Improvisation (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | improvisation |
| Original title | improvisation |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 182 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Norman Granz |
| production | Norman Granz |
| camera | Gjon Mili et al. a. |
| occupation | |
Improvisation is an American music film by Norman Granz , made in 1950 and featuring musicians from the jazz scene of the time such as Charlie Parker , Coleman Hawkins , Ella Fitzgerald , Lester Young , Hank Jones , Ray Brown and Buddy Rich . The documentary , which was not finished at the time of its creation, was only released in 2004, supplemented by further recordings made between 1977 and 1979.
Story of the film
After the jazz impresario Norman Granz had made the musical short film Jammin 'the Blues for the Warner Brothers with the photographer and filmmaker Gjon Mili in 1944 , the two collaborated again on a film in 1950. Granz was the producer and screenwriter of the film, while Mili was the cameraman.
Lester Young and Harry "Sweets" Edison had already participated in the previous music film Jammin 'the Blues in 1944 , other soloists were Flip Phillips and Bill Harris . They are accompanied by a rhythm section made up of Hank Jones (piano), Ray Brown (bass) and Buddy Rich in Pennies from Heaven and in the jam session number Blues for Greasy . The singer Ella Fitzgerald contributes scat vocals in Blues for Greasy . The three musicians Jones, Brown and Rich play the short track Ad Lib and, with Charlie Parker, his composition Celebrity , after which Parker gets up, goes to Coleman Hawkins , who comes into the picture , who begins the improvisation ballad . Bird sits down next to him, smokes and watches his game before starting his solo. Hawkins responds with a second solo.
As with the previous film Jammin 'the Blues , the music was played before the film was recorded; the musicians then had to perform the finger movements and breathing synchronously with the sound recording, which worked more or less well. The synchronization efforts of Coleman Hawkins, for example, led to laughter from Charlie Parker, as can be seen in the complete film documents available. The selection of musicians corresponded to the typical composition of Granz for his Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, for which the film was intended to create publicity. However, when the fundraising for the film project became difficult, the completion of the approximately 14-minute film was stopped and the recordings were - apart from a few circulating bootlegs - in the archives.
The studio tapes recorded for the film in September 1950 by Parker and Hawkins ( Celebrity and Ballad ) later appeared on Parker's Verve albums, including the CD edition Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve ; Parker's film recordings were long thought to be lost. It was not until the late 1970s that film clips were discovered in which Parker mimed hand and mouth movements to playback . The film recording was used in various documentaries about the musician without the connection to the existing sound documents being secured. It was not until the 1990s that Granz put together film and sound material for the production of Norman Granz Presents - Improvisation , which was first broadcast on French television and then marketed commercially in Japan.
Film edition 2004
In the final edition of the film from 2004, Granz combined Mili's material from 1950 with other film documents from his archive. These were concert recordings by artists who released Pablo Records on his label , such as the Duke Ellington Orchestra from the Cote d'Azur, the Count Basie Orchestra from the Montreux Jazz Festival (1977), Joe Pass (1979), Ella Fitzgerald (1979) and Oscar Peterson with Dizzy Gillespie u. a. from Montreux (1977). The marketed edition was supplemented by a contribution by Nat Hentoff about Granz, with photo portraits of David Stone Martin and the short film Jammin 'the Blues from 1944. A version made after Granz's death and published in 2007 under the title Norman Granz Presents - Improvisation Interviews with participating musicians were added to two DVDs.
Content of the film (Edition 2004)
- Presentation by Nat Hentoff
- Gjon Mili's 1950 studio recordings with Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Ella Fitzgerald, Lester Young, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich, Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Flip Phillips, Bill Harris:
- Opening title
- Ballad (Soloists: Parker, Hawkins)
- Celebrity (Soloist: Parker)
- Ad Lib (Soloists: Hank Jones, Ray Brown)
- Pennies from Heaven (Soloists: Young, Harris)
- Blues for Greasy (Soloists: Edison, Young, Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, Flip Phillips)
- Duke Ellington at the Cote D'Azur: Blues for Joan Miro
- Count Basie At Montreux Jazz Festival 1977:
- Nob's blues
- Kidney Stew
- These Foolish Things
- Joe Pass 1979:
- Ella Fitzgerald 1979:
- Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me
- I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good
- Oscar Peterson at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1977:
- Ali & Frazier
Web links
- Improvisation (1950) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Improvisation (2004) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Daniel Eagan: National Film Preservation Board (US): America's film legacy: the authoritative guide to the landmark movies. P. 375.
- ↑ Review of the film (JB Spins)
- ^ A b Brian Priestley : Chasin 'the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker , p. 82
- ↑ Information at Jazzbooks ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Review of the double DVD Norman Granz Presents - Improvisation at Allmusic (English). Retrieved February 3, 2012.
