TV Guide: Martin Hancock

Video: Trailer

Trailer Addict — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Trailer for Icons Among Us, which screened at the 2009 AFI Fest. By combining rare archival stills, interviews with 75 jazz artists and live recordings culled from 25 hours of concerts, Icons Among Us is a dynamic and engaging document of many of the greatest jazz musicians of today. It contains interviews and performances from the likes of Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Ravi Coltrane, Medeski Martin and Wood, and many others. Capturing the spontaneity of performers who have an intimate knowledge of their instruments and a full knowledge of jazz history, the movie created from four episodes of a cable and satellite TV series shows how something like the same simple riff can become something completely different in the hands of different musicians. The dialogue between older and younger generations takes place with words, of course, but also with music. Like the music itself, ICONS AMONG US is fresh and constantly surprising, with a spirit and energy that innovates even as it recycl

Video: Round Midnight

Amazon Video on Demand — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Inspired by the life of legendary jazz pianist Bud Powell, this is the Academy Award-winning story of an American expatriate musician who tries to make order of his life during the great jazz millieu of 1950s Paris. The New York Times commends "its tremendous depth of feeling and lovely, elegiac pace.... [This] is a glowing, masterly tribute." Starring real-life tenor-sax great Dexter Gordon, performing live with some of the world's top jazz musicians on screen and on the Grammy-winning soundtrack, both under the music supervision of Oscar-winning co-star Herbie Hancock. Also starring Lonette McKee ("Jungle Fever," "The Cotton Club") and director Martin Scorsese ("GoodFellas").

Video: Trailer

Trailer Addict — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500

The movie is a dramatisation based on a combination of real events, rumours, urban legends and the imaginations of the scriptwriter - as the movie makes clear. In one scene featuring Howard Devoto (played by Martin Hancock) having sex with Wilson's first wife, the real Devoto, an extra in the scene, turns to the camera and says "I definitely don't remember this happening". The fourth wall is frequently broken, with Wilson (who also acts as the narrator of the movie) frequently commenting on events as they occur directly to camera, at one point declaring that he's "being postmodern, before it's fashionable".