Celebrating one of jazz music’s most iconic performers, Vince Giordano: There’s a Future in the Past is a rich portrait of a musician who also happens to be one of the most valuable archivists and historians in America. Fascinated with Hot Jazz from the 1920s and 30s, Giordano began collecting sheet music in the 1970s, and has since accumulated over 60,000 items, a whole era’s worth of music, much of it neglected. With his partner, Carol Hughes, he is also the bandleader of Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, an 11-piece band that has been heard at the Newport Jazz Festival, appeared in numerous movies such as The Aviator and The Cotton Club, won a Grammy for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and many, many more. Filmmakers Dave Davidson and Amber Edwards shine a light on the tireless Vince Giordano, who has almost singlehandedly kept Hot Jazz alive today, both in his performances and his archival work.
Directors’ Biographies
Dave Davidson: Filmmaker and media educator Dave Davidson is professor of film at The City University of New York (CUNY) in Harlem, where he was founding director of the MFA in Media Arts Production program from 1997 to 2011. He has directed numerous documentary features, many of them focusing on musicians and artists.
Directors’ Biographies
Amber Edwards: Amber Edwards has directed numerous documentaries and television programs about music and the arts, winning 13 regional Emmy Awards. She is a graduate of Yale University where she serves as a Fellow at Branford College, and is the founding Artistic Director of Yale Musical Theater of the Air.
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