TUESDAY - Nights of the Swingers! Jazz in Film
Programmed by: John Litweiler
"Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?" – title of a 1921 Ladies Home Journal article
As rap and rock music scandalized your parents and grandparents, so jazz was young people's music in your great-grandparents' time. Born early in the 20th century, this essentially African-American art form grew up beside the movies when both were called low-life entertainment by guardians of public morals. Nevertheless, during the Depression and World War 2 years, jitterbugging youth made swing music wildly popular. The sordid atmospheres of crime dramas often called for jazz soundtracks and scenes in dim jazz joints; but it took all-black musicals such as Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather to convey the joy of jazz. In more modern times, as jazz and film became widely accepted as great art forms, jazz came into films' daylight. So this series offers the hardness of the jazz life as well as the redeeming qualities of fine art.
7:00PM Tuesday, February 1st
Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Vincente Minelli and Busby Berkeley · 98m · 35mm
When compulsive gambler Little Joe (Eddie Anderson, AKA Jack Benny’s "Rochester") dies in a fight, heaven and hell compete for his soul. Will he stay with his loyal wife (singing star Ethel Waters) or go with a sultry songstress (Lena Horne)? Hit songs like “Taking a Chance on Love” and “Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe” alongside performances by the Hall Johnson Choir and the Duke Ellington band add to the delight of this all-black musical.
7:00PM Tuesday, February 8th
Young Man With A Horn (1950)
Michael Curtiz · 112m · 35mm
Jazz-obsessed Rick (Kirk Douglas) pretends to play his trumpet while an unseen Harry James plays the actual notes in a tale based on the legend of 1920s star cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Rick has to perform in corny dance bands while he yearns to play the jazz he loves. Moreover, he’s torn between the seductions of Ms. Right (Doris Day), Ms. Wrong (Lauren Bacall), and Demon Rum—you’ll never guess which wins. Watch for a glimpse of young Dexter Gordon.
7:00PM Tuesday, February 15th
Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life (1935) // Shadows (1959)
Fred Waller // John Cassavetes · 9m // 87m · DCP
A rare film of a suite composed by Duke Ellington, with his band and Billie Holiday in her film debut. Jazz, youthful ambition, interracial love, and making the scene are among the themes of Cassavetes’ first feature film as a director. Two African-American brothers, an immature trumpeter and an unstylish singer, and their sister, a writer, struggle amidst New York’s Beat Generation, to the music of solo saxophonist Shafi Hadi and Charles Mingus’s band.
7:00PM Tuesday, February 22nd
The Connection (1962)
Shirley Clarke · 110m · DCP
“Men Held Captive by the Power of Drugs” blares the ad for Clarke’s innovative first feature. A painfully realistic adaptation of an off-Broadway play, The Connection shows desperate junkies awaiting their next fix. At times characters speak directly to the camera despite a naive film director's cues to “act natural.” This raw film stars Warren Finnerty and co-stars composer-pianist Freddie Redd’s quartet, including the alto sax legend Jackie McLean.
7:00PM Tuesday, March 1st
Round Midnight (1986)
Bertrand Tavernier · 133m · Digital
Beloved tenor sax Long Tall Dexter Gordon, a real-life African-American expatriate in Europe, stars as a declining African-American expatriate tenor sax in Paris. Tragedy and black humor mark his slow slide into permanent oblivion, interrupted by the ministrations of an adoring fan. It’s a fictional version of pianist Bud Powell’s story, and jazz favorites like Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Billy Higgins, and Bobby Hutcherson comprise most of the cast.
7:00PM Tuesday, March 8th
Mo' Better Blues (1990)
Spike Lee · 129m · 35mm
Trumpeter Bleek Gilliam, portrayed by Denzel Washington, leads a dream of a life, fronting his own hard-bop band in a long-running nightclub gig and successfully romancing two lovers who don’t know each other. How can his sidemen (among them Wesley Snipes), his weaselly manager (Spike Lee), and the two ladies possibly bring him sorrow? Trumpeter Terence Blanchard, a Lee-film favorite, and the Branford Marsalis Quintet make the music that makes the story.
