Inside Out in the Open

Colour, Beta
USA, 2001, 60 min
Section: A Musical Odyssey
Oficiální stránky: www.insideoutintheopen.net/press_info.html

Synopsis

“Ecstasy jazz”, ecstatic jazz: the terms used today to describe a scene dominated by improvisers whose expression respects the freedom and order of free jazz. It is to these (chiefly Afro-American) performers that this film debut by former Cleveland post-office clerk Alan Roth is dedicated. The prestigious television series “Ken Burns Jazz” provoked him into filming the “missing chapters” which never found their way into the “official” history of jazz. Roth filmed interviews with eleven top improvisers, complementing them with excerpts from concerts and films featuring the late founders of this brand of aesthetics (John Coltrane, Sun Ra). Music which, in intensity and expression, may seem rather chaotic but is, in reality, all about human and spiritual communication, perhaps the perpetuation of African ritual in the heart of the American big city. The claim to individuality and independence is intrinsic to the artistic and civil nature of man the musician. Saxophonist Archie Shepp: “If you want to go on calling what we do jazz, you may as well keep calling us niggers!”.

About the director

Alan Roth, director, producer and editor of this film, was once employed as a post-office clerk in Cleveland. He was also a civil and cultural activist. He moved to New York in 1995 and began studying film. He now lives in Brooklyn. His second film, in which he takes a look at the black jazz scene and the freedom of improvisation, is a portrait in the making of the ensemble New York Art Quartet, a band which only existed for a year, yet greatly influenced the genre.