Contemporary Jazz Musicians' Work At
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Jazz Goes to the Movies: Contemporary Jazz Musicians’ Work at the Intersections of the Jazz and Film Art Worlds Gretchen L. Carlson Frederick, MD Bachelor of Arts, Music, Gettysburg College, 2009 Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, Gettysburg College, 2009 Master of Arts, Jazz History and Research, Rutgers University-Newark, 2011 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Music University of Virginia, May 2016 © Copyright by Gretchen Lynne Carlson All Rights Reserved May 2016 i ABSTRACT Jazz music has a long history in cinema soundtracks. Its on-screen representations have been widely discussed by jazz scholars and critics alike. But what happens behind-the-scenes in jazz soundtrack production? Why are certain filmmakers interested in engaging jazz artists to create soundtracks for their films? How do jazz artists then negotiate the clash of their own creativity and practices with the reality of film industry conventions and hierarchies? This dissertation investigates contemporary jazz musicians’ work within the film industry from a sociological and ethnographic perspective. I examine the relationships and tensions between jazz artists’ creative autonomy and their “work-for-hire” statuses within film industry hierarchies, read alongside critical examinations of their relationships with particular directors, the directors’ goals and interests, filmmaking risk ideologies, and the artists’ own musical productions. I theorize this work as operating at the intersections of the jazz and film “art worlds.” Drawing on Howard Becker’s conceptualization of the term, I understand each art world as an art-work-producing cooperative network structured around shared conventions. In my analyses of specific jazz soundtrack productions, I critically examine how each art world’s conventions, practices, ideologies, and expectations complexly intersect, and affect the members of each art world in turn. I address these broader themes through specific case studies. Each of these studies examines the film work of what I recognize as “inner circle” jazz artists within the last several decades – artists who hold jazz performance careers, but have also worked recurrently on film projects through their ongoing collaborations with specific filmmakers. A chapter on Vince Giordano and Dick Hyman investigates the work and experiences of jazz artists producing historicist soundtracks for period films, positioning their work in dialogue with certain ii filmmakers’ conceptions of “authenticity” in period productions. In a chapter focusing on the film work of Antonio Sanchez and Mark Isham, I examine the production of improvised jazz soundtracks, particularly their uniqueness in relation to film industry conceptions of risk. My primary argument is that these scores – facilitated by risk-taking, “maverick” filmmakers – challenge conventional methods of film score production and offer unique opportunities for jazz artists’ creative agency within film industry labor structures. The final chapter examines Terence Blanchard’s score work for Spike Lee’s films through the lens of political, racial, and personal ideology. I situate Blanchard’s and Lee’s extensive collaborative relationship at the intersections of shared political ideology and commitment to jazz as representative of black experience and creativity. Ultimately, this study integrates diverse, interdisciplinary analyses of contemporary jazz artists’ behind-the-scenes work in film. It moves beyond representational readings of these jazz- film intersections, and engages with the complex circumstances informing the production of the soundtracks themselves. It recognizes jazz production outside the boundaries of the music industry, examining how jazz artists’ work in film uniquely facilitates opportunities for expanded creative production and conventional transformation in both the jazz and film art worlds. Finally - beyond its pertinence to jazz studies and film studies – this study contributes to understanding the tensions and complexities between creative agency and labor in cultural industry (or art world) work. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………i List of Figures, Tables, and Musical Examples…………………………………………………..iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….vi Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: Jazz and Film Art Worlds’ Intersections…………………………………………………...……37 Chapter 2: Jazz-HIP Meets Film: Historicism and the Quest for “Dual Authenticity” in Period Jazz Soundtracks…………………………………...………...…69 Chapter 3: Improvised Film Scores: Risk, “Mavericks," and Creative Agency………………………...