Whiplash (as reviewed by a jazz musician)

So I know this is coming four years late, but until recently I was a

jazz

musician

who had never seen the movie Whiplash, so to rectify this I watched the movie for the first time at one of the Jazia spaces I visited. I know in Washington Square Park in New York City, as it is thus far the only portrait of

jazz

education and popular culture. I get asked all the time if my experience at jazz school reflects that of the experiences portrayed in Whithlash and after seeing the film, which is brilliantly acted, filmed and directed, I can safely say that no, the small and somewhat insular e The idiosyncratic world of jazz and higher education doesn't look like it does in the movie, although it certainly looks like it could be that way.

JK Simmons plays Terrence Fletcher. the tyrannical band leader at the fictional New York City jazz school, the Shaffer Conservatory, his abuse of a young jazz drummer hungry for greatness, Andrew Neiman, played by Miles Teller, seems real or at least feels real. real due to the incredible acting, but there are some things that feel a little out of place, buckle up for an incredibly pedantic review coming from yours truly, an academically trained jazz

musician

. Let's start with the things the movie got right, part 1, what was raped in the movie, so there is a degree of verisimilitude here because of the people. working on this project, in fact, Miles Teller is a fairly competent drummer, the script is somewhat autobiographical, the writer and director Damien Chazelle played drums and a competitive high school jazz ensemble with a very strict band director, so the script clarifies some strangely specific things, like slang. that some band directors use, this includes the lower level band director saying to put a little sugar on it while rehearsing the readings, meaning he wants a little more swagger in the articulation or a Fletcher saying two bars free two bars free, meaning he counts two bars before the band comes in.

These kinds of things can only come up when playing in a jazz band, even little things like the way Fletcher refers to trombones as bones. in a staccato inflection bones that certainly sounds good to me other little things like Fletcher getting really angry at people who leave their folders lying around if I ever find one of these lying around again I swear to God I'll stop being so polite it's a very real this will make all the band directors angry because sheet music is expensive and no one wants to pay for the students' carelessness, the fictional Shaffer conservatory building looks old and shoddy, they certainly hit the nail on the head, here's how You see my alma mater, the Manhattan School of Music, the scene where Andrews' extended family doesn't really understand Andrews' obsession with music, as well as his accomplishments, definitely rings true for many musicians.

In fact, I felt like that scene was the most emotionally accurate depiction of anything in the entire movie. Fletcher has a certain way of pacing in front of the band, which actually reminds me a lot. From my band directors in college, the general posture of JK Simmons and Miles Teller looks more or less correct because of the way they have their shoulders, like there's some kind of tilt, you know, it's a certain posture, of They sit a certain way. Boy, I could sit here all day and criticize all the times Miles Teller moves his hands a certain way and what we're seeing isn't what we're hearing, but it's honestly not that important and they did it more or less right. because the whole band is made up of professional musicians and their imitations too, but at least they hold their instruments correctly and play more or less what we are listening to, that is, everyone in the band except the people with speaking roles and I think I know for what could it be because to have a speaking role in a Hollywood movie you need to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild and it will be the actors, not the musicians, who will actually bother to get a union card, so if the people on the lines the movie most likely doesn't look like they're playing their real instrument, that's unfortunate, but anyway that's not very important, it doesn't affect the way the world of jazz is portrayed and there are still other really strange details and specific that the film was left as if handwritten in the various 7/4 subdivisions on the drum chart of the title piece.

Whiplash Whiplash written by Hank Levy for the Don Ellis Orchestra is in seven for seven beats per bar, but at a certain point it feels in flux. Two- and three-eighth-note subdivisions that don't actually repeat the 7/4 feel change quickly, so the additional markings are important to understanding how to play them. Also, I recently discovered the shorthand that some drummers use for groups of two and three. Eighth notes represent groupings of two eighth notes as a line and three eighth notes as a triangle this has nothing to do with the

whiplash

of a movie. I just thought it was interesting anyway no one would know this fine detail of musicality unless you actually had to play the piece. of music like writer-director Damien Chazelle did when he was in high school, some of the musical pieces in the film were pieces that I played myself as the drummer for Whiplash Caravan, so those were sort of the starting points of a way that begins to take me.

However, what is left out of the movie are the small details that the movie just messes up in the second part, but the movie messed up a little bit. The whole movie feels like Damien Chazelle is remembering the general essence of jazz culture, but only through the haze of memory from his high school experiences like, for example, this guy, this guy doesn't seem like a jazz musician, looks like a high school jock, there is this guy however, he looks like a jazz musician, he's dressed in a normcore jazz outfit but he's carrying a bass backpack. In this case, and in New York City, no one uses those, everyone uses wheels because it is much easier to navigate the New York City subway, as well as in the tight spaces of buildings, and there is also the use strange slang that somehow feels like it's been translated.

