[Dixielandjazz] "They Died Before Forty" documentary

[sep troelstra]

I forwarded this message to another (more modern jazz oriented) list I'm on, and immediately got the expected response of omitted names:

"Interesting he didn't include probably the best-known members of this tragic group, namely Bix Beiderbecke and Charlie Parker. Also no Fats Navarro, Booker Little, Eric Dolphy or Jaco Pastorius, but I guess you can't have everyone."

Sep Troelstra
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Ringwald 
  To: sep troelstra 
  Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List 
  Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 5:57 PM
  Subject: [Dixielandjazz] "They Died Before Forty" documentary


  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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