Smoothie (1992)

Maurice Cullaz, nicknamed smoothie by his friend Louis Armstrong, embodies at 80 years old living memory of jazz. Jean-Henri Meunier followed this tireless music lover in concerts and behind the scenes, to collect the moving testimonies of love of the greatest musicians: James Brown, Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Archie Shepp, Claude Nougaro ... Magnificent hymn to music and friendship. Smoothie (Le guy Relax), dean of French jazz journalists, dedicated his life to black American music and has won respect for sacred monsters. The cordiality which unites it to artists is returned with a communicative complicity. During a press conference, James Brown fraternally greets Mauritius as soon as he sees him. Nougaro pays tribute to "this little man of the mountains who has become the Pope of Jazzmen Negroes". Phil Woods offers him a sax solo by the water. The labels fall: Ray Lema the African sings for smoothie an air of his native forest and Khaled explains the introduction of an Arab melop. The film goes beyond testimony and tackles the history of jazz: told by Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone, it takes on an overwhelming dimension.