Family, Film, Mentors, Denzel, and All That Jazz

So many of my childhood memories are colored by the films I watched with my father

Dear Friends,

I admire Denzel Washington, but not only for the 10 films for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. I also enjoyed following his career in his smaller early films.

My father owned one of the first VCRs in Washington, D.C., back before there were video stores there from which one could rent movies. He would “check out” films from the TV station where he worked. In retrospect, I don’t remember now if those films were taped from TV broadcasts (likely with commercials), or if they were copied from other sources without permission. We enjoyed the novelty of watching films when we wished rather than waiting for them to come on TV.

In 1984, my dad rented and had my brother and me watch the military murder mystery A Soldier’s Story, featuring an almost entirely Black cast, including Denzel Washington in a supporting role of Private First Class Peterson, a character that confronted authority, racism, and hypocrisy. That film was itself nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture.

Not nominated for Best Picture, but still fun to watch, was the 1991 psychological thriller Ricochet. Washington plays a police officer who becomes a district attorney, with John Lithgow playing the role of the vengeful psychopath, territory he had also explored in Blow Out (1981, with John Travolta) and Cliffhanger (1993, with Sylvester Stallone). My dad delighted in seeing Lithgow’s success, for as the son of one of my father’s acting professors at Antioch College, Lithgow was known by my dad when he was but a youth.

My favorite of all these early Denzel films was Mo’ Better Blues (1990), where Denzel played the lead character of Bleek Gilliam, a talented but sometimes self-destructive jazz trumpeter who tells us his jazz credo: “I know what I want. My music. Everything else is secondary.”

That Spike Lee film and other jazz-centered films such as ‘Round Midnight (1986) and Bird (1988), and, much later, the Oscar-winners Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016), have inspired my own interest in the quintessentially American form of music. I’ve sat in on a jazz class taught by the UC Davis Department of Music and taught a first-year seminar called “Jazz and Literature.” Back before limiting my radio show bumper music to that which would be appropriate for a podcast, I played a significant amount of jazz in between interviews.

Since “Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise” (as George Gershwin says), and since “Jazz is about being in the moment” (as the Buddhist maestro Herbie Hancock says), I would say that jazz has also infused the work I do as a teacher or as a meditator. Every Sunday morning I sit cross-legged on a zabuton with other meditators, seeking to be still, to be in the moment.

Mostly I agree with the actor and musician Nat Wolff: “Jazz is smooth and cool. Jazz is rage. Jazz flows like water. Jazz never seems to begin or end. Jazz isn't methodical, but jazz isn't messy either. Jazz is a conversation, a give and take. Jazz is the connection and communication between musicians. Jazz is abandon.”

As I have written about previously, my favorite jazz critic is Will Layman, who writes for Pop Matters. Back in 1984 when A Soldier’s Story was released, Will was also my high school literature teacher. Because mine was a small private school in Washington D.C., Will also taught me trigonometry and coached a sport. A year later, classmates and I would see him play John Adams in a production of 1776. A versatile and expressive jazz musician himself, Will could likely have played all the instruments in the orchestra accompanying his musical.

Every December, Will publishes his list of the best jazz albums of the year, and then I stream all those albums as I grade papers, write newsletters, or sip a NA beer. Will reminds me and all his lucky listeners that jazz is not merely a retrospective art. Like Denzel Washington and John Lithgow, jazz is still alive today and ready to entertain those who would be receptive to their charms.

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I run a weekly pub quiz here in Davis. If you would like to be sent the quizzes every week, subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Film. For what 2024 film was Zoe Saldaña nominated for an acting Oscar?

2. Youth Culture. To be released July 25th, the first Phase Six film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has the subtitle “First Steps.” What are the first three words of the films’ title?

3. Countries of the World. What was the first country ever to leave The European Union?

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night in Davis takes place on February 21.