RIP The Nicholas Brothers, whom I didn’t know about until the Five Heartbeats film back in the 90’s.
“Now pay attention and you might learn something.”
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Mostly they danced side-by-side facing the camera.
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Not to take anything away from an incredible performance, but “unrehearsed” makes it sound like they just came up with it all off the top of their heads. Except the cameramen had to follow them, so they must’ve mapped out what they were going to do beforehand in order to get it all in one take.
Plus, as with any high level jazz musician, I’m sure they practiced a lot of their steps in other venues and performances, so when the time came they could just do it without thinking; Charlie Parker famously practiced eight hours a day for years before he went pro, so every improvised solo was an extension of those years of practice.
I’m most curious about how this was recorded: this is pre tape technology, I don’t see mics, I automatically assumed lip-syncing, but I can’t figure out how it could’ve been “dance-synced.” It must’ve been recorded live but Cab’s vocals and the band are so clear sounding with no mics anywhere near them.
(oops, I see @Russell_Letson already addressed a lot of this.)
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The goofy looking gent who offers her a drink in the first vid is Burt Lahr- The Cowardly Lion.
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Wow! All that and Cab Calloway too!
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I’m not sure about the band but I’ve read multiple times that all the sounds of the musical tap routines during the period used to be re-recorded in specialized sound studios and dubbed into the soundtrack in post-production. The studios where the filming was done usually didn’t have the wood floors to produce a good tap sound and besides it was impossible at the time to adequately record the tapping on a large stage. The tapping had to be very “clean” as we call it. Often it was less known but very talented black hoofers who did the tapping in the sound studios in place of the stars seen in the movies!
I’m assuming the bands were re-recorded too.
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Among other things, they’re such fine American athletes! An excellent video to watch during the current Olympics.
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Quite simply, if you haven’t seen ALL of Stormy Weather you owe it to yourself. This sequence is simply the (jaw-dropping) icing on the cake.
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I’m finding a 1999 interview with Fayard Nicholas in the book “The 50 Most Influential Black Films” [p. 66-67] where Nicholas says the routine was choreographed, with Nick Castle Sr. (“with” meaning that they at times did their own choreography). But he does say there (if it’s not the same interview you cite) that the splits-on-the-steps sequence was planned but unrehearsed.
I think the Nicholas Brothers were too professional to do anything unrehearsed, or at least unpracticed, in the sense of not knowing where they were going in a given bit (especially not with cameras rolling that cost big $). Unrehearsed dancers don’t get these kinds of results.
Yet another example of people with talent and drive doing a ton of work to make something look simple and easy via practiced, hard-earned grace.
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(Looks at teaser headline)
“Hmm I wonder if this is the Nicholas Bros. in Stormy Weather”
(Clicks on link)
“Yep I’m right”
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And Buddy Rich on drums. Here’s as good a time as any to mention the Bus Tapes.
That’s what I was wondering!
Also, speaking of tap dancers, just for grins:
(The tap dancer doesn’t appear until 1:41 but I suggest watching the whole thing)
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Can’t find the clip but I think it was in a PBS doc about Cab Calloway, where John Landis was talking about working with him on “Blues Brothers.” Landis said that though the crowd of young extras in the auditorium had no idea who Calloway was, by the time he was done he’d really gotten them going with “Minnie.”
Also, Gershwin wrote the role of Sportin’ Life in “Porgy and Bess” with Calloway in mind to perform it:
(It’s cracking me up that he’s singing this in front of a family audience, from the look of it. Yeah, slight disconnect there.)
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“Stormy Weather” is for sure one of the top five movie musicals of all time, and IMO whether it’s better than “Singin’ in the Rain” for number one spot is a coin flip.
Lena Horne’s perfiormance on the title track is as good as the human voice gets.
You guys seem to like tap.
Here’s Jimmy Slyde with George Benson and “Papa” Jo Jones.
Jones used to be a tap dancer himself in his younger years, before he joined the Count Basie big band.
And I have to share this clip of Charles “Honi” Coles & Charles “Cholly” Atkins. While the Nicolas brothers with their animated, acrobatic style defined the “flash act” which conformed with the stereotypical image of the black jazz dancer, Coles & Atkins came to define the “class act”, a style that is more refined and close to the floor and as such performed together on Broadway. As the Jazz age waned Cholly Atkins went on the become Motown’s house choreographer. His works is immortalized in the dance moves of vocal groups the likes of The Supremes, The Temptations and so forth.
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Wow, his facial expression when he plays drums… Like he’s trying to make it look easy; he looks like he’s enjoying himself and, moreover, that he’s proud of his work. There’s some fundamental lesson here, like that one should approach everything one does in this frame of mind. (Well, maybe not physical intimacy, that might look weird… or, why not?)
That said, Jones apparently had such an abrasive personality offstage that Doc Cheatham wouldn’t ride in the same car with him.
Speaking of jazz drummers and tap:
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That might have been excerpted from the “making of” which is included on the DVD/BR. Landis has a few good stories about Cab Calloway in there.
Most of the “making of” aren’t worth watching but that one really is worth taking the time for.
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