A Forest of 'Poincianas'

Before anyone inquires, that is a poinciana at left, a colorful tree that is indigenous to Madagascar but found in many tropical and semi-tropical locations. For our purposes, "Poinciana" also is a humid song that was popular in the 1940s into the 50s, and even later.

The sheet music reads "Poinciana (Song of the Tree)," and record labels will tell you the authors were Nat Simon and Buddy Bernier. In reality it is a traditional Cuban tune adapted in 1936 into a popular song, "La canción del árbol," with Spanish lyrics by Manuel Lliso.

The tropical Bing

Today we'll explore eight varied interpretations of the Americanized "Poinciana" - vocals, exotica, jazz and R&B. (I haven't found a recording of  "La canción del árbol," unfortunately.) Why "Poinciana"? It's a favorite of mine.

The Simon-Bernier version was published as far back as 1936, but the first recorded version I've found is a 1942 instrumental by David Rose. But our journey will begin, as many do around here, with Bing Crosby, who was the first to have a hit with "Poinciana," in 1943. Even before Bing begins singing, you will note that John Scott Trotter has identified the song as a boléro, and has patterned the accompaniment after Maurice Ravel's famous composition of that name In the verse, Bing's languid singing, in a higher register than usual, contrasts well with the rat-a-tat of the accompaniment. The chorus is more conventional.

Bing's Decca record is something of a scarce item. It has been reissued on CD a few times, but not nearly as often as its 78 flip side, "San Fernando Valley," which was a huge hit. This could be because "Poinciana" was not especially well recorded or processed.

Benny Carter

It took very little time for other artists to take note of the song. Shortly after Bing's recording, Benny Carter took a big band into a studio for an early Capitol session. The song is a showcase for his fluid alto saxophone and assertive band. There is no Ravel "rat-a-tat."

Another big band - a very big one, with strings and all - took up the song the next year. It was Capt. Glenn Miller and the Army Air Force Training Command Orchestra, who performed an elaborate Jerry Gray arrangement in what I believe to be a May 1944 broadcast, which has excellent sound.

Sgt. Johnny Desmond

Gray's chart is certainly more Miller than Ravel, with the brass's characteristic "boo-wah" effects prominent in the opening chorus. The performance segues into a romantic vocal by the young Johnny Desmond, backed up by the Crew Chiefs. Desmond is relatively convincing with Bernier's melodramatic lyrics: "Somehow I feel the jungle heat / Within me, there grows a rhythmic savage beat." He looks more stiff than savage at right.

Miller's recording is longer than the norm of the time, coming in at about five minutes. So too was the next interpretation, that of mood music maestro Andre Kostelanetz. He recognized the song as a prime piece of exotica, and packaged it into a Columbia album called Exotic Music, along with "Flamingo," a hit for Duke Ellington, "Song of India," a hit for Tommy Dorsey, and Cyril Scott's "Lotus Land" from 1905. You can hear the whole album via my friend Lee's blog.

My own introduction to "Poinciana" came several decades ago via a copy of Frank Sinatra's 1946 version with the usual superb backing from Axel Stordahl, who arranged almost all of the Voice's records until said Voice joined Capitol. Stordahl was very skilled, and his best work was done with Frank. Their "Poinciana" is outstanding, with Stordahl's sophisticated chart perfectly underpinning the intensely romantic vocal.

Frank Sinatra and Axel Stordahl

One of Sinatra's many rivals was the excellent Alan Dale, who didn't have a huge career but was nonetheless talented. He recorded "Poinciana" in 1948 for Bob Thiele's high-class but short-lived Signature label, backed by Ray Bloch. Dale's entrance blares, but the rest of the performance is fine. His singing is more Bing than Frank, and perhaps closest to the extroverted Don Cornell of Sammy Kaye's band.

Lynn Hope

"Poinciana" continued to appeal to both singers and bandleaders at mid-century. R&B saxophonist Lynn Hope did it for the small Premium label in 1950. His idea of the song was a calypso, and in that guise it's very listenable.

"Poinciana" inevitably became a subject of interest to the exotica mavens of the 1950s, inspiring recordings by Esquivel, Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman and today's featured artist, Tak Shindo, an American arranger-composer who combined American and Asian influences in his music.

The Shindo selection comes from his 1960 LP Brass and Bamboo, done for Capitol. The recording jumbles all types of effects into a captivating trip to another land - several of them, in fact.

These recordings were cleaned up from my collection and that of the Internet Archive folks.

LINK

Desmond, Dale and Cornell Promote Their Wares

Alan Dale, Don Cornell and Johnny Desmond

Coral Records had three fine crooners on the rolls in 1953, and so decided to merge their talents and hopefully their audiences by having them record the 1926 Ben Ryan chestnut, "(The Gang that Sang) Heart of My Heart." Probably responding to the publisher's stimulus, Decca (which owned Coral) had the Four Aces do the same, and the two versions battled it out on the airways and record charts. Jack Pleis provided the orchestral backing on both records.

The three Coral artists were Alan Dale, Don Cornell and Johnny Desmond, who despite the Anglo names were all of Italian descent, being baptized Aldo Sigismondi, Luigi Francisco Varlaro and Giovanni Alfredo De Simone.

Coral decided it had to do something different to promote the record to disc jockeys, so it prepared two promotional tracks, one by the trio and one by labelmate Eileen Barton that DJs could program to intro the cut. The trio's cut is amusing, but Barton sounds ill at ease.

These promos were on one side of the 78; the other was devoted to touting the flip side of the commercial 78, "I Think I'll Fall in Love Today," an good new song by the duo of Robert Allen and Al Stillman.

The "I Think I'll Fall in Love Today" promo was a complicated bit in which the DJs were to engage in rhythmic colloquy with the trio. The promo record went so far as to have Eileen Barton provide an example of how this was to be done. Honestly, I wonder if anyone actually used this contrived bit.

Eileen Barton

The combination of two or more top artists on one record was becoming more common in 1953 and 1954, although the phenomenon was not new. Typically it involved female-male combinations such as Jo Stafford with Frankie Laine or Gordon MacRae, or Margaret Whiting with MacRae or Jimmy Wakely. Same-sex couplings were less common, although there were pairings of Lisa Kirk with Fran Warren, and Rosemary Clooney with Marlene Dietrich, among others.

A June 1954 Billboard article (in the download) notes the phenomenon, mentioning Dale-Cornell-Desmond along with Dale-Desmond-Buddy Greco, and a quartet encompassing Jane Russell, Della Russell, Connie Haines and Beryl Davis. The latter contingent had some sticking power. Jane, Connie and Beryl recorded a gospel LP for Capitol in 1957 called The Magic of Believing. The following year Coral issued a record called Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord by the four of them, with Rhonda Fleming replacing Della Russell on some songs. The Coral LP was largely a repackaging of earlier single releases.

The download includes both the promo record and the commercial release of the Dale-Cornell-Desmond materials.