Al Jolson remasters, old recording studio thoughts and TECHNICOLOR!

Al Jolson remasters

I have several LP's by Jolson on MCA in England and Decca from the USA.
Some are mono, and sound great , others are fake stereo adding huge quantities of reverb.
I have also picked up some CD's over the years, but they dont have as good a sound as my mono Lp;s. ( I also have Give My regards to Broadway on 78 , but have nothing to play it on !)
I noticed on the Al Jolson Appreciation society website that they have made several Jolson CD's available, "sympathetically remastered" has anybody heard them, will I be pleased or disapointed ?
Thanks
John

 

John, not sure about the Cds, but I am involved with the Vitaphone project, and I can you that the new release of Jolsons "The Jazz Singer" will have the audio completely redubbed from pristine, original Vitaphone discs. It should sound better than it ever has.

 

Mikey, I'd love to hear more about the Vitaphone project, perhaps you could start a new thread?

 

Steve, I'm sure no one will mind if we go at it on this thread.

As most people know "the Jazz Singer" was regarded as the first real "Talkie", in 1927. However, the sound track was NOT printed on the film itself, as is normal, but was recorded on Vitaphone 16 inch 78 rpm disks that were run in sync with the film for playback.

Sometime in the 1930s, the sync disk method became outdated, so the audio was recorded to film, and copies made for theatres who no longer had the Vitaphone playback equipment ( a HUGE , clunky playback machine, to see one is an experience)

Untill the mid 80s, the prints that were being used to show this move were terrible, scratched , worn out 35 mm prints with these soundtracks, which were copies off an interpositive in the first place.

WB went on a search for the best available elements and better prints were found in the early 90s, and recently, two major finds have excited collectors of this movie:

Rare, excellent condition Vitaphone 16 inch disks were found with the complete soundtrack. These are the best available source of the songs from this movie.

Rarer STILL, a reel of film of Jolson singing "Mammy" from the film was found, IN COLOR!!! It is what was called a test reel fro the then brand new "2 strip technicolor" process. All the "singing" sequences from the movie were recorded in this "2 strip" method. This process was tested but not adopted by the industry because the three strip process came along a few months after with MUCH better color definition.

I also believe that they have found the reels for the other songs. I know for sure that "Mammy" has been restored, not 100% sure about the others, but as this was the first talkie, I'm pretty sure Warner Bros will do it, if they havent already.

Not that I'm a big jolson fan, but seeing the songs in color, for the first time since they were filmed 75 years ago will be a pretty neat thing.

I've seen examples of the "2 strip" process, and its not hard to see why the tried fo something better. The colors are very fuzzy, and not distinct. I think they didnt really have the chemical formulations down yet, and its not real impressive, especially when you compare it to th tru Technicolor process circa 1933 or so. Night and Day!!

Jolson sings Again!!

 

Really? I knew they were on 16-inch disks (or something like it), but I thought they would have been at 33.3 rpm

I've never seen the film. Is it true that there is only sound on the musical numbers?

Amazing!

Is there going to be a DVD release with the new audio and film elements?

Indeed!

Thanks for sharing.

 

Big Al

Steve, I'm not 100% sure about the speed of the Vitaphone disks, because they tried all sorts of different things in the early days. I can probably find out tho. I dont know that anybody knew what 33 1/3 WAS in 1927 tho.
78 rpm might have been used because they could get motors rated for that with very low wow and flutter.


As for the audio to The Jazz singer, I beleive there is some dialog as well.

There certainly WILL be a deluxe DVD of this movie, restored, with the color sequences and new audio. Also, on the same disk will be some of the shorts jolson did before this movie, and I believe, some footage found in a film vault in the Netherlands that was cut out of the movie. A dance sequence, i think.

Its AMAZING what turns up in far reaching places. I'm sure no one at WB even KNEW that they experimented with the 2 strip technicolor on that film.

Let alone that anyone would find the film reels 75 years later. Truly amazing and an important part of film culture.


