Jazz, Hip Hop Etc.

[Ralph Dumain]

At 11:16 PM 8/7/97 -0400, james schmidt wrote:
>The film can be purchased on video fairly cheaply, should anyone want to
>see it. But I wouldn't get TOO carried away about it. I find it a bit of a
>stretch to see it as "consciously progressive" --- it is one of the
>smarter products of the Hollywood system at its peak. But progressive?

Well, only in the sense that it sought to validate something important,
however corny and respectable the means used.

>Not to dribble on too much about this, but A SONG IS BORN is a remake of
>BALL OF FIRE, a less slick film that was written by Billy Wilder, that
>curious Berlin refugee who hit the West Coast and went native in a flash.
>In it the professors are working at an encyclopedia of knowledge, when
>they run into a mob's doll who talks slang. A SONG IS BORN keeps the same
>basic plot but shifts from slang to jazz.  Beyond its oddness, one of the
>things that makes A SONG IS BORN useful for trying to get a sense of what
>Adorno might have been talking about is the very prominant role it gives
>to "jazz" as a way of selling the film. 

Interesting.  I wish my memory of the details were better.  There was
something about the white woman jazz singer that caught my attention.  The
profs were fascinated with her not only because of her femininity, and not
only because of her singing, but because of her lingo, attitude, manners,
and street smarts, if I recall correctly.  Of course this all could be
exploitive slumming, but I did not have this reaction at all.  I thought,
this is sociologically fascinating.  How odd Hollywood would make a film
like this.

>What brought audience into A SONG
>IS BORN (and this sets it apart from BALL OF FIRE, I suppose) is the
>chance to see (cheaply) all the "great" jazz men of the day. What will
>perhaps be most striking to viewers today is how Louis Armstrong blows
>everyone else out the door and how tedious most of the big bands were
>(there is a Tommy Dorsey number that goes on forever --- boredom sets in
>quickly). 

How embarrassing that I can hardly remember the jam sessions at all.

Thanks for the knowledge!