(1923) Very early music clip - Noble Sissle and James Hubert Blake - Snappy Tunes
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- čas přidán 15. 09. 2012
- In a rare filmed record, the famed songwriters and vaudevillians perform. One of De Forest's earliest experimental sound films.
This film premiered at the Rivoli Theater, New York City on 15 April 1923 with other films produced in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake perform the songs "Sons of Old Black Joe" and "My Swanee Home" in a short film using the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. - Hudba
In Dad's and Eubie's act, Dad was in constant motion back and forth across the stage. When Mr. DeForest said the one camera was focused on one spot, Dad was trapped. So what did he do, rolled eyes (not his style) and flapped "wings." He was a showman and this "new fangled sound film thing" was restrictive.
On by the way, my Dad was in Woodstock in 1974 for a program. Eubie was there also, but not with a daughter. He and wife Marion did not have children nor did he have children with his first wife Avis. Uncle Eubie was a genius.
Eubie Blake’s record label EBM lp’s reissued great early recordings of Sissle and Blake. I bought all the Eubie Blake Music lp’s when they came out. There is also a Pathe film of Noble Sissle’s Orchestra from the 1930’s. I have the book Reminiscing With Sissle and Blake too. I would recommend that book to anyone who likes Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle.
OMG, this made me cry...such true, natural-born talent, such amazing performances, LONG before "The Jazz Singer" was loudly proclaimed to be the "first talking picture!!!"
These gentlemen were, & always will be, superstars. I can't wait to show my grandkids these venerable mini-movies!!!
💙🎞💓🎶💚
It's hard to believe this very classic music video is from 101 years ago. Different, but easy listening music 🎷🎹
When Mr. Blake really lights into it at 2:16, the hairs on the back of my neck (and, in fact, all over my body) stand on end. That's IT man, that's REAL RAGTIME!!! and the way he WHACKS those octaves, interspersed with those super-clean runs, is so fantastic I can't get over it!!!
+Great Pianists :)
It's like you say!!
Almost a century old. This is like going back in time.
More! More! MORE! My feet are keeping time with theirs! I have a double LP album with songs from "Shuffle Along" and added works by Eubie (whom I met in Woodstock, VT in the summer of 1974 [his daughter had a home there]; I about fell over when the MC announced him - but no one paid any attention to him! I approached him after the program and said I was please to see him there. His twinkly-eyed reply - "At my age, I'm pleased to be ANYWHERE!"). Too bad there's not more film of Sissle & Blake; these guys are sooooooooooooo good! Thanks for posting this.
Welcome
There are lots of vintage 78 RPM recordings of Sissle and Blake As they recorded prolifically in the early 1920s. You can find many of them on CZcams. Eubie Blake also accompanied Alberta Hunter on some excellent early 20s sides, may have accompanied other singers, and made about two dozen great piano rolls and a handful of early solo records. So it’s still possible to hear him as he was in his prime, although except for this they’re generally acoustic recordings. He started recording again in the 1950s or so and some of those records are just fantastic.
So cool..and wow...imagine, Phonofilm never gained steam with anybody, despite its clearly superior sound quality to what was 'already out there'.. ah 20/20 hindsight..
Probably the first time "the talkies" were ever referred to as such.
Thanks for this version or clip. Their voices are clear and strong. There is another one up where they sound like the chipmunks.
You're welcome, wordkeeper.
That was the result of two things. First, deForest did not record these early experiments at 24 fps.This one was filmed at approximately 20 frames per second. that difference of four frames was enough to raise the pitch and speed up the action slightly. The second, and most important detail was the matter of the film appearing out of sync. This was because the deForest Sound Head was mounted atop the projection machine. Because of this, there was a distance of 20 frames between the corresponding sound impulse and the picture frame. When Western Electric set the standard with a smaller sound head, it was mounted below the Film Gate, with a 19.5 soundtrack advance. So when deForest films were played on "modern" equipment, the films appeared to be 1 2/3 second out of sync due to the difference of 40 frames.
Ray Pointer Thanks for making this clear to the wordkeeper.
Look for my upload of THE FIRST SOUND OF MOVIES for further details.Duncan Automatic Stop
This is from around the time their show "Shuffle Along" opened on Broadway. I remember Eubie Blake from the 1970s and saw him perform live (when he was in his mid 90s) with brilliant jazz pianist Errol Gardner who sadly died not long after.
kabardinka1 Thanks for your reply. Great you've seen Eubie Blake in real live.
This is absolutely GOLD!!
The piano audio quality is so GREAT in "Affectionate Dan" at 2:57. It's more like an electrical recording (with a microphone) than the typical acoustic records that were being made in the studios in 1923. Did Mr. DeForest use some kind of microphone in his process? It's a real shame it didn't catch on right away... I would give so much to have sound films in this quality of so many folks from the early 1920s...
+Great Pianists They didn't use microphones in those days; only a horne.
+Great Pianists The DeForest system was the forerunner of the sound on film system used to the present day for sound film exhibition. He wasn't able to interest movie studios at the time, but after Western Electric convinced Warner Brothers to use their sound on disc system, Fox used DeForest's system as a basis for Movietone and others refined it for better sound quality and amplification in theaters. This example isn't in very good shape - I used to have a 16mm print-down of a DeForest short featuring the original Broadway cast of "Showboat" and the sound was much clearer.
