More News

Dan Pritzker has spent his life making music, and even contributed songs to films like "Nothing to Lose" and "National Lampoon's Senior Trip." Filmmaking has also remained an interest, although he has never crafted a full length feature.

For his first ride in the director's chair, Pritzker combined his passions to flesh out the mythologies of two jazz world giants.

In 1922, Louis Armstrong boarded a train to Chicago. He joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band upon arrival, and from that point forward, his life was documented on wax, film, television and radio. But his childhood, particularly before age 10, is full of gaps.

Even hazier is the tale of Buddy Bolden, largely considered the first popular jazz cornet player. Historians know he was born in 1887 and died in 1931. Beyond that, little record of his life exists.

Pritzker used this lack of details as an invitation to fill in the blanks. "Bolden!," with "Hurt Locker" star Anthony Mackie in the title role, is set to be released sometime next year. "Louis" is a companion piece Pritzker directed simultaneously using the same cast and crew. Rather than a straight biopic, the movie fictionalizes the tale of how 6-year-old Armstrong (Anthony Coleman) began to play the cornet in lusty 1907 New Orleans. To give the music an authentic Big Easy feel, Pritzker enlisted trumpet player Wynton Marsalis. And it's silent — as in, Charlie Chaplin silent.

"I thought it was a neat idea, a silent film about jazz," Pritzker recalls. "I think using a little boy allows you to be whimsical. I was not really interested in doing some sort of biographical piece at all. What interested me was the mythology of where this music came from."

Inspiration struck Pritzker several years ago when he saw the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at a screening of the Charlie Chaplin film "City Lights." The idea stuck. So when production began in Wilmington, N.C., he imagined a live band marking the film's highs and lows.

"Having this silent film and having Wynton perform the score live—if you can think of a better way to show it, I'm all ears," he says.

Although this is Pritzker's first foray into feature film, his name might ring a bell. He is the son of Hyatt Hotel baron Jay Pritzker. But wealth and social stature doesn't guarantee a good film. Despite his inexperience, Pritzker says that the idea of a silent film was met more with curiosity than animosity.

"Every day was a new bucket full of challenges," Pritzker says. "I think that was also the enticement. It was completely out of my comfort zone."

One of the more enthusiastic cast members was Jackie Earle Haley. The actor, fresh off an Oscar nomination for "Little Children," saw the film as an opportunity to show off his athleticism. At one point, he requested to jump into a barrel.

"Jackie was excellent," Pritzker notes. "We started filming "Bolden!" and then we got to a point where we went into the "Louis" film. I remember seeing a light go off in Jackie's mind. He had some kind of epiphany, and he just got it."

Achieving an accurate silent film look isn't easy. Pritzer turned to a cinematographer capable of handling the challenge. From "The Deer Hunter" and "Deliverance" to "The Black Dahlia," Vilmos Zsigmond has proven to be a master of the moving image. His vision of New Orleans looks the part without adding artificial film grain.

The score for "Bolden!" came together before Pritzker and Marsalis worked on "Louis." The director would tell the composer what he envisioned for a particular section, but Marsalis wouldn't accept vague ideas.

"I would sit at the piano with him at his apartment and he would say, ‘What do you want?' I would tell him and he would say, ‘No. More specificity,'" Pritzker recalls. "He wanted me to be as specific as I possibly could about what I wanted the music to do. It actually reminded me a lot of my law school days and the Socratic Method."

To avoid a similar headache for "Louis," Pritzker, a lifelong musician, mashed up several of Marsalis' songs to create a new score.

"I was concerned that I was going to play this thing for Wynton and he was going to go, ‘Look what you did. You tore up my music. Get out of my house,'" remarks Pritzker. "But he didn't. He looked at the thing, and I think he was actually amazed at how we had sliced and diced the music."

The director's ambition didn't stop when the production wrapped. Rather than a theatrical release, Pritzker pushed for a short tour of U.S. cities. In addition to the Music Center at Strathmore, "Louis," Marsalis and a 10-piece jazz orchestra will travel to New York, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia.

Marsalis isn't the only big musical name attached to the project. In addition to the band, Filipino piano virtuoso Cecile Licad will animate Little Louis' adventures. A protégé of the legendary Rudolf Serkin, Licad is best known for her classical work. And this project didn't require much adjustment. For her part, she is playing pieces by American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Pritzker contacted Licad after hearing a recording she made of Gottschalk's work.

"I had never done this kind of thing," says Licad. "But I like experimental stuff and being adventurous. For some reason, [Pritzker] related it with jazz."

Before the tour, Licad will meet up with the rest of the ensemble for a series of intense rehearsals. It won't be easy, but she looks forward to the challenge.

"It's not like I'm focusing only on the music. I'm focusing on syncing it with the acting and the way the picture is done," she says. "It has to be right on. I think it's going to be fun."

See "Louis" with live musical accompaniment at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets range from $55 to $95. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.