Jammin' the Blues is a 1944

1944 in film

The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....

 short film in which several prominent jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musicians got together for a rare filmed jam session. It featured Lester Young

Lester Young

Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....

, Red Callender

Red Callender

Red Callender, , was a jazz bass and tuba player, famous for turning down a chance to work with Duke Ellington's Orchestra and the Louis Armstrong All-Stars....

, Harry Edison, Marlowe Morris

Marlowe Morris

Marlowe Morris was an American jazz pianist and Hammond organist. He was the nephew of Thomas Morris.Morris also learned drums, harmonica, and ukulele as a child. He accompanied June Clark from 1935 to 1937, then played solo for a few years before playing with Coleman Hawkins in 1940-41...

, Sid Catlett

Sid Catlett

Sidney Catlett , was a swinging jazz drummer often referred to as "Big Sid Catlett" because of his large frame.-Biography:...

, Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century, he was noted in particular for his vast knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies...

, Jo Jones

Jo Jones

Jo Jones was an American jazz drummer.Known as Papa Jo Jones in his later years, he was sometimes confused with another influential jazz drummer, Philly Joe Jones...

, John Simmons

John Simmons

John Christopher Simmons is a former American football defensive back in the National Football League. Simmons was selected in the third round by the Cincinnati Bengals out of Southern Methodist University in the 1981 NFL Draft.-External links:**...

, Illinois Jacquet

Illinois Jacquet

Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo....

, Marie Bryant, Archie Savage and Garland Finney. Barney Kessel is the only white performer in the film. He was seated in the shadows to shade his skin, and for closeups, his hands were stained with berry juice.

The movie was artfully directed by famed still photographer Gjon Mili

Gjon Mili

Gjon Mili was an Albanian-American photographer best known for his work published in Life.-Biography:Born to Vasil Mili and Viktori Cekani in Korçë, Albania, Mili came to the United States in 1923. In 1939, Mili landed a job as a freelance photographer for Life...

, edited by former MGM film editor Norman Granz

Norman Granz

Norman Granz was an American jazz music impresario and producer.Granz was a fundamental figure in American jazz, especially from about 1947 to 1960...

 and released by Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

  Producer Gordon Hollingshead

Gordon Hollingshead

Gordon Hollingshead was an American movie producer, associate producer and assistant director....

 was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Short Subject, One-reel.

In 1995, Jammin' the Blues was selected for preservation in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

 by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Jammin' the Blues appears on the DVDs Passage to Marseille (2006) and Norman Granz: Improvisation (2007).

Cast

• Lester Young - Tenor Sax
• Red Callender - Bass
• Harry "Sweets" Edison - Trumpet
• Marlowe Morris - Piano
• "Big" Sid Catlett - Drums (First two songs, and intro of third)
• Jo Jones (Not Philly Joe Jones) - Drums (for final song)
• Barney Kessel - Guitar
• John Simmons - Bass
• Illinois Jacquet - Tenor Sax
• Marie Bryant - Vocals & Female Dancer
• Archie Savage - Male Dancer

Songs

• Midnight Symphony
• On the Sunny Side of the Street
  On the Sunny Side of the Street
  "On the Sunny Side of the Street" is a song with music composed by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, which was introduced in the Broadway musical Lew Leslie's International Revue, starring Harry Richman and Gertrude Lawrence....
  
   - Sung by Marie Bryant
• Jammin' the Blues

External links

• Jammin' the Blues at the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
  
  
• Video of the performance at YouTube
  YouTube
  YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....