Jazz & Film Animation: A Brief, Sketchy History

I went to the Melancon essay re: "Begone Dull Care", and found an assumption that's incorrect, but I can't find the right information for sure.

The claim is that the Oscar Peterson Trio on the soundtrack is OP, Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen. Uh-Uh. That trio didn't come together until the beginning of 1959, when Thigpen joined with OP and Ray. The very tight trio is likely the OP working group of the time, with Auston (sic) Roberts on bass, and Clarence Jones on drums.

The National Film Board had its own studio in Montreal and the music would have been recorded there in 1948, and McLaren (with Elizabeth Lambart) would have worked with that soundtrack. (Note that that's before the famous OP Carnegie Hall sit-in, which launched the pianist's international career).

Another, earlier (1941) Norman McLaren National Film Board of Canada 'animation' was done to Albert Ammons' Solo Art recording of Boogie Woogie. "Boogie Doodle" can be seen on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJ-yOhpYIM

Last spring we at the New School in NYC explored this genre with a student studio collaborative between Parsons animators and illustrators and our Jazz composers and instrumentalists. You can see a short docy about our work at:

DOCUMENTARY WEB LINKS

documentary / original full-length (10 min)
http://vimeo.com/1261348

documentary / shorter version (5 min)
http://blip.tv/file/912948

Mr. Frese, There are three Gerald McBoing McBoing cartoons as Special Features on the DVD Hellboy. I was amazed to see the lineup of players: Ray Brown, Jimmy Rowles, Shelley Manne, etc....

I have been hoping for some time that someone would put out on DVD the UPA cartoons of Gerald McBoing Boing, several of which were scored with tracks from Shorty Rogers Atlantic LP, The Swinging Mr. Rogers. I also liked the short of Duke playing "Dancers in Love" superimposed with cartoon characters.

Wierdo genius Harry Smith (of the Anthology of American Folk Music fame) created this animated short to Monk's "Mysterioso." I think Smith was experimenting with this sort of thing as early as the mid/late '40's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho4rf1zTCq0