I didn't get a chance to post a notice about the Billy Strayhorn special before it aired, so I hope all those interested in Ellingtonia got a chance to see it. It was nice to see anything about jazz on television. My complaint, (and it's one I always seem to have to state ) is that Strayhorn is always built up at the expense of Ellington. Somehow, it doesn't matter that Ellington was able to build and lead a group into international prominence and that this organization existed a dozen years before Strayhorn joined.
But here's an advance notice of another PBS special that will be of interest to us: a fun documentary called Soundies: A Musical History. Before MTV and YouTube, there were Soundies. They were short (3-5 minute) music videos that were viewed on video-jukeboxes called "Panoram" (see picture of Nat "King" Cole).
But here's an advance notice of another PBS special that will be of interest to us: a fun documentary called Soundies: A Musical History. Before MTV and YouTube, there were Soundies. They were short (3-5 minute) music videos that were viewed on video-jukeboxes called "Panoram" (see picture of Nat "King" Cole).
And, just like today, they featured dancers to add to the experience.
1 comment:
This is a great special. I became interested in these oldies when listening the the standards back in the day. You know I made a Billie Holiday recored, but most recently I recorded five standards on my new CD, Miki Howard Private Collection. You should check it out at my official website, www.miki-howard.com. It includes renditions of Skylark, Days of Wine and Roses, Guess Who I saw today and Count Your Blessings instead of Sheep. Let me know what you think!
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