'Round Midnight

at Amherst Cinema
Tuesday May 11   7:00 only

WFCR Jazz Series
with Jazz à la mode host, Tom Reney
Enjoy Jazz greats on the big screen with local host of WFCR's legendary Jazz à la mode Program, Tom Reney.  Enjoy 20 minutes of LIVE jazz before each performance, and stick around to discuss the history, the personalities and the music after each show.

In 'Round Midnight, real-life jazz legend Dexter Gordon brilliantly portrays the fictional tenor sax player Dale Turner, a musician slowly losing the battle with alcoholism, estranged from his family, and hanging on by a thread in the 1950's New York jazz world. Dale gets an offer to play in Paris, where, like many other black American musicians at the time, he enjoys a respect for his humanity that is not based upon the color of his skin. A Parisian man who is obsessed with Turner's music befriends him and attempts to save Turner from himself. Although for Dale the damage is already done, his poignant relationship with the man and his young daughter re-kindles his spirit and his music as the end draws near.

Director Bertrand Tavernier.  1986, 133 mins.