King of Jazz: Willie Hall

[arbatax1913]

thank you for posting, just great !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SKRIPACHRU]

+100500!

[FiddleGirl123]

WHY DOESN'T THIS HAVE MORE VIEWS?! D:<

[ericles11]

Very very Good

I love Jazz

[leoncioviolin]

buenísimo

[GemGabrielaM]

a new instrument ! the bicicle air tire pump !



[DJFozter]

genius

[XavasMurilo]

19 fools

[yago2br]

OMG

HE COPIES CHARLES CHAPLIN!

[SizzleSuite]

great - seriously talented player. i want those shoes!

[MasterDonut]

He is the king of jazz.

[Weenchit]

The funny thing is that he is skilled at a level many violinists would die to be and for him it was a silly triviality!

[eoghdes18]

@Weenchit Not really. His tone is appalling, and he's also not playing any of this live to camera: the 'left hand' plucking sounds clearly like real pizzicato. The humour is in the choreography, not the playing.

[francesctomas]

@eoghdes18 Is real left hand pizzicato, and he really plays, no doubt.

[TormaBlend]

king of jazz?

[bluedustmite]

He makes it looks so effortless. Amazing.

[45tacospaievar]

the violin´s buckethead?

[thewestof1979]

I like how he frowns to check his intonation and uses that as a break between songs. These happen at 0:25, 0:36, 0.48. And to be able to do tricks like that you need a lot of pressure on the violin strings. Especially at 1:26. And 1:46 is harmonics yes.

[thewestof1979]

He's actually a really skilled violinist. Some of these songs can be hard to play. Left hand pizz is not easy!

[ericvirgo]

Shred that shit brah! YEAH!

[Silenxer]

Nice shoes faggot

[DreadfulRay]

I had to look it up to see if 1:46 was a recording error or if it was actually possible to play and bend harmonics on a violin. It sounds like whistling, damn!

[DreadfulRay]

@DreadfulRay Welp youtube hates me. maybe 1:43 will work.

[phaseblade]

Smashing a chair over him was so unnecessary!

[jeromearsenault]

It's classic physical comedy...I guess

[fiddlegal11]

@phaseblade

It is vaudeville - hence, the chair smashing. Just like pie in the face

[gwahir11]

Willie Hall was my grandfather. It warms my heart to read these comments because it proves how timeless his talent really was. I would love a copy of this video for myself - could the person who posted it please post where they got it? If the King of Jazz movie is available anywhere please post that also. Thank you.

[ccon7279]

He is incredible!!!! :)

[markymcclellan]

@gwahir11 Your Grandpa!- wow!- do you have any funny stories about him?

[M3killU]

I CANT STOP WATCHING

[julinho1]

Thanks for sharing!

Can´t stop watching this!

[alaneur210]

whats the song in minute 2:08? and the one that he plays with the air pump? anyone? thanks =)

[brosro]

@alaneur210 Stars and Stripes Forever march

[MrCranstone]

This guy was with Spike Jones for a while, I believe. What a monster! Makes it look effortless...

[78timothy]

Wilbur "Willie" Hall played w/Whiteman's Orchestra for many years and lived well into the 1970's. His last appearance that I know of was on the ABC Talent Show "The Gong Show" and did this very stunt. It wow'ed the Audience, but I don't know if he was "Gonged" or not. I would'nt think so. He's great wherever he is. 5***** to you for posting :-)

[loke2670dk]

ok wikipedia.

[moni1361]

marvelousss - totaly great !!!!!!!!!!!!

[appletreemusic1]

i cannot help but wonder if an act like this would make it today. i imagine that in order for this to be successful today, the violinist would have to perform with the utmost clarity and intonation, he would have to play like Joshua Bell or Hilary Hahn, while maintaining the slapstick spontaneity.

[swtgirlcrzy]

crazy

[scrip7ki77y]

Marvelous!

[spiewajaca]

haha :D gościu jest niesamowity !

[BrunoEspo]

now, THAT"S entertainment  :o)

[KnowMann]

*remainder from previous*

-- which may represent a TV re-broadcast in his 'country of origin' & which bears opening subtitles beginning with:

«Og nu præsenterer vi...» ("And now we present..." [i.e. Not a literal translation of the spoken English])-- I would have to guess Denmark over Nederlands, as this is clearly either Norwegian or Danish (essentially the same language, though please don't tell any of my Danish OR Norwegian friends I said that publicly!), and just as surely not Dutch.

[KnowMann]

I don't know anything further on his origins, myself, but based on your comment AND another WH clip (from GustavoNunez65, & generally available from the "Related Videos" section of this YouTube page)-- *see other post for remainder, as the whole is beyond the character count limit*

[aninalos]

This must be the same man who appeared on TV in England around 1950 (as no one else could surely do this)and who I believe was Danish, though could have been Dutch. After his act he then took up a better quality violin and proceded to play the Introduction and Rondo Capricioso with orchestra brilliantly. That was what endeared him to me. Never heard of him since then until this clip appeared. Thanks

[olivej1914]

When I first saw this years ago, I loved it.

Willie never thought that 80 years later people would still think this was cool. Wish I could play the bicycle tire pump. Talk about kick starting a boring party with that trick, huh? lol

[ManlioGiordano]

Absolutely fantastic!! (Thank you, The Aviv Quartet, for recommending it!)

[kristmist]

I didn't quite get how the music came in the end... the tools he used...

[carlylemiii]

rofl.

my orchestra conductor said to look this up.

glad i did.

