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Home , Another Day of Sun, An American in Paris, Charles Aznavour, Damien Chazelle, Emma Stone, Ginger Rogers

Is a Hit, but Is It Good for Jazz?

Krin Gabbard

Abstract: The debates around La La Land (2016) tell us a great deal about the state of jazz today and perhaps even in the near future. Many critics have charged that the film has very little real jazz, while oth-

ers have emphasized the racial problematics of making the white hero a devout jazz purist while char- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 acterizing the music of the one prominent African American performer () as all glitz and tacky dance moves. And finally, there is the speech in which Seb () blithely announces that “jazz is dead.” But the place of jazz in La La Land makes more sense if we view the film as a response to and celebration of several film musicals, including , New York (1977), the and films, and especially ’sThe Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). Both La La Land and Demy’s film connect utopian moments with jazz, and push the boundaries of the classical musical in order to celebrate the music.

Damien Chazelle, a serious jazz aficionado since childhood, has made the music central to both the plot and the score of his filmLa La Land (2016). If nothing else, the omnipresence of jazz in a film so widely honored suggests that jazz still has some resonance with audiences. But like almost every other American film that would represent jazz, La La Land runs smack against racial issues. The film’s appropriation of jazz in the face of the music’s complicated racial histories has driven a backlash against the film.1 Critics objected to the prominence of two white stars in a film about that krin gabbard is an Adjunct uniquely African American cultural practice, jazz. Professor of Jazz Studies at Co- To make matters worse, Keith (John Legend), the lumbia University. He is the au- one important black character in the film, creates thor of Better Git It in Your : commodified and even features tacky An Interpretive Biography of Charles dance routines in his stage shows. Mingus (2016), Hotter than That: Although I found much of the film exhilarating The , Jazz, and American Culture (2008), and Black Magic: and moving, I am more than a little uncomfort- White Hollywood and African Amer- able with La La Land’s racial politics. Neverthe- ican Culture (2004) and editor of less, I argue that the film navigates some treacher- Jazz Among the Discourses (1995). ous waters with intelligence and charm and that it

© 2019 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences doi:10.1162/DAED_a_01745

92 ultimately makes a strong case that jazz Chazelle had this scene in mind when ar- Krin does indeed still matter. ranging La La Land’s opening song “An- Gabbard other Day of Sun” to be passed from one Any understanding of La La Land as motorist to another as they step out of a “jazz film” must begin by situating it their cars to sing in the middle of a gigan- within larger traditions. A work of pro- tic traffic jam. found cinephilia, La La Land references A more crucial influence onLa La Land multiple films, most of them in the mu- is the work of the French director Jacques sical comedy genre. But Chazelle does Demy. In interviews, Chazelle regularly more than just quote from classical mu- singles out Demy’s The Umbrellas of - sicals, and he makes no attempt to recre- bourg (1964) as his favorite film. The use Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 ate their aesthetics. As he has said in in- of bold colors for costumes, interiors, and terviews, Chazelle was as devoted to seri- even cityscapes in La La Land recalls the ously representing the emotional lives of look of Demy’s film, as does an emotion- his characters as he was to paying homage ally charged conclusion in which the lov- to American musical cinema. He wanted ers are not reunited. Demy’s The Young Girls “to smash into that old-fashioned mu- of Rochefort (1967) also comes up in Cha- sical logic” by finding magic in the “grit zelle’s interviews. As in Umbrellas, and texture” of everyday life.2 sing in a quickly articulated style with a A catalog of the many films and cin- conversational tone, much like the vocals ematic traditions that Chazelle has ad- of French performers Charles Aznavour dressed in La La Land should start with and . “” his joking reference to Frank Tashlin’s features several actors singing in English The Girl Can’t Help It (1956). At the very but imitating the conversational style of beginning of La La Land, the outer edg- the songs in Demy’s films. And like the es of a square space containing the word agile motorists at the beginning of Cha- “Cinemascope” suddenly expand to the zelle’s film, actors seem to spontaneously traditional wide-screen ratio, recalling break into singing and dancing through- the opening scene of Tashlin’s film in out Young Girls. In Umbrellas, of course, no which Tom Ewell appears to phys- one ever stops bursting into song. ically push the walls of the image to the The soundtrack of La La Land has much outer of the screen. Chazelle has in with the scores that French claimed another minor bit of inspiration, wrote for De- admitting that “Another Day of Sun,” the my’s films. , who played production number that follows the Cin- in a band with Chazelle when they were emascope gag, was based on the scene teenagers and has composed the music in ’s Love Me Tonight for all four of Chazelle’s films, has talk- (1932) that begins with Maurice Cheva- ed about his borrowings from Legrand’s lier singing “Isn’t It Romantic” in a sim- cinematic compositions. The best exam- ple tailor’s shop. Different groups of peo- ple may be Legrand’s practice of record- ple hear the song and sing it themselves ing a jazz trio of , bass, and drums so that anyone passing by can also pick it in front of a symphony orchestra. The up. Thanks primarily to a singing troupe music behind “Another Day of Sun” is of soldiers marching across the country, an excellent example of how Hurwitz the song is finally passed to Jeanette Mac- has made use of this practice. As a devot- Donald, who gives it her own operatic in- ed jazz enthusiast, Legrand regularly bor- terpretation from high up in her chateau. rowed from great American traditions.

