Documentary Spotlights Promising 加州音乐学院 Vib说唱honist
Bond between jazz student and professor unfolds against a backdrop of challenges
发布: 卡利新闻
Documentary filmmakers set out to tell the story of a world-famous jazz vib说唱hone player, but they began to change the narrative after reviewing footage they shot at 十大博彩推荐排名州立大学, 电颤琴手在哪里, 史蒂夫·纳尔逊, had recently started a gig as an adjunct professor in Jazz Studies at the 约翰J. 加州音乐学院.
“房间里发生了什么事,Nathan Siegelaub回忆道, 现居纽约的作家和纪录片制片人. “有电。. 大家都很兴奋. 学生们之间有很好的友谊.”
十大博彩推荐排名大学的一名学生尤其引人注目, 一个年轻的颤音演奏家, 皮尔斯Sparnroft, who prefers to be identified with they/them pronouns and the name “Sparni.” “They’re incredibly talented and there’s something about them, 他们是多么富有表现力啊,” Siegelaub recalled his professor at Columbia 大学, 新闻研究生院, 这部电影是在哪里制作的, 告诉他. “There’s something there that you should dig a little deeper to find.”
While the filmmakers continued their work on Nelson’s influence on jazz, 他们也跟着斯帕尼, 现在是爵士研究专业的大四学生, throughout the spring 2023 semester as the student prepared for a recital. “一旦我们对斯巴达有了更多的了解, 我们发现了一个需要马上讲述的故事,西格劳布说.
结果就是这部纪录片的标题 Sparni ，由Siegelaub和Ania执导Gruszczyńska. It was shown at DocFest ’23, a showcase of work from Columbia’s 新闻研究生院. Among the audience, Sparni watched the film for the first time. “I was like, ‘Wow, here’s a culmination of a bunch of work that I’ve put in this year.“看到它就在我面前，我很高兴.”
Sparni 这是一个有前途的年轻音乐家的故事吗, and also of the healing powers of music and the repercussions of mental illness. Sparni is open about their serious mental health struggles, something the filmmakers were sensitive to in telling Sparni’s story.
“Sparni by nature is expressive and open and has a need to express themselves and to share,Gruszczyńska说, a journalist and documentary filmmaker living in London. “我们的意图是透明和明确的. We were genuinely intrigued, and I think it showed Sparni that we were curious, we were empathetic.”
“我很幸运，因为我们, 作为一个社会和文化, are a lot more accepting of openness towards mental health problems,斯帕尼补充道. “People were like, ‘Hey, we respect your honesty and this is stuff that a lot of people go through. Hearing another person talk about it, makes us feel more seen.’”
纪录片制作后，斯帕尼的第二张专辑， 斯巴达·普拉斯的《十大博彩推荐排名》, 在1月29日他们22岁生日的时候被释放了, 音乐, 嘻哈的混合, 说唱, 口语和诗歌, taken from journals written during a period marked by mental health challenges.
“I don’t make a habit of oversharing, but I also feel, in my music, I talk about some dark stuff. At this point I’m desensitized to having that kind of information out about me. If it’s for an artistic reason, it doesn’t really faze me,斯帕尼说.
这张专辑附带了一个警告. “I don’t want people to listen to my music and feel triggered or upset. 但我也不会淡化我要说的话. I look at modern music right now and there’s all this emphasis on talking about your mental health, 但没有人真正谈论发生了什么,斯帕尼说. “People reference that their mental health is bad and people talk about coping, but nobody talks about what the actual symptoms of what you’re feeling is. Nobody talks about how to grow after going through a really rough place.”
分享那些感受, sections of the album feature voice recordings playing at the same time, stylistic choices that coincidentally mirror the editing techniques used in the documentary to express manic episodes and sensory overload.
It was the efforts of Jazz Studies Coordinator Oscar Perez, who ultimately brought Sparni and the filmmakers together when he matched his promising student with Nelson at a time when the young vib说唱honist was thinking about changing instruments.
“史蒂夫·纳尔逊 is one of the premier vib说唱honists of his generation,” Perez says. “They have formed a special bond over their shared love of 音乐 and the instrument with which they express themselves. 能有他来教我们的学生是我们的荣幸.”
斯帕尼很感激这个机会. “I’m studying with somebody who is a piece of the progression of my instrument and also a mover and shaker in the evolution of 音乐. And then on top of that, he’s a phenomenal teacher,斯帕尼说.
斯帕尼在斯塔顿岛长大, 纽约, and says they chose Montclair for its affordability and high caliber of the Cali School program. As they prepare to graduate, Sparni plans to keep gigging. 过去一年, Sparni had debut performances on jazz radio station WBGO and NYC jazz clubs, including Dizzy’s Club and SOB’s (also known as Sounds of Brazil), 加入了迪克·格里芬的爵士大乐队. 从长远来看，斯帕尼计划成为一名爵士乐教育家.
“There was something really organic that I found amongst the Cali students,电影制作人西格劳布说. “There’s a real collaborative spirit that music certainly can and should bring, 但这并不总是表现出来. 但是在卡利学校, 尤其是在爵士研究系, 所有的学生对彼此都很慷慨, 一直工作到很晚. There was just something that you would feel in the hallways that said something here is going right.”
特约撰稿人报道 玛丽莲·乔伊斯·莱伦. 摄影:约翰J. LaRosa