I always make it a point to see every movie involving jazz, mainly to see how they mess it up, and to see if there's some good music in the thing. This movie starred a man whom I consider to be worst jazz singer in the history of the world, Sting, and thank God he doesn't sing a note in the whole flick. He does try to make some noise on the acoustic bass, and shows that he should stick to electric bass and rock music. There's a horrible English band with one of the worst tenor sax players I've ever heard, honking away at both the club and the "American Week" party. It sounded like they were trying to sound bad on purpose, and the Maitre'D is shown in one scene trying to tell them to quiet down! The Polish Jazz Band sounded better, with an excellent sax player, but they played some terrible "free jazz" piece in the last scene that made me want to vomit. The whole Polish angle of the story seemed out of place, and the look of the movie was too glitzy to qualify it as film noir. Sting acted okay, but looks too scrawny to be a tough, English club owner.
Review of Stormy Monday