148 (2) Spring 2019 93 La La Land Chazelle and Hurwitz have paid off that to sacrifice some of the surface sheen of Is a Hit, debt with their own tributes to Legrand. the conventional Hollywood film. So, but Is It Good for when Mia joins Seb at for a Jazz? Chazelle has also mined the rich veins short performance of “,” of American musical comedy, especially when Mia briefly sings “Someone in the the well-established trope of soon-to-be Crowd” in a lady’s room, and when Mia lovers transcending early stages of hos- sings her climactic aria, “The Fools Who tility through dance and song. We see Dream,” they are singing in real time and, this in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rog- as in the dance sequences, without edits. ers filmTop Hat (1935), for which Cha- Although directors can do as many re-

zelle has expressed admiration. Chazelle takes as they wish in these situations, Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 has also spoken of his affection for Singin’ the performers take great risks when in the Rain (1952), another film in which they present themselves live and unedit- an attractive couple are joined in song ed. In some ways, Gosling and Stone are and dance before finding romance on the like jazz musicians flying above the music other side of their initial antagonism. In without a net. terms of mise-en-scène, La La Land prom- There are not many examples in cin- inently looks back to Hollywood musi- ema of actors singing in real time, but a cals in “Epilogue,” the long production few that do exist are worth mentioning. number that closes the film and recalls For Pierrot le fou (1965), Jean-Luc God- the stylized, color-drenched scene de- ard recorded Jean-Paul Belmondo and signs for the extended ballet sequences Anna Karina singing outdoors, mak- that conclude An American in (1951) ing sure that their vocals reflected their and (1953). body movements, including the moment To their credit, Chazelle and actors when Belmondo continues singing as he and Ryan Gosling labored to jumps down from a tree. This is as good create the seamless dance numbers that an example as any of Godard’s project of distinguish many of Hollywood’s classic exposing and problematizing the con- musicals. Compare the extended dance ventions of dominant cinema. In a com- takes of Mia (Stone) and Seb (Gosling) pletely different appropriation of this tra- with the screen performances of Fred dition, Anne Hathaway laboriously tugs Astaire, who insisted on long, unedited at our heart strings when she exudes takes when his dances were filmed. Then “I Dreamed a Dream” live and in tight compare these sequences to the numbers close-up in Les Misérables (2012). in a film such as ’sChicago ’s Short Cuts (1993) also (2002), which are cobbled together from deserves mention for one of the most el- numerous shots, few of which last more egant performances ever by a - than a second or two. actor. In Short Cuts, Annie Ross plays Tess, La La Land is also distinguished by sev- an older jazz singer with an elaborate ro- eral scenes in which characters actual- mantic history.3 The same description can ly sing as they are being filmed, unlike be applied to Annie Ross herself, but in the vast majority of performers in musi- creating Tess, Ross sings in a lower register cal films who mouth words as they listen and with a sharper attack than when she to playback. Often these words are sup- performs in clubs. She developed a voice plied by someone other than the actor and a singing style that is entirely compat- on screen. Chazelle has said that he likes ible with the character of Tess. Ross’s por- “roughness,” and he is more than willing trayal is even more compelling because

