Crazy Rhythm (song)

"Crazy Rhythm" is a thirty-two-bar swing show tune written in 1928 by Irving Caesar, Joseph Meyer, and Roger Wolfe Kahn for the Broadway musical "Here's Howe" [http://www.redhotjazz.com/rwkahno.html Roger Wolfe Kahn & His Orchestra] at The Red Hot Jazz Archive] . It has since become a jazz standard, inspiring at least 15 jazz albums named "Crazy Rhythm", often with the song itself included. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:313249 "Crazy Rhythm"] at All Media Guide]

Performances

"Crazy Rhythm" was first recorded (on Victor 21368-B) by Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra in New York on 1928 April 12, with Franklyn Baur singing the chorus [http://www.redhotjazz.com/rwkahno.html Roger Wolfe Kahn & His Orchestra] at The Red Hot Jazz Archive] [http://www.vitaphone.org/victor3.html Victor label] at The Victor Orthophonic Page] :

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In addition, a well-received and quite elegant version of the song was recorded by Whispering Jack Smith (noted for his soft, but crystal clear 'whispered' delivery over the air waves); his recording quickly became one of the most recognised and favorite renditions of the song to flappers, their beaux, and other Bright Young Things of the Jazz Age.

It has been covered by a full range of artists from mainstream jazz to hillbilly bebop. At least 150 covers have been recorded. Chet Atkins, Bix Beiderbecke, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, Mark Murphy, Les Paul, Hank Penny, Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli, and Frank Sinatra have all recorded this catchy tune. Most, but not all, are strictly instrumental. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:313249 "Crazy Rhythm"] at All Media Guide] The song was also covered by MECO for his 1978 album, Encounters of Every Kind.

Of special note is the performance by Doris Day and Gene Nelson in the 1950 film "Tea for Two". This is a frame tale around a putative production of "No, No, Nanette" (written in 1925 by the prolific Caesar, Otto Harbach, and Vincent Youmans); "Tea for Two" being a number inserted into the original "Nanette". "Crazy Rhythm" is presented in this film as a demonstration for backers of the production-to-be. Thus, it has come to be associated with the popular "Tea" and "Nanette", while "Here's Howe" is largely forgotten. Day and Nelson also recorded "Crazy Rhythm" on the album "Tea for Two" -- not a soundtrack but a distinct studio recording in which Nelson does a tap solo, not seen or heard on film. [http://www.tap-wonderland.com/twteafortwo.htm Tea for Two] at Tap Wonderland]

Another notable recording of the song is on 1961's "Further Definitions", by Benny Carter with Coleman Hawkins. This is one of Carter's most acclaimed recordings. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002931 Carter, Benny] at Encyclopædia Britannica Online] [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/1/1992_1_100.shtml Diamond Jubilee of Jazz] at "American Heritage"]

"Crazy Rhythm" is, for the working jazz musician, inescapable. At a 2006 Birdland performance, post-bop pianist Andrew Hill "...who never plays anyone's standards but his own, began playing the opening motif from Meyer and Caeser's 1928 'Crazy Rhythm.' The drums played against the piano and the bass repeated an off-kilter Latin beat, but Tin Pan Alley was somewhere buried in the subtext... It was a clever moment, a rare nod to accessibility in an extremely opaque evening." [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060710/yaffe Brilliant Corners] , David Yaffe's review of Hill's 2006 Birdland concert at The Nation]

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