Dieter Salemann

Flights of the Vout Bug Dieter Salemann

In 1956 producer Lyle Griffin released a two-sided single record by the comedian and monologist Richard "Lord" Buckley under the futuristic title "Flight of The Saucer". Having become a cult record long since, this early predecessor of the later 'rap' style at least partly was a recycled version of a recording, which had already been made by Griffin in late 1946, only that the 'flying object' then had not been the saucer but the vout bug. Actually flying on this older record was legendary jazz pianist Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa, for whom "Flight of The Vout Bug" - suggesting at least verbally some kind of analogy to Rimsky-Korsakov's "Bumble Bee" - had been written as a miniature concertino for piano and big band. Marmarosa certainly was not unknown then, nor is he today. Yet his many 'flights' on records or transcriptions from the 1940s to the 1960s - including some of Slim Gaillard's humorous excursions into the language of "Vout" - have never been completely documented in a comprehensive and chronological catalogue, which is the task the authors have set themselves with the present publication. The approach to this task is twofold: on one side is a detailed discographical listing of the pianist's known recorded performances and on the other an interpretative survey, which seeks to guide the listener's ear to some of the intrinsic artistic values of Marmarosa's ever-beautiful and highly personal piano style. This is the never before published discography and history of a legendary performer.