The Night Beat Jazz Goes to the Movies

Join host Doug Crane on Wednesday, March 27, beginning at 8 p.m. as the Night Beat calls it a wrap for “Jazz Goes to the Movies” for 2024.

We’ll treat you to “Faces Under the Influence, a Jazz Tribute to John Cassavetes” composed, arranged, and conducted by trumpet player and band leader Tim Hagans that features the German NDR Big Band. Worth noting: that it was the NDR Big Band that commissioned Tim to write it.

In Tim’s essay he wrote to accompany the recording, he “decided to write music that describes the emotional development that each character experiences rather than compose episodic descriptions.”

Charles Mingus wrote the score for “Shadows”, the first film directed by Cassavetes in 1959. Three years later, Cassavetes directed a film for Paramount called “Too Late Blues” that starred Bobby Darin. David Raskin wrote the score which was performed by Benny Carter, Shelly Manne, Red Mitchell, Jimmy Rowles, and others.

Cassavetes would often take roles in Hollywood movie and TV productions to subsidize his work as an independent filmmaker. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1967 for his role in “The Dirty Dozen”.

“Faces,” Cassavetes’ second film which he both financed and directed was nominated in 1968 for Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.

His 1974 film “A Woman Under the Influence” was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Cassavetes as Best Director and the other for his wife Gena Rowlands as Best Actress.

He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1986.  He passed away in early 1989 at the age of 59.

As many jazz fans already know, March 27, 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan. We’ll include a number of her classic recordings as part of the evening show.

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