done to capture moments in time. His novels and stories often contain musical references as if it was a soundtrack to the story on the screen of his mind.

We can see the above in Tender Is The Night film script which was written by Malc and his wife Margerie as they litter the script with music. One such piece of music occurs early on in the script:

From a window in the tower - doubtless still a barracks - we hear a gramophone playing jazz music faintly: Gershwin's Somebody Loves Me