okay yawl...

 

in my quest for the perfect teaching musical, I've become obsessed with

BLACK AND TAN FANTASY, starring Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club

Orchestra. It's got this sort of amazing intersection of influences--part

Busby Berkeley, part German Expressionism....

 

The Kino collection, which recently released a 4-cassette collection of

these jazz shorts, does not offer much in the way of liner notes for these

films. (Or else, as is often the case, the liner notes have been

lost through the circulation of the cassettes to careless library

patrons--I'm not quite sure.) Dudley Murphy, who directed B

& T, also directed EMPEROR JONES and helped Leger with BALLET MECANIQUE.

 

That's about all I know so far...haven't had time to hep off to the

library for more. But I'm wondering if anyone on the list knows anything

about the intended audience of these Paramount shorts? Were they developed

for white audiences interested in jazz culture? For black audiences? Were

they "preview" films or main events? Were they considered avante-garde

experiments or mainstream narrative films?

 

Anyone?

 

 

Meryem Ersoz

University of Colorado-Denver

 

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