At first, it seemed doubtful this hour-long documentary revolving around a single photograph could hold anyone's attention for 60 minutes. But for about a year, the film has been proving naysayers wrong. Ultimately, it won first prize at the Chicago Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards this spring, as well as numerous accolades from film critics.
For Bach, who has been supporting much of the production with her own money, the film was a mission of love she undertook when she realized most of the artists featured in the photo had passed away.
The shot was taken by Art Kane, a renegade art director for Esquire magazine, who had been hired to take individual portraits. Instead, Kane came up with the idea of trying to assemble the numerous musicians in New York for a jazz-family portrait.
The chances the artists would actually come for a 10 a.m. shooting were slim. Jazz artists are, after all, night creatures.
But the next morning, to everyone's surprise, most of the artists showed up.
Bach, a septaganerian jazz-lover who knew most of the musicians in the photo, said the shot was a unique event in jazz history, one that will likely never be repeated.
"It was just a fluke," Bach said.
The film combines the footage from Hinton with interviews with many of the artists, both living and deceased, as well as stills from the approximately 120 exposures taken by Kane.
Among its many greats, the photo includes the jazz royalty of the time -- including Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, and Count Basie, who got so tired waiting for Kane to take the shot that he sat down on the curb.
The photo includes soon-to-be stars, like Thelonius Monk, Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer and Gerry Mulligan.
The atmosphere in the photo is so relaxed, so cool, Gillespie is featured sticking his tongue out at Eldridge, his one time idol. Also, no one seems to mind the 12 youngsters who wandered into the frame, lining it at the bottom and making faces at the camera.
Bach was inspired to make the film at a jazz party in 1989. At that party, she discoverd that Mona Hinton, wife of bassist Milt Hinton, had used a home movie camera to film the musicians milling around before the shoot.
Since then the project has taken on a variety of forms.
"It kind of changes it's complexion as we go along," Bach said. "I've caught a tiger by the tail and I can't let it go."
