Like a musical jam session – a jazzy musical jam session, some might say- Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense weaves its way through interviews with various musicians, along with brief (and sometimes lengthy) samples of those musicians performing live. For those with special ties to a particular jazz movement, or to musicians in general, this may be the perfect format for a documentary on such a nebulous subject, but to me it seemed more like a group of filmmakers (Micahel Rivoira, Lars Larson, Peter J. Vogt) struggling to find a common thread amidst their amassed collection of 75 interviews and 25 hours of live footage.
Each time the film focuses its attentions on a musician, it feels like a new featurette, rather than a series of connected film segments. The disjointed vibe of this movie isn’t simply because jazz is a complicated subject (it surely is) but because it never feels like the filmmakers decided what story they were attempting to tell. If they were attempting to shed light on a new jazz movement, it’s not cohesive enough, but if they were simply attempting to present various jazz musicians, there’s not enough substantive interview material. Whatever the case, the documentary feels unfortunately shallow, with the only obvious theme being how small the jazz scene is and how disgruntled this makes some of the musicians. Again, if this is the point of the film, there should at least be a counter-balanced presentation describing what percentage of musicians in ANY genre ever manage to make a living from their passion alone. This idea is sorely lacking in Icons Among Us, which instead returns again and again to the idea that the general population does not appreciate jazz musicians as they should.
There are times when the film is quite engaging – mostly in the longer sections of performance. At these times we get to see musicians truly in their element, expressing their love for the music they play and simultaneously helping us as an audience to understand what it is about jazz that is so elusive. At the same time, we’re able to witness the vast differences between various jazz sub-genres and what an open genre jazz really is. Overall, this is a disappointing documentary. It starts out promisingly enough but quickly loses itself in its own complications.
As a side note, since I consider myself a jazz outsider, I loaned this film to a friend who lives and breathes jazz to see how her opinion would differ from my own. She actually disliked the film more than me and found the attitudes of the artists overshadowed the presentation of the music.
Zach’s Rating: C-
Perfect For: Those who feel a close tie to jazz music, however they define it
Stay Away if: You’re looking for information on the current state of jazz
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1 user commented in " Movie Review: Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIt appears that the reviewer could not pick up on a common thread(s) amongst all the voices of the musicians. Themes such as jazz is what you make it, you cannot live in the past and by defining something you lose its potential are unapparent. As to the story, I believe the multi faceted surface of the documentary serves to reflect the various dimensions available to relate topics such as recent jazz history (beginning with the young lions of 80’s) and present tense insights with an eye on the future direction. Also, in terms of cohesion, I believe it is impossible to say that the film does not have a flow. The sweeping musical sections are a principal form of communication in the film that have an equal footing with the interviews. While that may feel unconventional the filmmakers trust that their audience will benefit from the language and storytelling properties of the music as much as the spoken word. Finally, the focus of this film is jazz and not music as a whole, if the writer expects anything but pointed commentary about jazz from jazz musicians in a jazz film then they must look elsewhere for less opinionated options. The film is meant to provoke thought as is the music. Happy to see a response though as initiating dialogue might be what this really all about anyway.
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