[Dixielandjazz] For Jazz / Movie Buffs

[Stephen G Barbone]

If you are anywhere near Philadelphia next weekend, you might want to  
check this out.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband



Moore College of Art & Design presents JAZZ & SWING
RARITIES

Friday, September 25
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00

Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099

On Friday, September 25, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and
Design will present JAZZ & SWING RARITIES, a program of short films from
Hollywood's golden age showcasing musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Cab
Calloway, Stan Kenton, Eubie Blake, Rodgers & Hart, and many others.

Jazz came of age roughly at the same time as the motion picture, and  
they
have shared a long and fruitful history together. Many of the first
experiments in synchronizing sound with movies were used to capture
performances of early jazz musicians, and the first talking feature film
starred Al Jolson as THE JAZZ SINGER.

JAZZ & SWING RARITIES will include a variety of vintage short subject
genres: straight performance films, musical shorts with dramatic and
comedic plots, a cartoon with both animated and live-action jazz, and
"Soundies" films produced for use in the Mills Panoram film jukebox of  
the
early 1940s. The Secret Cinema has presented other programs in the past
that have included these types of films, but most of the films to be
included in JAZZ & SWING RARITIES will be making their Secret Cinema  
debut.

There will be one complete screening at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.

As usual, all Secret Cinema programs are projected in 16mm film on a  
giant
screen (not video).

Just a few highlights JAZZ & SWING RARITIES are:

HE WAS HER MAN (1929, Dir: Dudley Murphy) - The traditional 1870 murder
ballad "Frankie & Johnny" has been sung by countless performers in the  
last
139 years (including Lena Horne, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley). It is  
also
the basis for this early melodramatic musical short, easily the rarest
offering of JAZZ & SWING RARITIES. Director Dudley Murphy had a singular
career, working both in the avant garde (he collaborated, with Fernand
Léger, Man Ray and Ezra Pound on the experimental classic BALLET  
MÉCANIQUE)
and the Hollywood mainstream, where he excelled in films focusing on  
black
characters (such as Paul Robeson's THE EMPEROR JONES or the Duke  
Ellington
short BLACK & TAN FANTASY). This early project for Paramount shows  
some of
the techniques he would use in all these projects. At least two film
history books (including the recent biography DUDLEY MURPHY, HOLLYWOOD  
WILD
CARD) state that HE WAS HER MAN is a lost film, but the Secret Cinema
archive has recently acquired a very scarce 16mm print.

MAKERS OF MELODY (1929, Dir: S. Jay Kaufman) - This enjoyably corny  
piece
of fluff features Great American Songbook composing superstars Richard
Rodgers and Lorenz Hart playing themselves, being interviewed by a  
pretty
reporter about how they wrote some of their classic songs. Their  
anecdotes
are interrupted by performances of "Manhattan," "The Girlfriend" and  
"The
Blue Room." Filmed against some very false-looking backgrounds at
Paramount's Astoria Studios in Queens, New York.

PIE PIE BLACKBIRD (1932, Dir: Roy Mack) - This surreal one-reeler  
packs a
lot of crazy visuals and hot music into it's short length, starring  
ragtime
innovator Eubie Blake and his Band, striking actress/singer Nina Mae
McKinney, and the jaw-dropping tap dancing of young Fayard and Harold
Nicholas. Made by Warner Brothers' Vitaphone division, whose short films
captured countless performers otherwise lost to history. Many of the  
more
interesting Vitaphone shorts were directed by Roy Mack, whose career
deserves further exploration.

MINNIE THE MOOCHER (1932, Dir: Dave Fleischer) - Contemporary music was
used to enliven every product of the film industry, and animated  
cartoons
were no exception. Amongst the producers of cartoons, Max Fleischer was
surely the most astute at following trends in American music. His  
various
cartoon series are filled with hot jazz scores, and some series were  
based
on music itself, such as the sing-along bouncing ball shorts that he
invented (and patented). Besides using great music, Fleischer recorded  
and
photographed early performances of several jazz legends, including Louis
Armstrong, Rudy Vallee, the Boswell Sisters and Don Redman. This  
incredible
entry in the Betty Boop series includes a filmed performance of jazz  
wild
man Cab Calloway, as well as an animated walrus that was rotoscoped to  
copy
Calloway's filmed movements.

LET'S MAKE RHYTHM (1947, Dir: Wallace Grissell) - The originator of the
phrase "Wall of Sound," was not Phil Spector, but innovative West Coast
band leader Stan Kenton, who stars in this mini-musical comedy with his
orchestra and vocalists June Christy and the Pastels. Kenton and combo
perform several samples of what he would label "progressive jazz,"
including "Down in Chihuahua," "Concerto to End all Concertos" and
"Tampico." The romantic subplot is based on a returning sailor's
infatuation with the attractive voice on the other end of a switchboard
jukebox line, highlighting a long-extinct technology sure to surprise  
(or
perhaps puzzle) modern viewers.

…plus much more.

SECRET CINEMA WEBSITE: http://www.thesecretcinema.com