Vince Giordano, bandleader of New York City’s Grammy-winning hot jazz band The Nighthawks, is no stranger to the world of film-making. He has appeared in four Woody Allen movies, Sweet & Lowdown, Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Mighty Aphrodite and in the films The Cotton Club, The Aviator, and Revolutionary Road. More recently, he played a Prohibition Era bandleader in HBO’s hit television series, Boardwalk Empire. Giordano & the Nighthawks also acted on screen in all three seasons of the 1920s’ crime drama set in Atlantic City.
The band was awarded a 2012 Grammy for Best Compilation for Visual Media for their CD Boardwalk Empire Volume 1 – Music from the HBO Original Series.
So much for fictional films...and so much for being type-cast as a musician. Now Giordano, 63, is the star of a feature-length documentary about his own life and work, Vince Giordano – There’s a Future in the Past, which made its world premiere on March 5, at the Manchester International Film Festival in Northern England.
The festival presented Giordano with a” busy bee” award for Best Score.
“The bee statue is a symbol of Manchester,” Giordano explained. “It was once a great center of manufacturers and workers.” The bee symbol also adorns Manchester’s coat of arms which dates back to 1842 and can be found at the town hall and on other downtown landmarks.
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