Whether you’re a fan of jazz, Paris, or Amandla Stenberg, The Eddy has something for you. The new Netflix miniseries is centred around a jazz club called The Eddy, where musicians from various backgrounds come together to perform… and also some crime goes down and the club’s owner (André Holland) struggles to keep the venue open, reunites with his daughter (Stenberg), and has an on-and-off relationship with the house band’s singer (Joanna Kulig). You see, there’s a lot of drama mixed in with the music.
But, when it comes to the club itself, The Eddy had to be brought into existence just like the storylines. In fact, the idea of The Eddy — the club and the show — came from a song.
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In an interview with Financial Times, songwriter and producer Glen Ballard, who is best known for his work on Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, explained that the show started as a song he wrote several years ago. “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,” he said.
Ballard had the idea for the song to inspire a series and began working with executive producer Alan Poul and composer Randy Kerber. Then, they got writer Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Aeronauts) on board, as well as Damien Chazelle, who directed jazz-themed films Whiplash and La La Land. Kerber and Ballard had written over 40 songs at this point, and after having a band play their music for Thorne, they sent him away with recordings. He returned with a story inspired by the music. “He did something magical with our songs,” Ballard told Financial Times, “he created a dense matrix of characters all converging on the club.”
With the story and music ready, the show needed the actual club. According to Vogue, the series was shot on existing locations, such as in public housing and on the Paris Métro, with the club being the only constructed set.
“We built this set that looks like a jazz club, that functions as a jazz club, but also functions in a way as a recording studio, so that when the band plays in the club we’re recording everything live at a professional level,” Poul said in a Netflix featurette about the series.
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According to Thorne, this may inspire Kerber and Ballard to actually open a club. “We built a jazz club!” the writer told The Hollywood Reporter. “Randy and Glen were actually talking about opening it at one point.”
So, when you watch The Eddy, now you know what you’re seeing: a fake jazz club that looks like a real jazz club that might actually end up being a place real jazz fans can go.
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