[Dixielandjazz] The Gig

[Bill Gunter]

Hi listmates,

Regarding the video "The Gig" . . .

I have it and I really like the story.

There's a message for us - just because you love jazz, are a credentialed 
music teacher, a member of the musicians' union, etc. etc. doesn't 
necessarily mean you can play jazz.

In the movie (The Gig), the clarinet player considers himself to be the only 
"professional" musician in the band but he is brought face to face with his 
own handicaps and it's not easy for him. It may be an issue many of us have 
to wrestle with from time to time.

The bass player in the little dixieland band (Clevon Little) is a pick-up 
musician for the gig because the regular bass player can't make it. He tends 
to be difficult for the rest of the band to accept, not because he's black, 
but because he's demanding and seems a bit arrogant to the others. Actually 
he's the best musician of the bunch (which doesn't necessarily endear him to 
the other guys).

The picture is also quite funny and the owner of the Catskill resort which 
hires the band for the gig is a hoot. You can't help but love the guy even 
when he is his most outrageous.

Warren plays the part of a good trumpet sideman with some family problems, 
but music is his life and he probably suffers a bit because of it.

The music is OK -- nothing spectacular and basically it's simply the pivot 
on which the plot turns. The picture is not about great jazz . . . it's 
about things that happen to a variety of people out on a gig.

I ain't parting with my copy.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com

>From: LRG4003 at aol.com
>To: montiford at sbcglobal.net
>CC: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] The Gig
>Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 13:09:18 EDT
>
>A quick search turned up the fact that it was released on VHS in 1990
>through Warner Home Video, but a check of their website didn't turn up  
>anything.
>However I went through the imdb.com site (huge movie database)  and found a
>link that got me to some used versions on Amazon.com (starting  at $3.99).
>Wayne Rogers, Clevon  Little and Warren  Vache?  Written and directed by a
>Pulitzer Prize winning playwright?   But I've never heard of the film.  
>Who's seen
>it?  Good  soundtrack?
>
>K.C. Clarinetist (and movie guy)
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