Morgan's Map

From 713 to 212: Houston jazz stars invade the New York scene

Jason Moran, a pianist from Houston’s Third Ward and a student of Morgan's
Robert "Doc" Morgan, right, with Kendrick Scott, one of his many students
92Y TriBeCa on New York's 92nd Friday and Saturday nights, an event organized byMoran called “713 to 212: Houstonians in NYC”
The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

The New York Times' Ben Ratliff gave Houston's own High School for the Performing and Visual Arts considerable recognition in an ArtsBeat article this week, specifically spotlighting former HSPVA Jazz program director Robert Morgan.

Twenty five of Morgan's former students who are now making their livings playing jazz in New York City gathered Friday and Saturday nights at the 92nd Street Y in TriBeCa for a concert series-cum-high school reunion.

Morgan caught up with CultureMap shortly after returning from NYC and gave us the skinny on the show and some reassurance about H-Town's obvious talent bleed:

CultureMap: How did this concert come together?

Robert Morgan: (Houston jazz musician) Jason Moran — it was all his idea. He was in town back in the fall and mentioned it to me then, that he had this idea to get together in one weekend all the HSPVA graduates that were in New York that were doing so well.

At the time, the 92YTribeca was a fairly new performance spot, and they were looking for new thing that may be of interest. What's amazing is that for all those kids, this seemed so important that they all kept the weekend open. Mark Kelley, a bass player that was there, could have been out of the country but turned it down so he could be there.

CM: What did this weekend mean to you?

RM: There were about 25 graduates of HSPVA scattered over two nights. It was incredibly good and very high energy. The first night Jason concentrated on two or four people who are more singer/songwriters, and as the Times review put it, it was almost like folk jazz.

The second night was more straight-ahead, modern jazz starting with the older guys, then Jamire Williams' group and Kendrick Scott's group and then ending with Robert Glasper and Jason Moran with two keyboards and two drummers, and they just started playing. It was just one of those magic moments that I, for one, will never forget.

CM: How did the New York Times get involved?

RM: The New York Times has two jazz critics — Ben Ratliff, who wrote the review, and Nate Chinen, who actually visited HSPVA after I retired [in 1999]. I know they're both very aware of HSPVA and very aware of the students. I subscribe to the NYT daily and have read any number of laudatory reviews. I did meet Ben Ratliff last year when he was on a book tour and was amazed that he knew who I was.

CM: So many of your students have ended up in New York City — should we be worried about losing local talent?

RM: New York is the place to go. Among professional reasons, several of the major universities for studying jazz are in New York — the main one is called the New School, and a lot of our kids are recruited very heavily. It's almost like a football situation. I know Robert Glasper went there, and Jason Moran went to the Manhattan School of Music. Of the 25 students that played these weekend concerts, virtually every one went to New York for school or to Berklee in Boston and invariably, once they graduate, they move to New York.

And, I mean, I encourage that. Before I retired, some parents would get upset with me. You can't beat the University of North Texas [where Morgan graduated] but the thing is, once you graduate, you pretty much have to move to New York to get established. Even now, with airports everywhere and the ease of communication, it's still hard to find a successful jazz musician who didn't spend their formative years in New York.

All of the 25 are out of school and in NYC making a living making jazz music. I'm prejudiced, but I'll say it's extraordinary. I kind of get misty eyed every time I read that.

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

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