Word: sax
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Studied Unreality. If this movie were a big-band arrangement, it would be a duet for a sax man and a girl singer, but with the soloists in a different key from the band. Smack in the midst of the gold-tinsel snowfalls and the studied unreality of the sound stages, Scorsese spins out a naturalistic, contemporary-feeling melodrama about a love affair that goes sour...
...effect is disjointed from the opening sequence, a frenzied victory celebration in a skyscraper nightclub where Tommy Dorsey's orchestra is doing a radio spot. Unemployed Sax Player Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro), on a spree in his sporty new civvies, picks up ex-U.S.O. Singer Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) in an ill-paced scene that is lumbered with flat, witless dialogue ("Give me your phone number...
...lead vocalist of the group, Paul Rogers, late of the no-frills early-seventies British group, Free, which sort of fizzled out following their 1973 album, Heartbreaker, and drummer Simon Kirke, likewise of that gloomily-concluded musical venture, join guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Boz Burrell with sax and flute icing by Mel Collins. Together they produce yet another collection of tight riffs--some might call them predictable--with a steady bass company and a highly-amplified guitar sound, usually controlled just short of distortion. They are not virtuosos in the mold of Cream members with their constant technical competition...
...program has some real gems including Monk's "Well You Needn't" and "Straight, No Chaser," and Weill's "Lover Man," a personal favorite. Also localite (what an ugly word) Baird Hersey's "From the Tower" will be performed. (By the way if you are really into alto sax, get a listen to what Jackie McLean is into today. The Source and The Meeting are two albums that feature some of the best alto ever played--no apologies to the master...
...time Buddy Tate brought in his alto sax and Warren Vache his trumpet, the audience was flowing with the beat. The last two fleshed out the beat and sailed it out into the hall. The sextet did not trifle with its tunes. Each man handled his instrument like a fifth limb and together they wove the beat into a spell. But the show was still Benny Goodman's, and they called intermission early to bring him on for the second part...