Google likes it too many times, for example when Fletcher invites Andrew to play at JVC. Fletcher assures him that they will play songs that Andrew knows from the studio band's playlist, making the studio that any musician would call this the studio band's playlists. Spotify when drum folder goes missing Tanner says I don't know the charts by heart I don't know the charts by heart he wouldn't say he would say I don't have the charts memorized during Fletcher's first abusive tirade towards Andrew Hugh demands that Andrew tell me 215 like a count at 215 beats per minute, call me 215, my pet doesn't really happen or doesn't make sense.

Consistent timekeeping is much more valued as the ability to keep track of a count and maintain a constant pace. throughout an entire piece of music and interestingly when Andrew counts it's actually pretty close to 215 beats per minute, tell me at 2:15, Fletcher then says: Am I to understand that you can't read the tempo of any trained musician to be asked to do that count? The specific BPM mark without a reference or that off count will just approximate it because honestly it's not that important of a skill to have Fletcher and then he talks a little too literally about the quarter note being equal to 330 and saying it's a double swing time I don't know, technically it makes sense because double time swings are sometimes used as shorthand for fast swing feel, although technically that's not really what double time swing means.

It's JK Simmons' delivery of the line whose double-time swing, as well as the insistent use of that phrase throughout the entire movie, which feels a little strange, so when Fletcher threatens the band, he keeps doing it. reference to a quote from an out of tune player, but an out of tune player here the phrase would probably be someone out of tune, then of course. there is this chestnut and then the child does not play the rudiment of a paradiddle, of course that is also because children are a little stupid, but you know there is such a thing, but personally, the most jarring of all these minor little grievances is when Fletcher reminds him of the bosses. to quote sharp 9th brass, don't forget that we sharpen that 9th, which doesn't make sense, you would say that to a chord player like a guitarist or a pianist who constantly forgets to express the nine as a sharp 9.

I didn't say dominant 7th chord, you wouldn't say that to an entire section if you want to remind a person to change the note of, say, a natural concerto on a c7 to AD sharp, you would select that particular player and for characters like the by Terrence Fletcher, singling out one player in particular for humiliation seems like it's part of his character, so why didn't they do that and just say brass in the ninth? Anyway, all of these moments have the cumulative effect of, say, an American actor speaking with a sort of bad British accent, all from my burning heart they're all a little unintentionally funny made more frustrating by the fact that the movie did a lot of things almost okay art three how the movie came out almost okay okay so there are little things that are technically true but one a little strange, especially considering I think they were added just to make it feel more realistic, like for example Tanner telling him Andrew to tune the drums to B flat.

This is a super old-school technique that was only used when bands were playing and very trumpet-friendly keys, like B-flat, but for more modern repertoire, like batoon

whiplash

, for example, the practical effect of tuning the elements Resonant drumming in a particular key is a minimal, if not useless, pleasure, then clap at fast tempos in beats of one in three. Double-beat swing is actually not as embarrassing as it might seem, although it is quite crunchy to clap on one and three because jazz big band conductors will lead fast tempos on beats one and three as on one, two, one, two , three, four, except when you're telling something you're going to break down on beats two and four, since in even one two three four he also pronounced the word one as a curious fact and then it's not really bad, but there's the matter of how Fletcher counts the tune whiplash five six man even if Damien Chazelle thinks this is correct, this sounds a little wrong to me, I admit, for some pretty subtle reasons, you see dancers think in eights, so the choreographers who they start the routines will start at five, like five, six, seven, eight, where, like musicians. starting on four, four will always start on 1 1 2 3 4, so any musician who has ever worked with a dancer hearing a 5 at the beginning of a countdown will immediately cringe, but whiplash is not in 4 /4, there it is in 7/4.

There are seven beats in the measure, so if you were to start the count on the first beat, it would take forever to get to the point where you are supposed to start playing, so Fletcher starts counting in fives and counts the last three times. in 7/4 time while the ghazal count probably remembered his old bandleader doing it this way, so he had Fletcher start the count at five, what gives me goosebumps is that it's a measure quite old. school way of counting odd bars and is not really used much anymore, the problem is that this method sometimes causes some confusion, especially in a chart like whiplash, where the 7/4 is subdivided into different places on the graphic, so With some exceptions, modern practice suggests that you count everything in four-four, regardless of time signature, just to avoid that kind of confusion.

