just one afternoon that is all it takes for levy chadwick boseman the trumpeter
in marines band to disintegrate completely the usually optimistic
yet supremely naive man is quite determined to become a successful
shoe for man musician he was sorry how the hell he gonna be sorry i need to ruin my shoe
but the recording session on that fateful day in 1927 forever hinders these plans this tale
of virtue and morality is one that marines black bottom relays supremely well but is
the character based on a real person hey hey good morning here's what we know spoilers ahead
who is he based on no levy was not a real person nonetheless from the beginning of the movie you
know that he is going to be instrumental to the plot one of the first times we see him
is when he eyes a pair of beautiful shoes which end up costing him eleven dollars out of this
he won four dollars from cutler in a game of craps these shoes are also symbolic of
that's his volatile style death will kick your ass make you wish you never been born that's
how bad death is but you can rule over life life ain't nothing even when they successfully
record the songs ma and levy get into a tiff which ends with her firing him on the spot
he still is quite nonchalant about it because he thinks that the producer will end up giving him
work this however does not happen don't get us wrong it's not that levy is not talented
but he doesn't know how to deal with the politics and racial tensions this is where
ma has him beat as she does not let the white men take advantage of her or exploit her success
while levy is equally ambitious and naive there is no denying that he is an important character
in marines black bottom for this reason we had to find out more about him
it turns out that august wilson who wrote the eponymous play that the movie is based on
was the one who created levy in reality ma toured often with the wildcats jazz band circa 1924
and dave nelson was in it all right thank you i'm getting one chance the cost of this and the calls
you're always talking about the cause he was a jazz trumpeter pianist and composer while we
did wonder if he could have been the inspiration behind levy's character not much is known about
his personal life however it does seem as though ma got along with her colleagues for this reason
it seems unlikely that levy was based on dave over her illustrious career ma worked with acclaimed
trumpeters such as louis armstrong and tommy ladner you're gonna fix yourself that bad luck
ain't nothing gonna work out for you bad luck what i care about bad luck however they were never at
odds with the legendary blues singer they really respected her and her contributions to the genre
therefore it seems as though levy is simply a figment of wilson's imagination now i'm
i can ready some good music now what happened to levy the thing is despite all his superficial
overconfidence levy meets a traumatic fate rejected by sturdivant the trumpeter is unable
to process his emotions this ordeal which is essentially brought on by a white man
ends with levy stabbing his black bandmate toledo [ __ ] stepped on my shoe excuse me
remember the shoes we spoke about earlier well they are essentially what lead to the pianist's
death when sturdivant refuses to record with levy the latter is understandably frustrated
while packing up toledo accidentally steps on the trumpeter's shoes
these shoes which once symbolized how posh and glorious levy's future could have been
are now the only material thing within his grasp so when toledo steps on them
it's almost as if he's stepping on levy's ambitions and the trumpeter is not okay with
in a fit of rage he ends up killing toledo in the end sturdivant buys levy's songs for five
dollars a pop but chooses to not record with him the producer actually hires a
white orchestra and a white singer to create the track that levy poured his heart and soul into
i'm fine good best thing that ever happened to me i don't need this [ __ ] this just goes to
show how black artists were exploited by the white folks back in the day the climax is intentionally
inconclusive so that the audience can understand and empathize with the characters as well
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