‘Oh Sweet Dardanella, I love your harem eyes.
I’m a lucky fellow, to capture such a prize’

Dardanella was written in 1919 and became one of the most popular songs of the 1920’s selling 13 million copies, going on to become a huge jazz standard covered by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby amongst others.

This arrangement for Brass Band by Dario Salvi takes us back to the most famous version of 1920 sung by Vernon Dalhart and Gladys Rice, where the opening calls to mind the sounds of a fairground.

Dario’s arrangement moves between styles with an almost clockwork sound at one point changing to laid back swing beat at another, all supporting this cheerful melody. An excellent programme filler.