#movie, «Whiplash» – JaZzArt en València

(Photograph by Daniel McFadden / Sony Pictures Classics / Everett/From The New Yorker)

Well, even though I have never done a movie review…and I don’t intend to do one now…I really wanted to comment on Whiplash. Two reasons: One that it has to do with Jazz music; two that it deals with how…supposedly…musicians are trained at upper level schools and conservatories.

The movie, released in 2014 stars J. K. Simmons, one of the best character actors around and Miles Teller, a young and promising actor who also loves music. Well it is good that he did as he played a drummer in the movie. He gets into one of the best schools of music in the country (US) and manages to enter the jazz band, directed by a cruel professor. Well, cruel, but, I tell you I wish I would have had a teacher like him. If you didn’t give up and quit, you would become a phenomenon like Charlie Parker, who was mentioned a lot in the movie.

(Photo from Rotten Tomatoes/Unknown Photographer)

The song «Whiplash» was written by Hank Levy (1927-2001), a Baltimore jazz artist and educator who was also a saxophonist and loved to compose in unusual time signatures. The song, which provides the name of the film, is featured several times as the «evil» professor tries to get the young drummer to play it at his time and he can never get the tempo just right. The professor slaps him around, berates him and totally humiliates him. But he pushes on. In a situation like this…reminds me of Army Basic Training…you either become good or you get discouraged, frustrated and tired and quit.

I recommend it. The movie is not one of those ritzy Hollywood style extravaganzas full of AI produced effects or wizardry, rather it is more of a telling of a story about how jazz really gets under the skin of those who want to make a difference in that world. It is also a good lesson in case you want to be a jazzman (or woman) and get chosen to join a university band. They will put a lot of pressure on you, but rest assured that the more pressure you take the better you will get. Only hard work develops talent. Don’t take compliments, or think that it’s good enough. Strive for perfection or take a hike.