Anointed a blues-guitar prodigy before he was old enough to drive, 40-year old Austin, Texas, native Gary Clark Jr. has spent much of his career thinking outside his primary genre, and his latest, Jpeg Raw, sounds more than ever like the music Clark wants to make rather than the music folks think he makes.
Since as early on as his second album, the underrated 2015 collection The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, Clark has embraced everything from fuzzy rock to funk to Prince-ly psychedelia. Jpeg Raw continues his never-ending quest for new fire,...
Since as early on as his second album, the underrated 2015 collection The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, Clark has embraced everything from fuzzy rock to funk to Prince-ly psychedelia. Jpeg Raw continues his never-ending quest for new fire,...
- 3/21/2024
- by Joe Gross
- Rollingstone.com
If something about this weekend’s 66th annual Grammys look familiar to you, credit Jon Batiste and his armful of nominations. Same goes for March 10’s Oscars ceremony.
In the run-up to the 2024 Grammys, the New Orleans native has again bolstered his Technicolor brand of R&b jazz fusion with gospel, hip-hop, dancehall and beyond for his newest release, 2023’s “World Music Radio.” For that, the keyboardist-composer is nominated for song of the year (“Butterfly”), record of the year (“Worship”), album of the year (“World Music Radio”), best jazz performance (“Movement 18′ (Heroes)” and best American roots performance (“Butterfly”). For his sixth nomination this year, Batiste is also Grammy-recognized for his featured appearance on Lana Del Rey’s most recent album, sharing a best pop duo/group performance nomination for “Candy Necklace.”
As far as the March 10 Oscar ceremony, Batiste is represented with a best original song nomination for “It Never...
In the run-up to the 2024 Grammys, the New Orleans native has again bolstered his Technicolor brand of R&b jazz fusion with gospel, hip-hop, dancehall and beyond for his newest release, 2023’s “World Music Radio.” For that, the keyboardist-composer is nominated for song of the year (“Butterfly”), record of the year (“Worship”), album of the year (“World Music Radio”), best jazz performance (“Movement 18′ (Heroes)” and best American roots performance (“Butterfly”). For his sixth nomination this year, Batiste is also Grammy-recognized for his featured appearance on Lana Del Rey’s most recent album, sharing a best pop duo/group performance nomination for “Candy Necklace.”
As far as the March 10 Oscar ceremony, Batiste is represented with a best original song nomination for “It Never...
- 2/2/2024
- by A.D. Amorosi
- Variety Film + TV
“The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo,” Langston Hughes wrote in his poem “Negro.” “They lynch me now in Texas.” The year was 1922, and racial segregation was the norm in the United States. Anti-Black racism in the South was such a millstone that the U.S. Senate failed to pass an NAACP-sponsored anti-lynching bill in January of that year, a list of simple protections that was prevented from coming to a vote due to filibusters.
Hughes’s poem is one piece of ephemera that comprises the massive tapestry that is Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. Director Johan Grimonprez’s documentary is primarily focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo and its struggle for independence from Belgian colonialism, during which time our government was using Black jazz musicians to, in its diplomatic tango with the Soviet Union, paint a portrait of American liberalism as benevolent.
The documentary focuses on...
Hughes’s poem is one piece of ephemera that comprises the massive tapestry that is Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. Director Johan Grimonprez’s documentary is primarily focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo and its struggle for independence from Belgian colonialism, during which time our government was using Black jazz musicians to, in its diplomatic tango with the Soviet Union, paint a portrait of American liberalism as benevolent.
The documentary focuses on...
- 1/23/2024
- by Greg Nussen
- Slant Magazine
Cord Jefferson‘s “American Fiction” is filled with witty dialogue, yet the thematic complexities of the film are such that often the characters still aren’t able to express what they’re really feeling, to each other and even themselves. Yet as the movie veers between satire, family drama, and romance — with a few action beats thrown in for good measure — the tonal balance remains precise and the characters’ feelings — and how we as audience members are supposed to feel about those feelings — are always clearly conveyed. This is largely thanks to one of the movie’s greatest strengths: composer Laura Karpman‘s exquisitely conceived and performed jazz score.
