Dear Mr. Zwerin Part II : Ku-umba Frank Lacy

Part II of the “Dear Mr. Zwerin” series here on The Jazz Indie.

Frank Lacy. What can i say that would give proper credit to the man?  Not enough.  I love this man.  We , the filmmakers of “Icons Among Us” love the man.  We met Frank in the hotel lobby of the New Orleans Hilton during JazzFest or 2002. Maybe 2003.  I could look it up but im pretty sure the few people reading this can deal with the rough estimation. Regardless, we were pretty fresh into the production of Icons,  back when we had NO idea that we were barely beginning a journey into documentary filmmaking that would take the next decade ahead to conclude.  No complaints of course,  we really just had no fucking idea.

I saw Frank across the lobby about to walk out the door with the Mingus Big Band.  Lars was with me and we both decided to make a move and try to get an impromptu interview.  I had my sheet of paper i printed out with the Icons Among Us “mission statement.”  I walked up , introduced myself,  pitched him my best one minute summary and handed Frank the piece of paper.  Frank read it and then instantly said to me  ” When can we do this? I’m ready. I’ve been ready! I would love to talk about these things and it needs to be said! Can we do this now? Do you have a hotel room upstairs with the camera ready?”  I was saing yes and nodding my head with confirmation the entire time.  I was so psyched that Frank took to the words typed out on my little piece of paper.  I seriously thought he would look at me and say “thanks but no thanks.”.  I was wrong.  I immediately noticed that The Mingus Big Band was less than psyched, considering they had a show to do in an hour.  The band pretty much told Frank that it wasn’t possible and to please hurry the hell up!   Frank was cool enough to set up another time with us and we are very thankful he stuck by his word.  He met us early the next morning, just like he said he would.  The next 2 hours that we spent with Frank would become the first solid foundation for our documentary .  His interview would set the tone for what was possible in the filmmaking process for us.  Frank opened up his heart and soul to us and we will be forever thankful.

I was still a newbie at the interviewing process in all honesty.  Once again,  I was right there with my Mike Zwerin article tucked underneath my seat in case i wanted to bust out my favorite quotes from the article on Frank.    To this day, Frank’s response holds steady in the top 2 responses we received in the realm of  “Jazz: The Future Is Not What It Used To Be” by Mike Zwerin.

The Quote that was read to Frank that day?   Here it is :

” The future of the music is growing out more than up. It may or may not be getting better, but it is getting everywhere. Growth is horizontal more than vertical. There appear to be no more Coltranes on the horizon – no giants with the required combination of humility, strength and intelligence to lead a movement are emerging. On the other hand you can now go to just about any city in the developed world and hear a world-class rhythm section. (Thirty years ago there was only one outside the US, in Paris, and that had an American drummer.)” ~ excerpt from :  “Jazz: The Future Is Not What It Used To Be” by Mike Zwerin

Mr. Lacy’s response ? Watch the attached video to find out!

~m.r.

Thank you Frank. Wherever you are!