94 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences she sings in real time with her backup musicals like Oklahoma and On the Town Krin band, avoiding the moment in most mu- as “folk musicals,” distinguishing them Gabbard sical films when the actor’s speaking voice from “fairy tale musicals” and “show mu- is unmistakably replaced by a dubbed-in sicals.”5 In the show musical, most of the singing voice. In Short Cuts, Ross separates important numbers happen on stage or in herself from nearly all other singing ac- some venue appropriate to performance, tors who essentially sing as themselves complete with visible musical accompa- when they perform on screen. nists. Examples would include Among those critical of La La Land, the (1972) and the Busby Berkeley musicals of most vocal have denounced Emma Stone the . In the fairy tale musical, a cou- and Ryan Gosling for not being polished ple is united by music as they cross social Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 singers or dancers. But these criticisms ig- and class borders. The Astaire-Rogers nore the extent to which Chazelle was try- films and Ernst Lubitsch’s operettas (and ing to show real people going from ordi- Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight) are the nary speech and movement to song and best examples. dance without ceasing to be the same Rick Altman describes the folk musical complex individuals they were before. primarily as a vehicle for building a com- Chazelle sought this effect in “A Love- munity, but for my purposes, the films in ly Night,” the first number in which Mia this subgenre are distinguished by spon- and Seb dance and sing together. Gradu- taneous song and dance in unlikely lo- ally working his way into the number, Seb cations, almost always with nondieget- first begins singing in a voice very much ic music. People also sing in unexpected like his speaking voice. When Mia is about places in fairy tale musicals, but Altman to join in, we hear her clearing her throat. puts these films into a separate catego- When Seb picks up Mia’s purse and be- ry, having built his subgenres primarily gins to look inside, she snatches it back in around plot mechanics. a gesture that is both choreographic and Chazelle has taken the folk musical to natural. Gradually, it all becomes chore- a different level by combining or, as he ography. And again, without edits. says, “smashing” the musical into the kind of emotional realism we associate The “A Lovely Night” number in La La with completely different film genres. Land illustrates Chazelle’s conviction that And his goal in these collisions has been the most challenging musical moments in to make it all seem natural. This is pre- a film happen when characters unexpect- cisely what Chazelle achieved in his first edly but organically begin to sing.4 The film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench filmmaker must convince the audience (2009). Perhaps because he was working that people are suddenly singing and/or on an extremely limited budget (the film dancing because there is no other way to was his senior thesis as an undergradu- express what they are feeling. Think of ate at Harvard), the film was shot in black the opening of Oklahoma (1955), in which and white, featured nonactors, relied Curly can only admire the beauty of his heavily on improvised dialogue, and reg- land with song. Or when in On the Town ularly used a hand-held camera to shakily (1949) sailors freshly turned loose in the zero in on the faces of actors. wonderland of cannot help For most of Guy and Madeline on a Park but harmonize to “New York, New York.” Bench, we could be watching an early Cas- In his definitive study of the Hollywood savetes film or even a documentary, so musical, Rick Altman has referred to loose is the editing and the progress of

148 (2) Spring 2019 95 La La Land the narrative. Music enters first when we have a good idea of how she feels. Made- Is a Hit, see Guy (Jason Palmer) playing his trum- line and Guy are a couple again. In a film but Is It Good for pet along with a singer. Later, at a party that can only barely be called a musical, Jazz? scene, a character breaks into song and Chazelle has created an organic relation- then joins one of the guests in a tap-dance ship between music and the inner lives of competition. Audiences might tend to his characters. bracket off these early scenes with their diegetic soundtracks from the realism of Chazelle has expressed admiration for the film’s mostly nonmusical moments. Dudley Murphy’s two pioneering short But the film is almost over when Made- films, St. Louis Blues and Black and Tan,

line (Desirée Garcia) sings to herself both released in 1929. St. Louis Blues was Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 with nondiegetic sound while wandering a vehicle for blues empress Bessie Smith through the park. Even more strikingly, and her only performance on film.Black when she later learns that Guy is still in- and Tan featured the young, regal Duke terested in her even though they had bro- Ellington just as his music was beginning ken up earlier in the film, she exuberant- to make him a star. Chazelle has also men- ly sings “Boy in the Park” about her first tioned ’s Round Mid- kiss with Guy. Not only is she singing night, a French film from 1986 that cast the and dancing in the restaurant where she eminent jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon works, but music suddenly emerges from in a major acting role. The fact that all of nowhere and her coworkers join in the these films are built around real-life jazz dance. The scene culminates when two artists may explain why Chazelle took a women join Madeline in a tightly choreo- chance on Jason Palmer as a protagonist graphed tap-dance routine. in Guy and Madeline even though he had Everything we have learned about never acted before. Madeline, including her mostly affectless Clearly, Chazelle knows how difficult and musicless reactions to other people, it would be to separate a jazz artist–and has led up to the moment when a musi- his inner life–from jazz. His casting of cal number reveals what has been inside jazz artist Jason Palmer in Guy and Made- all along. In the final moments ofGuy and line is consistent with his request that Madeline, when the title characters are re- Ryan Gosling develop his skills as a pia- united in Madeline’s apartment, they re- nist prior to his appearance in La La Land. turn to the same low-key, matter-of-fact Whenever the audience sees Seb’s hands demeanor they exhibited before Made- on the piano keys, they are hearing a per- line began singing “Boy in the Park.” Af- formance by Gosling, who frequently ex- ter making perfunctory small talk, Guy hibits real talent and agility as a jazz pi- plays a long, unaccompanied trumpet anist. (When we do not see Gosling’s solo while Madeline listens. Significant- hands, the pianist is , who ly, Guy does not need to sing or dance. has played with Nancy Wilson, Diane He has jazz. And Guy is played by Jason Schuur, Tom Scott, Al Jarreau, and Quincy Palmer, a professional jazz trumpeter Jones, among others.) who plays the filmed solos live. A jazz film that ought to be singled out When his solo ends, Guy looks up for comparison with La La Land is Mar- sheepishly, searching for a reaction. Cha- tin Ritt’s Paris Blues (1961). Although they zelle ends his film just as we see Made- do not actually play their instruments, line breaking into a smile. But because of and do im- her performance of “Boy in the Park,” we pressive bits of miming when they play,

