[Dixielandjazz] A 20 minute film from '1954--Central Plaza in NYC w/McPartland, Jimmy Archey, Pee Wee, Willie "the Lion", Pops Foster, George Wettling!

[Ulf Jagfors]

Forwarded  from Jon-Erik Kellso.

Thanks Jon-Erik

Ulf J.

A 20 minutes film from '54--Central Plaza in NYC w/McPartland, Jimmy Archey,
Pee Wee, Willie "the Lion", Pops Foster, George Wettling!
 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h-DPiVVQJlY>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h-DPiVVQJlY
see Michael Steinman's blog about it below:

Jon-Erik 



 <http://jazzlives.wordpress.com> Jazz Lives
 
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<http://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/hold-on-tight-jazz-dance-1954-a-f
ilm-by-roger-tilton-and-richard-brummer/> HOLD ON TIGHT: "JAZZ DANCE"
(1954): A FILM BY ROGER TILTON and RICHARD BRUMMER 

Posted: 06 Jun 2012 04:28 PM PDT

Thanks to Joep Peeters for pointing out that this fascinating piece of
cultural / musical anthropology is available on YouTube.  Without
exaggeration, there is no film remotely like it:

This twenty-minute film documents what it was really like at New York City's
cavernous Central Plaza, with a band made up of Jimmy McPartland, cornet;
Jimmy Archey, trombone; Pee Wee Russell, clarinet; Willie "the Lion" Smith,
piano; Pops Foster, string bass; George Wettling, drums - heroes! - as they
proceed through a slow blues, a medium-tempo BALLIN' THE JACK,  ROYAL GARDEN
BLUES, and the SAINTS.

Here's the fascinating commentary about how the film was shot:

Matrixx Entertainment is pleased to present the 1954 classic, JAZZ DANCE,
produced and directed by Roger Tilton, edited by Richard Brummer.  Special
appearance by Al Minns and Leon James.  Music by Jimmy McPartland (trumpet),
Willie (the Lion) Smith (piano), Pops Foster (bass), Pee Wee Russel
(clarinet), Jimmy Archey (trombone), George Wettling, (drums). Filmed at the
Central Plaza Dance Hall in New York City.

This high quality version was digitized by John Fellers from Dick Brummer's
3/4-inch video tape struck from the original 35mm black and white master,
the only 35mm print in existence in San Diego with Pat Tilton, son of Roger
Tilton who passed away in 2011.  Dick Brummer, mentor of James Jaeger and a
stockholder of Matrixx Entertainment, granted permission to post JAZZ DANCE
to this channel.  Below are some excerpts from letters and technical notes
on how this pioneering film was made.

It might be of interest to note that Roger made many visits to the Central
Plaza Dance Hall in the weeks before production and drew pictures of things
he saw happen there.  These were given to the cameramen before the shoot
with instructions to try to get these shots if they happened.  The two
cameramen worked in such a way as to cover the same action from two angles
when possible so that I could have the material I needed for synchronous
action cuts when I edited the film.  JAZZ DANCE was shot with two 35mm
hand-held WW 2-type cameras called Eyemos plus a 35mm Mitchell high up in a
balcony. There were 2 cameramen with an assistant each.  When they ran out
of their 100 foot loads (about 1 minute) the assistant ran out with another
can of negative. Dupont 3 was used, the fastest film at the time.  Roger had
been told that he would need arc lights and a generator in the street with
big sound cameras to do the job but my associate at the time and I had a
different idea.  We had arranged for the use of new lights just developed by
GE that were the first PAR cans ever used on a film.  They plugged into the
existing power.  The Eyemos were wild, but shot at 24 frames per second. My
sound equipment also ran at 24 fps.  I did the sync later on a Movieola.
The crowd was told that, by signing a release that night, they would get in
free.  I used 3 mics and a third hand-held when needed through a mixer.  The
film is noted for being one of the first cinema verite films to take the
audience into an event as participant.  The audience hardly noticed the
cameras because they looked like amateur equipment.  The cameramen shot from
behind shoulders and from the hip.  Ricky Leacock and Bob Campbell were the
two cameramen.  For the JAZZ DANCE shoot, the cameramen used 100 foot loads
and several cameras so that, when signaled, the assistants would give the
cameramen a loaded camera and take away the camera with the exposed film to
unload it and load a new 100 foot load.  This was done away from the crowd
in black loading bags.  The cameras were spring-wound, but set by the
cameramen to run at 24 fps, the same speed I was running my 17 and a half
mag recorder (which was plugged in to the wall behind the band).  The entire
dance was shot in about four hours.  Solving the logistics of the shoot, as
I discussed above, was one thing, but documenting what actually went on at
the Dance Hall every Saturday night on 35mm, with both sound AND picture,
set a new standard for a "you are there," cinema verite film.  The
well-known documentarian, Mura Dehn, had shot footage of jazz dancers,
including Minns and James, before, but such shoots were always staged and
without sound (what we call MOS). This was true even when she shot at the
Savoy Ballroom. You can see Dehn's work on YouTube in the series is called
"The Spirit Moves." By the way, I worked with Mura on a documentary she made
on modern jazz music where she DID record live music - but there was no
dancing.  So JAZZ DANCE is the first to combine many techniques.


Almost sixty years later, this film captures an exuberant scene in exuberant
ways.  I had not known of the one-minute film limitations, but now it
explains the hectic energy of the finished product, cutting from one scene
to another with restless rapidity.  The music speaks for itself: as I've
been pointing out with advertising cards, bands such as this - at this level
- assembled regularly in these huge downtown New York catering halls in the
late Forties onward.  So JAZZ DANCE presents a wild audience responding
without restraint to the music they hear.  It is also an amusing corrective
to those who yearn for an imagined Golden Era when audiences sat silently,
rapt, attentive . . . I suspect that hot jazz always provoked such energetic
response.

May your happiness increase.






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