You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 9 Jazz Movies We Love - #106

Episode Date: May 15, 2018

Today, Peter and Adam discuss 9 films about jazz they love. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Menace and I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Today we're going to give you nine jazz movies we love. We're going Hollywood today. Straight Hollywood, baby. So this is a question from Nick, our friend in the Facebook group, a member at Open Studio, and he asked about actually jazz movies and jazz books,

but we have so many, we're so literate and we're so, what's the equivalent of literate for movies? I don't even know. well watched well watched that sounds a little creepy but we're really bored we're bored yeah we're so well

versed in all the different media channels for jazz that we had to split this up into two episodes so we're gonna cover movies first because they're of and you know what I mean we're gonna do we're gonna do nine right we're going nine on this I mean we could almost do that's the thing is there's so many

good there's so much good stuff you could almost do one for documentaries one for dramas other jazz comedy probably some maybe yeah the Maryland Monroe one with Walter Mathau and Jack Limon that's right that's got a jazz comedy a little bit we'll have a whole other seven great jazz comedy sweet yeah so we're gonna give you nine jazz movies is that what I said nine that's what you said all right in once you start so I'm gonna start with one that I've I've just recently watched just a couple weeks ago and this is an amazing documentary on John Coltrane it's on

Netflix right now it's called Chasing Train if you haven't seen it put it in your queue watch it tonight. It's really, really an amazing glimpse into one of the great geniuses of this music. Lots of great interviews with people he played with and family members and musicians and celebrities who love his music. And his story is one of...

I mean, I think for me it's really inspiring because he's one of these players. I mean, he didn't just come out of the gate being John Coltrane, you know? Right. And this film reinforces that, that he had to learn some lessons and have some failures.

and then he at some point decided I'm not doing anything I don't want to do and he just made himself into this great figure so yeah no I think it's really good and I wonder if it's at all related it probably isn't there was a book I remember reading we can put over our list chasing train but I don't know I'm sure it's related but this has a lot of if it's the one I'm thinking of because I think I saw recently too it has a lot of family footage like with his kids and stuff at his house in Long Island yeah which I'd never seen before now there's tons of home movies and it's very, very special.

Great, great. Well, okay, I'm going to go, number two, I'm going to go with a documentary, too, because I know we're going to get into a bunch of dramas and stuff. But that is Thelonius Monk Straight and O'Chacer. Yeah, awesome. And that came out in the, I think it was mid to late 80s, and I remember seeing this, I think it was late 80s.

And actually, Clint Eastwood, I don't know that he directed, but he, like, produced it or executive, before he fell off the rails. His production company, I think, is the one who did this. But I know he was instrumental in getting it done. He's a huge jazz fan. He's a huge jazz fan.

And, you know, even did some jazz movies that are not going to appear on this list, but one in particular. No, but, you know, there's so much great footage. And, you know, I was really into Thelonist Monks' music, so I felt like I knew his personality. Yeah. I remember when I saw the documentary, but to see him talking and on the road,

like it kind of matched up how I imagined. I'd read a book about him, a biography of him. And it's so much great stuff from him in the studio. I remember there's that whole scene when I think it's Teo or Teo, Miss Sarah, I'm just messing up his whole name. That's okay, that producer. He's not that important figure. Well, it was like, they were, yeah, what is he done?

No, but he's kind of like, you know, recording and, and Monk is, I mean, Monk is playing, and then he's like, all right, we're about to start, and monk is like, what are you talking about? We're done. You know, like, he'd already record all that great banter in the studio, and amazing footage of them on tour in Scandinavia, and just a great movie. Well, that's one of the great things about these documentaries, especially that have footage that you may not see other places, is that, you know, we listen to,

to these great artists. We call them great too much, probably. We put them on those. The great. But no, to get a glimpse of them as human beings struggling just how we all struggle and with certain things or just having these kind of, you know, intricacies and their personalities that we don't get to see is pretty awesome. Yep.

