Red Nichols and his Five Pennies 1929
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2025
- Red Nichols' Five Pennies playing "Ida", "Whispering", "Nobody's Sweetheart", "Who Cares" and "China Boy". The musicians are Red Nichols (cornet), Tommy Thune and John Egan (trumpet), Herb Taylor (trombone), Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Irving Brodsky (piano), Eddie Condon (banjo and vega lute) and George Beebe (drums). It has become a very well known film which is all over the internet but here is an excellent quality version - for a change.
Red Nichols is my Great Uncle!
We are related!!! He's my great uncle as well.
@@Natalie82170 Wow!! I just moved to Utah from San Diego, how about you?
We may be related as well.
I have a vintage record of him.Its a one off I think New recordings used to be sent to Compton McKenzie (the author)to review.Old paper mache records. My uncle was a friend and was given a few of these old records
Since some of you are family did you ever meet him?
There is a reason why Bing once said "When I start feeling down, I break out my Red Nichols recordings.." Red was up there with the very best and brought out something special even in the greats. His recordings are a "Who's Who" of first rate talent.
A supergroup for sure. Soon after this one, Gene Krupa would join on drums and also Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and later Artie Shaw came along in 1930. Just kids jamming some great sounds.
Man Irving Brodsky STRUTS in this !!! Listen to how he comps behind Eddie Condon's vocals on "Nobody's Sweeheart"! Also, his modulations, interludes and fills are right on time, note perfect, and swing. A true professional. Of course it goes without saying that the rest of the band are GREAT. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Great to see so much of Eddie Condon and to be able to hear his playing so well! He was such a great rhythm man, both on banjo and plectrum guitar (well, Vega lute). On the up-tempo tunes, he's powering that band like a locomotive engine!
This film was lost until the 1990s. The soundtrack, which existed on a single 16-inch disc, was discovered independently a few years later.
Tommy Thunen is my Grandpa. This is SO cool to see him.
Very very cool..
Great music from the twenties.
Absolutely brilliant 👍
I can't believe that I'm Watching Red Nichols Performing Live , Its Absolutely Amazing
What a great piece of 1920’s jazz history. Very nice ensemble work. Red was a great trumpeter!
Red was truly one of the best.
Nice seeing and hearing Eddie Condon sing, too. He always played the plectrum banjo ( as here) or plectrum guitar in preference to the more popular tenor versions, which are shorter. Plectrum is the original four-string banjo, same length as a 5-string.
4:43: proof how important a banjo is to adding to the volume and color of a jazz band
I’ve heard of “Red” Nichols but I never heard his music. He’s phenomenal, out of this world. Thank you for posting this video.
One of the coolest bands at that time Red Nichols dancing in front of the band. So cool!
Amazing - Great to see Pee Wee Russell. Thank you
Found this link saved on my Dad's laptop this morning. It must've meant something to him. His parents were professional musicians so perhaps they played these songs. I'll never know. Beautiful music. Thank you so much for sharing
Getting to see as well as hear Red, Pee Wee Russell, Condon and the rest in action is a real treat. One thing that's sometimes forgotten but which this film makes clear is how young they still were in 1929 despite being veterans of the music business.
dtenner
Well get it with that red hot jazz! Tearing it up ❤️🥳
Nearly a century 🌟later they are still sounding Cool⭐ were all foot tapping along🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A great rendition.Encore Maestro.
John Egan was my grandfather - what a treat to have this video! (He;s the taller of the two guys who come onstage at 2:05).
Amanda nice
Great music & moves!
I've seen parts of this before, but I may have missed out on the last part, "China Boy" I guess. That's some real fine playin' there, by Red, Pee Wee and the rest, including the unseen other cornet player! Also love the Eddie Condon vocal on "Nobody's Sweetheart", sounding very different from white singing standards of the time, more like a certain rising star named Louis... Best of all, it's music actually being played in the room - free of moviemaking trickeration! You even hear the banjo.
Love it !
Red Nichols was in my parents time but loved his music did see the movie in 1959 with Danny Kaye playing Red Nichols and Louis Armstring playing himself, Loved it I was 16 at the time and had just embraced jazz , I have just picked up a copy of the 1959 movie from my newsagent been remastered great movie and bought back lots of happy memories
6
Imagine Red Nichols performing his music in the 1930s on NBC Radio (LIVE) at 2,000+ capacity venues in Cleveland such as The Golden Pheasant and Bamboo Gardens Restaurants/Nightclubs!!!
I can't get enough of this great post. Love the way Eddie Condon struts on and off and his marvelous version of "Who Cares".
Thank you for sharing.
Me too.... I watch this every now and then, and smile and laugh to myself. Condon is SO much fun! What a video! Wonder if in their wildest imaginations, they ever thought people 90 some years in the future would be watching and enjoying this so much....
