Soundies: Jazz, Swing, and Bebop Legends in PBS Documentary

Before MTV, there were "soundies." First appearing in 1941, these three-minute "music videos" played in famous nightclubs and restaurants everywhere, featuring many of the legendary musicians of that era and of all time. For the price of 10 cents, audiences enjoyed artists such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway.

Hosted by Michael Feinstein, four-time Grammy nominee and one of the premiere interpreters of American song, the program also contains interviews with some of America's most famous musical and cultural icons — including Wynton Marsalis, Les Paul, George Duke, Hugh Hefner and film historian Leonard Maltin.

For More Info: http://www.soundiestv.com

• Category

  Film & Animation

[themaclady]

My dad was in the first 8 soundies ever made at Radio City Music Hall.. he is still alive at 89... was playing first sax and clarinet in the Donahue Band and was only 17 or 18 years old.

[nakohead415]

Yvonne DeCarlo.. what a hottie!!

[drafe007]

classy and you can dance to it!!

[markrcantor]

@themaclady Hi there, and hope this email reaches you. Please allow me to introduce myself as a historian working on a definitive filmography of SOUNDIES. You say that your dad is in the Al Donahue band.... I would love to speak with him, if possible, and try nd establish a personnel for the band. I can be reached at

markcantor@ao.com

[Paul Mavrakis]

There iz something MAGICAL about this music-era.

U either do not get it, or it shakes your world and it SETS your Soul on FIRE!!!

I GOTTA go stick my face in some ICE water.

GOD BLESS US ALL,

Paul Bonham Mavrakis

GOD BLESS US ALL,

[555aahouse1]

@blacksalkonsungodzzz yes you're right and it's just simply the truth. It's there it's music history for generations to come and for us to learn where it comes from I'm a Mexican and I love the Negro Spirit-the DooWop Sound of those days.

[Eryqah]

We? I guess you mean other black people before your time?

[Rusty Frank]

2:28 in that's Gene Nelson and his wife Miriam Franklin Nelson! Miriam's alive and well at 90!

[Drblooter99]

Of coure you are! No-one doubts it, surely. Most jazz is black, all the greatest players -- Armstrong, Parker, Davis, Coltrane -- were black.