That confusion actually exists in the film during the abusive and rushed drag scene. Andrew gets confused and counts in seven briefly, but Fletcher then insists that he count in four, start counting it in five, six in four, damn, look at me anyway, none of this so far, none of this really affects anything, no affects the plot in any meaningful way, it's all just kind of You know, astrophysicists complain about interstellar or whatever. Most of us don't really care, we just want to enjoy the movie for its own narrative merit. I apologize for what has effectively been the jazz equivalent of Neil deGrasse Tyson complaining about all science fiction. movie, so let's go beyond the surface level, let's talk about the character of Terrence Fletcher, it's the elements of tough love and the teachings of Terence Fletcher, really there in modern jazz conservatories, part for Fletcher parents Terence Fletcher is a teacher who teaches at a prestigious jazz center in New York City. school, so I spoke with a teacher who teaches at a prestigious Jazz School in the city ofNew York and with my good friend Josh Bailey, who teaches at NYU Steinhardt, and I asked them what would happen if someone like Terrence Fletcher actually taught young students today, so I would say: I'm going to do this is my major, it just changed to police SCI because I can.

I've learned at least with this generation or maybe in the last two or three years of students to have a tough love mentality, but from a removed perspective and I don't really implement it with them. I like it. I will tell you my hard love stories that I had so that you can avoid them. Parents. Fletcher is a useful narrative trope. The abusive mentor who will stop at absolutely nothing. to bring out the greatness of the students in him and I will never apologize for how I conduct him. Fletcher's justification for his negative reinforcement comes from a story he likes to tell of an incident that occurred at the Reno Club in Kansas City when Charlie Parker sat in on a jam session and played rather poorly, house drummer Joe Jones was left out. impressed with Charlie Parker's playing, so according to the movie, he threw a cymbal at Charlie Parker and nearly decapitated him, inspiring Charlie Parker to go home, practice, and become one of the now-grades. in this history.

As the movie tells it, it is very ornate, Joe Jones simply dropped the symbol on the floor, it is like a gong that vibrates Charlie.Parker telling him that it was of no use for the session and that he should come back later when he was ready. I told them that story about how Charlie Parker became Charlie Parker and Jo Jones threw a saucer at his head. This characterization of the incident is kind. It seems that Fletcher's own character may be based on something real, but expanded to this grotesque level in order to tell a story.

It's a tough world and there are a lot of guys out there that I wouldn't want to make teachers do some of the things that Fletcher does exist, I mean, maybe not the level of abuse, but things like casual misogyny, well, you're in the first chair, let's see if it's just because you're cute, the homophobic slurs, this is not a Bette. Midler concert, we won't be serving cosmopolitan-Baked Alaska, so she just plays faster than you jerk off. Could you select players for unnecessary levels of humiliation? Yes, those things unfortunately happen, especially from teachers cut from the cloth of the old school Fletcher quote.

The obsession with the Charlie Parker story also rings true because the older professors ensconced in the ivory tower often don't know any post-1960 jazz. Damien Chazelle probably isn't hip to these musicians either, but the musician's characterization elderly. who doesn't know anything about anything new is exact, so he probably has no idea who young musicians might idolize. Yes, Charlie Parker is deeply respected, but there's something of an elephant in the room when it comes to talking about the film. whiplash and young musicians' fixations on certain musicians and that elephant is the fifth part Buddy Rich, the film's choice to have Andrew become obsessed with Buddy Rich is a divinatory narrative Lee, a good Buddy Rich was a drummer for a jazz big band that to this day is a household name because Despite his flashy skills, he was also a bandleader cut from a very similar cloth to Terence Fletcher, great friend, rich friend, he demanded perfection from his band and we would get angry and abusive if it felt like the band wasn't stepping up.

There is an infamous series of recordings known as the Buddy Rich tapes criticizing his band that sound quite similar to Terence Fletcher's tirade when he was at Berkeley in Boston. I studied jazz composition with the great Greg Hopkins, who played trumpet and arranged for Buddy Rich's band for several years. it's cool Hopkins, I'm a recent appearance on the cross Craig had a lot of respect for Buddy Rich, but admitted that he could be a bit of a monster, sometimes someone to be feared in the newsstand as much as respected, so Andrew became obsessed with he. Buddy Rich, who makes perfect cinematic sense in trying to emulate Buddy Rich, Andrew seeks to curry favor with the band's other tyrannical leader, Terrence Fletcher, which just makes sense from a narrative perspective, but from the perspective of a young musician from jazz who studies jazz in New York.

