This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And today I'm taking you to the movies, with some of the best of Rhythm & Blues that appeared on film, whether it be a full-length musical movie or what became famous as soundies. Soundies were the music clips of the forties - no way that MTV has invented them. I'll tell you more about them later, first a great piece of musical film history - Duke Ellington in Black and Tan Fantasy of 1929. From this movie, here is Black Beauty.
01 - Duke Ellington - Black Beauty (from 'Black and Tan Fantasy')
02 - Duke Ellington - Black and Tan Fantasy
And from that same movie of Duke Ellington the title song of Black and Tan Fantasy and in the movie he changed his great hit of 1927, together with a gospel choir into a spine-chilling funeral lament over the main female character in this short movie, the dancer Fredi Washington who just got a heart attack while dancing on the music. Play me the Black and Tan Fantasy, she asks as her last wish.
Duke Ellington was the regular performer of the Cotton Club, the venue in New York that featured African-American artists but was only open to white customers - and another regular was Cab Calloway. He was hired to fill up the gaps when Ellington was on tour but he grew so popular that soon he got a full contract next to the Duke. Calloway's song Minnie the Moocher had been his first number one hit and he recorded it several times again for film - one as the soundtrack of a Betty Boop cartoon. Pretty neat as the ghost walrus' movements in it were copied from Calloway's expressive dancing style. But he also made at least three filmings of his song, a soundie in 1942, then in 1955 in the Rhythm and Blues Revue movie, and one, at the age of 73, in the Blues Brothers movie of 1980.
Here's the music of that '42 soundie.
03 - Cab Calloway - Minnie The Moocher
04 - Meade Lux Lewis - Low Down Dog
One of the three most important boogie woogie pianist of the late thirties - this was Meade Lux Lewis with a soundie of Low Down Dog depicting a man scolding his woman when he finds her with another man.
Soudies were short, three-minute musical movies on 16 mm film produced between 1940 and '46. They were designed for use in the Panoram coin machine, and at their heydays you could find them all across the nation in bars and restaurants, soda shops, bus and train stations and just anywhere you could imagine them. In it the film reel held eight movies of three minutes. A hole in the film after each clip triggered a microswitch to stop and it required another dime to see the next movie. That was twice the price of a record in a jukebox that was a nickel - and you had no choice which one of the eight movies would play - it just played the next one.
The head of the soundies production company was no-one less than James Roosevelt, son of president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Now the soundies did feature all kinds of music and also an unsuccesful line of comedy shorts was launched. Still they are best remembered for the really rare performances of African American artists who had less opportunities to play in cinema movies - and some artists that never got on record either. Like the all-female big band the International Sweethearts of Rhythm - that was born from an African American high school band. When they lost the connection with the school it became a racially integrated band, and they toured all of the country. Especially in the South that was pretty difficult where segregation laws forbade such integrated work. Also the band continuously went through great financial troubles - the band just got paid badly for their good work.
They recorded several soundies and here they are with I Left My Man.
05 - International Sweethearts Of Rhythm - I Left My Man
06 - Andy Kirk - Apollo Dance
Some soudies just registered a band playing for an audience, like this one from 1946 of Andy Kirk and his band with the Apollo Dance. And like shellac records, these movies also suffer from a degrading sound quality through time. The guitarist on this one is one of the pioneers of the electrical guitar - Floyd Smith.
Many of these soundies have the typical swing music of the forties rather than raw Rhythm & Blues - I guess because they were aimed at a general audience. And they often featured artists who aspired to be actors rather than musicians. Like Dorothy Dandridge who eventually found success with a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the 1959 movie Porgy and Bess.
But here she is in a 1942 soundie together with Paul White where he asks for the outfit for a hepcat - A Zoot Suit with a Reet Pleat.
07 - Paul White & Dorothy Dandridge - A Zoot Suit with a Reet Pleat
08 - Nat King Cole & Ida James - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby
Nat King Cole and Ida James with Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby - a soundie from 1944.
And more music from the little white screen of the Panoram coin machine with Fats Waller with Your Feet's Too Big from 1943.
