Astaire was an artistic polymath: this clip, from the movie Roberta (1935), demonstrates his singing, dancing, and piano playing. Yes, that’s Fred at the beginning, playing hot stride piano, and he’s really good! He then segues into a duet, the Jerome Kern tune “I won’t dance“, with his most famous dancing partner, Ginger Rogers (I’ll show some of their dances in a day or two). And don’t forget his drumming skills from yesterday!
Finally, Astaire does some of his seemingly effortless tap-dancing—perfected, of course, through endless practice. Notice that he manages to tap while piroutetting at 4:40, and there’s a wild, machine-gun finish.
I think we’ll need at least four more days to show off this man at his best.
Absolutely amazing. Being a pianist myself though, I couldn’t help but notice that it was a piano duet. Fred was doing absolutely great stuff in the midrange and having fun with the top — but there was someone else at the facing piano doing the rhythmic bass and some comping in the mid-range.
Still, this is big news to me. I had no idea Fred could play like that.
They could mime, even in those days.
The thing that’s really stellar about that, is that they were inventing the cinematic techniques at the time. The really basic techniques that we take for granted.
Want to make it more stellar? They didn’t “multi-track” or anything like that. Everything depended on the “take”. It all came down to what got laid down at the time. “Post-production” was in its infancy. You didn’t tweak and muck around with the stuff like we do nowdays. It mostly depended on artists having their crap together WELL in advance, so when that expensive stuff rolled, you got it down. There wasn’t “synch”. No SMPTE. You either did it right, or you fudged it by splicing with razors and tape.
They could match different audio with video, but that was done by running the video and playing along with it (which is how the classic cartoons were done).
Make no bones about it. This clip was nothing short of astonishing. Note how Ginger Rogers and Fred’s back and forth is meticulously choreographed with the entire ensemble. I wonder how many takes it took. My guess is not more than four.
Also… to further clarify. Having someone “duet” with you on piano is NOT “miming”.
Far from it; both pianists have to keep from stepping on each other’s toes. It is meticulously figured out in advance, with a HELL of a lot of practice, who takes what.
Fred is clearly playing what he’s playing, as any 2nd-grade piano upstart could tell. You don’t get that kind of vid and audio together without it actually happening. The second piano is essentially providing backup support, and doing it in such a way that the end result looks and sounds effortless. This is done by having BOTH piano players not playing in the same places in the keyboard, or the clashes will become apparent to even naive ears.
It has been said many times that we are visual creatures. I tend to agree only partially, and in a very limited sense. We are really audio creatures. In cinema, it is SO much easier to fool humans visually than through their hearing. Audio has always (and continues to be– I know a hell of a lot about this) been a real bitch. It’s absolutely amazing how well-tuned we all are to audio.
I think they’re pointing out that some of the chromatic passages are not being played by Fred, which is fine, as it is a duet — again, the fact that he’s playing even something as simple an oom-cha — and this is WAY more than that!! — is cool (considering his fame is as a dancer).
It’s like pointing out that a bear is dancing, and having someone point out that it’s slightly behind the beat. It misses the obvious point.
Looking at how his fingers and hands move, he wasn’t miming. Whether he was playing a mute piano or not is another question. Have a look at just about any movie or tv show with a piano being diddled by someone who isn’t a pianist and you can see it’s worlds apart.
Yes, the backing pianist’s base and mid support allows Astaire to play with the treble. Todd Decker points out in his book on Astaire and Jazz (Music Makes Me, Calif UP) that Astaire and his friend Gershwin had an almost identical stride piano technique. Shame we don’t get to hear him play more in films, but there are one or two other examples, notably a brief piano solo from Astaire in Follow the Fleet:
Incredible. I wish I could do that. Great stride left hand work there. Again, he makes it look so easy.
Stephen, you might be interested in a piano bit Fred did in the movie “Follow the Fleet”. Look for it on youtube using this heading:
I’m Putting all My Eggs in One Basket – in Follow the Fleet (1936)
(I don’t want to accidentally embed it here)
If you have time to watch the whole clip, it’s worth it. I love this movie.
oops… I see Latha beat me to it.
Anyway, the clip I suggest is longer, showing a really clever dance number with Ginger.
Ah – I wish it were Ella Fitzgerald rather than Rogers. Then again Fred might not sound so good next to the likes of Ella.
He practices economy of movement with such richness. Though not one move is wasted on frivolity, his style is not stingy, but instead presents a gracious, generous, and astounding virtuosity.
I was never a big fan of musicals, but watching Fred and Ginger strutting their stuff was/is always a delight to behold.
Love that man! I even have a double album (LP) of Fred singing his songs in his movies. I love his voice, his dancing (OF COURSE) and his piano playing. My oldest musical memory is Fred singing “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” I think I’d want to hear that when I take my last breath.