Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film

by Kevin Whitehead

Overview

Jazz stories have been entwined with cinema since the inception of jazz film genre in the 1920s, giving us origin tales and biopics, spectacles and low-budget quickies, comedies, musicals, and dramas, and stories of improvisers and composers at work. And the jazz film has seen a resurgence in recent years—from biopics like Miles Ahead and HBO's Bessie, to dramas Whiplash and La La Land. In Play the Way You Feel, author and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead offers a comprehensive guide to these films and other media from the perspective of the music itself. Spanning 93 years of film history, the book looks closely at movies, cartoons, and a few TV shows that tell jazz stories, from early talkies to modern times, with an eye to narrative conventions and common story points. Examining the ways historical films have painted a clear picture of the past or overtly distorted history, Play the Way You Feel serves up capsule discussions of sundry topics including Duke Ellington's social life at the Cotton Club, avant-garde musical practices in 1930s vaudeville, and Martin Scorsese's improvisatory method on the set of New York, New York.

Throughout the book, Whitehead brings the same analytical bent and concise, witty language listeners know from his jazz segments on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He investigates well-known songs, traces the development of the stock jazz film ending, and offers fresh, often revisionist takes on works by such directors as Howard Hawks, John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Robert Altman, Woody Allen and Damien Chazelle. In all, Play the Way You Feel is a feast for film-genre fanatics and movie-watching jazz enthusiasts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190847579
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2020
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,042,130
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Kevin Whitehead, the longtime jazz critic for NPR's Fresh Air, has written about jazz, movies, and popular culture for 40 years. His books include New Dutch Swing (1998) and Why Jazz? A Concise Guide (2011). His essays have appeared in such collections as The Cartoon Music Book, Discover Jazz and Traveling the Spaceways: Sun Ra, the Astro-Black and Other Solar Myths. Whitehead has taught at the University of Kansas, Towson University, and Goucher College.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Prologue: The "I Got Rhythm" of Jazz Movies 1927 & 1946

Chapter One: Duke's Day & First Features 1929-1940
Chapter Two: Origin Stories 1941-1947
Chapter Three: Bands of Brothers 1941-1948
Chapter Four: Young Men with Horns-the Jazz Biopic's Golden Age 1950-1959
Chapter Five: The Jazz Musician (and Fan) as Character 1951-1961
Chapter Six: Independents in Black & White 1961-1967
Chapter Seven: Spectacles 1972-1984
Chapter Eight: Suffering Artists 1984-1989
Chapter Nine: Young Lions & Historical Fictions 1990-2000
Chapter Ten: The Jazz Musician (and Fan) as Character 1959-2016
Chapter Eleven: Movies within Movies & New Orleans Comes Back 2008-2019

Postscript: Print the Legend

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"With a lot of research, insights and background on jazz, jazz biographies and the eye and ear for a certain lore, mystery, and irony whenever biographies, anecdotes and oral jazz history are referred to, Whitehead presents a fine work on some aspects of the jazz film. Well worth reading and having on the shelf." — Dr. A. Ebert, JIVE-TALK.COM

"a fun read" — Steve Ramm, The Antique Phonograph

"Jazz and cinema, the two definitive art forms of the 20th Century, have led an often troubled co-existence. Play the Way You Feel traces the frequent missteps and occasional triumphs of jazz in film with the deep knowledge, superior taste, and acerbic wit we have come to expect from Kevin Whitehead. An essential book for all jazz fans, and a necessary corrective for anyone whose knowledge of the music is based on what they have learned at the movies." — Bob Blumenthal, author of Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America's Music

"A revelation! From the bad to the beautiful, Kevin Whitehead brilliantly illuminates each frame to show us why jazz in the movies matters in all its incarnations. He masterfully guides us through this rich and complicated story, making connections that reveal deeper meanings and aha moments that change our view of jazz, film and ourselves." — Dominique Eade, Jazz Vocalist and Teacher, New England Conservatory

"Readers... will be rewarded by insights from an author of discerning taste with a deep understanding of his subject, who yields fresh perspectives on even well-known films." — Library Journal

"This is the best volume around on how the film-jazz scenario plays out... Each extended film reconstruction reflects Whitehead's careful watching and thorough research."
—Arts Fuse

"What makes all of this quite enjoyable is the colorful way that [Whitehead] writes, his wit, and a countless number of fascinating details... Even the most devoted jazz film experts will learn a great deal from this book." —Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene

"If you're familiar with Whitehead's work as jazz reviewer for NPR's Fresh Air, you can hear his voice, drily amused, witty, and deeply informed, delivering his prose... Deeply versed in film history, Whitehead captures the way that plots echo each other in an ongoing conversation." —Andrew Gilbert, San Francisco Classical Voice

From the Publisher

03/01/2020

This unusual guide takes a tour through almost 100 years of films that incorporate jazz. A critic for NPR's Fresh Air, Whitehead (Why Jazz? A Concise Guide) has an at times overwhelming encyclopedic knowledge; some of the film summaries feel as long as the films themselves. Yet readers who keep going will be rewarded by insights from an author of discerning taste with a deep understanding of his subject, who yields fresh perspectives on even well-known films. It's less a guide on what to watch than why, with commentary on musical, cultural, and racial politics. As jazz music itself has waxed and waned in the cultural consciousness, it has been the subject of detailed biopics, a catchphrase for music that was seen as anything but (The Jazz Singer is a case in point), background music used to set a mood (Whitehead has some things to say on how it came to serve as a proxy for the seedy and underground), and a vehicle for metaanalysis (the discussion of the recent Miles Ahead is a notable example). VERDICT Jazz fans will find much of interest—but so will film aficionados and historians, not to mention students and scholars of race and culture in America.—Genevieve Williams, Pacific Lutheran Univ. Lib., Tacoma

Library Journal