….140 Chapter 4: “A Jazz Thing:” Terence Blanchard, Spike Lee, and the Racial Politics of Jazz Scoring…………………………………………………………………190 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………………...274 Selected Filmography and Discography………………………………………………………..286 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………288 iv LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND MUSICAL EXAMPLES FIGURES 1.1 Hierarchical Model of Conventional Network Relationships in Film Music Production………………………………………………………………..………42 2.1 Potential interactions of dual spheres of authenticity in historically-informed performance (model)……………………………………………………………..85 2.2 Vince Giordano with author (photo, 2014)……………………………………....97 2.3 Giordano’s “Vintage” Bandstand (photo, 2014)………………………………..104 2.4 Sophie Tucker (Kathy Brier) performing in Boardwalk Empire (screenshot, 2010)………………………………………………………………120 2.5 Sounds of the Onyx album cover (2013)………………………………………..123 3.1 Miles Davis improvising the score for Elevator to the Gallows (screenshot, 1957)…………………………………………………………...….141 3.2 Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton), in Birdman (screenshot, 2014)……………………………………………………………....159 3.3 Riggan’s “Dirty Walk” (screenshot, 2014)……………………………………..161 3.4 “The drummer” (Nate Smith) in “Doors and Distance” (screenshot, 2014)……163 3.5 Riggan and Jake – “Just Chatting” (screenshot, 2014)……………………...….168 3.6 “Schizo” (screenshot, 2014)………………………………………………….....171 3.7 “Internal War” (screenshot, 2014)…………………………………………...…173 4.1 Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) performing in Mo’ Better Blues (screenshot, 1990)………………………………………………………………223 4.2 Album Cover, Terence Blanchard’s Malcolm X Jazz Suite (1993)…………….249 4.3 Album Cover, Terence Blanchard’s “A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina” (2007)…………………………………………………………………260 TABLES 2.1 Vince Giordano’s selected soundtrack filmography……………………………..98 2.2 Dick Hyman’s film soundtracks for Woody Allen’s films…………………..…132 3.1 Mark Isham’s film soundtracks for Alan Rudolph’s films……………………..177 4.1 Terence Blanchard’s film soundtracks for Spike Lee’s films…………………..194 MUSICAL EXAMPLES 4.1 “Malcolm’s Theme,” opening credits (transcription, 2016)……………………244 4.2 “Melody for Laura,” from film (transcription, 2016)…………………………..251 4.3 “Melody for Laura,” from Malcolm X Jazz Suite (transcription, 2016)………..251 4.4 “Betty’s Theme,” from film (transcription, 2016)……………………………...252 4.5 “Levees” theme (transcription, 2016)………………………………………..…257 4.6 “Wading Through” theme (transcription, 2016)………………………….…….257 v 4.7 “The Water” theme (transcription, 2016)………………………………............257 4.8 “Funeral Dirge” theme (transcription, 2016)……………………………...……257 4.9 “Levees,” from A Tale of God’s Will, 0:00-0:35 (transcription, 2016)………...262 4.10 “Levees,” 1:20-1:57 (transcription, 2016)……………………………………...263 4.11 “Levees,” 5:07-5:20 (transcription, 2016)……………………………………...265 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “It’s amazing how far you can go, just because someone believed in you.” I recently saw this quotation scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, and thought, how true. So many wonderful and inspirational people have believed in and supported me as I have pursued my dreams of studying music, and as I have worked on this project. I am truly grateful to each and every one of you. My passion for jazz emerged my freshman year at Gettysburg College, thanks to Dr. Buzz Jones’ amazing Jazz Ensemble program, and his fascinating jazz history courses. Buzz, I will always be grateful to you for constantly challenging me, encouraging me, and helping me find my passions in both jazz studies and teaching. Since that early college experience – eleven years ago now – I have been blessed to have the guidance and friendship of a number of wonderful music scholars. John Howland, thank you for always giving me excellent feedback on my ideas, and for having lively and always-helpful discussions with me at the Rutgers-Newark coffee shop and McGovern’s. Lewis Porter and Henry Martin, your courses in the Jazz History and Research Program have greatly helped me become the jazz scholar I am today. Marta Robertson, you have always challenged me to “think outside the box” and continually push my ideas; you have also always been a source of enthusiastic support and encouragement. This present project was shaped and sharpened in the incomparable community that is the University of Virginia Music Department. Since day one in the Critical and Comparative Studies program, my ideas, interests, and intellectual criticism have significantly broadened and transformed under the guidance of this uniquely diverse group of scholars. Scott DeVeaux, your insights into jazz studies and analysis have been a constant source of inspiration for me. Nomi Dave, your encouragement and feedback throughout this dissertation process have been vii invaluable; you have especially helped me discover ways to articulate my contentions