'Saturday Night Live' has a rich, half-century musical history. Questlove's new documentary digs in
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The startling “cold open” for a documentary about 50 years of “Saturday Night Live” music is proof that a musician — a specific kind of musician — had to put it together. It's a mashup of performances from artists that few people would think of putting together, like R.E.M. and Morris Day, Rick James and Duran Duran, Hanson and Cher. Filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson's experience as a DJ taught him enough about beats per minute and musical keys to meld things seamlessly.
The thrill ride took 11 months to put together and stretched to 17 minutes, until the need to edit took it down to around five minutes. “I thought, what am I going to add to the table that's different from anybody else?” Questlove said in an interview. “My music gave me a third language that maybe other documentarians don't have. I've got to stretch that muscle.”.
The special, “Ladies and Gentlemen ... 50 Years of SNL Music,” is given the entirety of NBC's prime-time Monday night and begins streaming the next day on Peacock. There's so much material that fans will inevitably yearn for things that were left out.
Lots of meaning behind an ‘SNL’ invite for musicians. Questlove was put on the project by “Saturday Night Live” executive producer Lorne Michaels shortly after the 2021 release of “Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)” revealed Thompson's heretofore unknown skill as a filmmaker.
