One 10-year-old kid tells Smith he likes 'punk rock,' and goes on to name his favorite 'punk' bands as 'blink-182, Green Day [and] Red Hot Chili Peppers,' not even realizing he was standing right next to the Chili Peppers drummer. Smith laughs as he responds, 'Red Hot Chili Peppers, they're not really punk rock, but okay!'
It's a film about music. Particularly, about what remains when a musician cannot play and is left to consider the terrible sacrifices made, without conscious consent, to this all-consuming vocation that creates family pain and jealousy almost as a toxic byproduct. It's a drama to put you in mind of Glenn Gould and Hilary du Pre, sister of Jacqueline. Screenwriter Mark O'Halloran has adapted the 2013 novel Intermission by Owen Martell about renowned jazz pianist Bill Evans.
For the first time ever, Brooklyn's premier professional orchestra, the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, is dedicating a full program to jazz, featuring the work of the late Charlie Parker, "Charlie Parker with Strings," on Feb. 13 at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights. It is also the first time in more than a decade that "Charlie Parker with Strings" will be heard live in New York.
At the turn of the 1960s, when free jazz was making its initial seismic impact, multi-instrumentalist Phil Cohran-he later added the name Kelan-was living in Chicago and playing trumpet for Sun Ra's Arkestra. He contributed to crucial recordings by the band during his tenure, including We Travel the Space Ways, but Cohran was a restless autodidact who never stuck with any one project for long.