Woody Allen's Jazz is..?

October 25, 2005 2:38 PM

What is the kind of jazz in Woody Allen movies ? I see Allen often plays with the Preservation Hall Band and I'd like to know what kind of jazz do they play in his movies, for instance in Sleeper. Are there bands specialized in that kind of jazz ?
posted by elpapacito to media & arts (17 comments total)

Dixieland!
posted by tristeza at 2:43 PM on October 25, 2005

Dixieland and early American jazz.
posted by wsg at 2:47 PM on October 25, 2005

As for bands that specialize in it.... you might as well try the man himself. Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band
posted by Robot Johnny at 2:52 PM on October 25, 2005

There's a good album of tracks from his movies call Woody's Winners which you can buy from Amazon.
posted by brautigan at 2:55 PM on October 25, 2005

Yeah, it's dixieland or "trad" (if you're British). It's what jazz was before swing came along. (Every new wave of jazz left resentful devotees of the previous version shaking their fists in impotent outrage; Louis Armstrong famously referred to bebop as "Chinese music.") There are some very good modern exponents of that style; I recommend Warren Vache, Howard Alden, Ruby Braff, Kenny Davern, Lew Tabackin, and Scott Hamilton (varying degrees of pre-modernity, but all make wonderful music).
posted by languagehat at 2:56 PM on October 25, 2005

I got into Django Reinhardt because of Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. You can get everything he put on wax for around $25 on Amazon.
posted by goatdog at 3:01 PM on October 25, 2005

So I guess the suffix Dixie doesn't fit Dixie Chicks, they should rather be Country or BlueGrass Chicks ?
posted by elpapacito at 3:09 PM on October 25, 2005

Naw, they're just from Dixie, I guess. They're strictly C&W Chicks, but not a lot of the W is left in most modern top 40 "C&W."
posted by luriete at 3:18 PM on October 25, 2005

Not much of the C, either.
posted by goatdog at 3:26 PM on October 25, 2005

You might also like The Jim Cullum Jazz Band. Lots of info about traditional jazz on that Web site, including lists of players you'd be well advised to give a listen to. And the greats like Bix Beiderbecke, Sidney Bechet, and "King" Oliver all taught Louis Armstrong a thing or two. And Satchmo is still teaching us all.

If you can spare a couple hundred dollars, Ken Burn's landmark series Jazz is out in 10 DVD set. Worth a listen, and there is a lower cost set of CD's that have a lot of music from the series sound track, plus some additional material that wasn't in the broadcast.
posted by paulsc at 3:56 PM on October 25, 2005

I recommend you check out master cornetist Bix Beiderbecke if you like the music in Allen's films. He's obviously a big influence on Allen's own playing though I think Allen plays a clarinet.

On preview, paulsc beat me to it. (However, I recommend you purchase the Jazz series used as you can get it for half that.)
posted by dobbs at 3:58 PM on October 25, 2005

Thanks for the tons of accurate info guys :) as a results I'm going to listen tomorrow with friends to some live hot jazz in some little canteen.
posted by elpapacito at 4:36 PM on October 25, 2005

Great idea! Live music is always a good choice: it's an experience you can't replicate at home, and it supports the actual musicians. Enjoy!
posted by languagehat at 5:12 PM on October 25, 2005

dukes of dixieland did some very good records in the 50s
posted by pyramid termite at 9:53 PM on October 25, 2005

by the way, does anybody know the jazz piece that plays repeatedly through his film Alice? i see it's not on the Woody's Winners collection (at least not under the title of that film), and it's always been in the back of my mind to find it...i recall one scene in particular when Alice goes to Chinatown, and you hear a kind of oriental-style intro that rips into this new orleans (i think) jazz piece...
posted by troybob at 12:29 AM on October 26, 2005

Also check out the AllMusic page on Dixieland jazz (which leads to New Orleans and Trad jazz.
posted by Lockeownzj00 at 3:22 AM on October 26, 2005

On the web you might check out Hot Jazz Saturday Night from WAMU in the Nation's Capital.
posted by OmieWise at 5:58 AM on October 26, 2005