Sunday, July 3, 2011

Max Roach in Carmen Jones

A brief appearance by Max Roach (1924–2007) in the 1954 Otto Preminger movie Carmen Jones:

Roach introduces Pearl Bailey's performance of "Beat Out That Rhythm On a Drum," with Oscar Hammerstein's new lyrics to George Bizet's music from Carmen, replacing what Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote in 1875.  Here's the original version, sung by Marina Domanshenko:

Two years earlier Bailey had married another drummer, Louie Bellson, who doesn't appear here, perhaps because an appearance by a white guy wouldn't have been in keeping with the scenario.  But you can see him in 1948 in this scene from A Song Is Born, along with Danny Kaye, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Mel Powell, and others:

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