The Gig

This film is so difficult to find (I watched a complete upload on YouTube) that it seems foolish to review. As a long time lover of jazz and having been around jazz musicians for most of my life at clubs in NYC like the Five Spot and even places like Trumpets in my hometown of Montclair, this movie rings true on so many levels. Is it a great film? No. It is clearly made on a shoestring and with only a couple of names --Wayne Rogers and Cleavon Little. But the supporting cats are good too, many good character faces from old TV shows. What I think is most insightful, is the writing and how it captures these characters, their love for jazz and their naivete about what it takes to be a pro.

The dialogue is smart and funny. The film drags in a few places when some of the smaller characters are given too much story time but it never slows down to the point of disinterest. The writer knew how to write musicians -- jazz musicians especially, because they are an interesting bunch. I have to say one thing about my man, Cleavon Little. Cleavon left us with some beautiful work and he left us too soon. His performance here deserves attention because he played his character with such a distinct point of view. He and Wayne Rogers carried the film. Another scene, which I felt revealed the quality of the writing was the scene when Wayne Rogers gets knocked out by the wannabe Sinatra guy. A lesser film would have had him fighting back and being all macho. But instead, true to his character, who was not a tough guy, he took it like he had to. That scene must have happened in real life because it could not be made up, it had such a ring of truth. Find this film, and watch it.

My review was written in November 1985 after watching the film at a Times Square screening room.

"The Gig" is a winning little film about a group of guys who try to fulfill their dream of being jazz players. Self-distributed by filmmaker Frank D. Gilroy, this comedy-drama should win favor with older audiences who can identify easily with the ingenious premise and situations.

Wayne Rogers toplines as a New York businessman who has played Dixieland jazz with his five pls for their own amusement once a week since 1970. He arranges a two-week pro engagement at Paradise Manor hotel in the Catskills and ultimately talks the group into taking the step, the convincing argument being when their bass player George (Stan Lachow) drops out due to a major illness, promoting solidarity among the other five.

The replacement bassist, veteran player Marshall Wilson (Cleavon Little), causes friction in the group, not so much because he's black and they're white but because of his unfriendly personality and condescending attitude towards the budding amateurs. Filmmaker Gilroy gets maximum comic mileage out of this contrast, while making good points concerning the snobism and purist stance that pervades many jazz circles.

At Paradise Manor, the group's dream of self-realization is almost snuffed out when hotel owner Abe Mitgang (Joe Silver, perfectly cast), immediately objects to their loud "biff, bang, bam" playing, and requires the band to play quiet, schmaltzy music. They ultimately succeed in winning over the resort audience to swinging Dixieland music Disillusionment comes when crooner Rick Valentine (played by actor-dj Jay Thomas) makes a comeback engagement and nastily insults the band's abilities when they can't play his Vegas-style arrangements, forcing Mitgang to fire them.

Aided by a very entertaining portrait of life at a Catskills resort, Wayne Rogers and Cleavon Little make a solid team. They're supported ably bby reallife jazz artist Warren Vache (who plays his own cornet here and doubled as film's musical director) portraying, natch, the most talented musician in the group; Jerry Matz as the clarinetist with an inflated view of his abilities; Andrew Duncan as the henpecked pianist; and Daniel Nalbah s the morose drummer/dentist.

"The Gig" stands as an effective peek at the wish-fulfillment fringes of show business, previously treated from a jazz vantagepoint in the 1976 Swedish pic "Sven Klang's Combo".

This little film brings back a lot of memories, both fond and foul, of what can and does happen when one is a working musician. The not so pleasant accommodations for the band, the management of the venue jumping up and down telling you what to play, the sheer ecstasy of the applause.............. Far from being farcical it is, in fact, very accurate in the way it depicts musicians, professional and otherwise, who have travelled a great distance to perform a season of gigs at a venue. There are those times when everything goes perfectly, there are those other times when you immediately start to miss your partner and wonder what the hell you are doing this far from home. In the end you have to make the best of it because there is no other way out.

My wife and I endorse all the positive comments below, made by other IMDB members. While this is no box office smash hit it has a special charm all of its own. Genuine and heart-warming.

We saw this on video, at the end of a long day. We were very tired, and in bed. Normally in a situation like this my wife drops off to sleep within minutes, that is, unless it is an exceptional movie and this one kept us both entertained right to the very end.

Perhaps younger viewers in their teens and twenties would not like this, but for the rest of us it is a true gem! See it!

So, a group of middle-age guys who play jazz for a hobby get to live out their dream of playing a professional gig (at a resort hotel), and the dream doesn't turn out like they thought it would.

Doesn't sound like much, but "The Gig" is a movie that sticks with you, because of its understated exploration of the stakes involved in just living a life - failure, hopes, small comforts, friendship, disappointments. The jazz group is the nominal theme, but the film is a character study. Not an academic one - it has the guts (and script) to bleed a little for the characters, and is unconventional in its avoidance of easy tie-ups and crowd-pleasing pay-offs.

An extremely satisfying, heartfelt, well-crafted picture, with performances from Wayne Rogers (TV MASHs 'Trapper John') and Cleavon Little (best known probably as the sheriff in "Blazing Saddles", though he also played a comedy TV doctor in "Temperatures Rising") which suggest they generally didn't get the roles they deserved and were capable of.