[Dixielandjazz] Re: kansas city movie/ Mary Lou Williams

[Bill Haesler]

Dear Luis,
Here is the list of musicians courtesy of the Internet Movie Data Base:
James Carter    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Tenor Saxophone
Craig Handy    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Tenor Saxophone
David Murray    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Tenor Saxophone
Joshua Redman    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Tenor Saxophone
Jesse Davis    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Alto Saxophone
David 'Fathead' Newman Jr.    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Alto Saxophone
Don Byron    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Clarinet/Baritone Saxophone
Olu Dara    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Trumpet
Nicholas Payton    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Trumpet
James Zollar    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Trumpet
Curtis Fowlkes    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Trombone
Clark Gayton    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Trombone
Victor Lewis    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Drums
Geri Allen    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Piano
Cyrus Chestnut    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Piano
Ron Carter    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Bass
Tyrone Clark    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Bass
Christian McBride    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Bass
Russell Malone    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Guitar
Mark Whitfield    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Guitar
Kevin Mahogany    ....     Hey-Hey Club Musician: Vocalist
_____________________________________________________________
And this from JAM Magazine at the time:

Robert Altman's
"KANSAS CITY"
© 1996 John Leisenring

The long wait for Kansas City jazz fans is almost over.

On August 16, Robert Altman's much anticipated film about his beloved
hometown opens nationally (a gala KC premier was held on July 27). And with
this release comes the re-creation of Milton Morris' "Hey-Hey Club" along
with the legendary jam sessions that took place therein. A feast it will be,
indeed, for jazz buffs everywhere.

Set in 1934, the film's focal points include the famous cutting session said
to have been staged by Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster for a
multitude of music lovers among the club's hay bales. Judging from the
recently released soundtrack CD, and an hour-long promotional video, the
renowned confrontation is well represented. The ambiance is perfect, the
photography outstanding, and the musicians... well, the musicians achieve
the nearly impossible. The young lions assembled by Altman and music
producer Hal Willner have done their homework. It will be difficult for even
the crustiest and most demanding connoisseur of mid-1930s Kansas City jazz
to fault the execution, the colossal improvisations, and the infectious
swing that have all found their way onto the big screen.

"It was not our intent to actually portray specific musicians," says singer
Kevin Mahogany, Kansas City's sole young lion to make the film. (Mahogany
looks for all the world like Big Joe Turner as he shouts the blues from
behind the bar.) "We were more after authenticity of sound, and we worked
hard to achieve the look of the period. We tried not to recreate precise
solos. (Pianist) Geri Allen was certainly aware of the music of Mary Lou
Williams, though; and Joshua Redmond, of course, had listened to a great
deal of Lester Young. But no attempt was made to actually BE those musical
giants."

Still, it will be difficult for observers not to make comparisons with past
heroes. The best advice then is to sit back and revel in what has been
meticulously created: the sound, the feel and the spirit of the times. To
watch these young talents work is to be given a momentary glance at the past
along with a brief but full sense of what it was really like to attend a
fine, swinging party down at 4th and Cherry. Milton would be proud.

The interiors for "Kansas City" were shot at the old Myron Green cafeteria
at 9th and Walnut, and the club's name has been changed to "The Hey Hey
Club." There are no bales of hay for customers to sit on, and the bandstand
is not fashioned from an old hay wagon (for an informative history of the
famed jazz clubs run by Milton Morris, see "Remembering Uncle Milton and All
That Jazz" by Chuck Haddix, JAM, October/November 1992). Otherwise, the
atmosphere is perfect. The few cigars present on the set were enhanced by
artificial smoke to te the blue air that swirls around the band; dark suits,
suspenders and fedora hats predominate; and the music is such that extras
and stage hands often, according to Mahogany, "broke into spontaneous
dancing so frenzied and so good that much of it was left in the final cut of
the film."

