Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
September 2, 2009
Three Little Bops
Yesterday I ran into Debbie Gillaspie, the curator of the Chicago Jazz Archive, who is helping us compile some material for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She said she had just come from a meeting with some Chicago Jazz Festival people, but she was carrying a DVD of Looney Tunes cartoons. I asked her why she had it, and she said, “The Three Little Bops. I didn’t even get to show it.”
Three Little Bops is a 1957 cartoon telling the story of the Three Little Pigs with be-bop jazz. Apparently it’s well-known among jazz enthusiasts for the mystery behind which musicians actually provided the instrumentation for this cartoon. And here it is:
I’m agnostic about any racial undertones of the piece (I could go either way with “No Wolves Allowed”). But there’s a lot of August Wilson’s character of Levee you can see in the trumpet-playing wolf. And the blues lick Slow Drag sings at the end of Act One: “If I had my way, I would tear this old building down”—the common lament of both Levee and the wolf. What do you think? Stretching it? Wait and see the play—you’ll see.
3 Responses to Three Little Bops
Wow! I had completely forgotten about this wonderful Looney Tunes cartoon. I loved them as a kid and they are still great. I’ve always felt for the wolf.
By Sandra Levy on September 11, 2009 at 12:21 pm
A classic! There’s a nice discussion of the probable musicians on this track here:
http://www.jazzwax.com/2008/11/three-little-bo.html
I love the story of the wolf’s transformation by way of a trip to hell. That wolf really paid his dues!
By Eric Norstrom on September 25, 2009 at 6:07 pm
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Hi Drew,
Thanks so much for the nice mention of the Chicago Jazz Archive on your blog! I’m looking forward to seeing the Court production of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Yes, the sidemen on the “Three Little Bops” are a mystery, Too bad Local 47 of the Musicians’ union didn’t have a record of who played! It’s amazing how much info you can get from the union records when a contract is filed on a date, the active musician files are kept at Local 10-208 here in Chicago, but the inactive files are at the Harold Washington Library up in the Performing Arts section.
Best,
Debbie Gillaspie
By Deborah Gillaspie on September 8, 2009 at 11:40 am