Enzo Avitable and Jonathan Demme team up for charming music documentary set in Naples
ENZO AVITABILE MUSIC LIFE (Jonathan Demme, 2012)
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway at 63rd St., 212-757-2280
Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston St. at Mercer St., 212-995-2570
Opens Friday, October 18
www.enzoavitabilemusiclife.com
About six years ago, Jonathan Demme was driving in his car toward the George Washington Bridge when he heard a song on the radio that changed his life. It was by a Neapolitan musician he had never heard of before, Enzo Avitable. A few years later, producer Davide Azzolini invited Demme to be a special guest at the Naples Film Festival, and Demme agreed to attend, as long as he got to meet Avitable. Not only did Azzolini arrange the meeting, but they all decided to work together as well. The result is the charming documentary Enzo Avitable Music Life, in which Demme captures the always smiling and positive Avitable playing in a beautiful Baroque church with a stellar group of musicians from around the world, showing off his cluttered apartment (along with photos of him with James Brown, Tina Turner, and other superstars he has performed with), and visiting his childhood town of Marianella. As with such previous Demme documentaries as Stop Making Sense, Storefront Hitchcock, and Neil Young Trunk Show, the focus is on the music, as Avitable discusses his classical training and composing methods, pontificates on his love of jazz, and participates in wonderful jam sessions with various combinations that include Cuba’s Eliades Ochoa, Iraq’s Naseer Shamma, Spain’s Gerardo Núñez, Pakistan’s Ashraf Sharif Khan Poonchwala, India’s Trilok Gurtu, Sardinia’s Luigi Lai, Italy’s Zi’ Giannino Del Sorbo and Bruno Canino, Iran’s Hossein Alizadeh, Mauritania’s Daby Touré, and Palestinian singer Amal Murkus. Avitable is seen playing saxophone and unusual stringed instruments and singing lyrics that range from traditional folktales to abstract poetry to overheated sociopolitical commentary, believing in the power of music to make a difference. The scenes in the church have a kind of magic that is reminiscent of Davis Guggenheim’s It Might Get Loud, which documented a historic jam session between Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White. And things get sweetly personal when the ebullient, curly haired Avitable returns to Marianella and meets up with some old friends — and their parents, who remember him well from when he was just a kid. The film is not merely a celebration of Avitable and his music but a tribute to his beloved Napoli as well.
The delightful documentary David Bromberg Unsung Treasure sings the well-deserved praises of a rather unusual character — a white, Jewish bluesman from ritzy Tarrytown, New York. For more than forty years, masterful guitarist and songwriter David Bromberg has been singing his entertaining brand of the blues and bluegrass, either solo, with his Big Band, or with the Angel Band. A consummate musician, engaging raconteur, and outstanding live performer, he trained with the Rev. Gary Davis before going on to play with such superstars as Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, George Harrison, Jerry Jeff Walker, and a litany of others. A big man with an ever-present beard, mustache, and glasses, Bromberg is an utterly charming figure, speaking honestly and openly about his life and career, often mentioning how deeply he was affected by the way he was raised and how that helped instill the blues in him. Beth Toni Kruvant (The Right to Be Wrong, Heart of Stone) traces his early years through wonderful archival footage and old photographs, then delves into his departure from playing music in the late 1980s and 1990s, when he and his wife, singer Nancy Josephson, moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where he established a well-respected 
