Caldonia Boogie - Louis Jordan (1946) [RESTORED in STEREO and COLOR] from "Swing Parade of 1946"

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Description

Caledonia, Caldonia, Caldonia Boogie... whatever you call it, Louis Jordan recorded it in 1945 and gave his then-wife publishing credit in a bad deal. This appearance with neon-lighted instruments cannot be appreciated in the original mono black and white, so it is now stereo-imaged and color-tinted (not colorized, a totally different process) to give it some depth and feel like you might be in that nightclub seeing Louis 'perform'. (Yeah, the drummer can't quite hit much with glass neon sticks!!! I love the electrical wire from Jordan's sax (no it's not an early microphone). You'll notice on the intro pic, the band kept the neon around the bass drum after the movie completed filming.

A special attraction is the additional backing of Will Osborne and his Orchestra, who performs the big band arrangement when Louis joins the dancers and starts his hoofing routine (the dancer on the right is on point! - the left one needs another rehearsal)...

Tech heads: Using Avid Media Composer with current Gen Arts Boris FX and Sapphire FX version, creating multiple video layers (like the audio) of the B/W film to create the color-toned effect: multi-color correction, full-tint layers, S_Glow, S_Film Effect, S_DuoTone are the EFX predominantly used (and abused). Please note this project is all experimental and used as a learning canvas to see how to utilize these effects to achieve what you see - WITH A FINITE AMOUNT OF TIME. Sure, if I spend a month with original material... But this is YouTube, people...

So...

Caldonia is a blues standard and was known as one of the first songs Little Richard learned (and he performed it plenty). The same goes with the song being a standard 'show-stopper' in the catalogs of B.B. King and James Brown, to name a few, not to mention the numerous bands from 1945 which performed their versions of Louis Jordan's original.

"Caldonia" is a jump blues song, first recorded in 1945 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. A version by Erskine Hawkins, also in 1945, was described by Billboard magazine as "right rhythmic rock and roll music".

The Blues Foundation states that "Louis Jordan was the biggest African-American star of his era" and that his "Caldonia" reached "the top of the Race Records chart, as it was known prior to the introduction of term Rhythm & Blues in 1949".

Louis Jordan recording:

In 1942, Jordan had started on an unparalleled run of success on the Billboard Harlem Hit Parade (forerunner of the R&B chart), which by 1945 had included four number-one hits, and eventually made Jordan by far the most successful R&B chart act of the 1940s. "Caldonia" became his fifth number one on "Race Records" chart. It debuted on the chart in May 1945 and reached number one in June, where it stayed for seven weeks. On the pop chart, the song peaked at number six with the title "Caldonia Boogie".[

The writing of the song is credited to Jordan's wife of the time, Fleecie Moore. However, it was written by Jordan, who used his wife's name to enable him to work with an additional music publisher. Jordan later commented, "Fleecie Moore's name is on it, but she didn't have anything to do with it. That was my wife at the time, and we put it in her name. She didn't know nothin' about no music at all. Her name is on this song and that song, and she's still getting money." However, by the time of that quote, Jordan and Moore had divorced after a number of arguments in which she had stabbed him with a knife. The lyrics include Jordan's trademark use of comedy:

Walkin' with my baby she's got great big feet
She's long, lean, and lanky and ain't had nothing to eat
She's my baby and I love her just the same
Crazy 'bout that woman 'cause Caldonia is her name

The verses conclude with the refrain:

Caldonia! Caldonia!
What makes your big head so hard?
I love her, I love her just the same
Crazy 'bout that woman 'cause Caldonia is her name



The song was a very big hit at the time, and was first performed by Louis Jordan in December 1945 on a recorded performance on the AFRS Jubilee! Old Time Radio show on disc - aimed at African-American servicemen overseas.

This may be the only time I've seen neon-lighted musical instruments on film! But NOW you can REALLY see it - and hear it!

Everything you hear came from the one, noisy, distorted mono film track as played at the end of this video.

Portions of this commentary came from Wikipedia and was previously recorded ;-)