joeface Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 (edited) Years ago I rented this indie film from the early nineties called "Giant Steps", with Billy Dee Williams as a jazz pianist. Strange little film but actually deals with some elements of music intelligently. Has anyone else ever see this? I can't remember much about the music itself, I wasn't as much of an acoustic jazz fan back then. I'd love to track it down again but I don't think it's ever been released on DVD. Edited August 8, 2005 by joeface Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Last night on the Black Family Channel (which has the look and feel that Public Access channels had years ago) they showed "Moon Over Harlem," a truly amateurish film from 1939. There are some club scenes with a big band and, in one of them, Sidney Bechet's soprano emerges from the snap-crackle-and-pop soundtrack. Sure enough, he is in the band. Anyone here ever heard of this film? I don't recall seeing it before. ← That's a rare film directed by the great Edgar G. Ulmer. Wish I had seen it... This is the entry on the film from David Meeker's Jazz on the Screen website: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natl...32/default.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christiern Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 That's a rare film directed by the great Edgar G. Ulmer. Wish I had seen it... What did Ulmer do that might be termed "great"? Certainly not this film--it was as amateurish as they come--dreadful, trite script, wooden acting, painfully pedestrian camera work, and direction that never rises above that of the worst of Oscar Micheaux's films. I just Googled Ulmer and see that he made some 128 films--this one looks like no thought had gone into it. The writer of the online bio does mention that his output includes a lot of "dross." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 Just been watching Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire--has a substantial appearance by Gene Krupa's band including the famous matchbox drumming routine. I'd like to see this picture again soon. I just read a bio of the director, Howard Hawks. Apparently, Krupa came up with that routine on the set and Hawks decided to include it in the movie. Hawks was famous for encouraging actors to improvise and for tailoring roles to the actors as the film was being shot. Kinda "jazzy." ← Oh, the Todd McCarthy bio? Yes, been poking around in that a bit: very interesting to learn a bit about his methodology. -- Incidentally, which was shot first, The Lady Eve or Ball of Fire? There are a couple of bits in Ball of Fire which seem to glance off the Sturges film (in particular a memorable bit of dialogue involving apples). ← Yup, the Todd McCarthy. Not a bad book at all, though I still prefer Gerald Mast's Howard Hawks: Storyteller by a wide margin, though that's more of a critical reading of the films themselves than a bio. According to my references, Ball of Fire was shot in August-October of 1941, well after the February 1941 release of The Lady Eve. And, of course, Stanwyck was in both of them, so perhaps she contributed the riff you're talking about, though Hawks may have been equally responsible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 (edited) Some of the better jazz music recorded (often it seems for pretty mediocre films) has been collected on four volumes in the Jazz in Paris series. ← Those are fun. I'll have to pull 'em out again. I like the fourth one best, as it has the most diverse programming; plus it opens and closes with the theme from one of my favorite French gangster films, Touchez Pas au Grisbi. Another amazing jazz soundtrack is George Gruntz's for the 1960 Swiss film Mental Cruelty, a stunning piece of moody Euro hard bop, which features Kenny Clarke and Barney Wilen. I think it gives Miles's L'Ascenseur music a run for the money. Actually, it works better as an album. It was re-released, after barely being released at all in the first place, on Atavistic's Unheard Music Series. http://www.atavistic.com/artist.cfm?action...=148&itemid=240 I know that this has already been discussed on the board ( this is where I heard about it in the first place!), but it seems appropriate to bring it up again in this thread. Edited August 9, 2005 by Kalo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Pomea Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 New Orleans, with Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday (1947) played recently on American Movie Classics Louis refers to classical music as longhair music Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 That's a rare film directed by the great Edgar G. Ulmer. Wish I had seen it... What did Ulmer do that might be termed "great"? Certainly not this film--it was as amateurish as they come--dreadful, trite script, wooden acting, painfully pedestrian camera work, and direction that never rises above that of the worst of Oscar Micheaux's films. I just Googled Ulmer and see that he made some 128 films--this one looks like no thought had gone into it. The writer of the online bio does mention that his output includes a lot of "dross." ← Edgar Ulmer is a film director who made a lot of lowbudget (even very low budget) films which is why many seem amateurish. He rarely was allowed to direct films that allowed him to express himself. Two of his best films still remain very obscure. One is an incredibly beautiful western (with Arthur Kennedy as its star!) called 'The Naked Dawn', the other is a film noir classic from 1945 'Detour'. He also directed a number of films in yiddish that are very rarely seen nowadays. Jean-Luc Godard dedicated one of his films to Ulmer, John Cassavettes and Clint Eastwood! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 Some of the better jazz music recorded (often it seems for pretty mediocre films) has been collected on four volumes in the Jazz in Paris series. ← Those are fun. I'll have to pull 'em out again. I like the fourth one best, as it has the most diverse programming; plus it opens and closes with the theme from one of my favorite French gangster films, Touchez Pas au Grisbi. Another amazing jazz soundtrack is George Gruntz's for the 1960 Swiss film Mental Cruelty, a stunning piece of moody Euro hard bop, which features Kenny Clarke and Barney Wilen. I think it gives Miles's L'Ascenseur music a run for the money. Actually, it works better as an album. It was re-released, after barely being released at all in the first place, on Atavistic's Unheard Music Series. http://www.atavistic.com/artist.cfm?action...