EFW Presents: Fire Music: The Story Of Free Jazz + Special Guests at Elysium Furnace Works at Story Screen Beacon Theater

“Crammed with exhilarating sounds, moving reminiscences and stimulating arguments that [free jazz] is not just music, but vital music… [Its] highlights are incredibly well-curated archival footage and contemporary interviews that allow the viewer to briefly commune with some beautiful souls… This movie constituted a too-short heaven on earth. I’d binge on an expanded series, honestly.”

— Glenn Kenny, The New York Times (Fire Music is a NY Times Critic’s Pick)

"Fire Music sets a new benchmark. The film clearly lays out how the original wave of free jazz evolved from what came before and how, for a brief yet indelible period, yielded a wealth of music that's still unparalleled in its gritty intensity and deep spiritual resonance. Thanks to Tom Surgal, we have a record of what it felt like to be there.”...

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“Crammed with exhilarating sounds, moving reminiscences and stimulating arguments that [free jazz] is not just music, but vital music… [Its] highlights are incredibly well-curated archival footage and contemporary interviews that allow the viewer to briefly commune with some beautiful souls… This movie constituted a too-short heaven on earth. I’d binge on an expanded series, honestly.”

— Glenn Kenny, The New York Times (Fire Music is a NY Times Critic’s Pick)

"Fire Music sets a new benchmark. The film clearly lays out how the original wave of free jazz evolved from what came before and how, for a brief yet indelible period, yielded a wealth of music that's still unparalleled in its gritty intensity and deep spiritual resonance. Thanks to Tom Surgal, we have a record of what it felt like to be there.”

— Hank Shteamer, Rolling Stone

“Fire Music provides a concise, thoughtful account of the musical form which first blossomed in the late 1950s. The documentary does an excellent job of making the music come alive with its gripping performance footage and incisive interviews with many key players... The film should be on any serious music lover's must-see list."

— Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

Elysium Furnace Works — in collaboration with the premier independent movie theater in Beacon, NY, Story Screen Beacon — is proud to present the acclaimed documentary Fire Music: The Story of Free Jazz. Directed by Tom Surgal, the film is co-produced by such luminaries as Thurston Moore, Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline among others, and features interviews and rare archival performance footage by John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler, among many others.

For this rare Hudson Valley screening, we will also present an in-person panel discussion and Q&A with three accomplished musicians from this discipline: Bard College professor/percussionist Thurman Barker, retired professor/percussionist Warren Smith, and multi-instrumentalist/free music scholar Ras Moshe Burnett.

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