The way in which dialogue and score intertwine and complement each other is no accident; Karpman says she always saw the actors’ voices as part of her ensemble, as she created themes and instrumentation designed to riff on the dialogue and its delivery.
The way in which dialogue and score intertwine and complement each other is no accident; Karpman says she always saw the actors’ voices as part of her ensemble, as she created themes and instrumentation designed to riff on the dialogue and its delivery.
- 1/5/2024
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Laura Karpman was drip-fed jazz notes when she was a baby. Her mother’s turn-table featured a playlist that included Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Wes Montgomery and Thelonious Monk, the virtuoso pianist, whose music informs and underpins her own jazz-infused score for Cord Jefferson’s scorching American Fiction.
“So I remember in her painting studio, my mother had a record player and she would play everything,” Karpman recalls, and for good measure her mother would spin Beethoven’s violin concerto and a piece by Stravinsky.
Karpman lapped it all up, just as her mother had planned, because Mrs.Karpman had preordained “that I would be a composer when she was pregnant,” she tells me.
Her mother was a painter and sculptor “and she always, I think probably inappropriately, thought that music was the highest art. And so she wanted me to be an artist and she wanted me to be a musician.
“So I remember in her painting studio, my mother had a record player and she would play everything,” Karpman recalls, and for good measure her mother would spin Beethoven’s violin concerto and a piece by Stravinsky.
Karpman lapped it all up, just as her mother had planned, because Mrs.Karpman had preordained “that I would be a composer when she was pregnant,” she tells me.
Her mother was a painter and sculptor “and she always, I think probably inappropriately, thought that music was the highest art. And so she wanted me to be an artist and she wanted me to be a musician.
- 12/18/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
“This was three years ago, that I had a note from an executive on a script that I wrote that I needed to make a character ‘Blacker’,” director Cord Jefferson said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles panel for American Fiction. “A lot of this is taken directly from my personal experience having worked in entertainment.”
Related: The Contenders Film: Los Angeles – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Skyler Wright star in this scathing satire on the publishing industry and its treatment of serious works by Black writers. One of those writers is Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright). He travels back to his hometown of Boston to attend a book festival, but the turnout is low in favor of another book seminar with author Sinatra Golden’s (Rae) bestseller We Lives In Da Ghetto.
After finding Percival Everett’s Erasure in...
Related: The Contenders Film: Los Angeles – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Skyler Wright star in this scathing satire on the publishing industry and its treatment of serious works by Black writers. One of those writers is Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright). He travels back to his hometown of Boston to attend a book festival, but the turnout is low in favor of another book seminar with author Sinatra Golden’s (Rae) bestseller We Lives In Da Ghetto.
After finding Percival Everett’s Erasure in...
- 11/18/2023
- by Ryan Fleming
- Deadline Film + TV
Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Capitol, and other record labels filed a copyright lawsuit on Friday against Internet Archive, founder Brewster Kahle, and others over the organization’s “Great 78 Project,” accusing them of behaving as an “illegal record store.” The suit lists 2,749 pre-1972 musical works available via Internet Archive by late artists, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Bing Crosby, among others.
The suit, which was filed in federal court and reviewed by Rolling Stone, claims the Internet Archive’s “Great 78 Project” — launched...
The suit, which was filed in federal court and reviewed by Rolling Stone, claims the Internet Archive’s “Great 78 Project” — launched...
- 8/12/2023
- by Althea Legaspi
- Rollingstone.com
Editors’ Note: This guest column by former Luke Cage showrunner and Creed II writer Cheo Hodari Coker is part of Deadline’s series commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop on August 11.
In 1999, Yasin Bey — then known as Mos Def – dropped the seminal album “Black On Both Sides.”
The first song, “Fear Not Of Man” still gets me every time I play it. It’s a classic – — just as powerful now as the first time I heard it two decades ago. A meditation on everything Hip-Hop is…and isn’t.