@@Tommy-hp5ij I think they would be happy that people are still enjoying it all these years later.
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing this treasure.
Thanks! Real Red NIcholes, my first seen ever
What's a beautiful songs...
This always cheers me up if I'm low. Just can't stop smiling when I hear and see them enjoy playing.
Brilliant - great to watch particularly Pee Wee = Many Thanks
WOW WOW WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From a mad keen 74yo Aussie fan.
Amazing music----Well done.
Wow, a music video from 1929! I didn’t think such things existed. And such a great one at that. I hope more of these can be found and shared.
Wait till you find out about Vitaphone shorts and Fox Movietone shorts.
Dozens and dozens more sound shorts from the 1920s await your searching- many here on TH-cam!
Just the tonic we needed. Wonderful!
Great to see film footage of this group, including Irving Brodsky!
A+!
One of my favourite films the five pennies... yet I honestly never never knew red Nichols was a real character... absolutely love this story even more. Thank you xxx
Super excellent with very good interesting photos
This movie has a very special historic value, I think
Just came upon this vid, I love this music
Simply beautiful!
perfection...
The picture is a bit blurry, but I think the trombone is my 1929 Holton with the inline tuning slide. Another one turns up in "Casablanca".
What an absolute gem! Maybe not my favourite Pennies version of 'Ida', but the movie provides a rare insight into this amazingly tight band.
Harry, thank you so much for posting.
I too. Over 100 original 78's under Red Nichols' name dating from 1925 to 1932.
great stuff!
Finding this video cheered up a cool clammy cloudy day, thanks!
Indeed - it's amazing to realize that these guys were in their early to mid - twenties!
That’s Pee Wee Russell on carinet - one of th3 best
An all-time legend- respected by everyone from the earliest jazz pioneers to the beboppers. Mr. Russell pioneered his own distinctive and personal clarinet style which has influenced so many- but there will still only be one Pee Wee Russell.
Besides the music, I love Red's little shuffle dance.
Musical travlin' man!
The rock and roll of the 1926-33 era. Most of Red's output were jazzy tempos like this with a heavy drumbeat. I play my 78s of these on my modern stereo and they rock the joint, no CDs or digital downloads needed. Renowned drummer Gene Krupa would join the band soon after this as well as Benny Goodman. Both were just 20 at the time. Glenn Miller would also soon join. An unknown Artie Shaw joined in 1930. What a supergroup, eh?????
What a wonderful clip.
It's good to see good quality sound & vision for a change.
It must have been a real buzz to have seen this LIVE.
Of course you would have to been WELL-OFF.
Well done
It is fuzzy. No 35mm film from the 1920s was that blurry. Find a 1st generation negative or theatrical print. This looks like a copy of a copy of a copy.
I don't know about 'well off', but to see and hear this band live, one had to have been around at the same time they were playing, and had the admission price to the venue, and been dressed at least fairly middle-class to match the other patrons of the venue, and been well behaved. Also, most venues were segregated, also in the North as well as the South. So that was major problem back then for hearing live music, which was gotten around when some musicians would get together and jam after hours in back rooms, private meeting places etc. Jazz music and jazz fans and musicians went a long ways towards laying the social groundwork for ending de jure segregation in the US decades later.
Very good, man
Mee to .I can,t believe.That is young wonderful jazz player isn,t it?
Una gran película con la mejor musica grandes actores emotiva , fabulosa la recomiendo para verla en familia
Me gusta su elegancia y presntacion todos muy bien vestido inspiraban respeto
watching the The Five Pennies right now!
Just finished it on TMC. Still one of my favorites!
A great addition to my Red Nichols "Playlist". Thank you for sharing this excellent post. Much appreciated.
Great revelation seeing the REAL Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. They had a great jazz-Dixieland sound, just like in the Danny Kaye film, The Five Pennies. It was genuine, classic Americana. Thanks for uploading.
Celluloidwatcher That film was just about the worst biographical film ever made. The music was that of the 1950's, totally unrelated to the sound of the original Pennies in the 20's and the story about Red himself could hardly be more inaccurate and unrealistic. Red himself, although honored that he was being put in the limelight, hated it and so do jazz fans who know about Red and love his music.
Oh, I see. One thing about Hollywood that I never liked was that movie biographies never lived up to the truth of the story. It was always, "Let's throw in irrelevant material to liven things up," as if to put a different spin on things. Defeats the purpose. Meanwhile, I'll listen to some more Red Nichols...:-) Thanks, again.
I haven't yet seen that movie, but have heard from several others that yes- it's almost totally inaccurate to the real Red Nichols story- BUT has some good music in it (if not era-authentic) and is watchable as a movie. That's what folks tell me. I'll watch it and judge for myself.
