6

Every Film Clip of Charlie Parker, 4; More on the 1950 footage

Outtakes in a documentary.
6

(NOTE: The audio in the previous clip had some problems, so I have redone the clip. Visually it is the same.)

In 1987, a few years after the Joe Albany film that I showed you in Part 3, came Celebrating Bird, directed by the well-known critic Gary Giddins along with Kendrick Simmons, and produced by Toby Byron. This film highlighted new footage of Parker, even featuring some during the opening minute.  There was a shot of his face in side profile smiling, a shot of him smoking, and the shots previously seen in the Joe Albany documentary. The footage above includes the opening of Celebrating Bird as well as clips used later in the film.

It soon became apparent that this was all silent footage, and that the audio was dubbed in. (So don’t worry if the audio doesn’t come through clearly.) In fact, because of the small amount of footage of Parker available, several clips were slowed down, or "looped" (repeated seamlessly), or both, in order to make them last longer. It wasn't until about 1993 that the films from which these clips were taken were released. One complete ballad number showed up on a CD-ROM called Living Jazz that was hosted by Herbie Hancock. Later, Norman Granz Presents Improvisation, containing the ballad as well as a fast number. as well as films without Bird, was available on a Laser Disc from Japan. Eventually both numbers were issued on various DVDs, and they are online now.

So, what was the source? The footage came from a short film that jazz promoter Norman Granz had been assembling in 1950. Granz and producer Gordon Hollingshead had created the short film Jammin' the Blues in 1944 to feature some of the stars of Granz's then-new Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, notably Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet. The film featured the stunning visual work of the acclaimed photographer Gjon Mili. We discussed it in an earlier post.

Granz hoped to recreate his success in 1950, and there were two Down Beat announcements about this new project. The first one indicated that filming was planned:

(AFM refers to the American Federation of Musicians—the musicians’ union.) The second announcement reports that filming had been completed:

(Notice the announcement of a jazz course at NYU in that fall of 1950. The same three jazz experts had offered a similar course the previous semester. We’ll talk about these another time.)

A film that took up two reels lasted about 20 minutes, and was sometimes called a "two-reeler." I thank Chris DeVito, editor of Coltrane on Coltrane and my coauthor on the John Coltrane Reference, for these Down Beat excerpts. Chris also led me to one more announcement of the filming’s completion, which he found in the magazine Variety, September 13, 1950, p.48

This article provides the additional information that Granz was considering showing the film on TV or in cinemas. That never happened. Although the soundtrack had been recorded separately, and the filming was done, the footage was never edited into a finished film.

In films, to this day, it is common practice to record the audio separately from the visual aspect. There are a number of reasons for this. Primarily, the feeling among many filmmakers is that if one uses the sound that is created while filming (the "live" sound), the result sounds amateurish, like a home movie. Besides, while a film is being made there are many noises on the set--the noises of cameras running, lights and cameras moving around, the actors' feet as they move around, and sometimes even spoken or shouted instructions from the director and others. Also, in order to make the film interesting visually, either there were extra cameras providing alternative angles, or the whole sequence was shot by the same camera several times from different angles. Not all of the cameras were set up to record audio (indeed, low budgets sometimes dictated that none were). Most important of all, the parts that did have sound would get all chopped up during editing, and splices would be audible. So, for all these reasons, you needed a separate continuous sound track. The solution was to record a single cohesive music track and edit the pictures to match it as well as possible. (Most of the information in the preceding paragraph was provided in an email in May 2004 by the late discographer Chris Sheridan, who worked professionally in film and television for many years.)

For the same reasons, even actors often dub their voices over, in this case after the filming, in what are called "post-production" recording sessions. Actors have no trouble doing this, which illustrates that their performances are much more "set" and memorized—even the emotional aspects—than laypersons might assume.

For musical performances, the opposite sequence is usual. The audio is often recorded first in a studio, and then during filming the audio is played back and the musicians are asked to "pantomime" as closely as they can to the recording, while the cameras are running without sound. This filming date is sometimes called a “sideline session.” Of course some films were done “live,” and TV is usually “live.” But the rule in films, especially feature films, to this day, is to capture the sound separately.

It is usually no problem for pop singers and classical musicians to pantomime their performances, but for jazz musicians it is quite difficult to recreate exactly what one was playing during a studio session of several days or weeks earlier. As a result, in films of jazz musicians the fingers are often totally "out of sync" with what is played. This is a major distraction to serious fans and musicians, although the general layperson doesn't usually notice it. Jazz historian Frank Büchmann-Møller, author of books on Lester Young and Ben Webster, noted in an email of May 2004 that Granz was aware of the problem of pantomiming to improvisations:

In the case of "Jammin' the Blues" Granz had recorded the music on acetates (discs) which the musicians received and practiced to at home so they were able to memorize the music a bit better by the time of the filming. But evidently things were not as organized for the 1950 film.

Jazz film historian Mark Cantor gave me some further details in another email from May 2004 (as you can tell, I was doing some research on this film that month): 

It seems clear to me that Granz and Mili were trying to "remake" Jammin' the Blues. The sparse set, the slow opener with the band in shadows, the raucous jam session conclusion all reflect back on the earlier film short. I have heard a story from Granz associates [about why the film was not successfully completed]: The lighting in the loft where the film was shot proved insufficient, and the musicians had to mime through another sideline session, well after the initial recording and sideline session.

The problem, in other words, was that the original footage was unusable, and by the time they got together to re-film the “sideline session,” the musicians could no longer remember what they had played well enough to match the audio. So the footage remained in Granz's storage for over 40 years, until he finally was persuaded to release it in 1996 because of its historical importance.

Next time we’ll watch the two completed titles with Bird as well as more outtakes, and we’ll discuss some issues about the soundtrack. Until then,

All the best,

Lewis

Playback with Lewis Porter! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers at $5/month or $50/yr get occasional extra content (see Introduction post) and heartfelt thanks! For any amount over $50/yr, Founding Members will meet with Lew on Zoom, have access to rare ebooks and audio, etc.!

Share Playback with Lewis Porter!

Leave a comment

6 Comments
Authors
Lewis Porter