Wow!!!!

I wonder if this is true? It seems odd. Reading Stanley Dance's Hines biog, Hines was famous for TIRELESSLY encouraging young people and he even bequeathed his own beloved Steinway in his Will to help them - see his Wiki biog.

Come-on oriraykai, why not put your glasses on! Hines was FAMOUS for his various different toupees. And one of the many lovely little things about this film is that of course the Clean-Up man has his on too!

And, just to be sure my son doesn't overlook such an important performer, I'll email this to him :)

@@rsjmd That'll be the test rsjmd!

8;20 mark

I wonder what this 'bizarre video stabilization' is? I only look at KZbin via my MacBook laptop and this wonderful film (shot pre-video by the famous Oscar-winning film cameraman Chris Menges all those years ago) is FAULTLESSLY perfectly and spectacularly beautifully shot in very difficult low-light conditions. But others have commented below (eg William Anderson 3 years ago now) on some KZbin video correction/stabilization on their devices, to the point of it even being "vomit-inducing". What is therefore happening? How can we get KZbin to stop this - assuming it's them? The utterly-great Earl 'Fatha' Hines so-so-SO doesn't deserve it!

@@MrTolesi for example if you go to 3:10 and watch the shot of his hands while he's playing, you'll notice the piano looks like it is wobbling around all over the place, and it sometimes seems like his hands are staying in the centre. I don't KZbin did this, I suspect this was done by the person who uploaded it (maybe the footage was a bit deteriorated).

@@MrTolesi By the way, image stabilization had not been invented when this was first filmed, so not dissing the filmmaker. I'd love to watch an original copy of this doco.

@@stephenwatson2964 Mmmmm ... I do wonder if you're right Stephen? I've now v. carefully looked at the footage you talk about from 3.10 on a good 10 times on my large screen. And I THINK what you see as 'video stabilization' is in fact the immensely skilled Chris Menges, hand-held and in almost no light and so with almost no depth-of-field, achieving quite miraculous one-handed focus-pulls (presumably on a super-16mm Arri or Aaton) while himself moving his camera immensely quickly to keep Hines' flashing hands close-up in, as you say, "the centre". So I think, "of course the white (diagonal) line of the piano keys therefore jumps about as Chris Menges moves so very fast" - it surely has to to achieve that still "centre". So I'd say what we should all be is in absolute awe of Chris Menges' skills! I'm almost sure I'm right ... but I don't 100% promise!

@@MrTolesi Interesting idea. Have a look at the shot at 20:25 as well - the bricks are wobbling around, and I don't think it could just be the camera movement. I'm pretty sure this is some weird algorithm going on - there are similar effects when people film videos on newer smartphones. These stabilization algorithms keep the stuff in the centre looking very stable, at the expense of stuff around the edges jiggling around.

Hines was the greatest who ever lived, I think. But meanwhile there's always Dr K & Terry Miles at St Pancras Station in London, England, doing MUCH more than very well to keep the piano alive:- kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJ3OoIWsZaqsjrM

I'd say go back to your Morris Traveller, Gordon Stevens!!

@@MrTolesi If I hadn't sold it to you, I would

Glad you enjoyed it!

Well done him! It's absolutely great.

I'd say UTTERLY wonderful and UTTERLY moving too ...

Stanley Dance's biog. says, "According to the pianist Teddy Wilson and the saxophonist Eddie Barefield, "Art Tatum's favorite jazz piano player was Earl Hines. He [Tatum] used to buy all of Earl's records and would improvise on them. He'd play the record but he'd improvise over what Earl was doing ... course, when you heard Art play you didn't hear nothing of anybody but Art. But he got his ideas from Earl's style of playing - but Earl never knew that".

= genius ...... Yes Indeed!

They got to him just in time. I'd say the playing is absolutely GREAT Hines and miraculously builds and gets better and better throughout the film - but not the very, VERY, greatest Hines - listen to some of his beyond-magic solo recordings from 5>10 years earlier. But an absolutely GREAT film none-the-less. Hines was always Mr Cool - I liked when he told his bandsmen that even if they had holes in the soles of their shoes no one would know, " ... just shine the tops".

I too find the last 10 minutes "incredibly touching", filmed in that single-spotlight master-stroke, with Hines sliding together the two great theme-songs in that way that only he could ever do. And then Hines' final sigh at the end, oh God. So yes, "incredibly touching" for me too, along with the (wonderful!) Frank-the-pot-boy when he says, "... and show-time, yea ...". It's just the way he says it. And I'd finally say, "... my favourite part of an UTTERLY GREAT film".

And yet I don't THINK Peterson ever acknowledged his so-obvious debt to Hines - unlike Art Tatum who did. I've always wondered why not?

I think so too - and we're not alone. Count Basie also thought so - see the Hines Wiki article.

Checking, I see I've slightly misquoted Wiki. Wiki's Hines article says, "Count Basie said that Hines was "the greatest piano player in the world".

That's not plenty - I've watched it twenty! (I'm serious - or maybe more!) Hines was just so utterly GREAT wasn't he? And just a GREAT film too.

..and LOVE Hines' music, especially the extraordinary way it builds and builds through this film - absolute MAGIC!

Saw this concert in 1979: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHbbnWdvbZJpq8U Aren't we lucky?