Film Clip: Traffic Jam - Artie Shaw & his Orch., 1939 - M-G-M (original stereo recording for film)

You read it right, folks. This is an edited (film) video put to the original unedited stereo studio recording originally cut for the 1939 film "Dancing Co-Ed".
As I have no stock footage to parse in there, well, I made my own to try to get everything lined up and as accurate and tight as possible to the music.
Oh yeah - the sound is engineered by yours truly as well. ;)
Dig.....

[@sywedis4019]

My dad, a WWII Army vet of Omaha Beach and my mom, a devote jitterbug, record collector and Artie Shaw fan, would have loved to see how this 1939 clip is still wowing 'em in 2017 !

[@moldyoldie7888]

A blessing for your parents, the greatest generation.

[@dougdanzeisen9608]

Simply amazing. The Shaw band sounds like it was recorded decades later. Such fidelity, such music.

[@td3993]

35mm film optical soundtrack could hit 10 to 12 KC. Limitation was all in the optics. With laser exciter lamps, the range can be extended further.

[@geezergonewile]

What a gem!! Thank you for posting. Life was wonderful back then!

[@jhawken7593]

Out of this world. !

[@thardingau]

With a young Buddy Rich on drums.

[@Kevin-yi8fd]

What a great orchestra Artie Shaw had i especially enjoyed his orchestra when it had a string section he was certainly better then today's crap when musicians knew how to play there instruments?

[@RobertSanchez-dp7zw]

Truly OUTSTANDING! All around talent at its finest.

[@wayneandrus307]

Truly a phenomenal group let by the great Artie Shaw. That's Music!!

[@moldyoldie7888]

IMO, Artie Shaw's 1939 band was the best swing band ever. One of the big reasons was Buddy Rich's playing, and yet at one point Artie asked him to quit! (It was Artie who quit the band, and the band broke up.)

[@mccuenoirfilms]

Artie created and destroyed the best swing band ever. It was incredible and tragic at the same time. His obsessive compulsiveness and ego did it!

[@moldyoldie7888]

@@mccuenoirfilms When I'm asked what a good swing band sounds like, I say Artie Shaw's 1939 band. It's too bad that the Artie Shaw album "Live in the Blue Room and Cafe Rouge" has become hard to come by. Some of The Cafe Rouge songs are the best!

[@besserman1]

Mel Brooks refers to this song in his autobiography All About Me

[@georgekilroy2670]

First stereo recording was Scriabin’s Prometheus -1932...Bell Labs.

[@bobareebop]

Wow, amazing fidelity from this OLD recording!

[@albiondi4078]

ARTIE SHAW! THE MASTER!

[@lawh61]

This is amazing. Tremendous.

[@JaneFrieman]

This film clip superbly swings! 🥁

[@SwingMan1938]

Hate to burst your bubble Barndancer61, but Disney's "Fantasia" from 1939 was originally mixed and shown in 3-track stereo. Also, both of Glenn Miller's films - "Sun Valley Serenade" from 1941 and "Orchestra Wives" from 1942 - had a stereo soundtrack and were also shown in stereo in select theaters (those who had stereo capability). This is a true stereo recording captured on an M-G-M soundstage. The only modification done has been in EQing - nothing else. As far as stereo records commercially sold, the earliest I can personally attest to is Shelly Manne's "My Fair Lady" LP from 1956 on Contemporary Records.

[@moldyoldie7888]

The 3rd channel of Fantasia's 3 track stereo was for volume control, right?

[@theoctobercountry]

@@moldyoldie7888 Argh, "Fantasound" is extremely complex---basically, far as I understand, it was a four-channel mix with the surround channel being encoded to be heard directionally through multiple speakers.

[@moldyoldie7888]

@@theoctobercountry Have you read Howard Tremaine's discussion in his "Audio Encyclopedia"? I went by what I remember reading about it years ago. He had a hand in designing it.

[@td3993]

This clip would do well being colorized with modern techniques.

