If you could create a jazz movie....

[Pharaohrock]

what (generally speaking) would it be about, and who would you cast in it???.....

......mine would be about the intersection of three jazz giants in the late 50s through their shared associations- Miles, Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk. As far as other musicians go, Cannonball, Wynton Kelly, P.C. and Bill Evans can be supporting roles.


I would cast Larry Fishburne as John Coltrane. There's not a strong physical likeness there I give you that, but Fishburne has the intensity and the vulnerable quality that makes him right for the part. He could hold a long, Trane-like gaze I know that. Actually, watch the film "Deep Cover" for a good example of Fishburne playing a kind of stoic, intense figure. He absolutely nails it.

Miles?? Oh Miles is tough to cast. You almost think the only person that could accurately play him is himself, but I'd be tempted to go with Don Cheadle. Cheadle has just enough natural charisma to play the part, and yet I think he can also play it "cool" too, as evidenced by his part in Traffic.

Then Monk. Maybe even tougher than Miles to cast. Here I'd have to say I'm just not aware enough of all of the black actors out there, although I don't think that compromises my choices of Fishburne and Cheadle, because they are clearly stellar actors who could get it done. Maybe Forest Whitaker?? Again the physical likeness isn't really there, except for being a little heavy-set.....but the personality is probably closer than a lot of other actors oin terms of being more introverted and maybe eccentric (I don't know if Whitaker actually is, I'm just speculating....)

And I think Ed Norton would play a good Bill Evans but he'd break the studio budget unless he happens to be a big jazz fan.



Okay, well that's a start on my flick. Let's hear your "short takes."

[Pharaohrock]

Food for thought: there is actually (supposedly I should say) a movie in the works about Chet Baker which will have Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead......you have to shelve your bias against the Titanic fiasco- Leo is a good actor (see "The Beach") and he could get it done.

[clifton]

I'd like to do a movie about Ornette Coleman covering his career from his arrival in New York to his winning a MacArthur Grant which would signal his acceptance as a genius. Casting is a tough one. I'd love Morgan Freeman for Ornette if we could use make-up or computer graphics to make him look younger. Don Cheadle would have to be Don Cherry, Steve Young would be Ed Blackwell. How about Dustin Hoffman as David Izenzon? Branford Marsalis would be great for Dewey Redman, but I can't think of anyone for Charlie Haden or Billy Higgins at the moment. The core of the movie would involve the controversy of his first music, then the triumph of his re-emergence on the scene in 1965 with the great trio with Haden and Moffett, and moving through his trip to Morocco, Prime Time, and his ultimate acceptance. There would have to be lots of music and a theme of perserverance and triumph. If not an Ornette movie, I'd like to remake "Bird", which, although I very much liked it, overemphasized Parker's problems at the expense of the true scope of the bebop revolution. So "Bird" with more music, less drugs.

[Pharaohrock]

I didn't get into a plotline......it would mainly be told through the perspective of Trane, first playing with Monk, then touring with Miles, then the quartet.

And I happen to think Delroy Lindo would make a fine Elvin Jones.
He could probably even execute a roll or two.


Re: Charlie Haden. Tough casting call, maybe Ben Affleck??
Just kidding....

[clifton]

Pharoahrock: Jeff Watts has some acting experience, so in your movie, maybe Tain should play Elvin, unless he's in my movie as Charles Moffett.

[Pharaohrock]

Dude, I dig Tain's drumming but we gotta have someone who can do Elvin's growl. Tain's got kind of a high voice, so not sure he could pull it off...lol. (Serious, did you hear Tain's one line in Mo Better? He hits the kit hard but you'd never know it from his voice. It's like Dave Stewart, who used to pitch for the Oakland A's...Remember him? When I was a kid I thought he looked like the biggest hardass.....that stare under his cap....then I hear him being interviewed, and it's like, OH NOOOOOO....Dave Stewart sounds like Michael Jackson!....lol.

[clifton]

Have Elvin himself play Elvin. He has acting experience (that dopey psychedelic Western "Zacchariah" from 1970 or so), and in interviews he's very charismatic. Some make-up to make him look younger, and there you have it. I sure wish we could get a good jazz movie again. Eastwood could do it but was lambasted (unfairly, I think) for "Bird", and "Bird" made so little money that Clint might not want to do another jazz movie, although his soundtracks remain hip.

[Pharaohrock]

I'd personally like to see Spike Lee give another shot at a jazz movie. Lee is the only one out there who can convey something akin to a jazz aesthetic in the way a film is shot, so strictly for the visual element, I want Lee. Now have someone else write the thing though. Mo'Better was a sadass caricature of jazz musicians in many ways, but there was clearly some potential exhibited there.

-Maybe Lee could do for Coltrane what he did for Malcolm X???

[clifton]

I agree on "Mo' Better Blues". Lee didn't want to show jazz musicians as junkies or winos, so instead he showed them as foul-mouthed homeboys. I'm a disabled former jazz musician, and I've played with some good players and met or hung out with some giants including Stitt, Dizzy and Sunny Murray. I assure you that most jazz musicians don't resemble the caricatures in "Mo' Better". "Round Midnight" gave the musicians considerably more dignity and wit, because Dex actually wrote (uncredited) some of the dialogue.

[Pharaohrock]

Yeah, interesting that Lee kinda projected a "street" mentality onto the musicians.....Wesley Snipes' ego-tripping, jive-talking character seemed especially implausible to me as a jazz musician. Giancarlo Esposito's role was just corny as hell too....the foofy artiste. lol.

I did like the main character "Bleek" however. Denzel can take a spot in a jazz film again and I'm certainly not going to complain.

[clifton]

I have an 11-year-old son who likes jazz, particularly Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderly, and Ornette Coleman, especially Bird. He thinks we shouLd scrap our current plans and make more movies about Bird.

[PiousBionicus]

Some of you may have seen "The Cotton Club", that's about a jazz musician who has to play for a crime lord. It's really quite bad, but the music is good and it has Duke Ellington in it (well, someone acting as him) conducting some of his compositions.

As for my own movie, possibly on the life of Ray Brown.