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Showing results for tags 'esoteric jazz film'.
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I've been looking for this film for a long time, and found it on youtube. I love watching these gritty, B&W films made in the 50s and 60s about jazz musicians, because they usually deliver a more authentic representation of the jazz scene than atrocities like "Lady Sings The Blues, "Bird", and the soon to be released, "Wynton- How I Invented Jazz". Sweet Love, Bittersweet (1967) is about as real as it can get, with Dick Gregory portraying a Charlie Parker-like alto saxophonist named Richie Stokes, nicknamed 'Eagle', who is befriended by a white, unemployed college professor (played by Don Murray) and put up by an adoring black friend (Robert Hooks' film debut). Out of any jazz film I've seen, it's the only one that makes no attempt to pander to any Hollywood formula whatsoever, and sometimes seems like just a bunch of short segments, rather than a similar narrative like "Round Midnight", which it obviously influenced. The soundtrack is similarly as anti-Hollywood as it can get, with some great tunes written by Mal Waldron, and featuring: Mal Waldron — piano Dave Burns — trumpet George Coleman — tenor saxophone, alto saxophone Charles Davis — baritone saxophone Richard Davis (tracks 1 & 4) George Duvivier (tracks 2, 3 & 5-13) — bass Al Dreares — drums according to Wiki. I read some of the few reviews on the IMDB, and someone claims that Chas. MacPherson plays the alto parts, but i suspect they might have gotten it confused with "Bird". We couldn't figure out which city it was filmed in, but it was supposed to be NYC (with one stock footage scene of Columbus Circle). However, when I checked the IMDB, it turned out to be Philly. Check this out for the great music, and if you're a fan of esoterica.