Eric Friedler’s documentary takes a triumphant look back at a true icon of jazz history
“It laid out a platform for black musicians to have a voice. That in itself was a statement,” says the musician Herbie Hancock, speaking about the legendary American jazz label Blue Note Records, in Eric Friedler’s joyful documentary, It Must Schwing! The Blue Note Story. Hancock is one of a roll call of iconic American jazz musicians who recorded for Blue Note and worked closely with Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, the jazz-besotted friends who founded the company in New York in 1939 after escaping Hitler’s Germany.
As the film relates, although Lion and Wolff came from a totally different world to that of the black musicians they adored, they discovered that the brutal discrimination these musicians faced had direct parallels with the treatment European Jews endured under Hitler.
Lion and Wolff’s enormous empathy with the struggles of its musicians was reflected not only in their insistence on paying them properly (a rarity at the time) but in the music itself – most notably in Jackie McLean’s Let Freedom Ring, whose title echoes the phrase from Martin Luther King’s famous 1962 speech. It can also be seen in Reid Miles’ striking album cover designs that placed black musicians (photographed by Wolff) squarely on the front – a groundbreaking concept for the 1950s.
As well as the wonderful anecdotes offered by Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and other interviewees, the film (which is produced by Wim Wenders) also features beautiful animation sequences recounting seminal moments in Blue Note’s history, plenty of moody archive footage and Wolff’s stunning photographs. Of course, running through the whole enterprise is the music: from the bittersweet strains of Sidney Bechet’s 'Summertime', to the smoky rumbles of Theolonius Monk’s 'Round Midnight' to the swagger of Lee Morgan’s 'Sidewinder'. It had me searching Spotify to bask in these glorious tunes all over again.
By Rebecca Taylor
It Must Schwing! The Blue Note Story (dir Eric Friedler) is screening as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival, visiting London (17 Nov), Edinburgh (10 Nov), Manchester (16 Nov), York (26 Nov), Norfolk (5 Dec), Inverness (8 Dec), Midlands (8 Dec), Sussex (9 Dec) and Sheffield (12 Dec). See JR listings for info or visit http://ukjewishfilm.org.