You know what’s going to happen with hip-hop? Whatever’s happening with us. If we smoked out, hip-hop is going to be smoked out. If we doin’ alright, hip-hop is gonna be doin’ all right.
We are hip-hop. Me. You. Everybody.
So the next time you ask yourself where is hip-hop going, ask yourself – where am I going?
Twenty-four years later,...
In 1999, Yasin Bey — then known as Mos Def – dropped the seminal album “Black On Both Sides.”
The first song, “Fear Not Of Man” still gets me every time I play it. It’s a classic – — just as powerful now as the first time I heard it two decades ago. A meditation on everything Hip-Hop is…and isn’t.
You know what’s going to happen with hip-hop? Whatever’s happening with us. If we smoked out, hip-hop is going to be smoked out. If we doin’ alright, hip-hop is gonna be doin’ all right.
We are hip-hop. Me. You. Everybody.
So the next time you ask yourself where is hip-hop going, ask yourself – where am I going?
Twenty-four years later,...
- 8/11/2023
- by Cheo Hodari Coker
- Deadline Film + TV
The single features renowned musicians Aaron Parks, Joe Sanders, and Brian Blade.
04 August 2023 – Joshua Redman has released “Baltimore,” the second single to be revealed from the acclaimed saxophonist’s forthcoming Blue Note debut where are we due out September 15. One of two instrumental tracks on the album, “Baltimore” was written by the classically influenced songwriter Gabriel Kahane and is given a transcendent performance by Redman’s quartet featuring pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, and drummer Brian Blade.
where are we is a musical journey across the United States of America that also marks Redman’s first-ever album with a vocalist—the dynamic young singer Gabrielle Cavassa—who is featured throughout as heard on the album’s lead single “Chicago Blues,” a mash-up of Count Basie’s “Goin’ to Chicago” with Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago.” Redman will be touring the project across the U.S. and Europe following the album’s release.
04 August 2023 – Joshua Redman has released “Baltimore,” the second single to be revealed from the acclaimed saxophonist’s forthcoming Blue Note debut where are we due out September 15. One of two instrumental tracks on the album, “Baltimore” was written by the classically influenced songwriter Gabriel Kahane and is given a transcendent performance by Redman’s quartet featuring pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, and drummer Brian Blade.
where are we is a musical journey across the United States of America that also marks Redman’s first-ever album with a vocalist—the dynamic young singer Gabrielle Cavassa—who is featured throughout as heard on the album’s lead single “Chicago Blues,” a mash-up of Count Basie’s “Goin’ to Chicago” with Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago.” Redman will be touring the project across the U.S. and Europe following the album’s release.
- 8/5/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
The Chattanooga Film Festival Conjures First Wave: "Hot on the haunted heels of their tenth-anniversary announcement, organizers of The Chattanooga Film Festival (Cff) have once assembled a first wave of strange and fantastic cinema for their hybrid edition this year.
First up is the North American premiere of a film primed to knock the socks off Cff’s longtime fans - filmmaker Jonas Trukanas‘ perfectly executed Lithuanian slasher We Might Hurt Each Other. Trukanas' briskly paced hoot of a horror film is one of this year’s true standouts and another title presented by Screambox. We Might Hurt Each Other has all the makings of a deeply satisfying cult classic.
Closing out the festival for those attending in person this year is Trim Season, marking the return of filmmaker Ariel Vida, who first attended Cff in 2019 with a secret screening of Vide Noir. Her latest combines a terrific ensemble cast,...
First up is the North American premiere of a film primed to knock the socks off Cff’s longtime fans - filmmaker Jonas Trukanas‘ perfectly executed Lithuanian slasher We Might Hurt Each Other. Trukanas' briskly paced hoot of a horror film is one of this year’s true standouts and another title presented by Screambox. We Might Hurt Each Other has all the makings of a deeply satisfying cult classic.
