One of Movieline Magazine’s
“Seven Masterpieces of the ’00s You’ve Likely Never Seen”
“A masterpiece… Among the most significant efforts of the year – or any year this decade, for that matter.”
– Movieline
The life and hard work of Ken Vandermark,
legendary avant-jazz saxophonist and MacArthur Genius Award Winner
A unique, essential, and utterly fascinating portrait of life as a professional musician
“Critic’s pick . . . radically fresh . . . shot and edited with the same inquisitive spirit that defined Studs Terkel’s oral history Working.”
- Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times
“Deceptively simple . . . one of the best films of the year . . . a succession of haunting realities, none more so than a map of the shattered line between so many of our personal and professional lives.”
- S.T. VanAirsdale, The Reeler
“RECOMMENDED. Paints a vibrant but decidely unglamorous portrait. The end result is a strange duality between work and play: Vandermark loves what he does, but because resources for the improvising musician are so limited, he can never rest.”
– Chicago Reader
The second film in Daniel Kraus’ WORK Series, a set of independent documentaries designed to create an on-going record of the American worker.
Common sense says you can’t make a living in America playing avant-garde improvisational jazz. But Ken Vandermark does it anyway.
Among musicians, Vandermark’s work ethic is almost mythic. The Chicago reed player has released over 100 albums with nearly 40 ensembles, spends over eight months per year on the road, and lives every other waking moment composing, arranging, performing — and trying to discipline his two hyperactive canines. Though Vandermark was the recipient of a 1999 MacArthur genius grant, he still spends most of his life in smoky clubs and low-budget recording studios, hoping people will plunk down hard-earned cash to hear his wholly non-commercial music.
Following the artful cinéma vérité style of the internationally acclaimed Sheriff, Musician forgoes all interviews and voice-overs. It is a fly-on-the-wall time capsule that expertly captures every subtle sound and texture of this most American of art forms.
“Musician is a precise and insightful cinema verite study of Ken Vandermark . . . Offers an unglamorized portrait of the artist as a purposeful drudge. Well-crafted and compelling.”
- Variety
“Illuminating!”
- Andrey Henkin, The Villager