Yep. Yeah. So that takes us to number three. And that is our first non-documentary. That is Round Midnight. This is, of course, amazing Academy Award-winning film. film. Dexter Gordon was nominated for as an actor, which is an amazing feat if you think about, I mean, he's an amateur actor, you know, before this. He's got a sad card now. He's got a sad card. I mean, no, I mean, an incredible film. That's great casting, too. Yeah, you know, I mean, a lot of the other musicians that were in it like Herbie and Wayne and stuff were great, too, but they didn't have the central role like he did. Yeah, Herbie produced the score. Is that right? Oh, yeah. It's a great score. It's incredible soundtrack. Yeah. So that's definitely like that should be on the top of your jazz film list for sure.

Yeah. And that actually may be the best jazz movie with the music. And then the actual subject matter is about jazz. And it's a great movie. And it has great acting. It kind of hits all those points. I think it is probably the best movie about jazz for all those reasons. Because there's some on this list where it's like the music is a little suspect.

Wait, wait, wait, don't give it away. Or how they use it as a little suspect. You know what I mean? Or maybe the acting isn't, maybe it's not a great film, but the music is awesome. but this one hits everything. Absolutely. Well, since you let the cat out of the bag, I'm going to move up for number four.

I'm going to say whiplash. It reminds me in my experience around here at Open Studio, Pierre Martin. Such whiplash. So, okay, this movie, this is kind of funny to put on here because I actually think it's a horrible jazz movie. It's not great.

I think it's a great movie. It's not actually a horrible jazz movie. It's just so, it's not, it's fake. It's super fake. But the movie's really, so good. The acting is so good. It's so interesting. It's so dramatic. Totally. And I think that, you know, there was such an uproar in the jazz community about this. It's like, this is the not the way it is that. It was supposed to be like Manhattan School of Music or

Juilliard or something in New York, you know, this cutthrow conservative. Like, that isn't the way it is. But think about this. Okay, so there's like one jazz movie made every five to ten years, pretty much. But every year there's like a thousand cop drama, dramatic movies about policemen or detective movies, which are totally fabricated also. And you don't hear the police saying, this is totally fake. Our day is going around writing tickets. We don't shoot up people and all this.

Yeah, we got a glimpse into how police officers feel like every time they turn on the television, right? So, I mean, I think we need to just relax and be glad. You know, weren't there some musicians talking about boycotting it, the whiplash and stuff, you know? Oh, no, that was one of the other ones that we're also going to talk about. But, I mean, to me, I don't know. It's just, it's a really, it's just a great movie.

It's a good movie, and it's really a sports movie that they just happened to throw in, you know, big band jazz school. Exactly. But if you aren't, you know, I know we have a ton of musicians that makes up the core of this listener base here, but if you're not a musician and you see Whip Flash and maybe you think that's a glimpse, just know that good music doesn't get made that way. That's just not how people are to each other.

I mean, maybe some people, but they're just not going to last very long. Exactly. So that takes us to another movie. I'm going to call a little audible here. and what is this number one, two, three, four, five. Along the same lines, recent movie, Great Movie, Academy Award, almost winning. We won for about 10 seconds, and that's La La Land.

Now we're going deep into the controversy. We just had some unsubscribes possibly. I know. You know what? I'm going to say it. I like this movie a lot. It's a great movie. I thought...

I'm going to second you on that. It's a really delightful movie. I love the narrative about jazz. Yeah. in the movie and the characters struggle with, you know, commercializing jazz and keeping it pure. I mean, these are things that we all geek out about on a regular basis. It's much more accurate than Whiplash.

The music... It just doesn't have any jazz it is. The music is a problem in the movie. Well, I mean, the music, yeah, I wouldn't even say it sucks. Well, I would say it sucks. But, I mean, that's because I don't like that style so much that... I mean, it's basically old-school Hollywood, Broadway. Yeah, I was going to say, it's like...

It's almost like they're... new Broadway songs. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like a redux of, it's just not really jazz. Although I heard Peter Erskine is playing drums on it. I'm sure everybody who's playing on it is amazing. Yeah, yeah.

And I remember he went in and he was like, this is so cool, because they described it as a jazz movie and he'd like either seen the synopsis of the scoring. He got in to the scoring session and was like, what are we doing here? This is a jazz. You're like, yeah, it's a jazz movie.

