Hi Krin -- good to see you on the net. John Corbett, Steve Ellsworth and I missed you in Syracuse. > I call upon my colleagues in the ether for help with my research > on jazz in the movies: I'm trying to locate the earliest American > films with jazz-inflected background scores. There is, of > course, a problem in defining "jazz" here. First to clarify: are you only interested in synch-sound film? In other words, would you consider "silent-era" films, surviving scores and/or cue sheets? If so, the definition of jazz has to be even more carefully considered, since the term pre-1920 has different connotations. Second, and assuming you are interested in post-1927 "talkies" -- can you tell us why you are interested in extradiegetic music specifically? I'm sure we can find lots of diegetic jazz in 1940s and before, film noir springs immediately to mind right? But I assume that the "background score" movies that you seek are interesting because jazz carries connotations re: race, class, gender, sexuality, region, crime, nightlife, promiscuity, etc. And those "connotations" are due in part to the "earlier" diegetic use of jazz in film. As I've said elsewhere, the diegetic/extradiegetic distinction, when applied to music, is a useful point of departure but quickly becomes untenable. We can all cite examples of music which first seems extra-diegetic, which is eventually justified by a radio or phonograph etc. diegetically. Or the other way: a character turns on a radio, and the tinny sound eventually gives way to a surround-sound mix. In musicals, obviously, the diegetic/extradiegetic distinction becomes very fuzzy. Or even in a film like CASABLANCA, where the Marseillaise scene is underscored by the "extra-diegetic" soundtrack. Anyway -- as Krin points out, it will be difficult to decide what counts as "jazz-inflected." I would also point out that it is difficult to decide what counts as "extradiegetic" -- but that depends on the project. Krin, can you tell us more about what you are looking for? Peter Feng