Left Alone Rhapsody – The Musical Memoir of Pianist John Bayless
A sneak peek of our upcoming ReelAbilities Festival.
At 25, Leonard Bernstein protégé, John Bayless, debuted at Carnegie Hall, performing “Rhapsody in Blue” with a full orchestra. His jaw-dropping technical prowess at the piano initiated a 30-year-long concert and recording career as a solo pianist, composer, and improviser. At 54, a left-brain stroke immobilized his dominant right side. Soon after his husband, Bruce, died of cancer. The music stopped. John’s magical ‘first act’ disappeared.
This film chronicles John’s rise from four-year-old Texas musical prodigy playing the organ in his small-town Southern Baptist church, to international stardom; John’s fall post-stroke and courageous struggle to transcend paralysis; and John’s determination to reinvent himself as a one-handed musician and storyteller.
As neurologists discuss his brain, rabbis embrace his ‘Jewish soul,’ and Yamaha’s representatives tout their amazing life-changing, state-of-the-art Disklavier piano technology, which might allow him to play again with two hands, John Bayless attempts a courageous career comeback. The question is: With just his left hand alone, how far will he go? This is John’s musical story.
Trailer
Film Info
- Director: Stewart M. Schulman
- 2023, USA
- English
- Documentary
- 100 minutes
