ULYSSES AFRICANUS

Composer: Kurt Weill
Lyricist: Maxwell Anderson

Written: 1939; 1945
Performances: Unproduced

Note: Weill's sketches and drafts for numbers for ULYSSES AFRICANUS include the complete melody of a song that subsequently became "Stay Well" in LOST IN THE STARS. Ken Bloom's American Song also indicated that "Big Mole" was also written for ULYSSES AFRICANUS, but that is not corroborated by the information set forth in Kurt Weill: A Handbook by David Drew.

The Little Grey House (later used in LOST IN THE STARS):

1. 78/London 30095 (Vera Lynn with Bob Farnon and His Orchestra)
2. 78/Decca 24824 (Bing Cosby with the Jud Conlon Singers and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra) [reissued on Good & Rare Volume 2, CD/Sepia Records 1091]
3. Lost In The Stars, Decca DL 8028 (Todd Duncan and Chorus with orchestra conducted by Maurice Levine) [reissued as CD/Decca Broadway 0881 10302-2]
4. Lost In The Stars, Word (S) CS-5117-LP (Eugene Holmes and Chorus with Dora Wilson, piano)
5. Lost In The Stars, CD/Music Masters Classics 01612-67100-2 (Arthur Woodley and the Concert Chorale of St. Luke's with the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Julius Rudel)
6. The Broadway Musicals Of 1949, CD/Bayview RNBW035 (Robert Westenberg with the Ross Patterson Little Big Band)
7. Charming Weill, CD/RCA Red Seal 09026 63513 2 (Max Rabe with the Palast Orchestra conducted by H.K.Gruber)
8. Down Home, CD/Audiophile Records 214 (Dardanelle)
A recording by the Russ Case Orchestra is also known to exist.


The Little Tin God (lyrics with a different musical setting later considered for but not used in LOST IN THE STARS):

1. Lost In The Stars, CD/Music Masters Classics 01612-67100-2 (Reginald Pindell with the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Julius Rudel)
2. A Clear Midnight: Kurt Weill And America, CD/ECM 2418 (Theo Bleckmann with the Julia Hulsmann Quartet)


Lost In The Stars (later used in LOST IN THE STARS):

I have not attempted to compile discological information for this Weill standard.


Lover Man (later used as "Trouble Man" in LOST IN THE STARS):

1. Six Songs By Kurt Weill, Bost Records BA8 (Lotte Lenya with Kurt Weill, piano) [reissued on Lenya, CD/Bear Family BCD-16019; also found on Kurt Weill: From Berlin To Broadway, CD/Pearl GEMM CDS 9189]


Unrecorded Material:

Going Down Hill
Introduction (agitato) and Melodrama
Klu Klux Klan Meeting
Lady, You Drop Yo' Feminine Wiles (music later reused for "Huxley" in LADY IN THE DARK)
When I Was A Pickaninny
White Folks