April 1, 2015
Page 9
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Living a Life
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Legendary
trumpeter shows
the way in ‘Keep
on Keepin’ On’
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no better rejoinder than the beautiful docu-
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an exploration of the friendship between
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recently died at the age of 94, and aspiring
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about greatness that teachers like the one
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picts—realistically, I expect—a world of DFKLHYH%HFDXVHDV7HUU\¶VH[DPSOHLOOXV-
hungry aspiring jazz musicians who are trates, how you live your life matters. And
easy prey for a brutal, sadistic conductor LWZRXOGEHKDUGWR¿QGEHWWHULQVWUXFWLRQ
who deliberately pits them against each for how to live your life well than can be
other, feeds and then assaults their fragile IRXQGLQWKLV¿OP
egos, and continually moves success just
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EH\RQGWKHLUUHDFK7KHFRQGXFWRUMXVWL¿HV cians in the history of jazz, played with
his abusive methods as being necessary to 'L]]\ *LOOHVSLH &RXQW %DVLH DQG 'XNH
WKHFXOWLYDWLRQRIWUXHJUHDWQHVV³7KHUHDUH Ellington early in his career. He grew up
no two words in the English language more ³GHDG SRRU´ LQ D IDPLO\ RI FKLOGUHQ LQ
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St. Louis, and so longed to play the trum-
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horn using scrap metal from a junkyard (a
process beautifully rendered in an animat-
ed sequence). He recalls how hard it was to
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his voice as a musician, and says he de-
termined as a young person that if he ever
learned to play, he would not be stingy in
teaching others what he learned.
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intention was apparently unlimited. As a
young man, he took a boy named Quincy
Jones under his wing, and the love be-
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mentored literally thousands more young
musicians, including everyone from Miles
Davis to Wynton Marsalis, and several of
them speak affectionately on camera of his
life-changing effect on their lives. Herbie
Hancock emphasizes the impossibility of
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almost like being pulled by a magnet,”
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energy for investing in people and his un-
failing good humor.
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Hicks, is himself a jazz drummer who
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University, and was among scores of stu-
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lationship between the two deepened over
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