Of food and tunes

Did you ever find yourself running over to the TV when you heard a certain familiar tune only to find it was being performed in an orchestra or as a concert piece? Chances are you heard it in a cartoon (preferably the one with a clever mouse and a slightly ditzy cat) and will always associate the cartoon first, then the actual piece of music! 

Classic cartoons from as early as the '30s even went on to portray jazz musicians, now making them rare collectibles. So it comes as no wonder that movies, both classics and recent ones, deal with the genre or incorporate the life and times of jazz musicians. 

Sounds interesting right? Let's make it more so!

Music for taste-testing and beyond — 

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take five 

Thelonious Monk - Around Midnight

Louis Jordan - Is you is or is you ain't my baby

B B King - The Thrill is Gone

Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa

Chieli Minucci & Special EFX - Lavish

Recent movies with jazz soundtrack involving jazz musicians — 

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance; (2014)

Legend (2015)

Whiplash (2014)

La La Land (2016)

As always, this is just a simple guideline to get by, specifically for the ones uninitiated to jazz. You never know what you might discover if you really want to get in the mix. Maybe you can even find a Bachelor of Music Degree in jazz as your next calling! Just as jazz itself has created endless possibilities of genres and fusion, there exist equally endless possibilities to enjoy it.

By Iris Farina

Photo: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

Thanks to:

Imran Ahmed of Imran Ahmed Quintet/Imran Ahmed Trio. He took up the guitar at the age of four. The Trio's debut album- Away and Home will be out on 29th July including six original compositions. Visit them at facebook.com/imranahmedmusic for more of their activities.

Rushnaf Wadud, frontman of Blunderware is also an Associate Manager of Radio Shadhin. Visit him and the band at facebook.com/blunderware to keep up with their latest shenanigans.

For more information of the International Jazz Day (April 30), with specific highlights on Bangladesh, visit- http://jazzday.com/events/