Yes the system used a microphone, probably a Western Electric carbon microphone, like what was common in radio broadcasting at the time. It could be a Western Electric condenser microphone as well, but I doubt it.
haven't seen this old footage since the 1980s, on PBS.
Noble Sissle's voice was perfect for early audio! Unlike many other singers he didn't get all tinny and nasally from trying to make his voice project.
Absolutely wonderful..
4:48:
Sissle: (singing) "...and his EYES..."
Blake: (spoken) "What's the matter with the man's eyes?"
ROFL
Man, that's vaudeville for sure, talk about snappy repartee... if you do the same thing, more or less, over and over again, for literally hundreds of different audiences in hundreds of different theatres around the country, you either crash and burn early on and drop out of vaudeville, or you polish it till it's really GREAT as here.
+Great Pianists ..........What an enthusiastic reply. Thanks!
This is an amazing walk back into history
"Walk it boy, walk it!"
American treasures.
These guys are talented
Es fantàstic!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️
I've never seen this one. When I was producing FIRST SOUND OF MOVIES 12 years ago, it was not in the collection. I might add a detail of interest here. This test was not filmed at the established standard 24 fps rate, but 22fps. When we transferred these films, the speed had to be lowered for the pitch and action to be right.
You're welcome, I'm happy you've seen it now. It's a pity you couldn't find it 12 years earlier.
It was not in the Zouary Collection, nor in the Library of Congress collection, which came from the Zouary Archives.
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Love this!! Blast from the pass
God? this is wonderful! I just wonder if it isn't sounding a half step low. "Affectionate Dan" is sounding in C, but it sure looks like Eubie's hands are up in the black keys - and on the final chord, which sounds C major, no white keys are pressed. It's just a thought and worth a try. ( The second half of this film is elsewhere on YT, and too fast.) It's beautiful no matter what!
luvmyrecords, speaking from experience as a professional ragtime pianist and historian, I can vouch (as can my friends who knew Eubie personally; I'm too young for all that) that Eubie Blake LOVED to play in Cb / B, Gb, Db, and other very-flatted keys, and it shows in both his original compositions (in those keys, although some were in simpler keys, and still others were published after being transposed into the simpler keys), and his recordings and rolls.
Of course he COULD play in every key including the easier ones, but started out in the very early days as an ear-player playing mostly on the black keys (because the pentatonicism helps create melodiousness, and also locate the half-steps). When playing professionally for singers, you need to play in whatever key the singer requires to make their voice sound the best, regardless of how out-of-the-way it is. By this time, he was well-schooled in music and could play in every key.
Another thought: before 1928, pianos were tuned A-435 as that was the standard concert pitch.
Could he actually be playing in Db but it sounds C here in the audio due to being tuned A-435 instead of A-440?
I vote to correct the pitch only as much as needed to get it to be perfectly centered at A-435 for every key they're playing/singing in, and then leave it there. Of course, the video needs to match the audio as well.
This certainly is beautiful!
Eubie Blake’s record label EBM lp’s reissued great early recordings of Sissle and Blake. I bought all the Eubie Blake Music lp’s when they came out. There is also a Pathe film of Noble Sissle’s Orchestra from the 1930’s. I have the book Reminiscing With Sissle and Blake too. I would recommend that book to anyone who likes Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle.
I heard Eubie Blake at a meeting of the Maple Leaf Club in the 1970’s. He played a lot of his famous tunes. This is amazing to see a sound film of him from 1923. There are so many others from this time I wish were on a sound film like this one so we could see and hear them. Just think if Florence Mills would have been featured in one of these early sound films. There aren’t even any recordings of her. I wonder what a young Fats Waller from this time would have looked and sounded like?
''Im just wild about Harry'' and Gypsy Blues'' were huge hits.
How wonderful of you to feature Noble Sissle. Today, July 10th 2016 is the 127 th anniversary of his birth. Please check out my youtube channel "Remeber our Music" an historical site honoring Noble Sissle and other great African-American musicians like Mississippi John Hurt, Erskine Hawkins and Don Redman, all born in the month of July!
You're welcome. I was very excited about this Phonofilm from 1923 with Noble Sissle and Herbie Blake.
i can notice in the beginning you can see what looks like part of the soundtrack on the sides, but later on this is visualy missing and the quality gets better.
Now if only I could find Florence Mills performing live 😔
Never a recording made, much less a film.
Pozdrowienia dla Pana Andrzeja Mądro!
De Forest also produced Max Fleischer's Song Cartunes not long afterward.
Fan tastic
interesting!
4:36
Few people know about Eubie Blake, unfortunately.
What song is this
The songs are "Sons of Old Black Joe" and "My Swanee Home".
and "Affectionate Dan"
It's not that early. There's a 1894 clip of a violinist playing into a horn and ac1905 clip of a tenor singing with an fairy dancing.
It is one of the earliest film with sound Line.
Hey man, nice video! 🔥
I upload Stride Piano/Ragtime Synthesia videos and I think you really could appreciate the videos
THEN STATE OF THE ART ACOUSTICAL (VIA HORNS) RECORDINGS HAVE MUCH BETTER QUALITY IN BANDWIDTH AND DYNAMIC RANGE
What do Adolph Hitler, Charlie Chaplin, and Noble Sissle have in common?
Jay Young they’re all dead? They’re all men? They all changed history?
The moustache