Italian cult classic film L'Assassino gets exclusive screening at EFG London Jazz Festival

jpg" alt="l-assassino-locandina-low" height="353" width="250">The EFG London Jazz Festival cinema strand promises a plethora of exclusive screenings this year, kicking off with a newly digitally restored screening of Elio Petri's 1960 cult thriller L'Assassino (The Assassin) starring La Dolce Vita star Marcello Mastroianni, which will be shown on 19 November at 4pm at the Barbican Cinema.

The event will be hosted by the Jazzwise writer Selwyn Harris celebrating the launch of his Jazz on Film Records' new remastered collector's edition vinyl collection Jazz in Italian Cinema (following the acclaimed Jazz in Polish Cinema CD box set release in 2015) featuring jazz by the 'big 3' film composers Piero Umiliani, Piero Piccioni (who composed the music for L'Assassino) and Armando Trovajoli plus musician-composers as Giorgio Gaslini and the MJQ's John Lewis.

Pressed on heavyweight 180gm vinyl, the collection features old school, in-depth sleeve/insert notes written by the Sienna jazz Archivist/author Francesco Martinelli and Selwyn Harris tracing the emergence of jazz in Cinecitta in the late 1950s-60s and its crucial role in disseminating jazz from the big screen out to a wider Italian audience.

The EFG London Jazz Festival cinema strand also includes the rare screening of a recently discovered Belgian abstract film curiosity, Who's Crazy?, with a free jazz Ornette Coleman trio soundtrack. Some readers would have heard of the film through documentary maker Dick Fontaine's revealing 1966 documentary David, Moffett and Ornette, which captures Ornette, bassist David Izenzon  and drummer Charles Moffett as they travel to Paris to record the soundtrack to the film. There's also a showing of the highly anticipated Gregory Porter documentary - Gregory Poter: Don't Forget Your Music.

– Mike Flynn

For more info on further film screenings in the series and tickets visit www.barbican.org.uk