Brown Eyes
I just can’t help myself. You can find Josephine Baker’s version on redhotjazz.com. I quote only 2 lines because I couldn’t make sense of half what she is saying. If you like the link image, feel free to copy it and use as a banner. Here are two variations…
I like the simplified colours in a gif image, even though the edges are rough.
Desaturated, even better… I don’t know why I like b&w cartoons, maybe because so much animation is computer-coloured and oversaturated. Ah, those old-time Soviet animators… they knew how to use colour.
By the way, Josephine Baker’s voice went through an amazing development in the 1930’s and 40’s, until she sounded completely different than in those early recordings… fuller, more mature, powerful and ladylike. On the other hand, a good voice has never been a prerequisite for success in the French cabaret scene … neither Mistinguett nor Maurice Chevalier could really sing, but their personalities made them stars. The French have an obvious tendency to admire grand personalities. I guess what made those three more than starlets of a decade were style (any outrageous costume looked good on them), humor (especially self-irony), and total confidence. And they had to fight hard. There’s a certain streetwise grittiness to all of them. Edith Piaf is a perfect example.
I read somewhere in one of the zillion 20’s-themed books I have that the American audiences were very different. They wanted pure and innocent Ziegfield Follies girls, or Mack Sennet bathing beauties. Sexy and teasing, of course, but like a girl next door who went dancing for fun. The white (male) audiences didn’t feel threatened by a working girl if she was naive and cute. The mature women with darker stories to tell were few and far between. Mae West and Sophie Tucker were such exceptions, women who had seen everything and made jokes about it. Small wonder that Sophie Tucker had started her career in blackface, singing “coon songs” and more or less fake blues - the “race record” business where her inspiration came from was dominated by blues women. The Black audiences cherished the same type of personality as the post-war Parisians. They wanted to feel that Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Clara Smith, Ma Rainey and all the other blues stars were one of them, with the same kind of troubles and woes, but with pearls and furs and a chauffeur to tickle the imagination…
August 14th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Mayann on niiiin kaunis… sellanen herttanen kun sanotaan suomeks. Hm… positiivinen kaikkeen… .
Muuten Bakerin esiintymiset Berliinissä, ehkä nekin vaikutti ääneen? Tai siis se poliittinen tilanne Euroopassa yleensäkkin?
August 14th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Ennen mikrofoneja ei ollut helppoa laulaa täydelle salille orkesterin kanssa, ellei ollut kaikupohjaa. Bakerille sopi mikrofoni paremmin, koska silloin pääsi lähemmäksi yleisöä.
Mutta joo, poliittinen tilanne oli hirveän tärkeää, Bakerhan joutui kokemaan kaikenlaisia mielenosoituksia ja väittelyitä varmaan matkojensa aikana. Vaikka Baker oli aina hyvin sotaisalla päällä jos hän aavisti rasismia jossain, huonot arvostelut saivat hänet myös tekemään enemmän töitä ja kehittämään itseään. Kaikkein vaikeinta oli voittaa amerikkalaisten lehtien suosio.
Josephine Baker esiintyy syntymäkaupungissaan St. Louisissa ja saa aikaan kaikenlaista hässäkkää.
“Daddy never had much to say about his houseguests when he told this story… But he always mentioned the cats . . . how they daintily lined up, one behind the other to perform their toilette, and how Baker fussed over and baby-talked to them.”
August 14th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Heh, löysin hauskoja juttuja Bakerin vakoojaseikkailuista 2. maailmansodan aikana:
Her support of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, a stance she later regretted, still gave her entree to Italian diplomats. “She would go to the Embassy of Italy, dressed in a beautiful evening gown for a liaison,” says Jean-Claude Baker. “She would listen . . . .They would talk openly about which countries they would be attacking.”
Silmistä puheen ollen, tässä artikkelissa ihmetellään miksi 60-luvulla italialaiset laulajat olivat ihan hulluina silmiin, vihreisiin, sinisiin, mustiin, taivaallisiin, aurinkoisiin… http://ciociari.com/Eco55/occhi.htm