It's not a jazz score, though. The whole score is kind of jazz-ish. Jazz-esque. Jazz-esque. Jazz-esque. It's not real. jazz per se. But I will give props to some certain things that usually drive me crazy in movies about music. Ryan Gosling obviously put in a ton of time on the piano. Way more than he

needed to. What he had to play, he could play really well. Yeah. And it looked, what he was playing sounds good. Yeah. Not jazz, but good. But there was never a moment where I'm like, oh, he's not really playing that. Exactly. You know, and that pulls me out. Like, another great movie that they totally messed this up was the Johnny Cash movie. Do you ever see that? It's not jazz documentary, but with Joaquin Phoenix. Oh, right, right, right. And, you know, there's a scene where there's, you can hear a drummer, but there's no drummer on stage, and that, I was

done with that movie after that. No, they did a great job in La La Land of I mean, I remember there was that one scene when he's really playing a bunch of notes, and they're not showing his hands on the keyword. And I was like, well, he's got the look, but that's easy. And then they kind of pan around. And I was like, what are they going to do? I was like, damn, yeah, yeah, no, he's definitely, he did it right. He did it right. So, so props to Ryan Gosling. And I mean, I think the music is,

I mean, I know I said, we said we'd suck. Actually, I think it's pretty good, I guess. Are you turning on this? Well, no, no. I mean, I would just say that it's good in terms of, it's a musical. Yeah. That's what that movie is. It's kind of a high-end retro, you know, musical or whatever, which I remember when it was first

described to me, and then, you know, my daughter was like, Dad, and you're really going to like it because it's a, it's a musical. I was like, well, I already don't like that. Ryan Gossack said, don't like that. And it's about a jazz piano. I was like, definitely don't want to see that. Yeah, but could you imagine if they would have had, like, Terrence Planchard do the score? Come on.

Then it would have been, like, off the charts, amazing. Exactly, exactly. But, I mean, it's such a great movie. It's a great movie, no doubt. All right. So next we're going to go, one, two, three, four, five, where it's six. Oh, we better move it along here. Okay, it's Kansas City by Robert Altman, which is, you know, one of the greatest directors of our time.

He has some other great movies that I love. This is kind of mid-90s. And this one, I actually don't even remember it that well, but I remember I was playing with a lot of the people that were. in this movie and I kind of was kept waiting like each one kept getting called nicholas paid yeah Christian McBuy all your friends get a call Mark Whitfield some of my best friends I was like man it's my my so I kept checking my phone maybe my service I got service interruption or something never quite got the call but that that's a really good jazz movie interesting story great

movie amazing playing that's actually being done as they recorded the movie I know that so yeah it's special yeah yeah cool that takes us to number seven this is the classic Mo Betta blues Spike Lee Joint. Yep. I like the way you pronounce that correctly, Mo Betta. Mo Betta Blues. No, not more better blues. This is this Harlem Renaissance era, correct?

No. Current day, 90s, early 90s, late 80s. Oh, I'm thinking of the other one. Sorry, sorry. It's been a while. Some of these has been a minute for me. I got to check this out, actually. Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of a little bit on the fence.

The music's really good. Actually, Terrence does almost all the trumpet playing. That's right. And there's one cut. This is really good. Yeah, yeah. It's really good. And, I mean, this is another really really.

good. Denzel Washington did a great job of learning the trumpet, and Terrence apparently worked with him for like three months and like getting even the fingering's correct. Amazing. And that's, in some ways, it's harder than the piano. No, piano's got more keys. Piano's harder. But I mean, you know, he did a really good job. The actual story of the movie and stuff is a little hokey and corny, but I remember the music is good. So, we're putting it in there. So that brings us to, what are we at? Number nine now. Number eight. Oh, number eight. Okay. I don't know. About that one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, my friend, you were correct. Oh, because we're doing nine.

Yeah. Okay. So this is a documentary that I think was done a few years ago, but it's been promoted a bunch on Netflix. I actually saw it, a live screening of it here about three months ago at the Art Museum, and I was just floored by it, and that's the documentary about Nina Simone entitled, What Happened Miss Simone? And I recommend everybody.

