Lee Morgan Film

[danasgoodstuff]

Has anyone seen this?  http://www.sphinxproductions.com/films/i-called-him-morgan

[felser]

The description gives me the creeps ("love" between "two unique personalities"?), but I'd definitely watch it.  I may also have a lot to say about domestic abuse afterwards.  

[fasstrack]

Myself, I'd be more interested in a film focussing on the music rather than his domestic problems and demise...

[danasgoodstuff]

Yeah, but that film will never be made and if it was next to no one would go see it. 

 

[fasstrack]

4 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

Yeah, but that film will never be made and if it was next to no one would go see it. 

 

Jazz fans would. If it was well-made others might, too, if word spread...

[JSngry]

I think it's important to realize that actions have consequences, and that this music, and many other musics, was often neither created from nor driven by happy tranquil circumstances.

Anybody who wants to get their Lee Morgan on needs to know what they are hearing. It is intense music from an intense life, don't let the distance of posthumous iconography lull you into a false sense of hipster happiness. 

I love the man's music, but...you know...There are some people whose roads are probably best  left for them to travel on their own, get out of their way and let them pass on by, better to breathe the dust than walk in the footsteps, and yes, people need to know this.

Now, having said that, the easythink notion of "troubled genius" as one thing instead of two - or more - things existing simultaneously has to stop, like, sooner than now. People get stupid and then stay stupid thinking shit like that.

[danasgoodstuff]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

I think it's important to realize that actions have consequences, and that this music, and many other musics, was often neither created from nor driven by happy tranquil circumstances.

Anybody who wants to get their Lee Morgan on needs to know what they are hearing. It is intense music from an intense life, don't let the distance of posthumous iconography lull you into a false sense of hipster happiness. 

I love the man's music, but...you know...There are some people whose roads are probably best  left for them to travel on their own, get out of their way and let them pass on by, better to breathe the dust than walk in the footsteps, and yes, people need to know this.

Now, having said that, the easythink notion of "troubled genius" as one thing instead of two - or more - things existing simultaneously has to stop, like, sooner than now. People get stupid and then stay stupid thinking shit like that.

What he said.

[david weiss]

Guys, I don't really know the topic of this film but there will be footage that might make you drool a bit in anticipation. I was sent some in the hopes I could identify the tune (I couldn't) but though brief, it was killing. It was of Lee teaching a Jazzmobile class and teaching the kids a tune. Then there is this trailer.....It's seems Art Blakey did the Steve Allen show....

 

 

Edited September 22, 2016 by david weiss

[Teasing the Korean]

On August 13, 2016 at 6:27 PM, fasstrack said:

Jazz fans would. 

That's another way of saying "next to no one would."  

[fasstrack]

2 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

That's another way of saying "next to no one would."  

Ha. But those 'next to no ones' are some pretty cool folks...

[l p]

this director's previous documentary 'My Name Is Albert Ayler' (2006) was never released, except for a nordic tv broadcast, which is the only reason anyone has it via youtube.

[sidewinder]

3 hours ago, l p said:

this director's previous documentary 'My Name Is Albert Ayler' (2006) was never released, except for a nordic tv broadcast, which is the only reason anyone has it via youtube.

The Ayler film is pretty interesting but - unless you understand Swedish (and I don't) - pretty frustrating. If I remember correctly they interviewed Don Ayler not too long before he passed away. Quite a moody and meditative film - no doubt the Lee Morgan will be in the same vein. Looking forward to seeing the Morgan film, assuming it gets shown over here..

[Teasing the Korean]

12 hours ago, fasstrack said:

Ha. But those 'next to no ones' are some pretty cool folks...

"Cool" doesn't pay the rent!

 

[david weiss]

14 hours ago, l p said:

this director's previous documentary 'My Name Is Albert Ayler' (2006) was never released, except for a nordic tv broadcast, which is the only reason anyone has it via youtube.

It played in New York and other US cities.....

The Morgan film will be at the NY Film Festival in a couple of weeks.....

http://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2016/films/i-called-him-morgan/

[l p]

what i meant was - don't get your hopes up for being able to get a dvd of the morgan film.

[Hardbopjazz]

An article in the New Yorker

 

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/a-documentary-about-the-life-and-tragic-death-of-the-great-jazz-trumpeter-lee-morgan?mbid=social_facebook

 

A Documentary About the Life and Tragic Death of the Great Jazz Trumpeter Lee Morgan

 

By Richard Brody

, October 1, 2016

 

Lee and Helen Morgan in 1970. Credit Kasper Collin Produktion AB / Courtesy of the Afro-American Newspaper Archives and Research Center

Some of the best offerings in this year’s New York Film Festival are documentaries. The festival opened last night with Ava DuVernay’s powerfully and passionately insightful documentary “13th,” a brilliant analysis of the historical roots of the politics behind today’s scourge of mass incarceration. Then, on Sunday and Monday, the festival will show the Swedish director Kasper Collin’s “I Called Him Morgan,” centered on the relationship between the great trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife, Helen Morgan, who shot him to death, in a Lower East Side jazz club, in 1972.

