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"The Connection": Famous Jazz Play & Movie)

3K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  baylistenor 
#1 ·
Dexter Gordon is famous for having acted in the movie, "Round Midnight". But much earlier in his career he was in the play, "The Connection". I came across this site, a 1 hour NPR radio program (WFIU) about the play with a number of tracks. Here's a blurb from the commentary...

The Connection was a groundbreaking 1959 off-Broadway play from New York City's Living Theater group, written by Jack Gelber, that cast jazz musicians as heroin addicts waiting for a score. Artists that passed through the play included pianist Freddie Redd (who composed the original score), alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks, and pianist Cecil Taylor. The Connection was made into a 1961 movie directed by Shirley Clarke, who would go on to film the adaptation of Warren Miller's controversial Harlem-set novel The Cool World. A West Coast production was also staged in Los Angeles, with different music written by cast member Dexter Gordon. The show won several Obies and ran for more than 700 performances; eventually it was presented in London, where its raw immediacy and demolition of the normal boundaries between audience and cast provoked a near-riot.

http://wfiu.org/nightlights/the-connection/ :cool:
 
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