ANDRE HOLLAND IN THE EDDY

BY: Georgia Davis

In case you didn’t know, Damien Chazelle loves jazz. His breakthrough directing credit was Whiplash, inspired by his experiences trying to make it as a jazz drummer. Then there’s his 14-time Oscar-nominated film La La Land that featured Ryan Gosling explaining to an uninitiated Emma Stone the allure of jazz. Well, the director’s love affair with the genre is far from over. His first TV show, The Eddy, drops on Netflix on May 8, starring the talented André Holland.

A song written by the Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Glen Ballard serves as the series’ foundation. (He co-produced Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill.) When he wrote The Eddy, he started crafting songs that fit its similar tone and mood. (Check out one of the pre-released songs “Kiss Me In The Morning” featuring Jorja Smith here.)

“I wrote a song called ‘The Eddy’ that encapsulates the concept of a place where great musicians have a sanctuary and have an intimate audience and they all come together in these transcendent moments,” Glen Ballard told the Financial Times.

Ballard’s music serves as the launch point for the series. The music is a prominent thread of the narrative written by Jack Thorne, known for the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as well as HBO’s His Dark Materials. Each episode follows a different character and what they bring to a new jazz ensemble. All of the characters find themselves at The Eddy, a jazz club in Paris. Chazelle is half French, speaks the language and spent time living in the City of Lights, so the setting was a natural for the director.

“I found myself in the insider/outsider position to some extent,” Chazelle said. “It was a place I used to call home yet to some extent I felt like a stranger in a strange land, which in some ways was appropriate for the show.”

Elliot guides us through each story. A familiar name takes on this role: André Holland. You may know him from Moonlight, Selma and High Flying Bird. Also, cast in the series as his daughter is Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games, The Hate U Give and Everything Everything). Rounding out the cast of musicians is Joanna Kulig (Cold War), Algerian-French actor Tahar Rahim and French actress Leïla Bekhti. Mixed in with the smooth sounds of jazz is a story of crime and tenacity. The Eddy has it all, and PROVOKR will be tuning in.