Posted by Scott Yanow on January 29, 2001 at 16:05:54:
Has anyone noticed that there is more footage of Wynton Marsalis "singing" than of Ella, Sarah Vaughan, Anita o'Day and Carmen McRae put together? Of course O'Day was only mentioned once (in a long list of drug addicts) and McRae is missing altogether. Love how he does "Epistrophy." And his trumpet impressions of Buddy Bolden (sounding like a broken-down dixielander influenced a little by bebop) are remarkable. I didn't realize that he knew him, or Duke; he spends time discussing Ellington's flirting technique and talking about what Count Basie was really like.
Notice how in the Bebop episode, the classic clip of Bird and Diz playing "Hot House" is chewed to bits, and Bird's explosive break that launched his solo is entirely missing? Does anyone care that Miles Davis met Gil Evans not in 1949 but in 1947, which is a little important since their Birth of the Cool Nonet appeared in public in 1948? Does anyone think that Thelonious Monk sat at home for six years staring at his piano when he didn't have a New York cabaret card? I could have sworn that he recorded in Paris in 1954 and cut Brilliant Corners in 1956! Why is his famous Five Spot engagement of 1957 mentioned but not the name of his star sideman: John Coltrane? Why is it never mentioned that Bud Powell had mental problems and that his innovative playing changed the way that the piano is played in jazz?
BURNS: Django who? Who's this Bing Crosby fellow? Sorry, I never heard of Stan Kenton. But don't blame me, I only own six jazz records. Just give me $10 million and I'll get the lowdown from Wynton.
Did anyone notice that everytime the outside of the Savoy is shown (which is often), the photo is from the early 1950s? That when "Sing Sing Sing" from Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert was mentioned, nothing was said about Jess Stacy's startling solo? That not a single word was said about the dixieland revival or Latin jazz (other than three seconds on Chano Pozo)?
That Burns crowned Chick Webb as the real King of Swing, even though he was never called that?
BURNS: Sorry, I never heard of Buddy Rich, Joe Venuti or Lu Watters. And who is Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner? Maybe I'll have to go out and buy a seventh jazz CD.
Sing it Wynton! Notice how Marsalis talks about Dizzy Gillespie but James Moody and Ray Brown do not appear?
Such a pity, overall. There are some good moments but perhaps next time $10 million is given to a jazz project, the film maker should know a little bit about the music, or at least take a History of Jazz class!