Jazz
musicians have families like anybody else.
Some even produce musical dynasties, like the Marsalises and the O’Farrills.
For many though, the inconsistent nature of gigging is a stressful fact of jazz
family life. Heroin addiction adds a
further destabilizing element. Amy
Albany understands this all too well.
Her memoir tells a stark tale of drug abuse, bebop, and paternal
love. Jazz pianist and former Charlie
Parker sideman Joe Albany’s chaotic parenting gets the biopic treatment in Jeff
Preiss’s Low Down, which screens
during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
Tragically,
Joe Albany was arguably the more responsible of Amy Albany’s parents, but that
is saying a lot. While Amy Albany’s absentee alcoholic mother only fleetingly
appears in her life, Joe makes a good faith effort at fatherhood. Sadly, Hollywood in the early 1970’s is a
tough scene for working jazz musicians, but it is easy to score junk there.
Clearly,
Joe Albany had a good rapport with his daughter, but he was enslaved to his
habits. Right from the start, a pattern emerges. Resolving to do right by his daughter and
parole officer, Albany will clean up, accepting gigs beneath his stature for
the sake of his family commitments. Yet,
his inevitable benders consistently undo all his good intentions. During these periods, Amy Albany moves back
in with her gruff but eternally patient grandmother.
Having
served as the cinematographer of Bruce Weber’s Chet Baker documentary, Let’s Get Lost, Preiss is no stranger to
the effects of long term heroin use—but he has nothing on Amy Albany, who
co-adapted her book for the big screen.
It is not pretty in either film.
However, Albany’s source memoir is even more harrowing in its depiction
of drug use. Still, the wreckage wrought by Albany’s addiction is all too believable
and realistic on-screen.
Right,
so this is not exactly happy stuff, but John Hawkes’ performance as Joe Albany
is quite remarkable. He perfectly captures
the cadences and mannerisms of a dissipated musician and looks comfortable enough
behind the piano. It is painful witnessing his long slow process of
self-destruction, precisely because he so vividly brings out the more edifying
aspects of Albany’s personality. Playing
a bit against type, Glenn Close is rather earthy and compelling as his tough
working class mother. Lena Headey also
makes a strong impression in her brief scenes as Sheila Albany. Unfortunately, Elle Fanning is too bland and
retiring as the teenaged Albany.
