What to Listen to While Making Mac and Cheese: The Music of Malcolm and Marie

JD and Zen Making Mac and Cheese Photo Courtesy of Netflix

Without reservation, the film Malcolm & Marie starring Zendaya and John David Washington was no doubt visually stunning.  The movie, which chronicles the couple’s highs and lows of a brutal all-night argument about . . . damn, I don’t know, was shot on black and white film rather than in a digital format.  It was artful.  It was special. It was instantly classic in its aesthetic.  Moreover, it was abundantly clear that the movie Malcolm & Marie intended the soundtrack to be something special as well.

From the opening scene where Malcolm jubilantly prances around their rented home then cues up James Brown’s “Down and Out in New York City,” a tune intimately tied to the film Black Caesar (1973), an astute audience was privy to the fact the music, diegetically (both the character and the audience can hear it), will narrate the nonverbal sentiments of the characters.  The music was brilliantly cast and was more than ample to sonically narrate a scene.  Admittedly, writer, director, Sam Levinson, and film editor Julio Perez, IV were deliberate in their attempt to support dialogue and set the mood of a scene with music.  Malcolm’s choice of Brown’s funk jam first fills the scene with sound then enlightens the audience of the bold overcoming power of a Black man, which is gan yẹ* to the character’s attitude at the moment.  Likewise, only moments later Marie’s unspoken tensions are revealed through Little Simz’s song “Selfish” featuring the amazing vocals of Cleo Sol.  Marie sentiments as heard through “Selfish’s” chorus, “I don’t want to fight” set the scene and reveal her desire to be left alone to brood for the remainder of the evening . . . or not.

Little Simz Photo: Linda Nylind

As the film progresses, the music continues to be a sonic masterpiece as it enters and exits the various scenes.  Saxophonist Zoot Sims’ Betaminus syncopated beat and flighty saxophone runs clearly disrupts the couple and escalates their tensions in a scene where Marie makes Mac and Cheese for Malcolm.  Fatback Band’s jam “Yum Yum” speaks loud and clear for Marie as she states her discontent about the evening.  Stax singer, songwriter William Bell’s “I Forgot to Be Your Lover,” which is awesomely orchestrated, by the way, drops in at the perfect time to allow an all too brief respite for the sparing couple, a mood of forgiveness for not making love a priority.

Coltrane and Ellington making magic

The film moves through its paces with a myriad of songs and rounds out with the ever lovely “In a Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington.  This song is undefeated in ushering in feelings of intimacy and sex appeal.  With the light key touches by Ellington on the piano and the seemingly far and away melody of John Coltrane on saxophone “In a Sentimental Mood” does it again.  In the end, literally in the last scene, Outkast’s song “Liberation” enters the expansive and resolute morning, to sum up the events of the previous evening.  The chorus belted out by CeeLo Green, and Erykah Badu states, “And there’s a fine line between love and hate you see, Can’t wait too late but baby I’m on it.”  As the couple Malcolm and Marie stand in the sunrise it reinforces the couple’s love-hate relationship in the most melodic of ways.

Outkast: Big Boy and Andre 3000. Ready to eat their Mac and Cheese!

Music in film is meant to aid in storytelling by driving and supporting scenes.  It is also used to set the mood and emotion of the characters.  In Malcolm & Marie, music is used to narrate the unspoken words of an emotionally caustic couple.  The music effectively created a subtext for the audience to follow.  We should all be so lucky to have a soundtrack like this to help back our most difficult moments in an argument.

(*means very appropriate in the Yoruba language)

Black Music Month Pt. 3 of 4: Jazz

Jazz is by far the most influential music ever created.  I know this is a bold statement, but it is true.  Jazz music has a critical global influence.  I would wager there is no place in the world anyone can travel and not hear some form of Jazz.  There are no pages left in Jazz’s passport.  The genre has never had any problems making its way through customs.  Jazz music, once known as jungle music, and music of the savage, capable of corrupting minds of the most pure soul, and inherently evil, ascended out of the brothels of Storyville, danced its way through the mean streets of St. Louis and Chicago, learned to swing in Harlem, and took flight across The Pond with all the sensibilities of the Black American struggle, was ultimately embraced by the world.

Jay McNeely corrupting the minds of the pure

Jazz, also known as American Classical Music, carries with it the entire narrative of the Black presence on American soil.  It is truth, it is emotion, it is literate, it is pompous, it is fresh, it is uncontainable, and it is love all at the same time.  Jazz is universally appealing and has the ability to change lives.

As the Jazz genre emerged out of the turn of the century, it shifted and transformed its style, rhythm, and movement to accommodate the changing cultural and social tides in America.  Today, moreover, through it all it has been sincere in its production and its message to the masses.

Continue to celebrate this BMM and listen to as much Jazz as you possibly can.  Check out the origins of Jazz in the recordings of Scott Joplin and Buddy Bolden.  Listen to the role of the Blues in the formation of Jazz with W. C. Handy, and Jelly Roll Morton.  Dive deep in to the era that placed Jazz on the map and check out the work of Louis Armstrong.  Learn about swing through the bands of Count Basie, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington.  Listen to amazing and classic voices (singers struggle to emulate today) of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Johnny Hartman.

Unmatchable voice

Find out what all the fuss is about Bebop by listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Bud Powell.  Listen to the magic of Jazz through Miles Davis and John Coltrane.  Groove to the descargas of Afro-Cuban Jazz y escuchan a Chano Pozo, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Dizzy Gillespie (yes him again), Eddie Palmieri.  Then be reminded Jazz is still hot today and check out the new lions such as Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, Gregory Porter, Esperanza Spalding, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Robert Glasper.

For now, listen to 4 of my favorites.