[Dixielandjazz] More on Red Nichols' Youtube Vitaphone item.

[Hal Vickery]

I'm not really sure when the practice began, but if you look really
carefully at the big band one-reelers of the 30s and 40s, those are
pre-recorded.  The place where you can see this, of course, is during the
improvised solos, particularly of pianists, at least for me because that's
what I used to play, but I've also noticed horn players breathing when there
is sound still coming out of their horns, etc.

I know this practice came not long after talkies started, but the Nichols
short is pretty good evidence that it might have happened sometime during
1929, at least at Warner Brothers-First National.

BTW, how did Condon's guitar suddenly turn into a banjo while he sang?????

Hal Vickery

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of Fr M J (Mike)
Logsdon
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 2:02 AM
To: DJML
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] More on Red Nichols' Youtube Vitaphone item.

After obvious notice of Red's ceasing to play yet his cornet continues 
to play (1929 Milli Vanilli), I examined the short a little more 
closely.  Now, to begin with, Condon's vocal could easily be 
lip-synched.  But he did it wonderfully.  BOTH times.  And it's after 
the second time I noticed that as he was sitting back down and grabbing 
his banjo, he began strumming at exactly the moment the strumming began 
on the film.  So, if he, too, was faking it, he faked it to perfection.

Which leads me to conjecture:  That, if the whole schmeer was 
dub-synched, it was so ONLY AFTER it was actually recorded beforehand as 
afterward filmed.  In other words, everyone knew their moves, in 
particular Condon, who knew that he was to pick his banjo up at a 
particular time and start strumming at a particular time, etc.  The only 
thing left to explain is Red's pointless non-playing cornet playing.  My 
only guess is, "Aw schidt! Did I do that?!"

Conjecturally your'n,
-- 
Etc,

Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon, Vicar-general
North American Old Roman Catholic Church (Utrecht Succession)
Archdiocese of California
www.naorc.org


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