Oscar-Nominated 'Whiplash' Has Ties To Baltimore
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) -- The Academy Awards boasted a lot of excitement this year, but you may not know that one of the Oscar-nominate films has a local tie.
'Whiplash,' nominated five for five Academy Awards, has a tie to Baltimore.
According to WJZ media partner The Baltimore Sun, the title song was written by Baltimore-born jazz legend, the late Hank Levy. He was the director of jazz studies and founded the jazz orchestra at Towson.
Levy died in 2001 at 73 years old.
Jim McFalls currently oversees the jazz program at Towson, and says the film is opposite from the jazz vibrancy Levy's song was about.
"I'd hate for [audiences] to think that [Fletcher] was based on Hank Levy. My encounters with him over the years were nothing of the kind. He was demanding, but never once did I see any kind of disrespect," McFalls said to The Sun.