Jazz and Blues Lounge

Let’s Tie it Into the Academy Awards

by balaspa on February 26th, 2008

Of course, a couple of days ago the movie stars all got together and congratulated themselves for a fine year in movies.  The best music went to the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once.”  It’s a fine song, I have to say and I was hoping it would win over the five thousand songs from the movie “Enchanted.” 

 There wasn’t much in terms of great jazz music in the various movie scores during this past year.  There have been some great jazz soundtracks, however, but you have to dig a little bit into the past to find them.

Of course, Woody Allen is a jazz player in addition to being a movie writer and director.  There is even a documentary you can find where you see him touring Europe with his jazz band playing his clarinet all across the world.  It’s a little creepy when you see him lounging around a hotel in white robes with Soon Yi, but the jazz music is exceptional.  Jazz features prominently in most of his movies too.

Then there is the Clint Eastwood movie “Bird” which is a bio-pic of Charlie Parker.  Forrest Whitaker plays Bird and he is exceptional.  He may have finally won his Oscar last year for playing a dictator, but I have always loved his tragic and heartbreaking performance as the doomed jazz legend.  There is a scene where he keeps calling Western Union to send telegrams to his wife after his daughter dies that will cause your heart to clench.  The music is also great.

For me, however, the best melding of movie and jazz is the Jimmy Stewart movie “Anatomy of a Murder.”  The movie is great too, but the entire soundtrack is by the great Duke Ellington.  Duke even makes a brief appearance in the movie.  It is a great murder mystery movie and it is also a powerful courtroom drama.  At the time, the movie was controversial because it dealt very frankly with some sexual matters that are important to the murder case that is the center of the film.

So, check out the movie and then buy the soundtrack.  If you do a little bit of looking, there are some great movies that feature jazz prominently.  There are also documentaries out there about various jazz groups such as the Cuban jazz performers and such.  I am a fan of the fictional movies, however, so I like looking for those soundtracks.

Enjoy!

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