96 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences respectively, tenor and trom- both films, the lovers break up and then Krin bone. And thanks to Billy Strayhorn and reencounter each other in the last mo- Gabbard , who wrote extraordinary ments of the film. And in neither film do music for the film, the jazz lives of the the lovers reconnect; the films do not shy protagonists strongly resonate through away from the darker side of romance. the music.6 Paris Blues ends with the expa- I would argue that La La Land is in some triate jazz artist Ram Bowen (Newman) ways a response to New York, New York, deciding to stay in Paris and not return to whose glum ending probably prevented his American home. His decision comes it from striking box office gold. The last just as the film’s other main characters big production number in Scorsese’s film are heading back to the States, including is the boffo performance of the title song Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 the American schoolteacher Lillian (Jo- by Francine (), who has the anne Woodward), with whom he was screen all to herself. In the scene at Jim- having an affair. Determined to become my’s (Robert de Niro) club the Major a serious composer, Bowen is convinced Chord that immediately precedes Min- that he can only achieve his goal if he re- nelli’s big number, the music is portrayed mains in Paris and, as he tells Lillian, only in a much less sensational fashion. In fact, if he works alone: “I got to follow through we see a modernist jazz group perform- with the music. I got to find out how far ing only for a few moments and certain- I can go. And I guess that means alone.”7 ly not in a spotlight. The camera quickly In La La Land, Mia goes off to Paris to cuts away and follows Jimmy to the bar, practice her craft and becomes a huge where he flirts with some young wom- success. Seb decides not to accompany en, and then into his office. Late in the her, even though that would have been a film but hardly at the end, jazz has disap- real possibility, as the fantasy ballet at the peared from New York, New York. end of the film makes clear. But when it Scorsese’s film concludes with Fran- looks as if Mia will get a major role in a cine and Jimmy agreeing to meet later in film that will shoot in Paris, Seb’s advice the evening. But both independently de- recalls what Paul Newman said to Joanne cide not to meet, heading off in differ- Woodward: “When you get this, you got ent directions as the film ends. At the end to give it everything you got.” Although of La La Land, Seb and Mia also pass up the woman in La La Land abandons the a moment to reunite after several years man, while it is the man in Paris Blues who of separation. And in addition to placing walks away from the woman, both films the name of one of America’s two larg- embrace the myth that great art can only est cities in their titles, La La Land and be created by a scrupulously isolated art- New York, New York share the practice of ist–and maybe only if it’s in Paris. placing the characters’ nonreunion im- Whether intentionally or not, La La mediately after a major production num- Land has much in common with a jazz ber. But there the similarities end. In- film that fits Rick Altman’s definition of stead of giving the production number to the show musical: ’s New only one of his lead characters, Chazelle York, New York (1977). In Chazelle’s film features them both. And instead of leav- as well as in Scorsese’s film, the leading ing the two leads entirely separate from man is much more devoted to jazz than each other, Chazelle brings them togeth- is the . In both, the man ends er in an extended sequence that could be up performing in his own jazz club while one character’s dream, the shared dream the woman ascends to movie stardom. In of both characters, or perhaps even the

148 (2) Spring 2019 97 La La Land audience’s fantasy. The first part ofLa La winds down. At least the black musicians Is a Hit, Land’s concluding number revises the ro- are on-screen and not off-screen supply- but Is It Good for mantic history of Mia and Seb to elim- ing invisible music for white lovers, as is Jazz? inate all conflict and obstacles to their so often the case with Hollywood films. love affair. It then takes them into a fanta- sy world where they even end up with the In an interview with Terry Gross, Cha- same married life we have already seen zelle talked about his love of jazz and his Mia living with her husband (Tom Ever- attempts to become a jazz drummer.8 He ett Scott). recalled that his father had a jazz record The conclusion of La La Land allows collection with lps by Count Basie and

