Beating the drum for "Whiplash"

Damien Chazelle's 'Whiplash'

In
4 minute read
A love story: J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller in "Whiplash." (Both photos by Daniel McFadden - © 2014 - Sony Pictures Classics)
A love story: J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller in "Whiplash." (Both photos by Daniel McFadden - © 2014 - Sony Pictures Classics)

The last, and probably the only, Hollywood movie ever made about a jazz drummer was The Gene Krupa Story, released in 1959. Aside from Sal Mineo’s superb miming job to Krupa’s drumming on the soundtrack, it was, as jazz critic Leonard Feather wrote, “ludicrously inaccurate even by Hollywood standards.”

Still, whatever its shortcomings, the Krupa film inspired thousands of youngsters — Peter Criss of Kiss, Vanilla Fudge’s Carmine Appice, and a kid named Klauber among them — to take up the drums.

It’s taken 55 years for the release of another film about a jazz drummer — but well worth the wait. Whiplash, director/writer Damien Chazelle’s opus about the personal and musical travails of a young jazz percussionist’s time at a demanding music conservatory, is extraordinary on many levels. It’s clear that Chazelle, also a drummer, watched the Krupa film more than once, as well as the many DVDs out there on “the world’s greatest drummer,” Buddy Rich — including the ones I wrote and produced for Warner Bros.

Buddy Rich is referenced, both visually and on the soundtrack throughout, and the parallels and similarities of the two main characters in Whiplash to the real Buddy Rich, with touches of Krupa, simply cannot be ignored. In a way, Whiplash is The Buddy Rich Story.

Given the miniscule budget of not much over $3 million, the story line is about as straightforward as you can get out of Hollywood. Andrew Neyman, the young drummer played by Miles Teller — an actor we’re going to hear and see a lot of — aspires to greatness, à la his idol, Buddy Rich. He enrolls in one of the country’s most prestigious jazz schools, the fictional Schaffer Academy in Manhattan. (Schaffer is based not on Julliard School of Music’s jazz school, but the ultra-competitive jazz school at North Texas State University). Neyman’s goal is to drum in the studio’s “A” big band, under the leadership of one hell of a holy terror, Terence Fletcher (played by J.K. Simmons) in a remarkable, Oscar-worthy performance.

Fletcher inspires, promotes, and creates absolute fear as leader of the “A” ensemble, dishing out verbal, physical and emotional abuse, public and private humiliation, and rants and raves of insults that make Don Rickles look like a sissy. But Neyman accepts it, and Fletcher dishes it out for the same reason: The goal of “110 percent musical perfection,” something Buddy Rich often cited as his goal. Incidentally Fletcher’s manic, stream-of-consciousness raves are eerily similar to those dished out by Rich himself to his young band members, captured on tape and widely circulated through the years by Rich bandsmen.

If Fletcher is Buddy Rich the bandleader and sometimes martinet, then Neyman is the young Rich, playing superbly no matter what his physical or emotional condition, never giving up, never letting up, and coming back time after time, all elements of Buddy Rich the drummer.

Love and horror

Some writers have described Whiplash as “a horror story,” and though the tension never ceases throughout, this film is actually a love story between two men who share a love and devotion to jazz and the jazz tradition and who share the missions of perfection and artistic excellence.

The minor subplots of Neyman’s father — refreshingly underplayed by comedian Paul Reiser — and his lack of support for his son’s quest and a brief romance with Nicole, played by the charming Melissa Benoist, don’t get in the way.

Musically and not surprisingly, Justin Hurwitz’s score could be the Rich or the Stan Kenton band at work. Teller’s miming to the drums of Nate Lang — who also plays one of those competing with Neyman for the drum chair in the “A” band — is just incredible. Making life easier for all is the fact that Teller, in real life, is a pretty decent drummer, albeit in the rock vein.

But be warned: Whiplash is no walk in the park, and it is not a musical. The only song played in its entirety is Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” the climax of the film — and interestingly, a rather famous feature for Rich and Krupa through the years — which combines a well-known Buddy Rich technical feat with the Neyman character looking uncannily like Sal Mineo as Gene Krupa.

One glaring inaccuracy that should be noted is the reference to the oft-told story about legendary drummer Jo Jones throwing a cymbal at a young alto saxophonist named Charles “Yardbird” Parker, when the teenage Bird screwed up the chord changes during a jam session in Kansas City in 1937. The Fletcher character in Whiplash tells young Neyman that Jones threw the cymbal at Bird’s head. Not true. Jones threw the cymbal on the floor near Bird’s feet in an effort to “gong” him off. Well, Hollywood is allowed artistic license from time to time.

Buddy Rich’s daughter, Cathy, who helped with this project, has always wanted to have a Hollywood feature film made about the life and music of her one-of-a-kind dad. Cathy, I think this may be it. And you know what? Buddy would have loved it. So would Sal Mineo.

What, When, Where

Whiplash. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle. At the Ritz 5, 220 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Philadelphia area showtimes.

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