Was Andrew Really Rushing? Fact-Checking the Reality and Musicology Behind 'Not Quite My Tempo'
By Alexander Ross
Fletcher’s character did not emerge out of thin air. Chazelle drew inspiration from his own high school competitive jazz band experience, combined with infamous underground bootlegs of big band legend Buddy Rich. During the 1960s and 1970s, recordings of Rich screaming profanities at his touring band on their tour bus circulated among professional musicians.
Yet Rich's fury was directed at professional touring musicians failing basic execution on the road, not terrified 19-year-old undergraduates in a classroom. In elite institutions like Juilliard, Berklee, or the Manhattan School of Music, teachers who crossed Fletcher's line into battery would face immediate criminal charges, civil lawsuits, and institutional expulsion.
Fletcher also leans on a famous historical anecdote: Jo Jones throwing a cymbal at a teenage Charlie Parker in 1937 at the Reno Club in Kansas City. In Fletcher’s telling, the cymbal nearly decapitated Parker, motivating him to practice relentlessly until he reinvented modern music. In historical reality, Jones tossed the cymbal to the floor at Parker's feet to signal that the young saxophonist had lost his place in the form. It was a humiliating signal to step off stage, not an attempted murder.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
