Photo courtesy of On Ka’a Davis
Film Review by Matt Cole
Full disclosure: On Ka’a Davis is a friend of mine. Not only that, but I’ve had the privilege of playing with him on numerous occasions, mostly in the radical marching band Himalayas, and also in projects of his own. I’m also a fan of his work, both as a leader and as a sideman (notably with Nick Gianni’s Evolution). This is why I’m glad to be able to review a new documentary on his life, music, and context called Djuke with On Ka’a.
Opened in NYC at the IFC Center on June 25th
Opens in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Music Hall July 4th
The Pleasures of Being Out of Step: Notes on the Life of Nat Hentoff profiles legendary jazz writer, journalist, and civil libertarian Nat Hentoff, whose career has coincided with the greatest artistic, cultural, and political movements of the last 65 years. Any account of Nat’s career would not be complete without chronicling his determined efforts to promote and support freedom of expression. Narrated by actor Andre Braugher, Pleasures of Being Out of Step wraps the themes of liberty and identity around a historical narrative that stretches from the Great Depression to the Patriot Act.
Prolific and incendiary, Nat Hentoff is the author of twenty nonfiction books, nine novels, and two memoirs. His writing has been published in Down Beat, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, Jazz Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Playboy, Esquire, The Atlantic, The Progressive, and The New Republic.
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Photo by Marylin Schwartz
A grainy, seemingly vintage film of a music aficionado thumbing through a stack of records, and pulling out an LP of the New York Art Quartet forms a silent, yet eloquent imagery. Putting the vinyl on a turntable, the sound of free jazz greets us. Flash forward to the present day. Older master jazz musicians set up their instruments, and begin playing a free form music over which a poetic voice declares, “Everything that you don’t understand is explained in art.”
Text by Metal Postcard Records (Hong Kong)
Documentary Film Maker, John Pirozzi , has just finalized his latest film and any music lover will make this a must see
The U.S. premiere will take place on Friday evening, January 31, 2014 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The world premiere of The Breath Courses Through Us took place at the FIDMarseille-Festival International de Cinéma
(http://www.fidmarseille.org) in Marseille, France, in July 2013.
The Breath Courses Through Us (2013) is a documentary film by Alan Roth about the early 1960s avant-garde jazz group, the New York Art Quartet. The film focuses on the group’s 35-year reunion, while reaching back through their recollections of their foundations and innovative musical ideas. The year 2014 is the 50th anniversary of this group, and a revolutionary period in jazz music, which declared its existence in the October Revolution in Jazz, in October 1964.
