Karel Reisz & Tony Richardson, 1955
One of the foundation stones of British Free Cinema, this 22-minute short shows trad antics at Wood Green Jazz Club, with the Chris Barber Band featuring Lonnie Donegan. Years later, Absolute Beginners (Julien Temple, 1985) would be derided for its high-gloss reimagining of the London jazz scene in its heyday, but with input from Gil Evans and a dazzling fantasia on Charles Mingus’s Boogie Stop Shuffle, it’s not to be dismissed.
The Connection
Shirley Clarke, 1961
Jazz was as vital to the new American independent cinema of the 1950s and 60s as it was to the era’s poetry and painting. One of the most famous jazz-influenced films of this period was John Cassavetes’s Shadows (1959), but just as vital was Clarke’s film, based on Jack Gelber’s play about a group of jazz-scene heroin addicts waiting for their man: among the cast, pianist Freddie Redd, who wrote the score, and altoist Jackie McLean.
Mid-term report card: How are the Irish provinces faring so far this season
Simon Lewis grades the four provinces at the halfway point of this season’s Guinness PRO14
Star men: Connacht s Jack Carty, Leinster s Rhys Ruddock, Munster s Peter O Mahony, and Ulster s Billy Burns.
Mon, 11 Jan, 2021 - 07:00
Simon Lewis
CONNACHT
Jack Carty has regained the confidence and form he lost after the World Cup and has re-emerged as a genuine contender for an Ireland recall. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan PRO14 status: 2nd Conference B P 9 W 5 L 4 BP 6 Pts 26
Had a chance to put real pressure on conference leaders Munster but slipped to another home defeat and now have an 11-point deficit to make up if they are to make a first final appearance since their triumphant charge to the PRO12 title in 2016.