Gwyn Loves Louis copyright A documentary film proposal Gwynn Jay Allen is a charismatic Jazz performer. He is a jazz obsessive. In both performance and knowledge of the genre he’s rarely surpassed. But most of all he is a Louis Armstrong fanatic. Born in the UK Gwyn moved to his parents’ native Sierra Leone at the age of 4. Music was everywhere. “Most Sundays, Dad would get out his old jazz albums and they would both sing their hearts out throughout the day. Living in Africa meant that I had the indigenous music from which jazz came. I was living in the birthplace of jazz and soaking it all in” Gwyn sang in church, and even now regularly sings leading large crowds in charismatic worship. In the 1990s during the recession he drove a London mincab and would entertain his customers by sing Louis Armstrong classics to them (whether they liked it or not!) Around this time he turned professional and enjoyed several successful years as jazz performer in residence at London’s Hilton Park and Dorchester hotels. In 1997 he made it into the Grand Finals of ITV’s “Stars in their Eyes” having won one series with his performance as “Satchmo” in front of a TV audience of 20 million viewers. He also starred in a BBC/HBO production “The Affair” as a G.I. and spent a season on London’s West End as Cab Calloway in “The Blues Brothers”. His voice has graced records by Diana Ross, Jamiroquai and Maxi Priest among others. And the family music traditions continues: one son Nathan is Amy Winehouse’s drummer and musical director, the other, Sean is a professional bass player. Gwyn is to be our journeyman as we look at the jazz of Louis Armstrong, the first great star of the genre. Gwyn tells us of the history he has researched which goes back into the roots of the African, and follows it through the slave trade, a time when black slaves used singing to communicate secret messages amongst each other when the white owners forbad them from speaking, the repatriation of freed slaves to Liberia and Sierra Leone; a story he tells with the authority of one whose great great grandfather made that very historic journey home. As a musician he speaks with authority on the technicalities of the music, but mostly he speaks with the passion of one who lives it. And he sings it. This is to be no ordinary historical documentary. Our presenter is jazz. Just like old Satchmo himself. On the 27th January 2008 Gwyn launched his album I Love Louis – A Creole Tribute to Louis Armstrong with a sensational performance at the Pizza Express Soho Jazz Club in front of a packed audience. The concert was recorded in its entirety on 4 Broadcast cameras and the results are spectacular. Gwyn and the band, which included Alex Wilson on keyboard as musical director gave their all. The producers have exclusive rights to this footage a sample of which can be seen at http://www.rogal.org/IGW.wmv and http://www.rogal.org/WAM.wmv and http://www.rogal.org/NSDS2.wmv The narrative of the story will be intertwined with this musical performance, the songs perfectly complementing Gwyn’s obsession with Louis Armstrong, his profound understanding of Jazz and its history, his Creole roots, his personal trials and tribulations (which include his terrifying kidnap ordeal at the hands of Sierra Leone government militia in 1999) which have reinforced his lifelong strong Christian faith (beautifully expressed in his song Praise). We’ll travel with Gwyn to his parents’ Sierra Leone home where we’ll visit the very steps that freed slaves symbolically climbed as they entered Freetown on their return to their homeland. We examine what it means to be “Creole” and look at the African influence that is at the very heart of Jazz. We’ll also tell of the sad loss of jazz diva Velma Middleton, Louis’ preferred singing partner who died of a stroke in Freetown 1961 while she and Louis were in the middle of their sell-out Africa tour. And we let Gwyn tell us first-hand of his terrifying kidnap. We then travel with Gwyn to New Orleans and visit the home, the clubs, the streets of his idol. Quentin Collins, trumpeter says “Before Miles (Davis), before Coltraine, before Charlie Parker there was Louis Armstrong. It all comes back to him” Most jazz musicians agree, Jazz really started when Louis Armstrong burst onto the scene. We look at Louis’s history and we look at his politics, how he used his influence over white people to change the lives of the African-American. Duke Ellington once said “Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.” Louis was a fierce critic of the Eisenhower government and reacted fiercely to the Little Rock school desegregation crisis. He later found himself under the detailed scrutiny of the FBI for his outspoken comments on race issues. Louis’ All Stars Band was often unable to play simply because of the authorities’ disapproval of “integrated” bands. And yet despite this Satchmo’s jazz thrived and fuelled the later trends in jazz which we will briefly touch upon. Finally we return to Gwyn’s performance and allow him to sum up in comment and music why, in his opinion, Louis is the greatest of them all. For further details please contact Colin Rogal colin@rogal.org 07831 232426 16 Marksbury Ave Richmond Surrey TW9 4JF