The Things You'll Find On The Internet...

Check out this 75-year-old cartoon about Tom and Jerry, the "Piano Tooners" (not the cat and mouse), which features a "jazz" piano performance near the end of the cartoon, after they remove a bad key on the piano like pulling a tooth.

Cute, and a fun little diversion down memory lane...although I don't remember this one!

Tom and Jerry (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) work as piano tuners. After seeing them at work and several creative ways of tuning a piano (such as removing the offending key and cutting the key itself to a shorter length), the two attend an opera singers performance. The singer passes out when the piano plays a wrong note, and Tom and Jerry are pressed into service to re-tune the piano. After pulling the offending key from the keyboard like a bad tooth, the two give the opera audience a jazz piano performance, with the now recovered opera singer joining in.

http://www.bibi.vlog.br/archive/2007/08/van_beurens_tom_and_jerry_iii.html

technorati tags:jazz, piano, tom, jerry, 1932, cartoon, humor

Excellent 1964 Jazz Piano Trio Music You've Never Heard

Here's something I think I may have to hunt down for my music collection...a piano trio recording from 1964 by Michael Garrick - "Moonscape".  Just the rarity of it intrigues me.  Check out this snippet from the New York Times:

But “Moonscape” out-rares them all; 99 copies were pressed by Mr. Garrick, a British pianist, after he formed what sounds like an excellent working band but before he became known at home. You’ve never heard it. It has just been issued on CD by Trunk Records. (Nobody could find the original tapes; it’s been mastered from the 10-inch vinyl.) Surprise: It’s another great example of jazz from that liminal period, its swing interrupted by abrupt interludes, streaking catchy melodies with dire, lemon-ice dissonance.

You can find the article and some other jazz news here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/arts/music/19play.html?_r=1&ref=music&oref=slogin

technorati tags:jazz, piano, garrick, 1964, trio