[Dixielandjazz] "They Died Before Forty" documentary

[Patrick Skiffington]

What about Tom Stack?!?
On May 16, 2013 9:08 AM, "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:

> Jazz Museum Founder Howard Fischer Is Producing a Film About Jazz Greats
> Who Died
> Young
> by Clem Richardson
> New York Daily News, May 9, 2013
> Howard Fischer has created music from heaven, played by musical geniuses
> who lived
> fast and died young.
> And he did it in a pretty creative way.
> Fischer, 76, founded the New York Jazz Museum. He's nearing the end of a
> Kickstarter
> campaign to fund his latest movie project on jazz greats who died young.
> "They Died Before Forty," profiles eight jazz musicians -- notable in
> their day but
> now largely forgotten -- whose deaths fit the movie's title all too well:
> pianist
> Fats Waller, 39 when he died in 1943; guitarist Charlie Christian, dead at
> 25 in
> 1942; 23-year-old bassist Jimmy Blanton, dead the same year; drummer Chick
> Webb,
> 34, dead in 1939; tenor saxophone players Herschel Evans, 29, and Chu
> Berry, 33,
> who died in 1939 and 1941 respectively; and trumpeters Bunny Berigan, who
> was 33
> when he died 1942, and Clifford Brown, who died in 1956 at age 25.
> "In fact, six of the eight died before they were 30," said Fischer, who is
> producing,
> directing and writing the movie. "Some of them only recorded for two or
> three years,
> yet were major figures on their instruments. Yet I've asked many of my
> friends about
> them and most of them never heard of any of these guys."
> Fischer has been around jazz since his parents introduced him to the music
> as a child.
> A former entertainment lawyer, he once represented bassist and bandleader
> Charlie
> Mingus.
> "At one time we had one of the most significant archives of jazz music in
> the world,"
> Fischer said, referring to the collection at the New York Jazz Museum,
> which he founded
> in 1977. Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman both sat for live interviews
> with Fischer
> at the museum, he said, and on Nov. 3, 1973, the museum hosted an
> all-women jazz
> band that "had a line going down the street and around the corner."
> This is Fischer's second movie; he wrote and directed "The Holland Avenue
> Boys,"
> about his childhood friends who came out of his neighborhood and became
> successful.
> This latest project has been a labor of love for over a decade, Fischer
> said.
> "The main thing, after the music and the biographies, is that I want to
> show how
> they died and how they lived before they died, and how that lifestyle
> contributed
> to their deaths," Fischer said. "Many of them had lifestyles that were
> unusual even
> for performers -- they'd have a one-night-stand performance, travel all
> night by
> car and then hit another gig and repeat that week after week.
> "A lot of them lived for the music and died for the music."
> Some had storied exits. Webb, the diminutive drummer who discovered
> legendary jazz
> singer Ella Fitzgerald, was surrounded by family when he sat up in his
> hospital bed,
> said "I gotta go, I gotta go!" and died.
> Webb was so popular that 10,000 mourners came to his funeral, which
> featured an 80-car
> funeral procession to the cemetery. "He was that famous, and now no one
> remembers
> who he was," Fischer said.
> The movie will feature academics and musicians who either studied, worked
> with or
> wrote books about each musician talking about their subject.
> It will also have a nine-item soundtrack -- with limited financing,
> Fischer worked
> out a master licensing agreement that allows him to use the music only in
> this country
> -- that will feature each musician either performing solo or with a group.
> "I have Berry doing a fabulous version of 'Sweethearts on Parade' with
> Lionel Hampton,"
> Fischer said. "Blanton is doing a duet with Duke Ellington on 'Pitter
> Panther Patter.'
> Christian is doing 'Solo Flight,' which was revolutionary for the guitar."
> Through the wonders of sound splicing, Fischer has seven of the eight
> musicians --
> who never played together -- playing a single rendition of "Stardust."
> "Webb never recorded 'Stardust,'" Fischer said. "I got a man to take bits
> and pieces
> of each of their versions of 'Stardust' and make it into one song. It's
> beautiful;
> it's going to make a lot of noise when the film comes out."
> Fischer is hoping to complete the project by late summer.
> To help, go to his kickstarter page at
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jazzfilm/they-died-before-40
> Fischer's website for the film is
> http://jazzdeaths.weebly.com
> -30-
>
>
>
> -Bob Ringwald
> www.ringwald.com
> Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
> 916/ 806-9551
>
> "When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new
> wife." -Prince Philip
>
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