What I want to know is when the hell Paramount ( i think) is going to restore The Glen Miller Story, a huge moneymaker for them and the first film recorded in stereo to win an emmy for sound recording. Just that justifies a full scale restoration, no matter thats its a GREAT movie. One of my favs. Such a great soundtrack, also. To recreate Glens music in stereo, they put together a special studio band that had a bunch of guys who had actually been IN Glens band , and had played on the records, and knew the nuances of the charts , and how Glen intended them to sound.

 

Steve, the discs that are being used for the restoration are pristine, and even had the paper seals still on them.

Did you pay a lot for your Vitaphone discs? I assume you have a 16 inch Transcription TT?

 

Actually, I think i remember The Glen Miller Story was Universal Pictures.

 

You know, the Vitaphone building in Brooklyn still stands. Since i live only 15 mins from Brooklyn, I went to see it, and if you look VERY closely at the west wall, you can see the very faded "Vitaphone" banner that was painted on the brick.

Man, they should restore that!!

 

Oh yea, when WB switched to optical, it WAS a huge improvement. They had to, as everyone else in the business was.

Kind of suprising to me how many Vitaphone disks still survive. There is a guy in Europe that has something like 3,000 disks!! Thats some collection.

They are still missing the Vitaphone FILM for the 1929 "Buddy Rich-Baby Traps" short. Its Buddy at 12 years old, playing all sorts of percussion. They have the audio, and you can hear how great he was even at 12 years old.

 

Vitaphone

 

I had heard a couple of years ago that the studios were considering (at Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese's lobbying) bringing back Technicolor. Aparently the process can now be competitive cost wise with chemical processes because of the sheer number of prints needed nowadays. Its more cost effective when more prints are struck. I haven't heard much about it these days.

While I tend to be a purist and prefer a fresh print over DLP, more and more I'm enjoying what I'm seeing with digital projection. One big caveat: the projector needs to be properly calibrated.

Whether one prefers one over the other, it really says something that something as "outdated" as a dye process to give a new format something to shoot for. Not much different then digital and analog I guess.

 

Yea, youre right Gabe.

What would be REALLY nice, is, ....as more and more studios go to full Digital Video shooting to save money, if someone could figure out a cost effective way to bring Technicolor back as a niche thing.

 

Well, if you believe the stories from a couple of year's ago, it already is cost effective, but nobody has done it yet.

Too bad Spielberg has been in a gritty look phase lately (although I like it), he'd probably be the one to bring it back.

 

This is a great response, I look forward to the DVD.
I'd still like to hear views from anybody who might have heard the remasters I referred to in my original post.
Thanks , what a great forum this is !
John

 

I'm still waiting for Al Jolson's Greatest Hits 2 lp on Decca to make an appearance on Cee Dee......What a great track selection...From the Decca years!

 

Well spotted Steve, I was trying to drag it back !
Like you I first became aware of Jolson age about 8 via the Jolson Story in the sixties. My first LP's were in 1969 Abbey Road and the mono Jolson Story, fairly diverse for a 12 year old !
The Video of the The Jolson Story and Jolson suings again are both available in the UK, the soundtrack is ok, I wonder if they'll try a remastered soundtrack if it ever comes out on DVD ? You know I worry about me, when I love a voice, I just need to get as close to it as i can , be it Jolson. Sinatra . Lennon , Bowie , Presley.

 

Sorry about the hijacking.

 

It looks like they may be the origianl Decca recordings pre Stereo and echo, though details are few.
Extract as follows link is off of here http://www.jolson.org/
"Exclusive items only for members of the
International Al Jolson Society

Exclusively for members of the International Al Jolson Society, here is a series of Remastered Al Jolson Compact Discs, recreating the classic Decca LPs from the late 1940s. You'll hear the mellow tones of the mature Al Jolson with a clarity you've never heard before. All the tracks of the original LPs are here, along with the liner notes, making these a "must have" for any serious Jolson collector.