Martha Tilton - "A Little Jive Is Good For You"

Martha Tilton sings in this soundie from 1941 called "A Little Jive Is Good For You".  The soundie is set in the waiting room outside a doctors office with the hilarious Slate Brothers as patients. The music is by Ben Pollack and His Orchestra.

What do you think of Martha Tilton singing "A Little Jive Is Good For You" ? Please comment.

Dorothy Dandridge & Paul White: A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)

Here is a funny video clip with Dorothy Dandridge & Paul White performing the song A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal). According to the poster on Youtube, it's from a 1942 soundie. Source?

I sometimes dj the Bill Elliott version of this song from the soundtrack of the film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.

What do you think of the video clip with Dorothy Dandridge? Please comment.

Hit That Jive Jack with Joe Carroll

Hit that jive, Jack is one of the classic swing songs. The song is written by Johnny Alston and Skeets Tolbert. Just like Route 66, it was a big hit by the Nat King Cole Trio but here is another version by jive talking Joe Caroll on vocals from a soundie.

According to the post on Youtube the band is called "The Tramp Band". The post continues:

This is from 1943; personnel should be identical or similar to their scene in Stormy Weather: Carroll and Pinky Johnson up front, Nick Aldrich piano, Johnny Cousin guitar, Ebenezer Paul bass, Willie Jones drums, Alvis Cowans washboard. Female dancer Nicky O'Daniel played Caldonia in Louis Jordan's film Caldonia a couple years later.

Anyone who can confirm this?

Also, it seems to be hard to find information about the composers Johnny Alston and Skeets Tolbert. Do you know where to find more info about them?

What do you think of the video clip with Joe Carroll singing Hit That Jive Jack? Please comment.

Fats Waller sings Ain't misbehavin' with Myra Johnson

Ain't misbehavin' is a classic jazz standard by Fats Waller that he wrote in 1929 and Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics. Take a look at this soundie from 1941 where Fats Waller sings Ain't misbehavin' together with Myra Johnson.



Fats Waller had a distinctive voice and a certain performing style with his running commentary all through the song. He was a great entertainer.

Do you know anything more about Myra Johnson?

What do you think of Fats Waller singing Ain't misbehavin'? Tell me.

Red Nichols - Everybody Loves My Baby

Sometime I come across jazz musicians whose name I've heard but haven't really listened to. One of those was trumpeter Red Nichols, here is a video clip with Red Nichols & His Five Pennies playing "Everybody Loves My Baby".




The video clip with Red Nichols & His Five Pennies is the last part of a soundie from 1935. My favorite quote from the video (hilarious):

"Oh, Red, Please don't sing,
Pick up your horn, and play that thing!"

What I think is interesting in this clip is the mix between hot jazz and swing. One thing that is also noticeable is the slang words in the lyrics "she's my sheba, I'm her sheik". Those slang words became popular one decade earlier in 1921 when the silent movie "The Sheik" starring Rudolph Valentino was released. That film also inspired the jazz standard "Sheik of Araby".

What do you think of Red Nichols? What other recordings of Red Nichols should I listen to? Tell me.

Jam session: Duke Ellington plays C Jam Blues

Here is a soundie called Jam Session with Duke Ellington where he plays the song C Jam Blues together with other great jazz musicians as Ben Webster, Sonny Greer, Ray Nance, Rex Stewart, Joe Nanton and Barney Bigard.



What do you think of C Jam Blues from 1942 with Duke Ellington? Tell me.

Wingy Manone - Vine Street blues

Often you just hear about the really big names in the jazz world like Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald but the are other musicians from that era that also should be discovered. One of those musicians is trumpet player Wingy Manone.

Here is a video clip from a soundie from 1943 where Wingy Manone plays Vine Street blues together with singer Ann Lee.



Wingy Manones moment of jazz fame is that he came up with a great riff in the melody Tar Paper Stomp. While you may not have heard about Tar Paper Stomp, the riff is used as the main riff in "In the Mood" that was made famous by Glenn Miller.

Check out the discussion thread on swingdjs.com about Wingy Manone.

What do you think about this video clip with Wingy Manone playing Vine Street blues? Tell me.

Cab Calloway - Jitterbug Party

Cab Calloway was known for his energetic way of leading his jazz orchestra. Did you think that hard rock fans invented head banging? No, that was Cab Calloway. Take a look at him in this video clip called Jitterbug Party from 1935.

The video shows Cab Calloway performing "Call Of The Jitterbug" and "Long About Midnight" at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York. After the performance they walk through Harlem to a late night house party and in the end it looks like they are dancing some version of the shim sham.



I don't exactly know when the term "Jitterbug" was coined (do you?) but in this video clip it also refers to a person that drinks a little too much "jitter sauce".

What do you think of this video clip of Cab Calloway? Tell me.

Soundies: Jazz and Swing Legends in PBS Documentary

In March a documentary about soundies is shown on the tv channel PBS in USA. Watch the trailer for the soundies documentary.

Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced by professional film crews in New York, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and March, 1947. The films were displayed on the Panoram, a coin-operated film jukebox, in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, factory lounges, and amusement centers. [Wikipedia]

The documentary is presented by Michael Feinstein. Here is more information about the program.

It would be interesting to see this program because it gives an insight how melodies was performed in those days, that something you can't get just by listening to recordings. I'm looking forward to see the program sometime.

If you want to learn more about soundies check out "The Soundies Book: A Revised and Expanded Guide" by Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda.

Have you seen the soundies documentary? What do you think of it? Tell me.