Seems to me I've heard that tune before.
Start with drums. That's how Syncopation (1942) begins, with an African drum thumping while a slaver counts his money over a box of chains. That's a hell of an opening for a film about the origins of Jazz and has to be the bravest moment in film up to that point. Nobody saw it, nobody's heard of it, and if I'm honest it's a better idea than a movie, but what an idea. As I sit in my apartment, listening to Massive Attack's Heligoland, I wonder if a film could ever capture an evolution in music in the manner William Dieterle attempted in Syncopation. What Dieterle had to work with in 1942 pales in comparison to where Jazz was going in the 50's and 60's with Miles Davis, Coltrane, drugs, pain, and its speedy decline in popularity. For that story, we're left with...
Start with drums. That's how Syncopation (1942) begins, with an African drum thumping while a slaver counts his money over a box of chains. That's a hell of an opening for a film about the origins of Jazz and has to be the bravest moment in film up to that point. Nobody saw it, nobody's heard of it, and if I'm honest it's a better idea than a movie, but what an idea. As I sit in my apartment, listening to Massive Attack's Heligoland, I wonder if a film could ever capture an evolution in music in the manner William Dieterle attempted in Syncopation. What Dieterle had to work with in 1942 pales in comparison to where Jazz was going in the 50's and 60's with Miles Davis, Coltrane, drugs, pain, and its speedy decline in popularity. For that story, we're left with...
- 5/26/2015
- by Jason Ratigan
- JustPressPlay.net
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