@@Celluloidwatcher In all fairness, that was true of most movie biographies of that era, whether it were musicians, actors/actresses, vaudeville stars, scientists/inventors, and on and on. Any unsavory or problematic details about our hero were airbrushed out, quietly excised, and/or replaced with something else, as were any major missteps or errors along their journey to stardom.
The real life side stories of their cohorts were rarely done accurately, with the result that while some of the supporting characters (given the names and *sometimes* appearances of their real-life equivalents) are entertaining and watchable, they often bore little resemblance to the real people they were supposed to portray, in backstory, mannerisms (musical style) etc.
Boring stretches of their life (as some in Hollywood might consider them) are either skipped/excised, summarized briefly, or entire fictionalized 'more exciting' parts grafted in. Strangely, even in some cases where something really interesting happened to/with them IRL (and would still be considered "PG" rated today), some Hollywood writers elected to get rid of that entire story and replace it with something else!!!
In short, the whole thing was done to romanticize and build up their story, and make it more watchable as a movie.
That is probably true of biopics to this day, although in the past 50 years they have been less and less willing to shy away from any downsides, unsavory bits, or mistakes.
But Hollywood still tries to build things up to be 'more exciting' (loud drumbeats, big explosions etc) and so even unto today, Hollywood remains Hollywood.
Perhaps there are some good nonfiction biographies of Red Nichols and his circle.
Can anyone recommend any?
In the interim, at least there are some more generalized books about, or interviewing, some of these artists.
One good one is Eddie Condon's autobiography/reminiscence titled "We Called it Music".
There are also many things about Pee Wee Russell in many jazz books.
The other artists here, however, besides Nichols, Russell and Condon, seem to have gotten bare mention and deserve better than that IMO.
Es fantàstic!!
Charming! Condon did the vocals! I suppose Miff Mole was the trombonist, he's wearing glasses. Thank you!
The trombonist is Herb Taylor and he's not wearing glasses.
harryoakley - I've been watching again. Now I don't see the glasses but never heard about that trombonist! Never heard Condon singing either! It's funny his body swinging. Thank you for this rare and delightful video and your quick comment.
If Walmart played background music like this instead of the crap they play, shoppers might keep shopping just to hear the music. Their business would double!
Great
Uffff, magnífico
Is this really a sync-sound-film from 1929? Where is the mike, in that case?
Synchronized sound came about in 1927. They are probably using boom mics like you would today. Interestingly they actually made a lot of color musicals in the late 20s but many of them were lost in the 1970s when Technicolor purged its vaults and none of the studios wanted their prints.
Multiple choice question: Now, was that HOT or, HOT??
Seven minutes of Compacted Twenties Jazz Masterpiece.
This exists as a pristine 35mm restored print so, why-oh-why do we only get this blurry, 240p TEASE version???
"Near and yet . . . SO FAR."
. : .
I have some ORIGINAL records of this great band
78s are the best when played on updated equipment. I usually avoid reissue LPs & CDs as songs are often muffled.
Ida, Sweet As Apple Cida!!!
Can anyone please enlighten me about the Vega lute Eddie's playing? I can't find anything.
I was wondering the same thing. It looks like it has a banjo peg head
It must be tuned the same as a 4 string tenor banjo, since I think Eddie Condon later mainly played a 4-string tenor guitar tuned the same as a tenor banjo.
Coolest.
What do you think 1929 means? Nichols' collar width?
Red shimmys like he was Betty Boop.
wow red moon walked!!!!!!
Compare this great music to today's Crap. Grandpas era.Yes , life might have been tough especially in rural areas.But people were human not zombies in today's USA Zombieland!
El clarinetista es Benny Goodman, creo.
Who's that on trombone?
👏👏👏👏
Herb Taylor.
the warner bros logo for this movie was found
😮
Any idea of the year?
1929
I know - look how respectable you had to look back then!
That’s Benny Goodman on clarinet 🎶
That Could be Gene Krupa on drums 🥁
And maybe Jack Teagarden on Trombone 🎵
Pee Wee Russell on clarinet; Herb Taylor on trombone; George Beebe on drums. They all play very well. There is especially no mistaking Pee Wee Russell for Benny Goodman, both in looks and in style! Two great jazz stylists of their time. I hear some Krupa in Beebe’s drum style (or the other way around?), but I think it owes as much or more to drummer Stan King.
There is other film footage of Pee Wee Russell around to check out
They acted so incredibly "gay"!!! I'm gay and don't mean it as an insult, just an observation. Wonder how it was seen at the time.
He looks more thin than the actor that plays him in the movie.
Love it!