One of the finest fictional movies about jazz and jazz musicians

One of the several things I disliked about "Bird" was the fact that Charlie Parker was seldom or never shown practicing or working on his craft. It was as if all he did was do drugs. Which is decidedly false- he wrote any number of classic songs for starters, practiced a lot, to hear his contemporaries tell it, and often spoke eloquently and at length about his craft. All of this was pretty much ignored in "Bird", and the same thing- even more so- can be said of "Lady Sings The Blues". Movies like this make it seem as if genius just slaps certain people in the noggin one day, and they are not at all intelligent or disciplined or rational or hard working.

I would like to know who are the musicians too.

I love this movie, and I also love Orchestra Wives. I grew up in the 80s loving jazz and swing. I still do. I've never cared much for rock. Sometimes looking at the schedules for cable arts channels and music channels full of documentaries about the history of rock and great rock performers I wish there was as much attention paid to jazz performers. Young Man with a Horn captures its era so well with its protrayal of large working bands, the promotion of star singers, and the band members longing to play the jazz and bebop they love rather than marketable dance music. When I watched it last night on TCM here in the UK I thought about how much has changed since it was made. There's little live music now in pubs and clubs compared to back then, no large dance halls. My father said he loved the 50s when they had pretty girls singing songs in pretty dresses like Doris Day. Today women performers can't just be girls in pretty dresses- so many of them are pressured to sell their music through exploiting their sexual appeal.

Young Man with a Horn- or Young Man of Music- (I always think of it with its original title) doesn't flinch from showing the dark side of the musicians' lives. Kirk Douglas' character is often broke, has to live in flop house accomodation, and work in seedy strip joints. He is frequently on the move from one town to another, harassed by gangsters. There is a tension in some movies about musicians that choosing to make a life playing music will lead a person to being without a family, like Art Hazzard expresses to the young Rick Martin. My father is a professional pianist. He saw this movie was as a parable about how wanting to play music that is different not appreciated by the general public will lead to being outcast and alienated. (For him Round Midnight had the same message). I don't see that. Kirk Douglas' character is fired from jobs for wanting to play his way, but his self destruction isn't caused by his search for the ideal high note that eludes him, as Hoagy Carmichael's narration says. It's triggered by rejection from Amy, the high society girl who marries him because she wants to be a person with a great gift like his talent for music. The ending shows him finding his way to a life where he could accept himself, was appreciated by others, and could express himself through his craft.

The ending might strike some as corny, especially since Doris Day, Hollywood's perennial good girl, stands by Rick at the end. Watching the movie again I didn't see it as contrived tacked on happy ending. Young Man with a Horn is a love letter to jazz musicians, both the stars who gained recognition for a while like Art Hazard and the players who never received a share of the spotlight.