The Silver Screen Oasis

Japan High School kids have a great swing band. Enjoy

[youtube][/youtube]

Thanks for sharing this Uncle Stevie! ... I loved it.

They were great. Did you note how much enjoyment they were having.

Hi Fossy! Welcome home!

Hey, you guys do realize this is a movie, or tv show, don't you? It is lovely, I wonder if it really is the girls playing? Guess I'd better go google it...

Just found this on WiKi: Many of the girls had not played these instruments before,[1] but they did play the performances in the film after training for only 5 months.[2] To prove this was not movie-magic, a tour was organized after the film with a live CD released shortly after.[3]

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Tonight I watched a biography of Oscar Hammerstein II shown through his music and clips from the movies he and Richard Rogers collaborated on. It's such a pleasure listening to even the short clips they played compared to the 'music' used in today's musicals. The other day I saw a clip of some recent musical, and had to hit the 'mute' button. Women don't sing anymore, they just yell as loudly as they can to overcome the previous singer.

Anyway, this was released just this year 2012, on Channel 11, but I'm sure most of you musical fans have seen it. What really caught my attention was how he proceeded to challenge racism. As often as I've seen Showboat, South Pacific, and Carousel, plus all the rest, I never noticed this trend of his. Rogers & Hammerstein are my favorite pairing for Hollywood musicals, and I can basically sing along with every song from every movie, including the made for TV Cinderella. Channel 11 repeats quite often and if you like musicals, I would keep an eye out for a repeat of this one. It's quite educational as well as very easy on the ears.
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I agree Anne, not to be a fuddy duddy but the music of those musicals was so beautiful compared to today's music which isn't generally very challenging. There have been some fairly good Disney musicals made for TV recently.

Hammerstein was a stickler that his music be played and sung in a specific way, if I remember the documentary correctly. He was right! Singers now embellish too much I think.

Oops, I think we're in the wrong thread....

Anne and Jackie, I loved that Oscar Hammerstein Special, too.

Uncle Stevie, they are adorable High Schoolers from Japan!