[Dixielandjazz] Chicago

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

I both agree and disagree with me old mate Bill Haesler about Chicago. I
haven't seen the stage production but I have seen the movie ("Ahaa" says me
young mate Nancy).

That the music is dull, I accept. Actually, it's worse than dull - it's
contrivance. A triumph of presentation over content, a demonstration that
it is possible to fool some of the people all of the time.

But the movie is superb because it is much more than filmed action and
recorded sound. On stage, the director choreographs and moves within the
frame in real time; on film the director also moves the frame and moves
from frame to frame in disjunct time. The picture itself moves.

Think of music in ballet. There are plenty of musical masterpieces in this
art form (eg Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev) but there's an awful lot of musical
dross which accompanies fine ballet (eg Chopin, Hérold and Minkus).

Bill, please see the movie. There is more art in one stamp of Renée
Zellweger's foot than in the entire score. Go and SEE.

All the best
Anton