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Kansas City
(1995, dir. Robert Altman)
Addie Parker, who has a ‘good job’ in a Western Union telegram office, portrays deliberately powerless behavior even to the relatively powerless young white woman, as required by the norms of the time. She addresses her as Miss + FN, and conspicuously does not use negative concord, even while commenting on her non-importance and invisibility to her white co-workers.
“Nobody asks
me anything. They never do.”
(Ironically, Addie’s son Charles, a
minor character in this movie, is nevertheless obviously going to grow up to
become Charlie Parker, the dominant musician
of his day and one of the most influential figures in jazz as an improviser,
composer, progressive msuical thinker – he was the embodiment and leader of the
bebop revolution – and pioneer of virtuoso technical innovations on the
saxophone. Charles Parker, despite his short and difficult life, was a rebel, a
stylistic icon, and a focus of Black self-expression for his generation.)
Seldom Seen,
the owner of a (fictional) popular nightclub and gambling joint – the Hey-Hey
Club – and an important figure (historically-based) in the black crime underworld
of late 1930s Kansas City, memorably portrays unmistakably powerful behavior, sending both the black
chauffeur named Blue and the young white gangster, Johnny, to their deaths. He
also scoffs at the way he thinks their foolish behavior in the face of his
power must have been influenced by racial stereotypes in the mass media: Man Tan and Stepin
Fetchit from the movies (“picture show”), and Amos’n’Andy
from radio, all creations – as he points out – of white people whose knowledge
of Black culture is not only superficial but is used to manipulate and oppress.
Seldom Seen (brilliantly played by Harry Belafonte) is the archetype of a
ruthless Black man of business and violence – he does not let even his
allegiance to his own people get between him and the money, and he has no mercy
for Blue, whose decision to side with (and work under) the white gangster he
portrays as adopting the Amos’n’Andy role.
Seldom Seen: 1 Got to
say this for you, you got guts.
Guts and no brains.
But guts alone
don’t mean nothin’ 2.
Guts is3 cheap. 4 Fuckin’
pig got guts.
Blue here 5 be
sittin’ up all night long,
suckin’ on some pig
guts.
.......................................
You 6 come
swingin’ in here like... like Tarzan,
right in the middle of a sea of niggers.
Like you 7 in a picture show. You like 8 picture show?
.......................................
9 You a radio man?
Musical connections:
The band in the Hey-Hey Club,
which plays a crucial part in the film through musical commentary, is a modern
recreation of the Count Basie band, active at the time in Kansas City. The
mostly-young modern musicians Altman music producer, Hal Willner, recruited for
the band, combine authentic musical styles of the time with modern inspirations
and logic in their soloing. The original Basie band was one of the three or
four great musical collectives in the history of jazz, and in this incarnation
possessed some of the great talents of the day.
a. “Moten Swing” from the 1996 Kansas City soundtrack
recreates a tune written by Bennie Moten for his band and recorded in 1932,
several years before the piano player, Bill Basie, took over the leadership.
Solos are by Jesse Davis (alto) and James Carter (tenor), quoting from Basie
tenorman Don Byas.
b. “Jumpin’ at the Woodside”, recorded 1938 by the Basie band,
is one of their great swinging hits, and features Buck Clayton (trumpet), both
open and muted, a typically sparkling alto solo from the inimitable Lester
Young, and Herschel Evans, uncharacteristically on clarinet.
c.
“Confirmation” by Charlie Parker, recorded 1953 in NYC (somewhat beyond the
height of bebop), is a classic composition in his unique improvisational mode,
with top-notch support from Max Roach (drummer) and Percy Heath (bass).
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