WMPG’s Jazz At The Movies and The Portland Conservatory of Music are pleased to present “Low Down”, a film adaptation based on the first person memoir of A.J. Albany, the daughter of the great bebop jazz pianist Joe Albany. Back in the late 1940s, Albany had played with Mingus, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young, but by the early 1970s had faded into obscurity.

Shot in grainy 16 mm by cinematographer Jeff Preiss (who shot the beautiful 1990 Chet Baker documentary ”Let’s Get Lost”), and with a superb soundtrack with music from Joe Albany, Coleman Hawkins, Monk and Max Roach, Low Down is not just a jazz movie. It is the compelling and touching story of an adoring daughter’s love and forgiveness for a father who has fallen prey to hard times and unforgiving hard drugs. It is about one girl’s growing up, and about one man’s refusal to. And as Amy- Jo says, it’s really about the jazz that shaped her, and “a love story, a poem to my father, and also to Los Angeles.”

Among the stellar cast are Glen Close as the girls wise grandmother, Elle Fanning as Amy-Jo, and Ethan Hawkes as the jazz crazed pianist Joe Albany. Joe Albany, of course, was not alone in falling victim to the demon dope; it had taken the lives of such jazz greats as Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday. There is a sad but poignant beauty throughout this film about the downside of the jazz life. Like the music, it can be sweet and low down too.

Join us Saturday, March 21st, 7 PM for the “Low Down” at the Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St., Admission is free, and donations are gladly accepted.