“The Eddy,” a new Netflix music drama series that premieres Friday, seeks to pay homage to those encounters while also granting nods to the French New Wave film movement of the late 1950s, the refugee, the abused, and, of course, jazz.
Set in the margins of Paris, the series follows African American ex-pat Elliot Udo, played by Andre Holland, as he tries to keep his jazz club, The Eddy, afloat while caring for his troubled American biracial daughter Julie, played by Amandla Stenberg.
The idea for the eight-episode series came from a longtime dream of six-time Grammy Award winner Glen Ballard to tell a story about a jazz band making music in modern-day Paris.
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And that jazz club would show the real, new Paris, Ballard said.
Multi-talented Jowee Omicil, who plays saxophone in The Eddy, said he’s still pinching himself that he has the opportunity to portray a black jazz musician in Paris – something many of the greats before him never got the chance to do.