us to have it both ways, first revealing Charlie Parker, among others. He was es- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 how painful it is for Mia and Seb to re- pecially fascinated by the stories his fa- call the intense feelings they once had for ther would tell him about Parker. But his each other. Chazelle abandons the feel- favorite recording in his father’s collec- good conventions of the classical musi- tion was Clifford Brown and Max Roach, re- cal when the former lovers agonizingly leased on Emarcy in 1954. Chazelle was lock gazes for the first time in five years. especially taken with the track “Delilah.” But this moment is immediately followed For what it’s worth, this was the very first by a joyous fantasy of what their life to- of many recorded collaborations between gether might have been and, for a mo- the distinguished trumpeter Brown and ment, what it actually was. Comparing La drummer Roach, who practically invent- La Land and New York, New York as “jazz ed the art of bebop drumming. “Delilah” films,” Liza Minnelli’s performance of appears to be the first tune they recorded “New York, New York” stands out: it is in the studio when they arrived there in all Broadway and Las Vegas and promi- 1954. Chazelle may have been reacting to nently set off from the truncated jazz mo- the freshness of Brown and Roach’s first ment at the Major Chord that precedes it. moments together in the studio. Chazelle’s film is much more a celebra- Chazelle says that he became enchant- tion of the music, infusing the final mo- ed with “Delilah” when he was thirteen, ments with jazz artists on-screen as well the age at which many jazz enthusiasts as Justin Hurwitz’s jazz-inflected Leg- first fall in love with the music.9 Cha- rand-esque score. The audience even gets zelle says he listened to the music repeat- a glimpse of Caveau de la Huchette, a jazz edly and that “it summed up my life.” He club in Paris that was a home for lindy spent a great deal of time on his drum kit hoppers after World War II and is still in trying to reproduce Roach’s solo toward operation today. the end of the recording. I would add that The mostly black musicians we see “Delilah” is a stirring performance by all playing at the Caveau de la Huchette are members of the Brown-Roach band, in- miming to playback. The artists on the cluding tenor saxophonist , soundtrack are studio musi- pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George cians, all of them white. Even today, and Morrow. Without insisting on any strong even when black musicians are on the connection, I would simply observe that screen, white musicians still have an ad- “Delilah” is in a minor key and has a cer- vantage. But the studio artists are also tain brooding feeling that vaguely recalls skilled jazz musicians, including trum- Arabic musics. With its bright solos over peter , who hits an A a dark background, “Delilah” looks for- above high C as the scene at La Caveau ward to La La Land, with its bright colors

98 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and upbeat performances on top of a play lightning-fast, bombastic composi- Krin complex, emotionally fraught story line. tions with the kind of military precision Gabbard When asked to list his favorite drum- that Fletcher demands. Late in the film, mers, Chazelle has named Roach, Jo Jones, when Andrew goes to hear Fletcher in a and Buddy Rich, adding that he liked the jazz club, I was amazed to hear him play- “theatricality” of solos performed by ing jazz piano in the soft, lyrical mode as- Rich and Gene Krupa. This preference is sociated with someone like Bill Evans, surely compatible with Chazelle’s larg- who never recorded anything like the er ambitions. He told Terry Gross that he harsh compositions in Whiplash. always wanted to be a filmmaker, even Significantly, there are no important when he was working hardest at becom- black characters in Whiplash, while An- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 ing a jazz musician. At least according to drew aspires to play like the white show- Justin Hurwitz, Chazelle won awards as a off Buddy Rich.10 The driving, intense ar- jazz drummer at competitions when he rangements programed by Fletcher recall was in high school. Nevertheless, Cha- the music that big bands led by white mu- zelle told Gross that his playing never sicians such as Rich and Maynard Fergu- “measured up” to that of his idols. He as- son performed in the 1970s and 1980s. In pired to be an excellent drummer, in part La La Land, however, Seb wants to play because of an aggressive high school band a much less macho music than Andrew director who was fond of saying “not my and is devoted to great African Ameri- tempo” to the musicians in his ensemble. can jazz artists such as Thelonious Monk, Chazelle freely admits that his second whose solo on his 1967 recording of “Jap- film, Whiplash (2013), is autobiograph- anese Folk Song” Seb is resolutely try- ical. If nothing else, the film documents ing to master in the opening moments of the pain and exertion that are the inev- the film. There is nothing inWhiplash like itable side effects of pursuing perfec- this scene early in La La Land in which the tion, at least for anyone who wants to be white hero honors the black jazz artists a great jazz drummer. And like the Paul who have inspired him. Newman character in Paris Blues, An- drew (), the drummer hero Desirée Garcia, who became an im- of Whiplash, sends his girlfriend away, be- portant film scholar after acting inGuy lieving that he cannot succeed with ro- and Madeline on a Park Bench, has defend- mantic distractions. ed Chazelle against the charge that a jazz When talking with Terry Gross about film should not be built around two white Whiplash, Chazelle was careful to add that actors. Pointing out that Guy and Madeline his own teacher, on whom the charac- starred a black jazz musician and a Latina ter of Fletcher (J. K. Simmons) is based, graduate student, she wrote that the cast- was not at all as sadistic and violent as ing of La La Land “says more about what the character in Whiplash. Obviously, it it takes to get a movie made in Hollywood makes a better story when Fletcher turns than the intentions of the director.”11 out to be so devoted to bringing out the wanted to make a big, potential he sees in Andrew that he is pre- splashy revisionist musical, and he could pared to go to almost any extreme, even not get the funding without stars of the losing his job at the conservatory. What’s caliber of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. missing from Whiplash is a compelling Still, La La Land has its racial prob- reason why someone would want to suf- lematics: for one, Seb essentially de- fer through brutal initiation rituals to clares himself to be the savior of jazz. But