=148&itemid=240 I know that this has already been discussed on the board ( this is where I heard about it in the first place!), but it seems appropriate to bring it up again in this thread. ← Yes indeed! I know I said so (and probably several times), but that "Mental Cruelty" album is terrific! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christiern Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 (edited) Then, around 1964, there came "The Cool World," which was directed by Shirley Clark and prominently featured music played by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Yusef Lateef, and Mal Waldron. The film was shocking for the times, I recall the audience in the small screening room visibly showing their amazement when Hampton Clampton, the lead actor wanders around on the beach at Coney Island, having lost his girlfriend in the crowd. The shock came when he uttered the word, "shit." Times have changed. Around that time, on a trip to Copenhagen, I was shown a controversial Danish film with music by Brew Moore--it was called "Sextet" and had nothing to do with a musical group. The director had the sound department run off a copy of the score for me--it's on a couple of 10 1/2" reels in my overstuffed closet. As is the Dizzy/Yusef sound track, BTW. Edited August 9, 2005 by Christiern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 Around that time, on a trip to Copenhagen, I was shown a controversial Danish film with music by Brew Moore--it was called "Sextet" and had nothing to do with a musical group. ← Yikes--shades of Aric's "jazz meets porn" thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christiern Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 "Sextet" was in no way a porn picture. It was, in its approach to human relationships, simply too sophisticated for U.S. consumption at that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 Has THE COOL WORLD ever come out on VHS or DVD? I have the Verve Dizzy soundtrack (not the same, I believe, as the version that you have, Chris). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted August 9, 2005 Report Share Posted August 9, 2005 "Sextet" was in no way a porn picture. It was, in its approach to human relationships, simply too sophisticated for U.S. consumption at that time. ← Oops--my mistake. Pardon my rather salacious interpretation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted August 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 Just noticed there's a movie out called Four Brothers. No doubt, a flick about life in Woody Herman's saxophone section... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDK Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 Just noticed there's a movie out called Four Brothers. No doubt, a flick about life in Woody Herman's saxophone section... ← Now there's an idea for a flick: Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Serge Chaloff solve crimes during the day and play jazz at night! And no one suspects a thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Fitzgerald Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 Until Getz is caught holding up a drugstore? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 (edited) Just noticed there's a movie out called Four Brothers. No doubt, a flick about life in Woody Herman's saxophone section... ← Now there's an idea for a flick: Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Serge Chaloff solve crimes during the day and play jazz at night! And no one suspects a thing... ← Actually it would be more likely for them to commit crimes during the day and play jazz at night. Edit: Mike had the same idea I see......... Edited August 15, 2005 by Free For All Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDK Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 Just noticed there's a movie out called Four Brothers. No doubt, a flick about life in Woody Herman's saxophone section... ← Now there's an idea for a flick: Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Serge Chaloff solve crimes during the day and play jazz at night! And no one suspects a thing... ← Actually it would be more likely for them to commit crimes during the day and play jazz at night. ← Doesn't matter, so long as their sidekick's a monkey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgraham333 Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 I came across Lee Morgan's The Lion and the Wolf in Get Shorty the other evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 How about Mickey Rooney as a jazz drummer in "The Strip"? There's lots of good Armstrong and the All Stars in that: Teagarden, Hines, and Bigard! ← Caught that on TCM recently---amazing! And it looks like Rooney is actually doing his own drumming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 (edited) Anybody saw that one? (I didn't). I don't think the music to the film is mentioned in the Chet Baker discographies. No word about it in the James Gavin bio 'Deep in a Dream'. Night of Lust Jose Benazeraf was an intellectual wannabe who specialised in softporn films. The film was originally entitled 'La Drogue du Vice' and later given an alternate title 'Concerto de la Peur' (Fear Concerto). Often described as the poor man's Jean-Luc Godard by enemies of the two because Benazeraf where as difficult to understand as Godard's. Chet Baker's name is listed as music composer for another Benazeraf film 'Sexus'... Edited August 16, 2005 by brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Is that the one where Baker is seen passed out in a bathtub & attempting to answer a phone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 I have not seen the film! But from the little I know about it, Chet Baker stuck to playing the music! Here is a Chet Baker filmography Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Has THE COOL WORLD ever come out on VHS or DVD? I have the Verve Dizzy soundtrack (not the same, I believe, as the version that you have, Chris). ← To the best of my knowledge, and I have researched this some, the answer is no. Frederick Wiseman, documentary maker, owns it, and only distributes it as a print through his personal distribution company. (And we're not talking about the Ralph Bakshi animated film, for those of you who are wondering.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcello Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Re:Cool World I have it on VHS. I bought it quite a while ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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