As great a musician as the late Dizzy Gillespie was--and there is no argument about that--it's his ebullient, infectious personality more than his trumpet playing that really makes A Night in Havana. Not that there isn't some worthy musical content here: on the contrary, Gillespie's late-‘80s trip to Cuba was more or less a return to his pioneering role in the creation of “Cubop” (the blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and American jazz found in his late-‘40s collaborations with musicians such as Machito and Chano Pozo, which resulted in classic tunes like “A Night in Tunisia” and “Manteca”). On this trip, the extended performance of “Manteca” at the Fifth International Jazz Festival in Havana is the musical high point, and Diz (who was then about 70) willingly takes a backseat to fellow trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, an amazing player with an impressive bravura technique. Although Gillespie still has plenty of chops, his offstage activities are actually more entertaining: he dances, he sings, he has an audience with Fidel Castro, he talks…boy, does he talk: “A trumpet sits in its (velvet-lined) case, surrounded by luxury…It lays there, waiting to mess somebody up when they pick it up to play it.” Revealing that he doesn't know why his cheeks puff up like balloons when he blows, Gillespie does explain how he developed his instrument's distinctive, upward-angled look (he didn't want to anger some gangster types who wanted the horn pointed away from them); and as for technique, he says his power comes not from the diaphragm but from his, um, rectum. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Graham)
A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba
(1988) 84 min. DVD: $26.95. Docurama (avail. from most distributors). Color cover. ISBN: 0-7670-8143-9. Volume 20, Issue 5
A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba
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