The Father of the Blues - W.C. Handy

Born this date in 1873, today is the 136th anniversary of the birth of W.C. Handy.

Handy is called "The Father of the Blues". As a kid I thought that this meant that he invented the blues.

What he really did was...used his musical training to harness the folk music and arrange and chart it. He also wrote original songs in the form and introduced the wider world to this truly American original art form.

He was also as true as anyone could be to the roots of it all. While signing his name to his compositions, he was the first to site his influences.

Blues was the first music I was ever passionate about. Who knows at what age I first learned the rhythms and cadences of it or when I first responded to the tonal qualities of a 12 barre progression in blues time, but I was hooked and glommed on to as much as I could early and often. When I was in my mid-teens and in the middle of Montana I had to really work at finding it. It was the age of "Disco" and "Urban Cowboy Corporate Country" on the airwaves. But find it I did. I grabbed every record I could find and read the liner notes to find the next artist who played and wrote this magic music.

Somewhere I found W.C. Handy and what he did for the music.

Blues is a music that speaks to our genetic memory somewhere...like ALL folk music does.

And like all folk music, it deserves to be preserved. Handy was the first step in doing that.

Here's a few examples of different people all performing the same W.C. Handy song.

All Part of how he helped preach the gospel of the blues. A true blues missionary.

Bessie Smith:



Louis Armstrong:



Sydney Bechet:



Bing Crosby and Duke Ellington:



A couple of relative unknowns, at least I've never heard of them till searching for this blog..

Sylvester Weaver and Walter Beasley:



Someone else surely would have brought this music to the world. But W.C. did it with dignity and honor shown to the folks who created it.

Thanks W.C.!

Out of the Inkwell...Onto Shockwave Flash Player

Max Fliescher was born today in 1883, he would have been 126 years old.

There's a lot I could tell you about the personal life of Max Fleischer, but since today is Sunday and a good day to sit and watch cartoons, I thought I'd let his work speak for itself. A kind of celebration through appreciation.

The Fleischer's began their work in the early 1920's, making silent cartoons. Most of these were about the adventures of a clown named "Ko-Ko" and his creator, Max. These were surreal stories that seemed to offer a new technical innovation with every cartoon. They invented the "Rotoscope" which allowed them to kind of "trace over" live action. Dave Fleischer would dress in a clown suit, then they would trace a cartoon figure over him. This made for a realistic movement and it's a device still used today occasionally, but the Fleischers themselves soon abandoned strict use of this, as it limited the real magic, the ability of an animator to add personality to the character..and truthfully, allow the character to be a cartoon.

They also experimented with the combination of live action and animation together, and every cartoon seemed to find a new way to innovate, poke fun at the innovation, and comment on the unique art form they were making.

Another first for the Fleischers? They were the first to put sound on film. "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson and even "Steamboat Willie" with Mickey Mouse were films shown with recorded accompaniment with a record playing along with the movie. The Fleischers actually printed the sound track right on the film, the way we do it right up to today.

Once sound was here to stay, they made full advantage of it with their "Famous Bouncing Ball" series. Folks in the theater would sing along with a popular song of the day while watching cartoons dramatizing the action.

The music in Fleischer Brothers cartoons was great too. Disney and Warner cartoons had top 40 pop tunes and show-type tunes, which were great...but the Fleischer's were based in New York rather than Hollywood and had access to Broadway performers and the music acts around Harlem. Check this great Betty Boop cartoon featuring the first screen appearance ever by the great Louis Armstrong.

They brought us Popeye and Betty Boop of course, but they also did the first film version of Superman. Coming just 3 years after Superman's first appearance, these cartoons are amazing. Here's the first.

They did more than I can fit into a single post. The first 2-reel cartoon, "Popeye Meets Sindbad the Sailor" a couple of feature length cartoons, "Gulliver's Travels" and "Mr. Bug Goes to Town".

The thing that really separated the Fleischers from other studios of the time is they were true cartoons. While Disney was striving for technical achievements in animation and smooth natural movement, Warner was just feeling it's way through and selling Warner's songs, Paul Terry, Walter Lantz and the rest were just churning out product...Max and Dave were making CARTOONS! Made for laughs, made for making you feel good.

Boop-Oop-A-Doop is all I can say.