By Steven Suskin
20 Mar 2005

TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE [Shellwood SWCD29]
The above-mentioned Vernon Duke (1903-1969) is one of those once-popular Broadway composers whose name is relatively forgotten but whose music — the best of it — remains unforgettable.

Having fled the Russian Revolution, he made his way to America (via Constantinople) in 1921. A conservatory-trained composer, he supported himself by accompanying gypsy violinists while writing modernist stuff. In 1923, an up-and-coming 24-year-old named Gershwin — still a year before writing his instantly immortal "Rhapsody" — heard Vladimir Dukelsky play. George was impressed (if, perhaps, puzzled) by the music of Dukie, and took him under his wing.

"There's no money in that kind of stuff," said Gershwin, "try to write some real popular tunes." After a sojourn in Paris, during which he composed a ballet for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, young Vladimir did. Try to write some real popular tunes, that is. Using the Gershwin-manufactured moniker Vernon Duke, he came to Broadway in 1930, with an early song hit in "April in Paris" (with a lyric by E.Y. Harburg).

Duke had an up-and-down Broadway career, with his so-called "biggest hits" comprising the Paris song, its pendant "Autumn in New York," "I Can't Get Started" and "Taking a Chance on Love." Duke's Broadway output was highlighted by a fair number of richly textured art songs (like "Paris" and "Autumn") and an assortment of irrepressibly catchy rhythm numbers (like "Taking a Chance"). The music is not easy, if you will; relatively few of Duke's songs caught on with crooners or dance bands, although the big four remain understandably attractive in jazz and cabaret land.

While Duke was biding his time in the late thirties and early forties, his publisher Jack Robbins — looking for material to peddle to the piano lesson crowd — commissioned a series of stand-alone piano solos, nominally descriptive of various American cities. "Fruity piano pieces, filled with dyspeptic chords" is how Duke described them; but a commission was a commission. Alex Hassan, a Virginia-based pianist who specializes in the styles of twenties and thirties pop music, has had the idea to record the seven Duke solos, giving us the chance to hear what they sound like. (I've spent some time struggling through "New York Nocturne," but it sounds MUCH better in, and on, Hassan's hands.) So here we have them: "Rittenhouse Square," "Lake Shore Drive," "Nob Hill," "Back Bay" and the rest.

Nice enough, and interesting enough, certainly; but the value of "Taking a Chance on Love" (as the collection is called) comes from the 18 show tunes with which Hassan fills out the space. Hassan gives us his own arrangements of the songs, which are certainly miles beyond the simplified versions that made it into the sheet music. He has clearly studied whatever tapes he could find of Duke playing Duke. What we get is not only the songs, but the musicality of Duke (although without the eccentricity of Duke's own playing; the composer tended to depart from the composition at will, as was his prerogative).

So here are the big four, plus stunning ballads like "Now," "Suddenly" and "Words without Music"; beamingly irrepressible dance tunes like "Not a Care in the World," "We're Having a Baby" and "My Red Letter Day"; and even the satiric syncopation of "The Gazooka." Let me add that the show tune assortment stops in 1942; there are at least another 18 worthy Duke titles that are not included.

If "Taking a Chance on Love" is well worth taking a chance on, it is not at this point easy to come by; while it will presumably soon arrive at the American dealers who carry this sort of thing, at present it seems only to be available via import from the label, www.shellwood.co.uk.

We have been waiting quite some time for a Vernon Duke songbook; the majority of these songs are long out of print, sad to say. In the meanwhile, "Taking a Chance on Love" will give you a pretty good idea of why so many of us remain mad for Duke.

—Steven Suskin, author of "A Must See! Brilliant Broadway Artwork" [Chronicle Books], the "Broadway Yearbook" series, "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached by e-mail at Ssuskin@aol.com.