New Orleans Drumming: A Film (1953, Bill Russell)

Dada-ist music lesson given by “Baby” Dodds, the ghost of haunted America’s drums. A portrait of pure form, Dodds is style embodied. I am fascinated by music instructional films, of which this is (?)maybe(?) the first, and wonder about the effect that media has had on music “education,” particularly in a Percussion context, a dialect once largely retained, passed on through, and dependent upon oral and spiritual systems. The film’s surreal utilization of typography simultaneously evokes Marinetti and The Batman. The demonstration slow motions are jarring and produce haunting images.