Fire Music Jazz Film (2018)

For some, Ken Burns' series Jazz, released in 2001, was an uncompromising and obvious project that proclaimed jazz as an all-encompassing musical genre. Others did not take the telenovela seriously, treating it as a standard "soap opera".

Tom Surgal's new project

Tom Surgal, director of the new project "Fire Music", said in a 2015 interview. "the television show did indeed depict the entire history of the jazz continuum in great detail and detail, but it almost completely ignored free jazz".

"Fire Music," presented at the New York Film Festival, is a feature-length reimagining of the original 2001 series. Regardless of your tastes and ideas, whether you are a free jazz fan or not, this film will surprise and interest you. The producers are. Nels Cline, Thurston Moore and Jeff Tweedy. tried to bring the complete jazz anthology to the big screen, to create a film that could answer all the questions that arose.

It would seem that Surgal started working on the project at the most opportune time. "Since I started conducting interviews, six participants have passed away. I am glad that I had the opportunity to interact with them and gain invaluable knowledge"," he noted in 2015. To date, the number of deceased jazz musicians who participated in the interview has increased. Thus, in December 2017, the talented trombonist passed away Roswell Rudd. Thankfully, viewers will be able to see him in some of Fire Music's scenes. One of the most interesting and iconic conversations of the film undoubtedly belongs to the Prinsu Lasha. The artist spoke at length about what brought him to New York and what jazz was like in the sixties.

The film is replete with stories of those lightbulb moments when an encounter with the work of one musician could change an aspiring player's entire outlook. For example, the trumpeter Bobby Bradford marvelled Ornette Colemanwho pioneered the ideas of "free jazz" and developed a system of improvisation that did not depend on preconceived notes and chords. Simmons also referred to Charlie Parkeras one of his biggest idols and inspirations: "I was amazed at how this man, one man, could stand there looking like a holy angel in a white suit, playing all this beautiful music. He actually changed my life!".

The film very subtly and gracefully finds the points of contact between bebop and free jazz. The lyrics are very organic Gary Giddins about the so-called avant-garde perspective: "They weren't saying they didn't like the past. They were merely stating that they are better than 'that past'. They're just another way of listening to music."

For all its magnetism and charm, "Fire Music" does not reject harsh realities. The film makes a very clear message - the new music was a direct threat, which they sought to suppress by any means possible. In this sense, the interview with the vocalist is particularly noteworthy. Ingrid Serzoa friend. Ornette Coleman. In conversation with Surgalom she recalls a horrifying story of a saxophonist being attacked after one of his performances. Unhappy with what the saxophonist was performing ColemanOrnette Coleman and Don Cherry in 1959, and the artist himself was sent to hospital with a collapsed lung. "Fire Music," a new documentary by drummer and filmmaker Tom Surgal, looks at the birth and influence of "free jazz."

Unlike earlier projects dedicated to the free-jazz movement, Fire Music gives an accurate and truthful assessment of all the events that took place, shedding light on what was going on in musical circles. Also, those interested in learning more about free-jazz will find it useful to watch the 1981 documentary Imagine the Sound.

Surgal concentrates all its attention on New York musicians of the sixties, leaving a number of important aspects practically unattended. Thus, the film does not answer the questions, how the free-jazz philosophy took root in Chicago, Germany and Japanas well as what the position of this music remains in the modern world. Nevertheless, Fire Music is confidently setting new standards for music documentary production, raising the bar considerably.