148 (2) Spring 2019 99 La La Land I would add that Chazelle wanted Seb to Every one of these guys is composing, Is a Hit, be less sympathetic in earlier drafts of his they’re rearranging, they’re writing. Then but Is It Good for script, even “something of a jerk.” He was they’re playing the melody. And now, look. Jazz? to be more like the Seb of an early scene The trumpet player, he’s got his own ideas. who scolds his sister for sitting on the fe- And so, it’s conflict and it’s compromise, tishized stool he claims once belonged to and it’s just, and it’s new every time. It’s . Even in the final ver- brand new every night. It’s very, very excit- sion of La La Land, Seb is the kind of jazz ing. And it’s dying. It’s dying, Mia. It’s dy- purist everyone in the jazz communi- ing on the vine. And the world says, “Let it ty knows all too well: someone who not die. It had its time.” Well, not on my watch.

only loves the Real Thing, but also feels Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 obliged to despise anything that does not At worst, Seb is aspiring to be the savior measure up to his own notion of what of helpless jazz musicians, including the jazz ought to be. Seb’s distaste for playing black artists on the stage–over whose in a 1980s cover band at a pool party is not music he is talking! And he is, of course, meant to be an endearing characteristic. “mansplaining” to Mia, who may or not In his conversation with Gross, Chazelle be impressed with his verbiage. One states that he has renounced his own pur- might also object to Seb’s military met- ism and does not share the musical fanat- aphor of “not on my watch.” Neverthe- icism he gave to Gosling’s character. Cha- less, Seb delivers a compelling account of zelle even claims now to like “,” the how jazz artists perform, and he most as- hit recorded by white rockers A Flock of suredly makes the case for the lasting im- Seagulls in 1982. In La La Land, Mia re- portance of the music. For people like quests that the cover band play the tune, me, who are highly ambivalent about La supposing–correctly–that it is exactly La Land, this sequence at the Lighthouse the kind of thing that Seb would despise. Café is emblematic. Perhaps because of Ryan Gosling’s cha- Later in the film, after Seb has become risma, Seb is a much more sympathet- a member of Keith’s flashy pop band, Mia ic character in the release print of the is undoubtedly sincere when she tells film. And his jazz purism is compelling, him that she now loves jazz. And she is especially when he earnestly delivers a enthusiastic about his ambition to open jazz lesson to Mia after they have taken his own jazz club. To my mind, one of the a walk on the Warner Bros. backlot. Cha- most thrilling moments in the film is a set zelle made a point of shooting the scene of quick shots followed by whip pans that in a real jazz club with a historic loca- show Mia ad-libbing her own eccentric– tion. He chose the Lighthouse Café near some would say “goofy”–moves while the Hermosa Pier, where canonical jazz Seb dashes off piano riffs at the Light- artists such as , Lee Morgan, house. Meanwhile, musicians on the Joe Henderson, the Modern Jazz Quartet, bandstand are tearing through Hurwitz’s Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley, and hard-bop composition “Herman’s Hab- performed regularly in the it.” The scene has what film critic Rich- and . When John Levine, the ard Dyer has called the “utopian” quali- original owner, passed away in 1970, the ties of classical musicals, even if we may club began featuring jazz less regularly.12 wince at the sight of Mia surrounded al- African American artists are performing most entirely by appreciative black peo- at the Lighthouse when Seb passionately ple.13 The fantasy here is that the mu- tells Mia how he feels about the music: sic brings out the impulse in all of us to

