Topic: J. D. Short from the film 'The Blues'

[Bunker Hill]

Somebody has sent me this URL. Enjoy it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SQ0TqzC6IZY

Charters describes how the film came about in the booklet to the 1967 Asch LP "The Blues" (A101):

The film "The Blues" was begun as an effort to document aspects of the blues that couldn't be put on to a phonograph record. In 1961 and 1962 I was doing a great deal of recording in the South, and in Memphis I became interested in not only the sound of Furry Lewis's guitar style, but in the patterns of movement in his hands and fingers as he played. Out of this came the long trip through St. Louis, Memphis, Louisiana, and South Carolina in the summer of 1962 that led to the film. It was shot under very severe limitations of equipment and film knowledge with a hand held Bolex 16 mm camera, and the sound track was recorded with a portable Ampex machine and a small battery operated Uher. It was a hot, dusty summer, and some of the unrelieved swelter of the July afternoons and nights left its impression on the film, as well as the difficulties of synchronizing musical sequences filmed with elementary film techniques. When I returned to New York in the fall of 1962 John Cohen had also just returned from shooting his first film in Kentucky, and he helped with the problems of finding editing equipment and laboratory facilities, as well as with considerable encouragement. During this period he was editing his own film "The High Lonesome Sound," and for some of the editing we shared the same equipment and the same problems. ?The Blues? was finished early in 1963, and was premiered at the University of Chicago Folk Festival in January, 1963.

And of this particular performance:

Band 2.    SLIDIN' DELTA by J. D. Short.
J. D. was born and raised in Mississippi, but he moved to St. Louis in 1925 and his blues style reflected a number of influences. He had always had difficulty finding men to work with him; so he rigged up a small bass drum that he played with his foot. The beater was a child's rubber ball on the end of an old metal rod. He played two harmonicas mounted on his guitar, as well as singing in a strong and intense voice. J. D. had spent a number of months in and out of hospitals in the year and a half before the film was made, and he died in St. Louis a few weeks afterward; leaving this few moments of film to document his music.
"THE BLUES" IS DISTRIBUTED BY THOMAS J BRANDON FILMS, 200 W. 57th St., NEW YORK, N. Y.

[mississippijohnhurt1928]

Yeah, I posted that on the Blindman's Blues Forum a while back, that's a great video.

I didn't know much about it until now though, thanks!

[Bunker Hill]

Yeah, I posted that on the Blindman's Blues Forum a while back, that's a great video.
I didn't know much about it until now though, thanks!

You obviously chose the wrong forum to post it to first.

[Bunker Hill]

What goes around comes around. This time from 2007.

Do we have any takers for the entire booklet notes to the Asch LP? If so I'll post it to "books and articles"

[uncle bud]

Are the notes the same as those posted on the Smithsonian Folkways site in pdf?

http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FWASCH101.pdf

If so, there we go. If not, I'm a taker.

Wouldn't it be great if the film saw the light of day again as you said in the other thread.

[Lyle Lofgren]

The original posting was made before I subscribed to the group, or I would have responded at the time. We (Liz & I) witnessed some of this history in the making. We were visiting her parents in NYC, and called John Cohen (we'd met him a few times at concerts). He said he was busy editing, but we could stop in at the editing studio he was renting if we wanted to see him. It was in a building near Times Square, and John and Sam Charters were working independently at two editing machines. This was the only time I met Sam. He was working on Pink Anderson footage at the time. I don't recall what footage John was working on, because I've seen his films so many times.

I knew, even then, that I was witnessing something important, which is why I remember it after all these years. To top it all off, we stopped at a Chock Full O'Nuts and had a walnut-cream cheese sandwich on raisin bread. A genuine New York experience.

Lyle

[Bunker Hill]

Nice one Lyle.

Are the notes the same as those posted on the Smithsonian Folkways site in pdf?
If so, there we go. If not, I'm a taker.

Identical.

Lyle, great remembrance of witnessing the editing of this.

Right place at the right time, eh? Serendipity.

[daddystovepipe]

Has anyone ever seen this film?
Is it available?  The Thomas J Brandon info doesn't yield any results.

Would love to see Baby Tate; on the lp his songs are the best.

[frankie]

Has anyone ever seen this film?

The fact that the film appears only as a soundtrack has to be one of the great teases in country blues.

Would love to see Baby Tate; on the lp his songs are the best.

yessir.

[Lyle Lofgren]

I saw the movie at the U of Chicago Folk Festival (in 1963, per the first posting, although I wouldn't know the date without that prompting -- those festivals involved little sleep). I haven't seen it since, but from what little I remember, Les Blank's films (which came later) were very similar in format to Charter's movie.

Lyle

[JohnLeePimp]

This is all swell but where's the film... you get people asking why this stuff gets locked out and away

with the response being that nobody cares, or that stuff like this is a legal minefield in the US and people need to make a living from stuff they did decades ago ()

I bet a persistent so and so like my dad could do a lot of good with this sorta thing

[uncle bud]

This is all swell but where's the film... you get people asking why this stuff gets locked out and away

with the response being that nobody cares, or that stuff like this is a legal minefield in the US and people need to make a living from stuff they did decades ago ()

It's one thing if a corporation locks stuff away in their vaults because they can't be bothered with tiny niche markets for historic material, or if a collector was unwilling to share a rare recording. But surely someone who has created something, decades ago or not, has a right to be paid for it, especially when they are still alive and hold a copyright that is not even close to expiring. They would also have the justifiable right to not release it. It's theirs.

Lyle, thanks for the memories, as the song goes. Always great to hear about them.

[Stuart]

Didn't Sam post here a while back? Maybe the thing to do is to ask him directly about the film. There's a short Youtube video about the archive at U Conn:



http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/charters/MSS20000105.html