Mel Henry and Justin Schlicht
have selected three films for
our first Festival of Jazz.
They write:
 AZZ AND CINEMA have interesting and somewhat parallel historical origins. They both grew up on the fringes of society towards the end of the nineteenth century - in one case out of vaudeville houses, travelling fairs and penny arcades and in the other out of the Mississippi Delta and the brothels of New Orleans. The first "talkie" of note was "The Jazz Singer", starring Al Jolson, a film which ironically had only a tenuous relationship with jazz. Besides documentaries and biopics, certain feature films had jazz as its central focus, unfortunately not often very accurately, as they frequently reflected Hollywood's particular view of the jazz life.
SWEET AND LOWDOWN
(Woody Allen 1999)
Saturday 20 May 2006
Sweet and Lowdown is a biopic about the life of the little known 30's jazz guitarist Emmet Ray. Ray was considered by many to have been one of the finest guitarists in the world, second only to the legendary Django Reinhart. He was also enormously self-centered, had poor taste in tailoring, drank prodigious amounts of alcohol, and treated women appallingly.
This film fits into the Allen genre of period pieces with themes that he really cares about (for example, Radio Days, Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose, Bullets over Broadway). In this instance the theme is jazz and demonstrates beautifully that you don't have to be an angel to play like one.
Ray (played by Sean Penn) falls for Hattie, a mute, very well acted by Samantha Morton and of course treats her badly. Uma Thurman is impressive as his sexy, pseudo intellectual wife. Not a great deal happens, but the music is fine (ghosted by Howard Alden on guitar) and in some ways the film gives a better picture of the "jazz life" than many others. In addition, beautiful photography and some very funny dialogue make this worthy of the Woody Allen canon.
'ROUND MIDNIGHT (Bertrand Tavernier 1986)
Saturday June 10th
'Round Midnight is set in Paris: its title the name of a Thelonius Monk composition which now a jazz standard, and, I understand, a difficult one to play. The film, too, is complex, and more than simply the story of a great jazz musician living and playing in Paris, a city to which many black American jazz musicians moved in order to escape prejudice, and where their music was appreciated as the art form it undoubtedly was, and is.
At its centre is the friendship between the musician and an admiring young Frenchman who makes it his mission to support and even 'save' his hero. Their relationship is at times sentimental and the young admirer even sycophantic in his uncritical tolerance of disappointment and even abuse. Could it be that the film is a metaphor for race relations, contrasting the violent hostility of fifties New York with the paternalistic indulgence of Paris - the two sides of the racist coin?
It is an excellent film, based on the life of Bud Powell, here represented by the saxophonist Dexter Gordon, also a considerable player who, though no actor, plays the part convincingly. The atmosphere of the clubs, dingy hotels and bars is wonderfully drawn, and there is great music to be heard from Dexter Gordon and among others, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard. Martin Scorcese makes a cameo appearance. Dig it!
ALL NIGHT LONG (Basil Deardon, 1961)
Saturday July 8th
Upper class jazz buff Rod Hamilton (Richard Attenborough) holds an all-night jazz party in a converted Docklands warehouse to celebrate the first wedding anniversary of Aurelias Rex (Paul Harris) and Delia Lane (Marti Stevens). Delia has given up her own singing career at the request of her husband. A host of the best British jazz musicians of that time together with American stars Dave Brubeck and Charlie Mingus provide a continual jam session for the playing out of an Othello theme. Johny Cousin (Patrick McGoohan), a drummer and a close friend of Aurelius and Delia, wants to start his own band but needs Delia as a star vocalist. The stage is set for machiavellian manipulation by Johny, played with over-the-top gusto by McGoohan.
There is a strange duet by Brubeck and Mingus who never really connect musically, and great sounds throughout by the British jazzers. The depiction of drug use and inter-racial relations is interesting, to say the least. All this under brooding Docklands skies.
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