Jammin' the Blues

Fun short proto-music video with nice music and some interesting imagery.

Combines two of my favourite things from the fourties; film noir stylistics and healthy cigarettes, no wait I meant jazz. Startlingly well constructed short that matches the music in visual atmosphere. Too short to really get into the dynamism I love in both genres but short enough to really get you in the mood for some nice cigare- jazz. Yes a struggling nicotine addict in me did not appreciate this so much.

Like any good music video, what it lacks in honesty it makes up for in style. I like to think it can be appreciated independently of the music, but liking the music certainly helps. The story goes that the studio wouldn't agree to showing an integrated band on film, so Gjon Mili had to put Barney Kessel (the guitarist) in the shadows during the group shots to try to hide his light complexion.

Moody and stylish black & white photography captures a wonderful jazz performance...you can almost taste the cheap bourbon and cigarettes. Great songs, and I even enjoyed the dancing.

Pretty damn cool and it has a great visual style.

Moody under exposed black and white short, beautifully shot. The music is old school jazz and is excellent. The only con is that it's a short, so it loves you and leaves you... feeling quite flat. Highly recommended. Note saw the film on https://blog.straycat.me.uk/2024/11/jammin-the-blues-80th-birthday where the blog author (and film rejigger) mentioned there were some bad versions out there.

Very stylish

Great musicians (though something about Bryant's performance of "Sunny Side of the Street" seemed a little odd). The dancers were good too.

Precursor to the music video. Very stylish.

Someone at Aardman's studios must've seen this.

A 1944 film doesn't get much better than this...

this may be many things, but it's not a "filming of a jam session"

I was jammin' the blues.