Just to show that I pay close attention to how popular a clip or artist is, Max Muller and his trained dogs, scheduled to be featured now, will cool their paws in the wings for a few days while we share another Soundie by Tiny Grimes. With more than 650 viewings in just a couple of days, it appears that Mr. Grimes has sounded a musical note that resonates with a lot of viewers.
Back when I was collecting 78s, the first modern jazz disk that I bought was “Romance Without Finance,” a Savoy release with the Tiny Grimes Quintette featuring Charlie Parker. Whether or not this was a hit record at the time, it was certainly well-known it and remains a familiar record to those who listen to bebop. Our film version features Tiny on guitar, again playing the long, inventive single-note lines for which he is noted. While he performs the vocal on the recording, here we have an unidentified vocalist, something almost unprecedented in the Soundies output. The dancer is Argelia (Tommy) Thompson. Tommy visited my home for film nights, and I recall seeing him on stage at the Geffen Theater in a stage play whose name I cannot recall, this in the early 1980s. I have talked about Grimes and his music in the previous post. Today I will share a story from my Soundies book.
“Back in the 1970s, my brother, John, lived in Manhattan and I would visit as often as possible. Checking out the jazz scene was a high priority for both of us, and since he lived on the upper West Side, the West End Café was always a first stop. One night we were fortunate to encounter Tiny Grimes, who was appearing in the club for the weekend.
I was just beginning to research Soundies and I only had two of the Tiny Grimes shorts in the collection. Before the music began, I approached Tiny and asked about Romance Without Finance. This was a mistake, apparently a bad button to push: “Romance Without Finance! Fucking Romance Without Finance. Is that all you kids are interested in?” And he stomped off.
I was embarrassed beyond belief, of course, and tried to make it up by buying each member of the band a drink after the first set. That seemed to have worked, and Tiny came over, sat with us and started to talk as if the incident had never occurred. Tiny didn’t recall many particulars about the films, although he did say that the “pay was pretty good.” Indeed, the group was paid $400 for their work in four Soundies. In contemporary buying power that is more than $6,300 dollars for a three-hour recording session and a day of sideline work.
More to come from Tiny Grimes, although will move from ill-fated romance to barking dogs in our next post.