The backbone of Collin’s film is the sole audio interview with Helen Morgan, made in 1996, shortly before her death. The story that she tells combines with the story that Collin builds around it to provide a revelatory and moving portrait of a great musician and the other great people, whether celebrated (like musicians with whom Lee Morgan performed) or unheralded (like Helen), on whom his art and his life depended. It’s both a portrait of people and a historical landscape, a virtual vision of American times—the lives of black Americans in the age of Jim Crow and de-facto discrimination in the North—and of the artistry and personal style that arose in response to them.

[david weiss]

I saw the film last night. I missed maybe the first 20 minutes but I really liked what I saw. Because i was late, I can't really speak about the overall balance between Lee's story and Helen's in the film but there is a lot of great Lee stuff here. Lots of great photos and some great film clips and live audio interviews. The balance of the talking heads were Wayne Shorter (who was great), Bennie Maupin (who seemed to have the most insight into Lee and his relationship with Helen) and Billy Harper (who was in the club that night of course). The surprise to me was Paul West who got him involved with Jazzmobile amongst other things and had a lot of insight into Lee. Helen's son was also interviewed as well as a couple of Lee's other girlfriends. In the end, the story stilted a little more towards the Lee and Helen story but afterwards, the filmmaker said this was his goal. It's a good film and I recommend it. Some, who are more interested in the Lee story might feel slighted here but I think you will love the coverage Lee does get. It's not the perfect Lee documentary we might want but it's a good film.

 

[sidewinder]

I notice that there will be a showi by the BFI as part of the London Jazz Festival but at £16 just to get in plus the cost of transportation to the Big Smoke I will have to wait until it comes out on DVD I guess. Shame..

[robertoart]

Someone should pair this up as a festival double bill with the recently premiered Grant Green doco.

[Rooster_Ties]

Grant Green doc? When'd that happen??

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Grant Green doc? When'd that happen??

By the same woman who wrote the biography that a lot of people didn't care for. At least here she got a lot of folks talking about Grant rather than her mistakes/misinformation.

The film website:

http://www.grantgreenabluenote.com/

 

[Dmitry]

How does one find out if it's going to be playing in their neighborhood?

Sometimes I wish that these smaller, art-house releases go directly to Amazon, so I can watch them at home. In many cases they just die on the vine, because of poor distribution. That being said, I know nothing of movie business.

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

How does one find out if it's going to be playing in their neighborhood?

Sometimes I wish that these smaller, art-house releases go directly to Amazon, so I can watch them at home. In many cases they just die on the vine, because of poor distribution. That being said, I know nothing of movie business.

I don't know - but playing here in Santa Fe starting April 7, so I imagine it could show up anywhere esp. if you have an "art" theater in your city.

[Dmitry]

Please post your impression if decide to go see it!

[Rooster_Ties]

23 hours ago, Dmitry said:

How does one find out if it's going to be playing in their neighborhood?

http://icalledhimmorgan.com/screenings/

I see it's going to be playing here in DC starting on Friday.  I saw it here in a free screening about a month ago, at the National Gallery -- but I might just go back and see it again (and may encourage my wife to go, in part because it doesn't so much focus on the music, as it does on the musician (his life, and death), and of course, his common-law wife.

I said it elsewhere (in another thread), but I highly recommend catching this if you can.  Dozens and dozens of amazing photos I'd never seen.  Not a ton of footage that wasn't already on YouTube, but there were great interviews with nearly every member of Lee's last working band, along with an interview with Wayne too.

I can see where fans of the music might have preferred a slightly more music-centric documentary, but honestly, I thought the approach was compelling, and something that lots of casual viewers could get drawn into.  The ending, if you didn't already know Lee's story, was a bit of a shocker.  Viewers are presented with a stark, fairly no-holds-barred view of Lee's common-law-wife -- without acknowledging her role in his death (to put it mildly), until about the last 25-30 minutes of the film.

She isn't sugarcoated, but still, if you didn't know going into it, I'm sure the facts as they unfold in the film would come as some genuine surprise to the uninitiated.

A very thought-provoking film.  Even after all these years, there seemed to be the vestiges of some real affection for her (or, rather, the memory of what was clearly -- at one time -- genuine affection).  Complicated stuff, and I thought a compellingly told story.