09 - Fats Waller - Your Feet's Too Big
10 - Fats Waller & Ada Brown - That Ain't Right (from Stormy Weather)
Fats Waller's comedy role with his immortal punchline 'one never know, does one', here on the piano wearing his bowler hat on the side of his head that always seems to be part of his outfit. Ada Brown sang That Ain't Right and that came from the 1943 full-length musical movie Stormy Weather also featuring Lena Horne, the famous tap dancer 'Bojangles' Bill Robinson, Katherin Dunham and Cab Calloway with his Cotton Club Orchestra.
The scene of the song is a packed cafe with Waller on the piano backed by a small combo consisting of clarinet, trumpet, trombone and bass. Ada Brown shouts out her blues collecting money from the patrons that she she throws in a jug with a sign Feed the Kitty on it. Ada Brown was in her fifties when she played in that movie but man, she sure looked good for a middle aged woman.
Next Martha Davis, together with her husband Calvin Ponder, they did a musical comedy show titled Martha Davis and spouse in the Blue Angel in New York. Now Davis does a good boogie-woogie and Ponder hits the bass well, but what I can't show you is the facial expressions of these two, that makes this soundie fun to see.
11 - Martha Davis - Martha's Boogie
12 - Sugar Chile Robinson - After School Blues
The After School Blues of Sugar Chile Robinson in a short featuring this child prodigy with Count Basie and his band. Robinson does this all by himself though, the band is just enjoying the boy's song. Robinson started playing the piano when he could barely walk and his father recalled him thumping out Tuxedo Junction at the age of two. His heydays came in the mid-forties when he performed for President Truman, and did sold-out appearances in the Regal Theatre in Chicago, and in California he was the superstar with Sammy Davis Jr and Dorothy Dandridge appearing in his revue. That year, 1946, he was seven years old and he made a 148,000 dollars.
He didn't get on record though until 1949 when AFM chairman Petrillo granted him access to the musicians union. This short movie, where he did two of his hits with Count Basie came in 1950 but then soon the cuteness went off and teenager Frank just wanted to go to school like all the other kids. Now he had a tutor while he was on the road and apparently he was keen enough so he graduated from high school two years earlier than the others. And at an age where most musicians just start, Frank Robinson retired to start normal work - he was 18. It wasn't before 2002 when he returned as the surprise act in a concert celebrating Detroit legends before Motown. After that, he done a few occasional appearances.
Next, the Star Rocket of Lionel Hampton and in all of the filmings of his band, the sheer energy of Hampton is infectious and I get the impression that it must have been fun to play with him.
13 - Lionel Hampton - Star Rocket
14 - Boogie Woogie Dream - Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson
Now earlier I got you Meade Lux Lewis, one of the three great boogie woogie pianists of the late thrirties. Well these were the other two - Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson. Four hands, two pianos and a whole lot of noisy boogie woogie in their Boogie Woogie Dream.
Next a great soundie from 1946 of Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five. Buzz Me mainly shows the little combo doing their excellent work, and a few shots of a bored woman on a sofa with a phone next to her, in doubt whether or not to call.
15 - Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - Buzz Me
16 - Slim Gaillard - Spanish Melody & Swing
17 - June Richmond with Roy Milton and his Solid Senders - Hey Lawdy Mama
And these three-in-a-row end today's show dedicated to filmings of great Rhythm & Blues. After Louis Jordan you got Slim Gaillard and his band and he announced their song himself - the Vout-O-Renee MacRootie-O-Scoodlie Bounce-O-Vouty. That for sure was too difficult to market so they simplified the title for the soundie to Spanish Melody and Swing.
And then I ended with a soundie of Roy Milton and his Solid Senders featuring June Richmond with Hey Lawdy Mama. I did a soundie of them just last week and well, it tasted like more. I recommend you look them up on Youtube and you'll see, that big mama June Richmord for sure she can cut a rug.
Well it's a shame that this radio station can't do television 'cause you missed out on the images that came with the soundies and soundtracks from movies that I played. A lot of them are easy to find on Youtube so go ahead and have a look at them. I decided to decicate a show on them, not only to tell the story of filmed Rhythm & Blues, but also because they contain music that never made it to record. And I hope you liked them, and of course you can let me know and send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And if you want to read back what I told you today, it's all on my web site and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. This was show number 136 in that long list of shows that I done up to now.
For now time's up so have a wonderful and rocking day. See you next time here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!