Famus Musicals and Hollywood in Musical Filmmaking

There are experts in musicals and their history, so there is in the American Movie history.

Tons of books have been written about this subject..I leave it to them.

I just think that it´s very good to know that these themes are so important to know if you look at American music, not only in Jazzmusic.

Look at the interesting film above.

 But why is it important to know, you may ask?

Is there such a thing called American music?

If so , Is it Jazz, Blues, C&W, Rock´n Roll or Musicals?

Broadway ? Las Vegas? 

Hollywood, or Theatres in NY and Chicago?

Well you´ll find as many answers as you will find styles and gengres.

But often when you look back in the American Music tradition it´s seems to go hand in hand with the Musicals and their love of musicals in America. You´ll find that the most popular songs that have been played/written  by and for the BIG  bigbands , orchestras, radiostations, both now and then, and also by famous Jazzmusicsians are to be found from big musicals.

The love for these songs came when the movies got sound, and then you could reach more people to get to know these musicals, when Hollywood started to film musicals. It´s no wonder that later on, big nationwide radio-stations and TV-stations started with big shows in America and all of a sudden you found a complete new shows, The TV-shows. And in America as always "the bigger, and more spectacular the better"!

 

Well, the big days for these shows are gone by now, but  I think  it is still amazing and very interesting how professional these shows were made. Also how big stars were born in these, not only Musicians and Orchestras but also really good performers singing, playing, acting and dancing.

Count Basie Big Band/Strike up the band (G Gershwin)

 

"Fascinatin' Rhythm" - Eleanor Powell from "Lady Be Good" (1941)

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Bing Crosby

 

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Swing on a star!

Kiss me honey, honey Kiss me!

Prologue George Gershwin

I have just about touched small things about, GG and his music. There are more of his music to come, later.

Of course I´like almost all his music, its very interesting in all sorts of ways. 

Music just for musicians?  No!

Music for Jazzlovers? In a way , Yes!

Music for everybody? Yes!

Music for Musical-lovers ? Absolutly!

Music for music-historians and Nostaliga? Definetly!

Music for the Philharmonicans and Classics? In a way, Yes!

Listen to the things PW says below, he knew GG very Well.

Paul Whiteman talks about George Gershwin

The´re have been written a lots of books about GG, and almost every single piece that of his works has been recorded and interpreted by all kinds of musicians, pro or amateurs. A good book to read is this one: GG , a study in American music / Isaac Goldberg. 1958.

Often Jazz-musicians are drawn like a magical magnet to his works.

One guy, a very good "jazzcat" told me once: -"Well. if you can play GG:s music you can almost play anything in Jazz...!"

At a gig  I asked once if they we could jam on some of his tunes, the answer was: -"Who do you think we are ? ..."

I think it could sum up a little of what kind of response you can get if you want to try something "difficult" maybe ?

 

But his music is not that easy as it first seems, and that means you got to hold the rythm, and tempo very carefully in his songs! 

Maybe thats the things thats makes them sounds good

and not so good in the hands of the right people?

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Anyway, Good  music never dies!

 

Who am I ? part III (final)

Dizzy Fingers - Ragtime Piano Solo - David Hicken / Zez Confrey

In 1924, I composed my first major classical work, XXXX  for orchestra and piano. This piece featured an intermediate work that would win over the audience when played. It was orchestrated by Paul Whitemans concert band in New York. It proved to be my most popular work.

In the mid-1920s, I stayed in Paris for a short period of time, during were I applied to study composition  along with several other prospective tutors.  They were afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin my jazz-influenced style^.  Maurice Ravel's rejection letter to me told me, "Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate  yourself ?" While there,  I wrote another piece. This work received mixed reviews upon its first performance at Carnegie Hall  on December 13, 1928, but it quickly became part of the standard repertoire in Europe and the United States.. Growing tired of the Parisian musical scene, I returned to the United States.

Now to the fun work, but also hard-work and rehearsals. But, what I didn´t like was, when people showed up late for the rehearsals... and who does?

Rag och ragtime on the piano was very popular in the 10´s and 20´s, but to me it was a little "stiff" in a way. And they put nails on the clubs in the piano to get a loader sound too.

I wanted more rythm. and accents. The dances of Charleston and other simular dancestyles amused me..

During my time in France I discovered the new "classical pianostyle" it was called Impressioneur or whatever. Debussy and Ravels music attracted me awhile.

But to me I was just Impressed by the Chords they  used... some, would call them "modes"... Yes, in a romantic way perhaps...But, to me this cat Chopin had already used them before, nothing NEW really.. and "superimposed scales" ???

To me it was just adding more tones to a basic chord, and use the chords in a different style and rythm. Give or take some arpeggios to it , to "spice it up" a  little.

I wanted Rythm and accent to the music in a modern way !

like this !!

So I wrote a musical called Girl Crazy that was a big hit on Broadway !

Have you guessed me yet?

 

This guy  below could have studied my technics, maybe?

Chico Marx playing the Piano 2 - The Marx Bros.

 

Here I am!

Hoppity-boppity, hoppity-boppity, staccato-tom-catto, it must be George!

more of my music tomorrow..

Lee Ritenour: Wild Rice (New)

Ett smakprov till från nya plattan med Lee Ritenour, min favoritgitarrist!

Här med Wild Rice, som fanns med på hans första skiva  "First Course " redan 1976.

Köp den eller lyssna på ¨Spotify" !

Who am I ? Quiz part II

I wrote music for piano-rolls and I played piano at the Spectacles in NY when I was young.

When the motion pictures got sound I first wrote music for Nickelodeons, a kind of a peep box you looked into and saw... WHAT?

 This above is what you cold find at better places !

Yes, there were beautiful ladies dancing, and stepping and  doing other small "naughty" things too, but who cares? I loved music, and I wanted my music to be more live!

But you also need money too, for living and stayng alive...

The theaters in NY were MANY, all kinds of artists , some of them were just Vaudeville, almost Circuslike sometimes ...  Yes, not at all good, and of course there were these Burlesque too.

My friends at the music companies at Tin Pan Alley also had a lot of friends, that needed money for living.  But my place wasn´t in a band! 

I was a composer and wanted my music to be heard, in big places!

I did some Scandals but, who doesn´t at young age?

The new music in NY was called ragtime, and I knew that the blacks played something called The Blues..or something "jazzy" . Most of the hip cats called it Jazz, cause the rythm was swinging, changing and wiggling in a special way... Interesting and funny it seemed to me anyway. And those cats could really improvise on their instruments. I liked that style!

-Mmm let me think, if I combine the blues with my old folkmusic called Klezmer and make something out of it? Maybe it could work...`?

- Hmm ...In fact there are pretty similar pentatonic scales... but I want to add rythm !

The Modern rythm !

One day this guy called me and wanted some music for his band.. and  I was flattered..

He became a very good friend of mine and he gave me a lot of advices.

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Who am I?

Haven´t you guessed me yet?

Last clues tomorrow!

Who am I ? Quiz

I was born of  Jewish descent.  My older brother was born 1896. It was about that time that my family moved to to Brooklyn NY .USA  I was born at the new residence on September 26, 1898; my birth certificate bears the name Jacob . I was named after my late grandfather . However, unlike common, Western practise of naming children with two or more first names , I had no other name but  XXXXX .  My family changed the spelling of my surname to XXXX.  After I became a professional musician; subsequently, other members of my family followed^.

My brother and  I lived in many different residences, as our father changed dwellings with each new enterprise he became involved with. Mostly, we boys grew up around the quarter. And we frequented the local Yiddish theaters, with me running errands for members and appearing onstage as ^agofor.

After me and my brother, two more children were born to the family.

I lived a usual childhood existence for children of New York tenements - running around with my boyhood friends, roller skating and misbehaving in the streets. Remarkably, I didn´t cared nothing for music until the age of ten, when I was intrigued by what I heard at my friends violin recital. The sound, and the way his friend played, captured me. My  parents had bought a piano for lessons for my older brother, but to my  parents' surprise, and my Brothers relief, it was I who spent more time playing it.

With a degree of frustration, I tried various piano teachers for some two years, before finally being introduced to Charles Hambitzer, by Jack Miller, the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra. Until Hambitzer's death in 1918, he was my  musical mentor. Hambitzer taught me conventional piano technique; introduced me to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged me to attend orchestral concerts At home, following such concerts,  when I was young I would essentially try to play, at the piano, the music that I had heard - completely from recall, and without sheet music. As a matter of course, I later studied with the classical composers and "avant-garde" composer-theorists , but we just did formally training.

Tin Pan Alley

I left school at the age of 15, and I found  my first job as a "song.plugger for Jerome H. Remick and Company, a publishing firm on New York City's Tin Pan Alley where I earned $15 a week..

In 1916 , I started working for Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls in New York, recording and arranging. I  produced dozens, if not hundreds, of rolls under my own and assumed names.  I also recorded rolls of my own compositions for the Duo-Art and reproducing piano-machines as well as recording piano rolls^.

^{Vaudeville theatres other burlesque shows wanted me as a Piano-player, were I had to improvise a lot. Later on I sold some of my compositions to the new "motion picture" companies called spectacles. When the sound first came to the filmindustry, my recordings could be found in a lot of "Nickelodions". The movies were made in Hollywood but we could watch them in NY, but they were silent , somebody had to play music to them . That´s what I did in my first musical carrer.}

^{Who am I ?}

^{Have you guessed me yet?} 

^{More tomorrow of me!}

^{Hear some music from "My time"}

(None of these songs are mine, but some of mine aresimilar to that style, mine are mostly written for piano...)

Hit Songs From the Roaring 1920's

Bags Groove - Benny Golson & Friends

Milt Jackson & Benny Golson & Art Farmer & NHØP - Bags Groove