I think it's still available on Netflix. It's a beautifully recorded documentary, some incredible extended high-depth footage of her from like the early 80s, I believe. That's awesome. From the Montreux Jazz Festival with just really focusing on her piano playing or amazing singing. I didn't really, I vaguely knew the story about her life, but it really goes in deep. Such a dramatic and interesting life. I mean, you know, like her and her family live next door to Malcolm X in suburban New York for a few years. And the kids, I mean, just a bunch of things even beyond music.

great, great, great, great movie. Yeah, she's an amazing character in this music, and she's an unbelievable force in this music. Yeah, and I really like that they focused a lot on her piano playing because a lot of time, obviously she's known as an incredible singer, but she started out as a classical pianist, and that was what she actually always wanted to do. She kind of added on the singing because everyone loved her voice and her writing. She's a great pianist. Yep, yeah.

Well, that's going to round out our list with number nine. We're going to round out our list with, what is this good night and good luck? Oh, I heard that's amazing. This is a bit of a Homer pick, I think. I heard. No, this is really awesome. So this actually is, this is up there, I think, with around midnight. It's not a movie about jazz at all.

It's not. But as far as the quality of the film, the writing of the film, for those of you don't know, it's about the life, or about a brief window of time, Edward R. Murrow. Right. Great CBS journalist. Great CBS journalist was pushing back against Joseph McCarthy and the communist sort of witch-hunts. The great Joseph McCarkey. No, we're not doing that.

But the music was often talked about in how good this film was. And that's because the music was all done live in-house by Diane Reeves. And my man Peter Martin right here was on this film. Yeah, and then on drums was Jeff Hamilton. Yeah, yeah. On bass, Bob Hurst and a great saxophone is Matt Kattengub, who used to actually. I mean, the whole thing. I think that happened with, you know, George Clooney wrote and directed the movie, and he had this idea he wanted, I mean, it's like documentary style, it's in black and white.

It's not a documentary, obviously. But it's, it's, there's a lot of things that, I guess they, I don't know if they call docudrama or something, but, you know, there's a lot of the, the speeches that Edward R. Murrow gave or, or like his narrative that he's giving on camera, um, were exact words and things that he said, you know, so it's, it's very original. And then apparently, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's. connect like Ella Fitzgerald actually was appearing during this time on a on a television show in a studio next door so Clooney had this genius idea of weaving in the music because he didn't want to just have kind of music of the time coming through because he wanted to have that documentary feel but he wanted music to be like kind of a Greek chorus to what was going on so he picked out these specific songs that kind of had a play on what on what was happening with the drama of the story and then how he pulled it together so it didn't just sound like it was coming from heaven

was that we were rehearsing in the studio next door and he would kind of pop his head in from time to time and see us playing. That's such a great idea. And I mean, it works so well in the film. And then obviously the choice of Diane and you and that whole band, you all pulled it off. I think what's so great about the soundtrack

is listening to these great modern musicians play in that style a little bit and try to like, for me, it's just works so well. Award winning soundtrack too, right? Yeah, I think we got a Grammy. I want to say. You think? No, no, I really, I do not know.

I've gotten several, but no, I think it was award. I don't remember. I know it was nominated for a bunch of Academy Awards. Yeah, it was nominated for an Oscar, too, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's what an Academy Award is. Yes, no, I was reiterated. I'm like, I'm okay, I had an Oscar.

Yeah, but no, it's a cool movie. Soundtracks great. And yeah, everything that we recorded that's in the movie was done live and recorded, which we were shocked that they let us, not only let us do that, George Clooney insistent on that. We were like, great. He's like, do you guys mind recording it live? We don't want to, you know, because,

we're thinking we're going to have to go in and record it and then come back and pretend like we're playing. And so they had it all miced up and we just we just named it. Like I said, it was the right personnel for that. And it's just an amazing effect. Great use of jazz in a film for a period. So good. Well, we hope we hope you enjoyed this very self-indulgent list of nine movies. No, I mean, we could do another list of nine movies.

I mean, there's some that we left off for sure, you know, all the old movies. I mean, if this podcast gets really, we could just do nine movies. movies we like that aren't jazz. Would anyone care about that? That's awesome. No, no one would care. But, you know, if you keep on listening, then you'll hear it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. You can go to you'll hear it.com to get more information, submit a question, or just say hello. Well, you can do that. Absolutely. All right. And if you like what you heard, please leave a review and a rating below. Thanks.