Event

CFS Presents ROBERT ALTMAN'S JAZZ '34 in 35mm

JAZZ 34: REMEMBRANCES OF KANSAS CITY SWING
Directed by Robert Altman * 1997
Dont ask us how, but one way or another Robert Altman, patron saint of anarchist stoners everywhere for gifting the world "Brewster McCloud" and "O.C. and Stiggs," once wound up directing an episode of the PBS culture-vulture staple "Great Performances." (The series would get back to business the following season with "Henry V" and an opening-night gala from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.) "Jazz 34" was conceived as an exploratory footnote to Altmans 1996 narrative feature "Kansas City," reusing its sets and some of its cast to fashion a memory piece based on the directors boyhood recollections of his hometowns hottest clubs. Harry Belafonte narrates, but mostly stays out of the way of the performances, which need no elaboration. Employing some of the finest jazz interpreters of the 90s (including Joshua Redman, James Carter, Geri Allen, and David Fathead Newman) as stand-ins, surrogates, and reanimators of the 30s sound, "Jazz 34" is a concert film of ghostly exuberance. Originally stuffed into an hour-long TV slot, Jazz 34 was expanded slightly to a theatrical version that never actually saw theatrical release in the US; nevertheless, the VHS release of the extended version was greeted by a lengthy celebration in the Chicago Reader from Jonathan Rosenbaum, who regarded this awesome existential endeavor as the best Robert Altman feature in more years than I care to remember.
72 min * Sandcastle 5 Productions/CiBy 2000 * 35mm from UCLA Film & Television Archives, permission Sandcastle 5

Preceded by: Betty Boop & Cab Calloway in Minnie the Moocher (Fleischer Studios, 1932) 35mm 8 min

Presented with the Jazz Institute of Chicago as part of their 50th Anniversary.