With: Helen Humes, Ray Brown, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, James Moody
Studio: some Hollywood clowns/Storyville Films
Video: 4:3 B&W
Audio: English DD mono; DD rechanneled 6.1
Length: 55 minutes
Rating: ***
It’s a kick to see Dizzy performing at age 30 and to see all the legendary jazz figures who were getting their start in his band, but much of this postwar lengthy music short is rather painful. Some Hollywood producer’s idea – perhaps primarily for the black movie houses – was to put together his idea of a hipster vaudeville show including singing, dancing and even actual music from Dizzy’s band. Most painful is the MC who was provided – Freddie Carter has some silly in-between-songs patter with Dizzy (smoking a pipe). Carter puts on a fake jive talk and Dizzy gamely follows along – even doing the vocal on the silly He Beeped When He Shoulda Bopped.
The dance numbers are also tired, corny and unhip. Just close your eyes during them and listen to the band. One of them has a great Milt Jackson solo. There are two tap-dancing numbers, which seem to go on forever. I did like the B-3 and upright piano duo with the six girls standing around digging the music just as in the Fats Waller music shorts. Trouble is their choreography looked pretty forced.
This was not the beret-wearing, puffy-cheeked Dizzy but a more straight-laced performer – though he does have some interesting choreography of his own in front of the band. Also, you’ll notice his horn has not achieved that special bend in it that he later played. And don’t miss the number where Dizzy dies and goes to Elysian Fields were he meets the great Johann Sebastian Bop. The 6.1-channel rechanneled surround from the original optical soundtrack is absolutely terrible; it’s very low level and muffled. Stick with the original mono track which is much better fidelity, although again I was wishing it was PCM mono and not Dolby mono.
– John Sunier
