This film has received a lot of kudos and I can understand why: it’s an excellent piece of filmmaking. There are no energy let-downs throughout the film, the dialogue is believable, the cinematography excellent and the ensemble acting superb. There have been reviews of the film, but I believe that what I have to say about the musical, technical and historical elements of the movie will particularly resonate with the knowledgeable readers of Syncopated Times.
The soundtrack is composed of recreations of music from the 1920’s and music written by Branford Marsalis (I give a complete rundown of the soundtrack at the end of the review). Marsalis shows a deft touch in his original scoring. His music is not “period,” per se. It contains elements of what one might have heard in early jazz, but modernizes it slightly to fit the emotional needs of the action on screen. It supports that action without being intrusive.
Of course, the music of the period is at the center of the film. As Syncopated Times readers will know, Ma Rainey was one of the first female vocalists to make a reputation as a blues artist. She began performing around the turn of the 20th century in tent and medicine shows and black minstrelsy. Her recording career began in 1923 and the action in the film is set in 1927. It would have to be about this time, as the recording is being done electrically-through microp
