BRIGHT BULB SCREENINGS, Free Double Features Every Second Thursday of the Month
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Thursday January 11th, 2024!
Rare Jazz Double Feature with Albert Ayler & Miles!
MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER (2005, directed by Kasper Collin, 79 minutes, Sweden/U.S.)
DINGO (1989, directed by Rolf de Heer, 109 minutes, Australia)
Thursday January 11th, 2024!
Rare Jazz Double Feature with Albert Ayler & Miles!
MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER (2005, directed by Kasper Collin, 79 minutes, Sweden/U.S.)
DINGO (1989, directed by Rolf de Heer, 109 minutes, Australia)
Jazz history is rich with challenging, extreme personalities yet who can compare to saxophonist Albert Ayler? Originally out of Cleveland, Ayler worked steadily as a young sax player in R&B and bebop groups. From there he joined the Army, where he began honing a style that absorbed and expanding on the new “free” ideas exploding in 1960s New York while also summoning the sounds of brass bands whose roots stretched back to the turn of the 20th Century.
Albert's deeply emotional and exploratory saxophone playing would remain divisive among music fans throughout his life, despite being personally brought to the Impulse record label by John Coltrane, who would later request Ayler to play at his funeral. A brilliant, sensitive artist, Ayler would struggle with his career and mental illness until his mysterious death at age 34 in 1970. Despite his early passing, Ayler has sustained his artistic profile, his influence transcending generations, being prominent in musicians including saxophonist Charles Gayle and the modern sensation Zoe Amba.
Ayler found acceptance as an expatriate in Sweden and Swedish director Kasper Collins stylistically brings a real understanding to the music that extends to his exquisite visual design. The film includes memorable interviews with Philly drum legend and Ayler collaborator Sunny Murray, bassist Gary Peacock, ESP-Disk's Bernard Stollmen as well as Albert father and his trumpet-playing brother Don, who together weave a true story that channels the profound power of classic myth. Director Collins' masterful follow-up, the acclaimed 2016 portrait of Philly trumpeter Lee Morgan, I CALLED HIM MORGAN, enjoyed an extended run locally at The Ritz 5.
“'My Name is Albert Ayler' brings a sense of logic and humanity to a man whose music was as unsettling as it was untethered to the tenets of jazz.”
- Phil Gallo, Variety
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DINGO, a 1991 fictional feature from Australia contains the only substantial acting role of the 20th century genius Miles Davis. Directed by Rolf de Heer (known for his cult film BAD BOY BUBBY), the film centers around a dingo trapper and family man in the outback of Australia. Although his small town pals deride his dream, he quiets nurses ambitions to pursue a career playing trumpet. A chance meeting with his horn idol Billy Cross (that's where Miles comes in) leads the Aussie horn man to chase his destiny in the nightclubs of Paris.
- Phil Gallo, Variety
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DINGO, a 1991 fictional feature from Australia contains the only substantial acting role of the 20th century genius Miles Davis. Directed by Rolf de Heer (known for his cult film BAD BOY BUBBY), the film centers around a dingo trapper and family man in the outback of Australia. Although his small town pals deride his dream, he quiets nurses ambitions to pursue a career playing trumpet. A chance meeting with his horn idol Billy Cross (that's where Miles comes in) leads the Aussie horn man to chase his destiny in the nightclubs of Paris.
Major plans for DINGO's release were thwarted after Miles passed away, foiling plans of performing a series of concerts to coinciding with the film's international release. Before DINGO's recent restoration, the film was best remembered for its soundtrack, a collaboration with film scorer Michel Legrand, whom Miles had collaborated with for the classic score to Louis Malle's 1958 New Wave film ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. As an actor, what Miles lacks in craft is more than compensated by his intense, unique charisma, leaving behind a fascinating footnote to one of the greatest artistic careers of the 20th century.
“A Deeply rewarding work....Miles is magnetic.”
- Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian
- Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian