Claude McKay, Jazz and Marseille
It has been almost a year since Matthieu Verdeil’s film, “Claude McKay, from Harlem to Marseille” has been screened in a few arthouses in the Provençal region. Dedicated to the memory of the writer and poet of Jamaican origin Claude McKay, this documentary also reveals essential aspects of contemporary Marseille culture, in other words jazz. Because the writer, finding himself in Marseilles in the middle of his twenties, put down on paper one of the first testimonies to the emergence of a scoundrel jazz around the Old Port in his novel “Banjo” (1929). What’s more, the director joins forces with the actor-reader, saxophonist and flautist, Lamine Diagne, for a scenic transposition of the spirit of the place as envisaged by the African-American author, in a resolutely contemporary perspective.
- Cover of the original edition of “Banjo”
The documentary “Claude McKay from Harlem to Marseille”
The film is a beautiful artistic object, if only out of respect for the literary and poetic work of its subject. The relevant use of cross-fading between the texts in English and the live musical performances, in particular allows the reading of the archaic blues “Shake That Thing” [1] to come alive, along with the words of the author. The clipesque sequencing of the reading of a poem against a backdrop of images of the Harlem Renaissance [2] is another illustration. The use of split-screen is also welcome. It makes it possible to establish a parallel between the original music of the group Big Hop Swing & Friends [3]composed of some of the most prominent jazz musicians in Marseille (special mention to Lamine Diagnewho, in addition to being a formidable saxophonist and flautist, is also an exceptional reader of McKay’s work), and archival plans of the city where the author wrote the novel “Banjo”. “I brought together a group for the readings because we needed a more soaring, more contemporary jazz, which is more in a passive narration than in a period repertoire”thus declares the reciter-musician.
Matthew Verdeil had been planning to make this film for about fifteen years and the presence of an original jazz repertoire, filmed with a handheld camera, is one of the original processes of his work. We are far from a simple “soundtrack”. “When I got the support of the United States Consulate for the realizationhe said, I wanted to integrate music that refers to the repertoire of 1925, but which is also current, in the same spirit with musicians who do not know each other a priori, who party, who drink shots together… and who play also, of course! ».
- Movie poster (c) A7Productions
This jam-session more or less directed by Lamine Diagne, filmed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, gives the sensation of a rare musical presence on the screen, like a festive immersion which joyfully restores the subject of the original novel. Note that the musicians also interpret these standards of the time that are “Shake That Thing” or “Harlem Shuffle”, which is discussed in “Banjo”. “The rest is written on the spot, like a blessed afternoon where inspiration flowed freely”, says Lamine Diagne. The director tells them about McKay’s birth in Jamaica? The group embarks on a chin [4]. By all these processes, he avoids the pitfall of an excessive patrimonialization of the poetic and romantic work of the author, making it more accessible than ever by a sensitive approach in the moment.
How to put on screen a work and a life as abundant as those of Claude McKay? The director explores the springs of the latter’s creativity in one of the sections of his biography. The stay in Marseilles, of course, occupies a significant place in this documentary: the camera lingers, among other things, on a snapshot of an archaic jazz band, with McKay himself (he was not a musician but frequented willingly this underworld, in bistros as in brothels), in front of a den in the district of La Fosse [5]. All against a background of reading and reminders of the context by experts in Caribbean literature (including Hélène Lee, also a great expert in reggae) or more generally African-American, or even jazz. “Claude McKay is the one who allows us to affirm that Marseille is the jazz city par excellence”declared Raphael Imbert, interviewed in the documentary. Not to mention the presence of a mixed proletariat in the Provençal port. [6]
- Flyer for a “Harlem Marseille” evening (c) Town Hall of the First Arrondissement of Marseille
The political significance of the life and work of the novelist and poet is not ignored. From his Jamaican youth where he decided to become a voice-of-the-voiceless for the island proletariat, to his life in New York where he never ceased to slay racism (in particular through the poem “If We Must Die” [7]), through his stay in the nascent Soviet Union (he was inspired by an icon black for the Bolsheviks but had to flee Stalinism), until his literary denunciation of French racism vis-à-vis blacks from the colonies… without ignoring his assumed sexual freedom [8].
The film clearly shows us that Claude McKay is engaged in a literary and poetic struggle for the emancipation of the human race, with jazz playing a significant part in the latter.
The show “Kay, letters to a deceased poet”
There’s no doubt about it, the show “Kay, letters to a dead poet” will restore its vibrations. Matthieu Verdeil and Lamine Diagne are indeed maneuvering for the staging of a creation resulting from their film work, the culmination of which is scheduled for the summer of 2023. Conceived as a correspondence “summoning a deceased”, according to the second, who writes original texts for the occasion, it will be an “augmented concert”, with musicians from jazz (Ben Rando at the piano, Wim Welker on the guitar, Christophe Licontang on the double bass, Jeremy Martinez on drums), but also from related universes, such as hip-hop (the setting in sound space was assigned to a member of the Chinese Man collective).
- “Kay” show logo
The compositions will have wanted an “urban form” and improvisations will be created from testimonies of the daily life of Marseillais filmed by Mathieu Verdeil, dockers in particular – the protagonists of “Banjo” living mainly on the quays -, women and men everyday life that lends itself to the production of musical and visual loops. The director wants the multimedia show to address contemporary themes echoing the work of the novelist, such as colonialism or migrations – in the novel, McKay met black people from colonized Africa, the West Indies, or even the United States. Without forgetting the great freedom that made all the salt of the work of the poet and novelist. Supported by Marseille Jazz des Cinq Continents, Jazz à Porquerolles and the city of Martigues, the project also takes the form of a book-disc published by the “Maison Bleue” label. [9]
“Shake that thing” then! Whether filmic, scenic or discographic, these proposals are exemplary of the spirit, if not the letter, of a writer through whom jazz came to Marseilles, and, somewhere, to the world!