Nova Orleans

Very uplifting. No need to worry about bad stuff happening, it's just an escape into the early days of blues and jazz. Great songs by Satchmo and Billie Holiday and a bunch more.

If you ar a jazz aficionado you won't need the services of a plot to enjoy New Orlrans. Either the city or the movie. A city known for fine dining and the creation of jazz. This film is a feast of jazz with some other music served on the side.

The plot such as it is has Arturo DeCordova as the owner of a gambling spot that features that new found music created in the city called jazz. DeCordova gets involved with society debutante Dorothy Patrick. But her mother Irene Rich wants a career for her with more highbrow music. Eventually DeCordova moves his operation to Chicago and the rest is history.

But when you get to hear music from Louis Armstrong, Billie Holidy, Woody Herman and so many more just forget the story and enjoy.

Just the musicians alone make this a worthwhile movie...jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Kid Ory, Barney Bigard, Meade 'Lux' Lewis, Woody Herman, Zutty Singleton, and others have close-ups, and a number of them have speaking parts. There are nine musical numbers featured in the movie also.

Without Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday and their musical supporting cast, this would be a forgettable melodrama. To me the most interesting aspect of this movie is the contrast of cultures - the stuffy white world symbolized by classical/operatic music (some very excellent), the blues/jazz world of the downtrodden but resilient black population and the white "early adopters" of their music. The music is tremendous. Although this movie would never win an Academy Award except for music, the cast is overall excellent given their material. Anyone who loves Armstrong or Holiday should own this. I saw this on Turner classic movies and I'm going to buy it.

A fellow-jazz-fan in the US recently sent me this on video. I enjoyed it immensely. I can't pretend it's a good film. The story and its treatment are reminiscent of the straight bits in Marx Brothers films (the ones that had straight bits, that is). But instead of Groucho and Harpo, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday do their stuff, and bring the film to life.

Plus points for jazz fans are that several of the numbers are seen and heard complete, rather than faded out; both Billie and Louis were still near their best; the other musicians, including Kid Ory and Barney Bigard, get to solo, and you hear -- and see - an early version of the Armstrong All-Stars really swinging. There's also a rare sight of the great (and now disappeared) Lucky Thompson behind Louis in one sequence.

A personal note: one of my very first records (78 rpm, early 1950s) was Louis' "Where the Blues Was Born". I guess I had the studio, not the soundtrack version, but both are terrific. It was amazing to SEE that long-treasured performance.

"New Orleans" would not go down well with latter-day jazz musicians because Billie's shown as a maid, and Woody Herman (white) comes into the story for no earthly reason beyond the fact that he was a big name in 1947. But if you can see and hear past all that, the music makes it worthwhile.

OK, it's not a good film. But how many jazz films are? "Jammin' the Blues," "Pete Kelly's Blues," "Sven Klang's Combo," "Round Midnight," and that's it. Only three of those are feature-length, and two are European. For anyone who loves the music, "New Orleans" is well worth viewing.