I had the pleasure of
attending Mark Cantor’s “Jazz on Film” presentation on January 22nd here at the
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and it was a blast from the past.
Cantor is a jazz film archivist who has collected over 4,000 reels (yes, actual
film) of vintage jazz performances. He shares programs of these rare films at
presentations all over the world, including The National Academy of Recording
Arts and Sciences, The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors,
Monterey Jazz Festival, Academie du Dance (Paris, France), Festival de Popoli
(Florence, Italy), and even the Playboy Mansion.
The San Francisco
presentation included twenty-four jazz films from the 1920s up to the 1970s,
all presented on the big screen with terrific sound. Sort of puts YouTube to
shame. And these are films you’ll see nowhere else. Highlights included
violinist Joe Venuti sawing out a swinging version of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” a
prancing Lucky Millinder conducting his band in “The Hucklebuck,” and Art
Blakey and the Jazz Messengers doing “Moanin’” and featuring the song’s
composer, Bobby Timmons, on piano. Lowlights (but fun nevertheless) included
stripper Ann Corio singing “Pistol Packin’ Mama” backed by the Red Norvo
Orchestra and an odd animated Prudential Life Insurance commercial from the
1950s featuring music written by Duke Ellington specifically for the commercial
and played by his orchestra. The program also featured a couple of “Soundies,”
which were the first “music videos” - filmed in the 1940s, they were played on
special film juke boxes.
Cantor has served as a
consultant on a large number of music documentaries and feature films. His
footage was included in A Great Day In Harlem and Ken Burns’s monumental Jazz. (Burns said that Cantor was an “invaluable asset”
to his film.) If you get a chance to catch one of his film presentations, I
highly recommend it. You’ll discover some hidden treasures of great jazz that
you won’t be able to see or hear anywhere else.
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