1935 JOSEPHINE BAKER & THE COMEDIAN HARMONISTS - Berlin meets Paris

Josephine Baker made one record with the famous German COMEDIAN HARMONISTS a-capella group on September 29, 1935 for French Columbia.

It includes a cover version from Baker's freshly released hit movie "Princess Tam Tam": Sous le Ciel d' Afrique.

Eliseo Grenet's "Espabilate" is a Duetto Comico from his Zarzuela (Spanish Operetta) La Virgen Morena. It is NOT drawn from the 1942 movie of the same name. An odd choice.

The original version of Sous le ciel d'Afrique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB4HWLQbWB4
The b/w movie clip is from another song from Princess Tam Tam "Le chemin du bonheur"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYDLsIVppk8&feature=related.

The tinted passages are from Josephine Baker's fabulous first movie, The Siren of the Tropics (1927).

Complete Discography with sound samples of Josephine Baker:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/josephinebaker.html

The COMEDIAN HARMONISTS were the most popular of a-capella sextets, and their snappy and often ribald recordings are still appreciated and imitated.

Founded in 1927 by unemployed singers in Berlin, the Comedian Harmonists quickly rose to international stardom; that is until the Nazis banned the sextet from performing in March 1934. The three Jewish members, Harry Frommermann, Erich Collin, and Roman Cycowski fled Germany and reformed under the name of "Comedy Harmonists". You can hear some great solos of Cycowski on this record. However, neither the exile Comedy Harmonists, nor the left-in-Germany Meistersextet (Herr Goebbels says "No Englische Namen, Danke schoen!"), ever made a true comeback, and both groups had falled apart by start of WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedian_Harmonists

Now to JOSEPHINE BAKER:
The first black international superstar, and with Paul Robeson the only US negro to have an international career outside the narrow US confines.

In Josephine Baker's movies and records one can experience a truly liberated woman - a wild woman, even - and an artist of the highest caliber.

When looking at her three movies - all worth seeing - one really can appreciate the differences of Paris attitude vs Hollywood conventions. None of these films would have been possible in the US before the 1960s.

Her first movie, Siren of the Tropics, was made only a year after her arrival in Paris. This silent movie is wonderful in many ways: The breathtaking bathtub scene (Gustav Machaty's Ekstase would not come out until 1933), the famous dancing sequence, and of course a whole lot of cloak and dagger scenes, and pursuit sequence on the ship. It parodies the blackface vaudeville routines - her falling into a pile of coal: "She is black", falling into a box of flower: "Now she is white", logically ending up in that bathtub.

Zou Zou (1934) was her first talkie, with Jean Gabin, and includes the famous golden cage sequence.

Her last movie - Princesse Tam Tam - 1935 - has again a slight plot, some great songs and dance numbers. It shows Baker as a mature actress.

Much overlooked among all this is her voice: When listening to these recordings, Bakers singing is a wonder to behold. How she weaves the treble line of Espabilate, pitch perfect, with a straight voice and vibrato added at expressive moments. Her range is excellent, and only slightly weak on the top notes. Nothing that a couple of years of conservatory training couldnt fix.
It still amazes me to listen to the details: The controlled half-voice, the perfect pitch, the tasteful use of slight ornaments and even occasional controlled portamenti. Even if she had not been a dancer, her voice surely would have guaranteed her stardom.

As to the recordings:
Recorded from a US Columbia issue of the original French 78 rpm record.
The Capehart De Luxe Turn-Over Record Changer was the epitome of luxury radio-phonographs, with the 406N model being the finest and highest quality phonograph that Capehart had to offer.

Check out more photos and description of the machine here:
http://myvintagetv.com/Carsten%20Sales%20Ads/salelist.htm

Produced unchanged from 1930 - 1950, updated electronics always provided the finest in high fidelity with the unsurpassed Capehart Record changer.

The changer is a true engineering marvel of precision careful handling of records, and plays 16 records on both sides.

The post-war Capeharts are the finest machines Capehart ever sold: The GE Variable Reluctance Cartridge (8 grams) and powerful tube electronics provide a Fidelity and Volume that is still unsurpassed.
It makes 78 RPM records sound better than any other way of reproduction.
Enjoy.

Check out more great tunes and amazing vintage phonographs at My YouTube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q342zZx4id0

More about this and other machines
on my Changer Website
http://myvintagetv.com/updatepages1/changer%20videos/changer_videos.htm

Видео 1935 JOSEPHINE BAKER & THE COMEDIAN HARMONISTS - Berlin meets Paris канала sanfranphono