[Dixielandjazz] Sweet Georgia Brown

[Bill Haesler]

Stan Brager wrote:
> The 1983 film by Mel Brooks called "To Be Or Not To Be" begins and ends with marvelous performances of "Sweet Georgia Brown". The first, at the beginning of the film is by Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft. The second version is be a swinging Dixieland group. Unfortunately, the film surprisingly doesn't credit the Dixieland players or the group. The only information about the music is that the arranger was Ralph Burns. A search of IMDB didn't show any credits for the Dixieland group either. Does anyone have an information about the band? 

Dear Stan,
The Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft Polish rendition Of "Sweet Georgia Brown" was discussed on the DJML by Marek and Rae Ann in July 2009. 
Your specific query was raised on 3 August 2014 by Bob Ringwald on behalf of a friend who wrote: 

> The other night I was watching the old Mel Brooks movie "To Be or Not To Be" Great movie, anyway, at the end of the movie while they were running the credits there was a Dixie Band playing "Sweet Georgia Brown" great band with an outstanding trumpet player! Would you have any way of finding out who the musicians were in that band? Especially the trumpet player!  Best version of Sweet Georgia Brown by a Dixie Band I've ever heard!


To which Greg McCurty replied on 3 August 2014 :

> A bit of digging yielded a YouTube clip of "Sweet Georgia..." linked specifically to the Brooks film. It contained the information copied here: Great hot recording by Oliver Naylor's Orchestra...A separate search for Oliver Naylor's Orchestra brought me to another posting of the same recording. I hope this is correct, as I don't have a way to further corroborate the information.

Of course, Haesler couldn't resist the challenge, obtained the Mel Brooks film and made the comparison.
By which time the thread had died, I was busy on other things and (shame) never reported back.
The short answer to Greg's contribution is that the version behind the film credits is NOT the Oliver Naylor recording from May 1925.
Nor does it sound as though it was recorded by the Ralph Burns' studio orchestra for the 1983 film.
Bob Ringwald's friend is almost right. 
It IS a hot Dixie Band version of "Sweet Georgia Brown".
Trumpet, trombone, clarinet, piano, banjo, bass sax (Joe Ruston?) and drums. 
To my ear it belongs to the 190s-1950s. Pete Dailey, Red Nichols, Chuck Mackey, Zep Meisner et al.
And Joe Rushton played with them all.
It is a complete 2:20m performance and I've sent you an mp3 excerpt separately.
I compared it to similar tunes on the March 1949 Red Nichols Five Pennies Lang-Worth Transcriptions reissued on Jazzology JCD-90 and 290. 
Red Nichols (c) King Jackson (tb) Reuel Lynch (cl) Joe Rushton (bassax) Bobby Hammack (p) Rollie Culver (d). 
Mmmmm. Similar band sound, but no banjo.
There is also an unissued "Sweet Georgia Brown" that could fit:
Red Nichols And His Five Pennies: 
Red Nichols (c) King Jackson (tb) Rosy McHargue (cl) Don Lodice (ts) Joe Rushton (bassax) Bobby Hammack (p) Rollie Culver (d).  
United States Marine Corps transcriptions, Hollywood, CA, August, 1950. But no banjo.
Kind regards,
Bill.