[xtomokixx]

is he alive

[Desdemona202]

Infudgeingredible

[lovellen26]

HHAHAH he looks fake!!! but he is the FUNNIEST GUY ON EARTH!!! <3ed thiss!!

[jeremyingham]

he is legend. been my hero for a long time

always will

[TTyme88]

dat dude was a beast........da best ive seen so far

but miri's getn up der quickly though

[iversoncru]

es increible!!!

[jascha1978]

this is the best thing ever!

[vithefiddler]

Willie Hall is my new hot fiddle hero. :)

[sinichisuzuki]

00:54 holy shet!

[bbjmm]

jenius

[spike56ct]

best. shit. ever.

[Hashnew]

Wonderful...

[negativegiraffe]

Cool! v. cool and the great thing is , to him, its just another prop and all in a days work. Great gig thanks for this post

[h4san12]

he is so goood

hahahah nice

[poldova]

cuthbertdrinkwater is quite right, he does left hand pizzicato for the notes that fall on the words "Pop Goes". and that gives him time to catch his bow. .....barely.....

Bravo! wish i could do that. practice, anyone?

[zuperduperboi]

Yes, but the sync is off too. Youtube has a slight lag and if you look closely on 1:53 you can see that the bow comes in contact with the strings slightly after the music starts.

Awesome video btw!

[agusssssssss]

q grosso

[DreadfulRay]

There's another video of this act on youtube. It doesn't have the bike pump but he bows the violin with his... chair.

[cuthbertdrinkwater]

ohdannybOi, the sync's fine. He's doing the first few notes with his left(fingering) hand. Yes/we want this classic on DVD. I have it on tape.

[LiquidViolist7]

oh dear.. the violin is on the floor, bridge down! x_x

[jheifetz]

thats great, but i think if you look very detailt you can see at 2:00 or 1:59 that the music starts befor the bow contact the strings, but very nice stunts^^

[ohdannyb0i]

my guess is that the sync is off, that's all

[FTFDrummer7]

wow, man. hate a guy

[yourequiteugly]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[louswire]

Priceless! Love the post!

[WhitetheDark]

wonderful

[trabanul]

Absolutely great!!! Music and humor should always go together...if possible! :-)

[puptentacle]

The finest clip from one of the most entertaining films of all time, "The King Of Jazz". I bet Itzhak Perlman can't do that!!! WE WANT THIS MOVIE ON DVD? IS ANYONE LISTENING?

[albert71292]

I want that movie on DVD so bad... had to record my over 20 year old VHS to a DVD in the meantime...

[kiminposti]

great man, u-a, fiN.

[AALEEEX]

se acerca a mi concepto de dios

[Whyolin]

I want shoes like his !!!!

And I wouldn t mind to have a guy like him !

:)

[danielgdecastro]

Vamos, que colgaos había en todas las épocas xD. Me gustaría ver a este tío tocar así el trombón. Impresionante.

[infrogmation]

Wilbur Hall (not to be confused with New Orleans pianist Willie Hall) also played trombone professionally. He did this same violin bit in the 1950s on Spike Jones tv show and in the 1970s on the Gong Show!

[markh23h]

Anybody have those clips??

[brian2889]

Pure vaudeville. Willie is the most entertaining fiddler I've ever seen. I love this clip

[AngelCrossing]

I would NEVER try to do that w/ my dear violin... Or bow..

[Jman4life89]

ha. great. im not even going to try that stuff w/ my violin. theres too much of a chance of me dropping it and paying thousands of dollars to get it fixed. but great tricks.

-jman

[TamaraBenitez]

se toca todo!!

espectacular

[AmeKangen]

Wow..played in so many different positions..

[telamachos]

Oh shit that can't happen. Is he an allien or something?

[jennennk]

That's fantastic. I am buying a cheap violin and I'm going to learn that stuff, and then I'm going to post a video response. See my violin movies 'jennen'.

[judyvla]

good luck!  i've played professionally for 30-some years and can't come close.

[judyvla]

hey, jenn--should have watched your thais before commenting. lovely, and i predict great things for your efforts with wilbur's tricks!

[thedrakesplace]

Like looking into the face of God and seeing Him smiling back and saying, "You are my most wondrous creation."

[molorolo]

hahahahahahahahahahhaahaha amazing totally crazy!!!

[HomoCyclist]

LOL Fabulous!

[peeeeeee]

That made me at least 63% happier.

[FTFDrummer7]

72% for me

[tubadylan]

The way he does that, he may as well be playing trombone at the same time.

[evoandy]

that changed my life.

[imbecilahora]

incredible!!!!

[yakitori63]

who ist this violin player? he can hardly be Willie Hall piano player...

[lostheboss]

joer como triunfa.. pero de donde os habeis sacado e este personaje??? xD lol

[paayoub]

we liked it very much we all lol

[keetheman]

shit's definitely real - i've seen this before. old school...!

[12345numbersyay]

yea i can do that . . .

[sweatshopboy]

.... wow.... where can i learn to play like that?

[orch101]

Classic Vaudeville schtick! Great stuff. You can tell the guy can really play too.

[PitchBlack696]

haha, thats one cool dude.

[emicad]

:) amazing

[ViolinCyndee]

HAHAH!! That was GREAT!!

[mowgie]

Aeseome skills!

[krazitbone]

awesome - but how much of it is real?

[Pig4Life]

all of it ! haha

[flushpuppy]

yea... all of it

[Karlcarl]

Absolutely real!

[viollinre]

Dang.. he's good.. and his head must have hurt!

[nsroach]

probably...it looked like it was a breakaway chair though, so not too bad..but AMAZING violinist. he plays the trombone apparently?