Director: Ebba Jahn
Year: 1984
Time: 112 mins
Music
Peter Kowald Quintet
Peter Kowald Trio
John Zorn & Wayne Horvitz
Billy Bang's Forbidden Planet
William Parker & Patricia Nicholson Ensemble
Charles Tyler Quintet
Don Cherry & The Sound Unity Orchestra
Jemeel Moondoc Sextet
Irène Schweizer Trio
Peter Brotzman Ensemble
[see comments for details]
Eye of Sound: It may sound difficult to believe it, but most of the artists listed above were once striving for recognition in the jazz scene and fighting for sheer survival. Ebba Jahn's Rising Tone Cross captures a moment when these artists were just starting to create a "scene", when their sparkling creativity was not yet comforted by certainty and success. More interestingly, perhaps, the film deals with issues of class and race and with the differences between the social contexts of improvised music in Europe and America, challenging many assumptions about musicianship, career building, and the possibilities for an artistic livelihood. What really distinguishes this from other "jazz films", however, is the visual and narrative focus on New York as the metaphorical force behind the musician's creative burst, portraying it as a dirty, poor, rough and lively city not yet tamed by shinny images of success and bourgeois comfort.
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