[@Firebrand55]

When swing was king and people actually looked at each other!

[@kevinford69]

MORE MORE MORE!

[@sideshowtink]

The great Shaw! Slammin tune!

[@zaettav]

Marvelous

[@SuperSomeone1984]

This is great!

[@pianopappy]

As wonderful as it is (and thank you SwingMan 1938 for posting it), this is not the take that was used in the film. Buddy Rich's intro on this take is completely different (and better, in my opinion) than in the take actually used for the film. Shaw's solo here is also completely different from the take used in the film. By the way, in the film's final cut, a few lines of actor's dialogue were inserted in the middle of Shaw's solo. (Imagine what Shaw's reaction must have been after he saw it.) Georgie Auld's tenor sax solo is the same, note-for-note, in both takes. Also the same in both takes are the trombone solo and the rhythm section's feature on the bridge. The finished film excluded eight bars of the band's riff passage which precedes the rhythm section's feature. However, those eight bars were definitely played by the band in both takes made for the film. The complete take actually used in the film (without the intrusive dialogue) was furnished in 1939 to radio stations at the end of a transcription "trailer" used to promote the film.

[@SwingMan1938]

I hear ya - but I didn't have a stereo recording of the take used in the film, so I had to do the best with the wildly fluctuating tempos that I could. If I were posting "Dancing Co-Ed" in its entirety, I'd leave the original soundtrack with the thinly-veiled Freudian dialogue slicing right through the middle intact. I guess I could've posted this clip with the original soundtrack, but it'd be indistinguishable from the other dozen or so posts of it online.....

[@pianopappy]

Where did you get this stereo high-fidelity version?

[@SwingMan1938]

I don't have the link off-hand, but I found it on KZbin, believe it or not.

[@atompunk5575]

LET'S LINDY!!!

[@pianopappy]

The monaural take actually used in the film can be heard, along with the original cut of the picture (but without an obtrusive scene with dialog over Shaw's solo) at kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZ3dfWivmp2SaKc Shaw's solo is completely different than the one heard here.

[@rayszymarek2920]

Ladies and Gentlemen there you have the Very Very Swinging Big Band of Artie Shaw. How could Artie Shaw go wrong???? He had the Incomparable Buddy Rich on the drum set. Buddy DROVE that Big Band more powerful than Krupa and look at all the great musicians Artie had in that Award Winning Band. All Great and then lets repeat this. BUDDY RICH was the Human Dynamo Buddy put more power in Artie Shaws Big Band than ever. As a Matter of fact Buddy Rich could jet propel any big band,. the man the Legend BUDDY RICH

[@ianboard544]

He's not my favorite drummer to listen to (that would be Joe Morello) but for driving a band, there has never been anyone better. The sheer energy, ease and exuberance you see even in this clip. For my money, Shaw's band of 1939 was the best the big bands ever got.

[@brianoyler4777]

Buddy Rich was a great musician, but his attitude was "over the top"...(arrogance, conceit). I can understand why Artie Shaw and Rich really never hit it off. Two self-absorbed musicians head to head....

[@inesbatyehudit6026]

And to think that this genius was developed in the middle of the Second World War!

[@brianoyler4777]

This genius was developed before WW2 ever began!!

[@eternalfailure4081]

MOSH PIT!

[@catlubber9464]

George Arus on trombone

[@jankrizanovsky7814]

Good swinging.

[@leeming1234]

Proper music played by proper musicians on proper instruments and not guitars for a change from the rubbish of today.

[@user-eo9ie7zn9p]

Navy🎉🎉🎉🎉❤Daddy is a dancer.😮 WGNJMN

[@heathjelovic961]

1:55 Anyone know how it works here where you can see the pianist playing a bassline at the same time as the bassist? Would they be playing a written bassline 'in unison' (but with the pianist playing only the notes on beats one and three)? I can't imagine they're each improvising their own bassline.

[@rmo52]

In most of those old charts, the piano part was written in both clefs, with the bass line written out. Made for a lot of 12-page piano parts!