Venice 79 – Music for black pigeons: the “improvised” grace of jazz
What would you like to do in the next life? Play jazz. After seeing Music for black pigeons, presented out of competition at the 79th Venice Film Festival, this will be the only answer you will want to give to those who ask you. The documentary by Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed is as beautiful as and more than a film, it manages to release all the poetic force of jazz by transmitting it as a gift to the public. It is a work that, for ninety minutes, glides very lightly, giving at the same time moments of extraordinary intensity, sharing reflections on precious music and, more generally, on life.
Let’s start from the heart of the project, an adventure between the United States, Europe and Japan: for fourteen years the directors follow the Danish guitarist and composer Jab Bro on his travels around the world, enter the studio to witness the birth of two albums, listen and they record improvisations and conversations in common spaces of creation and in other private and domestic spaces (even the places, the cities, here speak to us, vibrate, resonate: New York above all). Jakob Bro is the only protagonist, he is the engine of a choral story and not his personal one, many voices and instruments: staying at the side of the masters we have the pleasure of meeting great and discovering talents, from saxophonist Lee Konitz (1927-2020), veteran of the genre with a child’s heart that it is impossible not to fall in love with, to the famous and fascinating Mark Turner, from the innovative double bass player Thomas Morgan, born in 1981, champion of muscular awakenings and long silences, to Palle Mikkelborg, who with his trumpet creates suspended atmospheres and poignant beauty, from the drummer Paul Motian (1931-2011), to whom a moving tribute is dedicated in the documentary, to the composer and percussionist Midori Takada, who enchants with reflections on the concept of nature and sophisticated experimentation.
Many different personalities and ages coexist happily in a middle-earth governed only by music, where everything is possible. The guitarist says it well Bill Frisell: “Music is a place where it doesn’t matter if you are old or young, where it doesn’t matter what color your skin is. All of this disappears when you play.. Lee Konitz is one of the youngest musicians he has ever played with, Jakob Bro is one of the oldest. I immediately saw great wisdom in Jakob. While Lee keeps the child in him alive. Age doesn’t really matter, it’s just the music. ”
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Every time I play a note I ask myself: “Where did it come from?” I hadn’t foreseen it
Lee Konitz
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To this I have dedicated my journey in music. I wasn’t interested in earning money or becoming famous, but being able to get a little taste of the meaning of it all. Is there a meaning? Can I be part of it?
Mikkelborg balls
We could identify some key words on which to build as many complex and, if desired, personal reflections: improvisation and pauses are two of these. Improvisation is the soul of jazz, it fills the music with meaning while maintaining its blurred boundaries, remaining in the space of the possible and free listening, finally becoming a real lifestyle. Lee Konitz teaches that he “improvises” even about age – “I’m 89, no, I’m 87 (he says, laughing, during an interview) I’m an improviser, I invent everything” -, and Jakob Bro returns. he says: “first time and they react to it: maybe it still has some raw parts, but the music is there”.
Manfred Eicher, record producer and founder of ECM Records, speaks of the importance of breaks, in music and in life: “The breaks say a lot about the direction you want to take and they also tell you where you are coming from. They are subjective elements that cannot be explained. They are the time you take”. Words that open worlds, ideas to reflect beyond music, and then many other questions. What are we looking for in music? How does it feel when you play? What does it mean to listen?
Music for black pigeons it’s a great tribute to jazz, a chord, and it’s an opportunity for intimate, individual exploration, why it raises questions that are modeled and adapted to the passions that move and every existence and to which they can try to answer. In closing, let’s go back to the original question, transforming it: who would you like to be in life? Now you can admit it: Lee Konitz! As viewers, we owe to him the awe, the tenderness, the laughter and the title of this beautiful story of jazz and black pigeons.
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I think making music involves a lot of things … it’s like a meditation in which you get lost but at the same time you can be focused on something very specific.
Thomas Morgan