No Ordinary Man

I'd never heard about the story of Billy Tipton until an out-of-town friend sent me a link for the limited theatrical release. Intrigued, I bought a ticket and went. The story was fascinating. The filmmakers did an excellent job of thoroughly and methodically researching the story while also making it interesting to watch. I appreciated that they included interviews with Billy Tipton's adult son. Having an immediate family member's perspective felt very important. And for an indie film, the production quality was superb. I'm not transgender so I appreciated getting more insight into a perspective and experience not my own. Thanks to the team for being willing to share this personal story with a wider audience!

A major disappointment I was looking forward to watching this documentary, having listened to some of Billy Tipton's recorded work (he left very little), and thought that I would be watching some interesting reviews, discussions and recollections of working with him by some of his musician colleagues and sidemen. Oh, stupid me. All I saw was a conglomeration of some "trans-men" discussing aspects of their "trans" lifestyles and about how Tipton managed to conceal what he really was, and others who were connected with Tipton in various ways - but precious little to do with his music. These aspects of Tipton are of minimal interest to me. I am a jazz piano buff as well as a music lover of most types of music. Jazz history shows that Tipton was not a top-drawer jazz musician. He had a fairly good piano technique, but his recordings reveal that he unfortunately lacked a good harmonic sense (something that every jazz pianist needs to have and can only be attained by means of a good musical education unless one happens to be an Erroll Garner), and probably because of this, he remained an obscure pianist with the public and never became a household word in jazz. I doubt that I will ever see a genuine musical documentary on Tipton. A pity. I cannot recommend this one to jazz piano aficianados.

I'd never heard about the story of Billy Tipton until an out-of-town friend sent me a link for the limited theatrical release. Intrigued, I bought a ticket and went. The story was fascinating. The filmmakers did an excellent job of thoroughly and methodically researching the story while also making it interesting to watch. I appreciated that they included interviews with Billy Tipton's adult son. Having an immediate family member's perspective felt very important. And for an indie film, the production quality was superb. I'm not transgender so I appreciated getting more insight into a perspective and experience not my own. Thanks to the team for being willing to share this personal story with a wider audience!