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Jazz In Film - Jazz Soundtracks And/Or Appearances On Camera By Jazz Artists


Ken Dryden

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On 3/5/2021 at 11:58 AM, EKE BBB said:

“Jazz on the Screen: A Jazz and Blues Filmography” by David Meeker is the definitive work on this subject. It documents the work of 1,000 major jazz and blues figures in over 14,000 cinema, television and video productions.

Available online at: 

https://www.jazzstudiesonline.org/outside-resource/jazz-screen-jazz-and-blues-filmography-david-meeker

As good as Meeker's book is, he didn't bother to find out who the woman jazz organist was in the Bette Davis movie "Dead Ringer" (1964). It was on today, and I found out on the IMDB, that it was a singer /vocalist/actress/organist named Perry Lee Blackwell. She's featured throughout the movie playing in a duo with drummer Kenny Dennis at the club Bette Davis owns. She plays very well on a few uptempo swingers, and Kenny Davis trades fours with her nicely in one scene.

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2 hours ago, sgcim said:

As good as Meeker's book is, he didn't bother to find out who the woman jazz organist was in the Bette Davis movie "Dead Ringer" (1964). It was on today, and I found out on the IMDB, that it was a singer /vocalist/actress/organist named Perry Lee Blackwell. She's featured throughout the movie playing in a duo with drummer Kenny Dennis at the club Bette Davis owns. She plays very well on a few uptempo swingers, and Kenny Davis trades fours with her nicely in one scene.

She is on  this fine recording -

513eePzi6DL.jpg

 

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17 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

She is on  this fine recording -

513eePzi6DL.jpg

 

17 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

She is on  this fine recording -

513eePzi6DL.jpg

 

Wow, I didn't know she played with Stitt. BTW, as you probably know, that blonde on the cover isn't Perry. Perry is a very attractive African-American woman. She and Kenny Dennis were really playing on the scenes in the club. They were in the scene where Bette Davis' landlord tells her she'll have to get rid of the musicians that play in her club, because she's three months behind in her rent. Like a true pro, Perry keeps smiling while she's playing, but Kenny looks a little concerned...:o

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I always thought it looked like Dodo Greene.

Oh, btw, women of color also dye their hair and/or use different color wigs, it's not just a white thing.

R-9755839-1582922363-2281.jpeg.jpg

R-2814960-1302269956.jpeg.jpg

and believe it or not, people of color can have naturally red hair. Genetics is funny that way.

 

 

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13 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Ok, YouTube is saying Curtis Amy. and drummer Johnny Kirkwood.

I could play this record if I had it. Sure could.

To finally hear some of it is awesome but four tracks only is disappointing. This Too Close for Comfort is great, I love the way he starts mellow then starts to wail. Curtis Amy, y'all!

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I

8 hours ago, JSngry said:

I always thought it looked like Dodo Greene.

Oh, btw, women of color also dye their hair and/or use different color wigs, it's not just a white thing.

R-9755839-1582922363-2281.jpeg.jpg

R-2814960-1302269956.jpeg.jpg

and believe it or not, people of color can have naturally red hair. Genetics is funny that way.

 

 

When I used to have Black students with red, blonde, purple, green, orange, white or blue hair, I used to call the Science Dept. head in, and he used to perform experiments on them so I could find out if they were aliens or not.:alien: One of my best students did the US road tour of Hamilton. She had orange blonde hair, and I called up the contractor and warned him she might be an alien, but he hired her anyway.

Curtis Amy was mentioned in the Times Sunday in a big article they did on his ex-wife, Merry Clayton, who lost both of her legs up to the knee in a car accident. She's putting out a new album.

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  • 1 year later...

Jazz soundtracks are an area of specialization for me.

As much as I like "real" jazz soundtracks, the ones by classically-trained film composers are often very interesting.  It's like they created their own version of third stream jazz.

I have posted some of these in my Twilight Zone Jazz thread.

For example, here is Franz Waxman's Crime in the Streets.

 

As for a favorite jazz score, I may have to choose Johnny Mandel's score for I Want to Live! 

 

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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Anyone familiar with “the cry of jazz”, from 1959? I saw a public screening today but I noticed it is on You Tube:

 

Stilted but provocative dialogue for its time. it features some clips of Sun Ra with John Gilmore and the Arkestra running through jazz styles from Dixieland onwards. Plus a futuristic looped section of Sun Ra’s piano. A couple of questions, it claims the music was recorded in Europe, really? And who is the amazing trumpet player with Sun Ra? 
 

Anthony 

London

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