100 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences move freely with grace and humor and that Keith has a racial agenda? A better Krin that everyone, regardless of race, gender, way of thinking about the white people in Gabbard and class, gets it. Pity that this fantasy is Keith’s band is to associate them with La so typical of American jazz films in which La Land’s scrupulously multicultural cast- black artists applaud and even congrat- ing. Think of the multiethnic dancers in ulate white artists who have stolen their “Another Day of Sun,” as well as the Afro- music. Chazelle has succeeded in captur- Cuban band that suddenly appears in the ing the utopian magic of the old musi- back of a truck. Consider also the African cals, but at least in La La Land, he seems American fiancé of Seb’s sister, the nu- to have overlooked the racial hierarchies merous black jazz artists who regularly ap- that were implicit and frequently explicit pear throughout the film, and the black Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 in those films, beginning with Al Jolson’s dancers surrounding Mia when she danc- blackface appearances in the pioneering es at the Lighthouse. This is not to deny the musicals of the and 1930s. centrality of white characters among so Shortly after the scene at the Light- many people of color, but any race-based house when Mia and Seb joyfully impro- critique of La La Land must acknowledge vise their own call-and-response, the film the film’s consistently multiethnic milieu. lets us know that Seb has made a pain- At any rate, John Legend’s character ful compromise by joining Keith’s band. is by no means the villain of La La Land. When we first see Keith and his large en- A crucial scene in the film takes place semble on stage with Mia in the audience, when Seb has just begun rehearsing with Seb has a moment alone in the spotlight Keith’s band. Knowing that Seb is still an playing what is clearly his own music incorrigible jazz purist, Keith tries to talk on a grand piano. Little by little, howev- him out of it. Chazelle has said that he er, as Keith takes over and begins to sing wrote several drafts of dialogue for Leg- “Start a Fire,” the music loses its magic. end. But after several takes, Legend in- Although he smiles throughout the pro- sisted on ad-libbing his own dialogue. cess, Seb moves from the grand piano to But you say you wanna save jazz. How you a stylized keyboard that looks more like gonna save jazz if no one’s listening? Jazz a child’s toy than a real musical instru- is dying because of people like you. You’re ment. Although the crowd reacts enthu- playin’ to 90-year-olds at the Lighthouse. siastically to the music, Emma Stone’s Where are the kids? Where are the young capacious eyes reflect increasingly high- people? You’re so obsessed with Kenny er levels of disappointment as the cam- Clarke and Thelonious Monk. These guys era cuts back and forth between the band were revolutionaries. How you gonna be a and her reaction shots. Regardless of revolutionary if you’re such a traditional- whether La La Land’s real-life audience is ist? You’re holding on to the past, but jazz fond of John Legend, the film definitively is about the future. characterizes the music as suspect when the stage becomes overpopulated with Part of this speech may have been writ- backup singers and gyrating dancers. Seb ten by Chazelle, but I would guess that should not be surprised when he looks up the final line was ad-libbed by Legend: to see that Mia has left the building. “You’re a pain in the ass, man.” I should also point out that all four of the people in Keith’s group doing tacky John Legend, who is listed as one of the dance moves, not to mention the featured film’s executive producers, clearly under- piano player, are white. Are we to assume stands the tension in the film’s script. But

148 (2) Spring 2019 101 La La Land Keith is not being entirely fair when he preference for the older utopian Holly- Is a Hit, says that Seb wants to be a revolutionary. wood musicals as well as for the time- but Is It Good for On the contrary, Seb is content to play honored recordings of the first gener- Jazz? the older, venerated music, and he never ations of black jazz artists. As the film expresses a desire to reach out to young ends, we see that Seb has opened his own people. jazz club where, as with most of the urban Chazelle has said that building so much venues where people go to hear the mu- of the film around Seb’s jazz purism and sic today, the setting is elegant, the audi- Keith’s insistence that he must move on ence sedate and mostly white. And what is “kind of meta.” In other words, the we hear in the club most definitely looks

film is commenting on itself by equating back to canonized jazz traditions. One of Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 jazz with Hollywood musicals. Although the first things the camera reveals inside La La Land is highly influenced by old- “Seb’s” is Francis Wolff’s classic photo er movies, Chazelle hoped that his film of a pensive John Coltrane in 1958. This could “push things forward, modernize, is exactly the kind of place where I love and update.” And at least according to to hear jazz in New York. Yet the posi- Keith, Seb must move on from his desire tive images of Seb’s club undermine Cha- to play older, purer jazz, just as Chazelle zelle’s assertion that there is a correlation must move on from blandly revisiting between the film’s revisionist approach the conventions of the classical musical. to musicals and the need for jazz musi- It is significant that early in the film, Seb cians to move past the music of the 1950s is trying to recreate a riff that Thelonious and 1960s. Chazelle has in fact pushed Monk recorded almost fifty years earli- the musical into new territory, but Seb er. Keith acknowledges his admiration is still playing the older music. We know for Monk: a black artist sings the prais- that Keith’s performance of “Start a Fire” es of another black artist. But for sev- is not where jazz ought to go, if only be- eral decades now, it has primarily been cause Chazelle has asked us to regard the white purists who have preserved the re- music with the disappointment we see in vered music of Monk and the other Afri- Mia’s face. can American “revolutionaries.” Wyn- There may be no way around La La ton Marsalis, Wyliffe Gordon, Stanley Land’s racial problematics, even if, like Crouch, and many other eminent black Desirée Garcia, we acknowledge the re- artists and writers are profoundly invest- alities that Damien Chazelle confront- ed in jazz purism, but the current jazz ed when he chose to make a big-bud- canon was mostly defined by white jazz get Hollywood film. Several jazz enthu- writers like Martin Williams and Gun- siasts and film scholars for whom I have ther Schuller, and many more still work- great respect simply cannot forgive him ing today. Of course, there is also a long for building La La Land around two white history of exploitation of black artists by stars. Nevertheless, I have real admira- white record producers and club owners. tion for a film that maintains its utopian African Americans have surely wanted charms even as it pushes at the boundar- to preserve the great black music of the ies of the classical Hollywood musical in past, but their disempowerment has of- order to celebrate that grand old music, ten prevented it.14 jazz. The film also celebrates great black Chazelle says he sympathizes with jazz artists such as Thelonious Monk, both Keith’s and Seb’s positions, imply- John Coltrane, and Kenny Clarke who, as ing that he also understands someone’s Chazelle tells us, still matter.

