IN CINEMA
Wednesday, May 7th at 7PM
PASSION DANCE
Sparked by the music of Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and Jacques Coursil, this quartet of shorts function as spontaneous compositions, employing the tools of the improvisor to manifest a true jazz cinema.
VERTICAL AIR
Robert Fenz, 1996, 28 min., 16mm
THE WINGED STONE
Colectivo los ingrávidos, 2023, 10 min., DCP
THE MAGIC SUN
Phill Niblock, 1966, 17 min., Digital
ESKIS
Vincent Guilbert, 2017, 11 min., Digital
This screening will be followed by a solo saxophone performance from Ras Burnett.
RAS BURNETT is a saxophonist / composer / educator / musicologist and Brooklyn native. He is a recent MFA Music Composition graduate from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Ras has been a performing artist since 1987, with experience in free jazz, new music, reggae and funk. He engages his music in multi-disciplinary contexts as well as ensemble work. Ras believes in the power of creative music on social and spiritual change.
CINEMA BLUES is a monthly series at the Maysles Documentary Center dedicated to the convergence of jazz and film. Rather than focus on movies soundtracked by jazz, it foregrounds documentaries that capture the many facets of the music and culture; the living history of jazz, its performance, the spiritual & political philosophies of its creators, and the racism & economic struggles they have consistently faced. In this sense, Cinema Blues = a blues cinema, a filmic accounting (in the tradition of writers like Amiri Baraka, A. B. Spellman, Val Wilmer) of the real-life stakes (and breaks) that inform the great Black American classical music. The series also features poetic and experimental films that evoke the spontaneous creativity of the music (cinema as jazz), lectures, panel discussions & musical performances.
Cinema Blues takes its title from a tune by Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and is curated by Andrew Castillo. The series is made possible by the generous support of the West Harlem Development Corporation (WHDC).
$15 General Admission / $7 Reduced Price
