Classical and Jazz: Event: Mike Figgis on his four-day multi-media fest at Kings Place
Published: 09 September 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
I'VE always been first and foremost a musician,” says Mike Figgis, widely known as a film director and noted for such movies as Leaving Las Vegas, Internal Affairs, One Night Stand and Hotel.
“My father was a huge classical jazz fan. I started playing trumpet when I was 12, then I realised that it just doesn’t attract the girls. So I taught myself classical guitar and then conned my way into music college by pretending I could read music. They said they’d let me in if I studied piano. So I jumped at the chance.”
Next week at Kings Place, he’s putting on a four-day multi-media fest exploring his close involvement in music and film.
On Wednesday he’s presenting a live mix of his 1999 experimental film Timecode, changing the score and the mix to illustrate the potential effect of music on the drama.
On Thursday, he’s featuring songs he wrote for three multi-media projects in the early 1980s, combining live performance with live music.
On Friday, there’s a video/ soundscape programme where concert pianist Rosey Chan presents herself as a young girl, as she is today and as a 90-year-old. Her script is her music combining Bach, Ravel and Scriabin with jazz improvisations, Figgis himself sitting in on bass and trumpet.
Lastly, on Saturday evening, he’s revisiting his musical past in Ireland in the late 1960s/1970s by recreating his “crazy ensemble,” The People Band playing an epic performance of free jazz.
Never one to let the grass grow, Figgis will be busy in the autumn with preparations for his first opera production, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia for the English National Opera at the Coliseum in January.
– For details, see listings