In modern-day York City, the idealization of Buddy Rich simply doesn't make any sense. Buddy Rich became a household name largely due to his association with show business. He was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson, so the general public probably knows who he is, but as far as musicians go, his influence on modern jazz is pretty minimal, where some drummers that many students are watching are old people who are living right now, how Buddy Rich developed a sort of popular cult of personality is quite interesting and Ethan Iverson goes into great detail on the subject and a really insightful blog post on whiplash.

You should definitely check it out if you have time. I sometimes send notes about the Rolling Stones' list of the hundred greatest drummers of all time, white jazz big band drummers Gene Krupa and Buddy. Rich plays significantly higher on the list than black small jazz ensemble drummers Tony Williams and Elvin Jones even though Tony Williams and Elvin Jones are arguably better drummers with more influence in jazz and are much more respected as artists among jazz musicians, especially in jazz conservatories, not Buddy Rich's drums, especially in a city like New York, it was like a state school, not in New York City, so when you talk about big band, every semester someone makes reference to Buddy Rich.

I don't hear that at all anymore. I don't listen to Buddy Rich as a reference, which is maybe a good thing in my opinion, but you know, yeah, they all live with who these kids like because I start every class. I'll ask them what bees you're looking at and most of them. It's like a fusion of hip-hop with jazz, there is a healthy study of bebop and hard bop, but in reality it is hip-hop and, to a lesser cultural extent, electronic music, that drive the taste of young people jazz musicians studying jazz in New York City today, Andrew conceded.

Neiman pumping out Dilla and Terence Fletcher big band beats probably wouldn't make any kind of sense, so I understand the need for some stylistic cohesion here, which brings me to the topic of the movie soundtrack, part six, the soundtrack is fine, then the jazz big band. On this recording he plays lists like whiplash sounds good, a little sloppy at times, but I know it was a film with a limited budget so they couldn't hire the Metropole Orchestra to record it and he's supposed to be a student. Anyway, I guess it actually works if this is the movie that exposes people to modern jazz big band music.

I agree, especially with the dramatic use of the Caravan chart in the final scene, which doesn't work for me. The rest of the soundtrack composed by Justin Hurwitz is supposed to be jazz but honestly, it fails in every aspect, especially in the scene where Andrew meets Fletcher playing the piano and in a supposed jazz club in the city from New York, the music Fletcher plays is easily the most boring, flat jazz you can imagine. Jamey Aebersold's backing tracks have much more life and energy than what we hear in the film. It is defined mediocrity. If Jo Jones was there, she definitely would have dropped the saucer.

It's a parody. of Starbucks jazz that Fletcher supposedly doesn't like all Starbucks jazz albums just proves my point, in a nutshell this is not what you would hear in a New York City jazz club in the movie, it seems like The fictional club that Andrew enters is somewhere in the West Village, which is closer to what you would hear in the West Village. I recorded this Robert Glasper presidency on the Blue Note in October. It includes all the tropes of modern New York City jazz, including fast fusion followed by a cheeky quote. in this case, images of the original keys in an exhibition and then, yes, the diligence, in fact, performed by the progenitor of the entire style himself, Chris, Dad, Dave, the hip hop-infused jazz is everywhere parts like a big part of the culture in New York City right now and that's not what we got in the movie, we got the jazz version of Little Tikes.

This scene bothered me more than I thought it would in the movie, at least in the show like Mozart in the Jungle, which shows the lives of contemporary classical musicians. They have relevant modern composers like Thomas Addis in music scenes that at least have some relevance to modern classical music, so why couldn't they do the same with jazz? I read an interview with composer Justin Hurwitz to try to figure out why. He did what Hurwitz played the piano, but his education was primarily classical without much experience in jazz, however, Hurwitz obtained an intensive jazz program working on Chas ELL's last two films.

Damien put me on a steady diet of jazz, American and French music. sheet music, he says, even Iverson's blog post responds to this suitably incredulous li. This is where I get jealous of hip hop. Hip hop has protected its black sovereignty so imagine if for a movie about hip hop the composer said he was new to this style so he studied Eminem and Azealia without mentioning the founding father of French spoken word and sexy style Serge Gainsbourg is at this point in the club that we see that the film is not about music, the film has very little love for the art of jazz, but it is all about it. about competition and perfectionism and sweat and blood and overcoming obstacles this is a sports movie part 7 this is a sports movie there is a hierarchy in Terrence Fletcher's studio band Andrew Neiman starts out as an alternative drummer and then promoted to the rank of lead drummer in this is somewhat reminiscent of the idea of ​​first and second string quarterbacks, the concepts of understudies and cores do not exist in college and professional jazz ensembles, only the total number of people needed to play the music will be there, you certainly wouldn't have a backup. sitting there on stage at a performance ready to take over at any moment like someone waiting his turn on the bench, there is a similar hierarchy hinted at when Fletcher talks about things like first second or third trumpet and when he graduated Marsalis named him third trumpet at Lincoln Center, a year later, was the first, yeah, this is not good at all.

