纪录片聚焦有前途的卡利音乐学院的颤音演奏家

纪录片制片人开始讲述一位世界著名的爵士颤琴演奏家的故事, 但在回顾了他们在十大博彩推荐排名州立大学拍摄的镜头后，他们开始改变叙述, where the vibraphonist, Steve Nelson, 他最近开始在约翰J. Cali School of Music.

“Something in the room was happening,” recalls Nathan Siegelaub, a writer and documentary filmmaker based in New York. “There was electricity. There was excitement. There was good camaraderie between the students.”

One Montclair student in particular stood out, a young vibraphonist, Pierce Sparnroft, 谁更喜欢用他们/他们的代词和“斯帕尼”这个名字.“他们非常有天赋，他们身上有某种特质。, how expressive they are,西格劳布回忆起他在哥伦比亚大学的教授, Graduate School of Journalism, where the film was produced, telling him. “有些东西你应该再深入挖掘一下.”

而电影制片人则继续研究尼尔森对爵士乐的影响, they also followed Sparni, now a senior Jazz Studies major, 在整个2023年春季学期，学生为独奏会做准备. “Once we learned more about Sparni, we discovered a story that needed to be told right now,” Siegelaub says.

The result is the documentary titled Sparni , directed by Siegelaub and Ania Gruszczyńska. 它曾在哥伦比亚大学新闻研究生院(Columbia ' s Graduate School of Journalism)的DocFest ' 23展览会上展出. 在观众中，斯帕尼是第一次观看这部电影. “我当时想，‘哇，这是我今年投入的一堆工作的高潮.’ It was gratifying to see it in front of me.”

Sparni is the story of a promising young musician, 还有音乐的治愈力量和精神疾病的影响. 斯帕尼对他们严重的心理健康问题持开放态度, 这是制片人在讲述斯帕尼的故事时很敏感的一点.

“斯帕尼的天性是表达和开放的，需要表达自己和分享,” says Gruszczyńska, 住在伦敦的记者和纪录片制片人. “We were transparent and clear about our intentions. 我们真的很感兴趣，我认为这向斯帕尼展示了我们很好奇，我们很感同身受.”

“I’m lucky in the sense that we, as a society and a culture, 对心理健康问题的开放态度是否得到了更多的接受,” Sparni adds. “人们说，‘嘿，我们尊重你的诚实，这是很多人都经历过的事情. 听别人谈论这件事，会让我们觉得自己更被关注.’”

Since the documentary was made, Sparni’s second album, Sparni Plath’s Lament, was released – on their 22nd birthday – on January 29, the music, a mix of hip hop, rap, spoken word and poetry,  摘自精神健康挑战时期的日记.

“我没有过度分享的习惯，但我也觉得，在我的音乐中，我谈论了一些黑暗的东西. 在这一点上，我对这种关于我的信息已经不敏感了. 如果是出于艺术上的原因，这并不会让我感到困扰。.

The album comes with a warning. “我不希望人们在听我的音乐时感到兴奋或沮丧. But I’m also not going to water down what I have to say. 我看看现在的现代音乐，它们都强调谈论你的心理健康, but nobody actually talks about what’s going on,” Sparni says. “人们提到他们的心理健康状况很差，人们谈论如何应对, 但是没有人谈论你的实际症状. 没有人谈论如何在经历了一个非常艰难的地方后成长.”

To share those feelings, 专辑的某些部分同时播放录音, 风格的选择恰好反映了纪录片中使用的编辑技术，以表达狂躁的情节和感官超载.

这是爵士乐研究协调员奥斯卡·佩雷斯的努力, 在年轻的颤音演奏家尼尔森想换乐器的时候，他把自己前途无量的学生和尼尔森配对，最终把斯帕尼和电影制作人拉到了一起.

“史蒂夫·尼尔森是他那一代最优秀的颤音演奏家之一，”佩雷斯说. “他们对音乐和乐器的共同热爱使他们形成了一种特殊的联系. It’s an honor to have him teaching our students.”

Sparni is grateful for the opportunity. “我正在和一个人一起学习，他是我的乐器进步的一部分，也是音乐发展的推动者和震撼者. 最重要的是，他是一位非凡的老师，”斯帕尼说.

Sparni grew up on Staten Island, New York, 并表示他们选择十大博彩推荐排名是因为它的经济实惠和高水平的卡利学校课程. 当他们准备毕业时，斯帕尼计划继续打零工. Over the past year, 斯帕尼在爵士乐电台WBGO和纽约爵士俱乐部进行了首次演出, 包括Dizzy 's Club和SOB 's(也被称为巴西之声), and joined Dick Griffin’s jazz big band. Long term, Sparni plans a career as a jazz educator.

“我在卡利的学生中发现了一些真正有机的东西,” says the filmmaker Siegelaub. “音乐当然可以也应该带来真正的合作精神, but which doesn’t always show. But at the Cali School, and especially in the Jazz Studies department, all of the students were generous toward one another, and worked hard late into the day. 你在走廊里总能感觉到一些东西告诉你这里一切顺利.”

Story by Staff Writer Marilyn Joyce Lehren. Photos by John J. LaRosa