Mick Hartley

The title gives the artist away. Slim Gaillard, of course – who developed his very own "Vout-O-Reenee" language:

His determination to have fun could disguise his fine musicianship. He played with the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He was, as you can see here, a pretty fine guitarist. He also played piano, vibraphone and tenor sax.

As well as English and Vout-O-Reenee he also spoke Spanish, German, Greek, Arabic, and Armenian, with, as his Wikipedia entry puts it, "varying degrees of fluency". A number of his songs also featured Yiddish.

This clip is from the 1947 short O'Voutie O'Rooney, filmed at Berg's Nightclub in Los Angeles:

Gaillard's original act was just two guys billed as "Slim & Slam" with Leroy "Slam" Stewart his original partner, later adding Rex Stewart on drums. They can be seen in Hellzapoppin (1941).

Gaillard's best known song is "Flat Foot Floogie (with a floy-floy)" which was often covered by such greats as Fats Waller & many since. Slim would riff nonsense words taking scat in new directions, & he called this new jive language "Vout," or vout-a-rooney.

Bulee "Slim" Gaillard sings lyrics that will seem totally nonsensical & unique, entirely unfamiliar unless you've heard Slim Gaillard before, in which case it'll be like a lot of his songs which are particularly fun & full of a-rooties & a-vouties.

What he's doing, of course, is taking "hepcat" slang to the next stage, fusing it with scat, so that it came off to his audiences as more hip than funny.

"Areet" had long been in use as a variant of "Okay" & was just about a universal piece of slang at the time; the "voutereenies" were Slim's fans, the hippest of the hip. Some of his audience may actually have believed they could understand all the words….

The trio also produced the quarter-hour short O'Voutie O'Rooney (1947) directed by Jack Reiger & distributed by Astor Pictures which specialized in black cast films.

These were filmed live at one of the Trio's nightclub performances at Berg's Nightclub in Los Angeles. The surviving film is in abominable condition, nevertheless wonderful to see….

The title cards next announce "Chile & Beans Ovoutee." Slim says, "Here's were we swing right into a little specialty titled Chile O'Rootee & Scooty O'Routee Vango." Slap bass man Bam says "Areet! Solid!" high-fiving Slim. And off they go with a rapid piece of jump-jazz instrumentation.

The number is strictly an instrumental. Without "lyrics" it's a hundred percent serious piece of top-grade jazz. The slap bass solo is especially antic, with Bam shaking his head like a speeded-up bobble-doll, Scatman getting his drum solo.

And while it's easy to miss Slim's amazingly strange notion of words & wish he'd included some nutty lyrics, it's nice to have this totally serious "break" from stuff that makes you grin.

Slim Gaillard previously.

And don't miss Hellzapoppin' (1941), with some wild dancing.