The roles of all foreign musicians are specialized, so a first trumpeter will specialize in high notes and a fourth trumpeter might specialize in playing the flugelhorn and a second trumpet. The player can specialize in soloing, which is how it works in the real world, but the concept of chairs is used in the movie Whiplash to emphasize the theme of competition. Jackson, congratulations, you're the fourth chair, mats, why are you still sitting there? Keep up the pace and There is a lot of competition not only among the students, but it also seems like the Jazz Band is participating in a lot of competitions.

Fletcher says everyone remembers Lincoln Center and their kind use these competitions to decide who they are interested in and who they are. no, it's like their athletic scouts are looking for new blood on the college circuit, like for the NCAA or whatever, that's not how it works. New York City college jazz ensembles don't participate in competitions all the time they play, they play concertos, in fact, they sometimes play concertos. as featured performers at Lincoln Center, can I really think this movie is a somewhat mean-spirited sports movie? Those are the ridiculous practice scenes, not just the ones where Andrew is playing.

I guess so much and so quickly his hands start. he bleeds and hits his snare drum, but also the round-robin scene where Fletcher verbally abuses his three drummers to make them play faster. I guess what people think practice is is what people think jazz school is. I know the point of these scenes. is to show the physical nature of the music. I wanted this movie to flirt with the ideas of physical violence and the kind of physical toll, but if you get hurt while practicing you're not going to get any better ass. Line practice itself is a slow and deliberate thing, it can be meditative but it can also be super boring to watch, just watch my five hour practice routine video which is much closer to what the actual practice in a real conservatory is not violence or physical abuse. just a lot of work, how long was it for five hours, yeah, this brings me to the final point, which is the most important thing for me personally and I think what the movie Whiplash gets most wrong is about the young people who study music today , part eight.

It's funny the great jazz drummer Peter Erskine wrote a review of the movie Whiplashwhich includes a quote that I think is most relevant to what I want to say on this topic. I'm disappointed that any viewer of the film doesn't see the joy. of making music that is almost always part of rehearsals and presentations of large groups. Musicians make music because they love music. In my opinion, none of that is really evident in the film. I listen to so many great young musicians. I'm playing this and they're playing the music. Since they love music, I can see the joy of music happening a little in the scene where Andrew watches Buddy Rich play on his phone while Andrews on the bus, this kind of thing happens a lot, young jazz musicians They'll listen enthusiastically to musicians they like on YouTube or wherever, I can't tell you how many times I've been in this situation, man, you have to watch this video, it's a British man, dad playing with Vijay, I'm on the jazz standard , that's so deadly, buddy, after this, we have to check it out.

Steve layman will blow your mind, do that, how long was he with Damien Reed, oh my god that's cool, that scene doesn't happen in the movie Whiplash because in the movie Whiplash no one seems to really care about the music, no student turns to another student . He's like, have you seen this drummer or, hey, man? Were you at the small session last night? How come no one even cites licking each other? Which you know personally. I am deeply offended by everything, it's just fear, anger and posturing. on the part of Andrew and the student body without any motivation behind it a genuine love for music there is no community of young jazz musicians who love music and want to share it support to take a risk there like supporting each other as fellow members from the trenches you know they're on the decks together the camaraderie and love of music is not evident at all in the movie Whiplash, which is fine because it wants to tell a different story, just know that jazz culture as it appears in the movie Whiplash. is a bit off, this isn't a meticulously researched period piece like, say, Downton Abbey, it's the jazz culture and New York City setting that are simply ancillary to the story's plots and characters , its decoration, is all kinds of detritus of memory. from a young director who has been reappropriated to tell a specific type of story, you know, a memory that has always been very present in my mind and it occurred to me a few years ago, you know, that maybe I could make a jazz movie for the game II. and Giselle seems to be almost an emotional reaction to her high school experiences rather than something she actually likes to do and narrate.

Lee, yes, I get it, I understand why certain decisions were made, but remember that whiplash is the only representation of jazz education and popular culture, it's the only one, at least Neil deGrasse Tyson has thousands and thousands of science fiction movies to select from, so I think. that it's important to distinguish fact from fiction and a medium like this when it comes to a specific culture to be fair. I really enjoyed the movie on its own merits. I just wanted to share my two cents on the matter for whatever it may be. For me it's worth the whiplash, it was a great movie with great direction, just exciting, amazing, but it got a little fun.