102 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences endnotes Krin Gabbard 1 For an especially powerful screed against the film, see Ira Madison III, “La La Land’s White Jazz Narrative,” mtv News, December 19, 2016, http://www.mtv.com/news/2965622/ la-la-lands-white-jazz-narrative/. 2 Damien Chazelle, commentary track on dvd release of La La Land (Santa Monica, Calif.: , 2016). Unless otherwise indicated, all statements attributed to Cha- zelle are from this source. 3 See Krin Gabbard, “The Hypertexts of Short Cuts: The Jazz in Altman’s Carver Soup,” in Robert Altman: Critical Essays, ed. Rick Armstrong (New York: McFarland, 2011), 20–37. 4 Desirée Garcia, conversation with the author, July 27, 2017. Garcia has written about ethnic

musicals in which people sing spontaneously, a research project with strong connections to Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/148/2/92/1831413/daed_a_01745.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 what Damien Chazelle has tried to achieve with American musicals. In my conversations with Garcia, however, she denies that she had much influence on Chazelle’s work and vice versa. See Desirée Garcia, The Migration of : From Ethnic Margins to American Main- stream (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2014). 5 Rick Altman, The American Film Musical (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987). 6 As was often the case when Strayhorn’s contributions were unacknowledged, the opening credits for Paris Blues simply read “Music by Duke Ellington.” Critics who have examined the scores for the film’s music argue that the majority of what we hear in Paris Blues was com- posed and arranged by Billy Strayhorn. See David Hajdu, Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996), 208–211. 7 For an extended reading of the film, see Krin Gabbard, “Paris Blues: Ellington, Armstrong, and Saying It with Music,” in Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies, ed. Robert G. O’Meally, Brent Hayes Edwards, and Farah Jasmine Griffin (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 297–311. 8 Terry Gross, interview with Damien Chazelle, Fresh Air, January 5, 2017, http://www.npr.org/ 2017/01/05/508338063/la-la-land-director-aimed-to-make-a-film-even-musical-skeptics -would-love. 9 Of the many jazz enthusiasts with whom I have spoken over the years, most have told me that their passion for the music began when they were thirteen or fourteen. See David Hajdu, “Forever Young? In Some Ways, Yes,” , May 23, 2011, http://www .nytimes.com/2011/05/24/opinion/24hajdu.html. 10 See Richard Brody, “Getting Jazz Right in ,” , October 13, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/whiplash-getting-jazz-right-movies. 11 Meredith Goldstein, “The Predecessor to ‘La La Land’ Was Set in –And a Lot More Diverse,” , February 24, 2017, https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/ names/2017/02/24/the-predecessor-land-was-set-boston-and-lot-more-diverse/r4J3X7cjo eacLQbJHoVB4J/story.html. See also Desirée Garcia, “La La Land’s ‘Burst-Into-Song’ Style Echoes the Intimacy of Early Black, Mexican, and Jewish Productions of Yore,” Zócalo: An ASU Knowledge Enterprise Magazine of Ideas, February 14, 2017, http://www.zocalopublicsquare .org/2017/02/14/la-la-lands-debt-ethnic-musicals-yore/ideas/nexus/. 12 “Nightclubs and Other Venues,” Grove Music Online (January 22, 2002). 13 Richard Dyer, “Entertainment and Utopia,” Movie 24 (Spring 1977): 2–13. 14 An especially striking act of preservation by an African American artist that deserves men- tion here is Jason Moran’s project of reconstructing spaces where swing and bop artists per- formed in the 1930s and . See “Watch Jason Moran Explore the Story of New York City’s Most Iconic Jazz Clubs,” The Vinyl Factory, May 7, 2016, https://thevinylfactory.com/ films/jason-moran-staged-new-york-city-jazz-clubs/.

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