Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's Better Than Good!, September 21, 2008
Sometimes, not often, you walk away from a film late at night and by the next morning, you realize it is now your duty as a good human to call everyone you know and tell them about it. Friends, family...people you might even be on the fence about...just because you have to get out the word. The Peyser/McIntyre documentary "Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon" is such a film. There is an intangible something about this work that is infectious in the best of ways. The music in quintessential and classic and the interviews vary between hysterical and tragically moving, but all are profound. The clips and stills provide the right amount of historical background to a jazz legend who should be lauded on a much larger scale. But it's the man himself, a saucy, bawdy, sad, brilliant artiste of a trumpet player who seeps into your consciousness and makes you want to see the film a second and third time. More to the point, it makes you want to collect every album he's ever played on and go have the Sheldon experience live (which you still can). "Trying To Get Good" is a savvy, lean, artfully constructed tribute to a great musician. If you don't live in the Los Angeles area, you might miss Jack Sheldon. You should not miss this film.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
American Treasure!, October 2, 2008
I first new of Jack Sheldon from School House Rock when I was about 11 years old. "I'm Just a Bill, "Conjunction Junction", etc. His music taught me lessons in government as well as English and spelling. Cut to some 20 years later, I am at my uncles house listening to some of his big band music with him, and I hear a voice that is very familiar. I ask my uncle "Who is that"? "That's Jack Sheldon" he says.
After listening to "Forget About Me"...and that was it for me. He told me that Jack had played with every major Jazz & Big Band Artist from the last 30 years as well as being the band leader for Merv Griffin (which I would watch every day with my folks growing up) but I never realized how great this man's music is.
It's always great to hear the story of a jazz musician. Every musician's life has at some point had hard times, otherwise their music to me just isn't genuine when you hear it, and Jack has had his share of hard times. But what makes "Trying to Get Good" a great movie, is that unlike great musician's Like Chet Baker or Charlie Parker, Jack made it out alive...so if I sound selfish, we can have him around a bit longer.
The stories in this film are really fun to listen to, from Billy Crystal, to Clint Eastwood to Jack himself. After watching this film, what struck me the most was that Jack is Jack, he doesn't make any apologies for who he is, or how he lived his life, he just does his own thing....but does it so damn well that you think to yourself "Damn that looks like fun" and I think Jack will tell you..."Yeah, it is"
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard at Work, September 25, 2008
September 23, 2008
I saw this beautiful Peyser/McIntyre documentary about the great trumpeter "Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon" on the big screen in an audience laughing so hard sometimes I missed the next remark.
In addition to interviews with the many famous and accomplished people who know Jack Sheldon, and music clips of his astounding performances, I was given something ephemeral and rare.
The careful choices of the filmmakers reveal a deeper sense of the artist and his journey. What Jack Sheldon clearly means by trying to get good is an expression of any artist's endless and futile quest. All artists able to articulate, talk about the constant labor required even to approach the way they imagine their work. They all talk about being only a channel through which the art emerges.
In the interviews about Sheldon, we get a picture of his deep commitment to the music, and the profound influence this commitment has on other artists. I particularly loved hearing another trumpeter explain Sheldon's masterful technique. Out of what seems to be a simple loving homage to a great musician, and complex difficult man, filled with wicked jokes and a glimpse of his wild life, emerges a valuable roadmap to anyone wishing to pursue art.
I spent time in the lobby listening to the happy exiting audience, and one in particular stood out: a white-haired woman who said she was inspired watching him, and was going to put time and effort into pursuing her own artistic life, that it was not too late, and she was ready to do the work. Like he did.
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