Research for the film's music began in 1994 when screenwriter Frank Barhydt
contacted Chuck Haddix, archivist for UMKC's Marr Sound Archives, to begin
exploring mid-'30s Kansas City jazz. 1934 was picked because it was an
election year (the Pendergast machine and the wide-open Kansas City
depression years are also focal points of Altman's film) and because it was
the year of the aforementioned cutting contest. It was initially thought
that period instruments would be used, and that the musicians hired would be
chosen from those few remaining who had actually performed in the '30s. Both
ideas were eventually scrubbed.

The music was filmed as it was being played, so no musician watching this
film will have to cringe as actors try to look as if they are playing
instruments they don't know how to hold while attempting to lip-sync music
they don't feel or understand. Willner, co-producer Matthew Seig and their
crew spent hours upon hours at the Marr Sound Archives getting a crash
course in Kansas City jazz from Haddix and UMKC music librarian Laura Gayle
Green.

"They had originally envisioned lots of accordions," says Haddix with a
smile. "We had some straightening out to do."

It was eventually decided to evoke the spirit of the music, not try to
recreate it. Since the giants of the era were at the time in their 20s and
30s, the musicians used would have to be that age as well. Some twenty young
musicians, most of them band leaders in their own right, were hired and
brought to Kansas City for two weeks in early 1995. While in town, they
jammed day and night, often at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, and
eventually on the set with cameras rolling. Trumpet player Steve Bernstein
provided some sketches of charts for a few of the tunes but, for the most
part, the intent was to create a session feel, not a polished or rehearsed
big band. The blues, the strong rhythm sections, the monumental solos and
the riffing horns -- always so much a part of this music -- are all on
parade here.

Using live, current day musicians created a few problems with authenticity,
and some viewers may get a kick out of watching for small historical
anachronisms. All musicians play their own instruments which means, among
other things, Selmer Mark VI saxophones in a 1934 film. (The pianos,
however, could very well be period pieces. And they sound great!) Plastic
neck straps and Velcro fasteners are obviously out of place as well, but the
players were allowed to use that with which they were most comfortable. (At
one point in the promo video, one of the trumpet players uses a plastic beer
pitcher for a plunger mute. It had to be plastic; a glass pitcher would be
much too heavy to maneuver in this manner. Watch and see if it makes the
film.)

You can probably find other flaws as well, if that's your thing. (Joshua
Redman, whose role is pointed in the direction of Lester Young, did not wear
Young's trademark pork pie hat, for example, or play his tenor sax at the
high angle as Young often did.) But the best advice is to relax and enjoy
the ride. Time -- and Siskel and Ebert -- will tell just how good this film
is. It may be around for only a few weeks before going to video, or it may
be another Altman classic. But the evidence that has leaked out so far seems
to indicate that the spirit of the times, and the infectiousness of the
music are right on the button.

Those of us who love Kansas City jazz will be thanking Robert Altman for a
long time for this film. As it turns out, for a couple of hours at least,
you can go home again.
______________________________________________________________
In his excellent new book 'Jazz On Film' (2004. Backbeat Books) the
under-whelmed author Scott Yanow has this to say:
"In 1996, this film received a great deal of publicity before its release.
Director Robert Altman was supposedly featuring a large group of young,
modern all-stars in a jazz and crime melodrama set in 1934 Kansas City.
However, the final results are nearly unwatchable. All of the characters in
the kidnapping drama are unsympathetic, and no one but Harry Belafonte is
the slightest bit interesting. As for the music, there is a non-stop jam
session occurring at the Hey-Hey Club that is used as a prop in 10-20 second
segments, never longer than a couple of choruses lest it lose the viewer's
attention. None of the musicians are given a single line; all they do is
play as if they were a continuous jukebox, and a little of it is on-screen.
Better to acquire the Rhapsody video 'Robert Altman's Jazz' instead. That
has the complete musical performances, music apparently too good to include
in this turkey."
_____________________________________________________________
I saw the film years ago and remember enjoying it at the time.
Kind regards,
Bill.