[Dixielandjazz] Pro Musicians and Lipsynching

[Bill Gunter]

Listmates . . .

Speaking of faking an instrumental -

In the Boondockers, I normally play the washboard or banjo or violin but 
there is one instrument I pick up and fake. That's a trumpet. There's one 
song that Ringwald sings. At the end of his vocal chorus I pick up the 
trumpet and lip sync it while our cornetist (Gary Church) hides sort of out 
of sight with a mic and does the actual playing.

I try to do it as straight as I can possibly do it without actually knowing 
the correct finger positions. However . . . fingering on a trumpet is a 
small action compared to, say, a trombone . . . so people generally don't 
notice the discrepancies.  I mainly try to get the "body language" right 
such as when I "tighten up" to hit that high note, pause to take a breath 
and add in the flowery licks Gary tends to add to the melody.

Why, you ask, would we bother to do this? It's a beautiful song (Ringwald 
sings "What a Wonderful World) and we do it as straight and clean as we can. 
The funny part is where Bob resumes singing at the bridge and I stop 
"playing" the trumpet. Gary doesn't stop playing, however, and so the 
trumpet just keeps on going over Bob's solo. I try to "squelch" the trumpet 
by stuffing a cloth down the bell, holding it against my stomach, hiding it 
behind my back, etc.  All the while Gary is making muted, choked and gagging 
sounds on the trumpet in sync with my actions trying to "stifle" the sound.

It's very funny . . . especially when I put it behind my back and Gary makes 
a very convincing flatulent sound with his cornet.

Oh well, I guess you have to actually see the bit.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "serious musician" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com

ps - Didn't the group "Milli Vanilli" get into trouble for doing this sort 
of thing?



>From: "Robert Newman" <bobngaye at surewest.net>
>To: "DJML" <Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Pro Musicians and Lipsynching
>Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 15:41:22 -0700
>
>Some of the greatest musicians were not great at faking for the movies.     
>There are examples galore.    Watch Benny on Hollywood Hotel and others 
>he's done.     He not only doesn't try to fake the fingering, he takes 
>breaths in the middle of continuous phrases.    Artie Shaw the same thing.  
>   On Symphony in Swing, Dancing Coed, and Second Chorus Shaw looks like he 
>didn't care what was coming next.    I'm sure he didn't.
>
>The funniest example of pro musicians doing horrible faking is the Soundies 
>video series that came out a few years ago.   Each of the Soundies was made 
>in one day.   In the morning the band recorded the audio of the number and 
>in the afternoon they lipsynched the performance, all saxes  and trumpets 
>and trombones lined up perfectly, each horn in each section exactly 
>parallel along the line.    There was probably a carpenter's level thread 
>held tightly along the line of the horns.   And fingering and breathing?    
>Forget it!
>
>A good example of live performances without faking is the Meet The 
>Bandleaders series.   Those were special performances for the videos but 
>they were live and very well done.
>
>Bob Newman
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