This is one of the later Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally were more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff.
Actually, this Artie Shaw band sounds like many other big bands of that era with nothing to really give it a distinct sound--at least not in the same way as the Glenn Miller orchestra.But he does a good job on a few oldies like "Deep Purple" (sung by Helen Forrest), "Lady Be Good" and "Jeepers Creepers," all done in swing fashion with good photography concentrating on the band members rather than Shaw himself.
Symthony of Swing (1939) *** (out of 4) Turner Classic Movies recently had a documentary on the career of Johnny Mercer and played this short as well. The film features the then popular Artie Shaw and his swinging band performing four songs including "Jeepers Creepers" with Tony Pastor and "Deep Purple" with Helen Forrest.
TCM's salute to the life and art of Johnny Mercer was the basis for it showing this particular short subject which featured Artie Shaw and his swing band of the time doing four numbers, two of which were current hits.Jeepers Creepers came out that year with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
