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Rewind: Musical dandies
Jazz greats, then and now, come alive on new video releases - just in time for the holidays.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 5, 2002
A jazz artist the caliber of Wayne Shorter (heard here recently at the Verizon Music Festival), Chick Corea (Clearwater Jazz Holiday), Kurt Rosenwinkel (USF's Monday Night Jazz Series) or Sam Rivers (EMIT) will play the Tampa Bay area every once in a while. And books vividly detailing major turning points in jazz history, such as Ashley Kahn's A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, are plentiful.
But the search for swing, bebop and post-bop music at the movies, or on the small screen, is often frustrating. Be thankful, then, for the availability of jazz-related titles on home video; the sonic clarity of DVD has greatly improved many of these releases.
Just out from Legacy/Sony is The Story of Miles Davis, an illuminating biography of the late jazz giant, featuring recent and vintage interviews with his collaborators, and, of course, footage of the Prince of Darkness, on stage and in conversation. Herbie Hancock's Future 2 Future, a high-tech document of a concert by the pianist (and former Miles employee) at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles, is also available from the same label. Also recommended, perhaps as holiday gifts for the jazzbos on your list, are the following:
[Photo: Miramax Films]
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Performances by legendary percussionist and bandleader Tito Puente and others are captured on the 2001 film Calle 54.
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Calle 54 (2001) -- Fernando Trueba, the Spanish-born director of Belle Epoque, collaborated with Miami Film Festival founder Nat Chediak on this valentine to Latin jazz. Trueba, interspersing interviews and mixing black-and-white and color footage, captured energetic performances by an impressive mix of artists, including legendary percussionist and bandleader Tito Puente, father-and-son pianists Bebo and Chucho Valdez, and bass great Cachao, from Cuba; Brazilian pianist-singer Eliane Elias; and Panamanian-born pianist Michel Camilo.
The Tic Code (1998) -- A New York saxophonist (Gregory Hines) afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome befriends a talented young pianist (Christopher Marquette) affected by the same disorder in a movie that tackles several aspects of the jazz life. The story, including a romance between the older musician and the young man's mother (Polly Draper, also the screenwriter), nevertheless feels a little contrived. The live-sounding music was written and played by Michael Wolff, a pianist-composer with Tourette's.
Straight No Chaser (1989) -- The musical brilliance and personal quirkiness of the man called "the high priest of bop" by Time magazine are on display in Charlotte Zwerin's definitive documentary on late pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. The filmmaker gets Monk right, from his beginnings as backup musician with a traveling evangelist to his work leading bands featuring Coltrane and others, and his sad decline. The musician is seen playing the title track and a number of other of his best-known tunes.
Round Midnight (1986) -- Bertrand Tavernier's film, named for a Thelonious Monk ballad, features a startling, sensitive performance by saxophone great Dexter Gordon as a gifted, deeply troubled musician. At a Paris club, he plays Monk and Charlie Parker tunes, as well as standards, backed by a group of real-life musicians, including Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Billy Higgins, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson.
Bird (1988) -- The life of Charlie "Bird" Parker, the chief architect of bebop, is brought to life by jazz lover Clint Eastwood in a dark, murkily photographed drama livened by the sensitive performance of Forrest Whitaker in the title role. Eastwood sketches the broad outlines of the saxophonist's life and career, touching, but not dwelling on, the drug addiction that killed him at age 34.
Mo' Better Blues (1990) -- Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) and Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes) are rival musicians in this jazz-infused drama from Spike Lee. The director, son of jazz pianist/composer Bill Lee, came by this material naturally; Lee composed the score, with contributions from trumpeter Terence Blanchard and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. The performances, by a cast including John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito and Samuel L. Jackson, are appealing and the music (John Coltrane's A Love Supreme) is first rate, but the story occasionally slips into melodrama.
Jazz: A Film By Ken Burns (2000) -- Burns rightly has been criticized by the jazz world for a) failing to give serious consideration to jazz made since the 1960s, and b) overlooking a number of major players. He also tends to take a "great man" approach to history. But for a serious overview of jazz, from its birth in New Orleans through the rise of bebop and a few years after, it's difficult to dismiss Burns' achievement, a series that originally aired on PBS.
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