The BBC programme was great, as the original DVD testified, but what lifts this version above the previous is the added extra of 100 minutes of interviews with various musicians.
Just look at the list: Chico Hamilton, George Wein, Sir John Dankworth, Roy Haynes, Archie Shepp, Curtis Fuller, Harry Colomby, Paul Jeffreys, Sonny Rollins, Benny Golson, Eddie Henderson, Ira Gitler, Quincy Jones, Thelonious Monk jnr..
Benny Golson relates how nervous a performer would become when Nica entered a club. "It was like Bird or Dizzy coming in. Just as you knew that they knew where it was at - so did she" (Or words to that effect!) Golson recalls Monk saying to him, "You're too perfect - you gotta make mistakes. If you don't make mistakes you're never gonna progress." The tenor player realised that what Monk was saying was "Don't just play what you know."
Each of the interviewees relate at length stories and memories of Monk, Nica, Bebop, the 40's/50's, Racism, Drugs just about every aspect of the era. The thing they all have in common is their appreciation of the role this wealthy aristocrat played in supporting Bebop and "The cats" who played it. I use the term "Cats" advisedly as, apart from supporting the jazz cats she also had, reportedly, 306 felines that she also looked after!
What a woman!
And what a grand job Hannah Rothschild has done producing this film Can't wait to read the book which is due out on Thursday May 3 (Virago Press).
And what a grand job Hannah Rothschild has done producing this film Can't wait to read the book which is due out on Thursday May 3 (Virago Press).
Lance.
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