Closing out the festival for those attending in person this year is Trim Season, marking the return of filmmaker Ariel Vida, who first attended Cff in 2019 with a secret screening of Vide Noir. Her latest combines a terrific ensemble cast,...
- 5/9/2023
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Thelonious Monk breathtakingly performing in Alain Gomis’s enthralling and insightful Rewind & Play: At one point he’s a little bit upset and says “let’s stop all that, it’s about music, let me play music.”
Alain Gomis’s enthralling and insightful Rewind & Play: it’s not nice (a highlight in the Currents programme of the 60th New York Film Festival), produced by Arnaud Dommerc (Andolfi) and Anouk Khélifa (Sphere Films), opens with the arrival of Thelonious Monk (composer for Roger Vadim’s Les liaisons dangereuses) and his wife, Nellie, in Paris on December 15, 1969, for a concert at the Salle Pleyel.
Alain Gomis with Anne-Katrin Titze on Thelonious Monk and Henri Renaud: “It’s like two planets that never meet …”
Monk’s next stop is the set in a Montmartre recording studio for the French television program Jazz Portrait. He is scheduled for a performance and an interview with Henri Renaud.
Alain Gomis’s enthralling and insightful Rewind & Play: it’s not nice (a highlight in the Currents programme of the 60th New York Film Festival), produced by Arnaud Dommerc (Andolfi) and Anouk Khélifa (Sphere Films), opens with the arrival of Thelonious Monk (composer for Roger Vadim’s Les liaisons dangereuses) and his wife, Nellie, in Paris on December 15, 1969, for a concert at the Salle Pleyel.
Alain Gomis with Anne-Katrin Titze on Thelonious Monk and Henri Renaud: “It’s like two planets that never meet …”
Monk’s next stop is the set in a Montmartre recording studio for the French television program Jazz Portrait. He is scheduled for a performance and an interview with Henri Renaud.
- 3/6/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Click here to read the full article.
Gene Cipriano, the always busy woodwind player who soloed on tenor sax for Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot and recorded with everyone from Miles Davis, Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra to Glen Campbell, Paul McCartney and Olivia Newton-John, has died. He was 94.
Cipriano died Nov. 12 of natural causes at his home in Studio City, his son Paul told The Hollywood Reporter.
Perhaps the most recorded woodwind player in show business history, Cipriano played soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, all the clarinets and flutes, the oboe and bass oboe, the piccolo and the English horn.
Affectionally known as “Cip,” the session musician performed as a member of the Academy Awards Orchestra in the neighborhood of 60 times since 1958. (At the 1977 show, he exchanged “yo’s” with Barbra Streisand, who had just arrived at the podium after having won for “Evergreen.”)
Cipriano...
Gene Cipriano, the always busy woodwind player who soloed on tenor sax for Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot and recorded with everyone from Miles Davis, Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra to Glen Campbell, Paul McCartney and Olivia Newton-John, has died. He was 94.
Cipriano died Nov. 12 of natural causes at his home in Studio City, his son Paul told The Hollywood Reporter.
Perhaps the most recorded woodwind player in show business history, Cipriano played soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, all the clarinets and flutes, the oboe and bass oboe, the piccolo and the English horn.
Affectionally known as “Cip,” the session musician performed as a member of the Academy Awards Orchestra in the neighborhood of 60 times since 1958. (At the 1977 show, he exchanged “yo’s” with Barbra Streisand, who had just arrived at the podium after having won for “Evergreen.”)
Cipriano...
- 11/27/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Grasshopper Film has acquired the North American distribution rights to “Rewind & Play,” Alain Gomis’ feature documentary on the late jazz pianist Thelonious Monk.
The film is set to screen at the 60th annual New York Film Festival later this month, and will open in theaters early next year. The doc uses an interview with Monk in France from 1969, which many would now consider to be deeply problematic, as its centrepiece.
In December 1969, Monk arrived in Paris for a concert at the tail end of a European tour. While there, he was invited to appear on a television interview program, where he was to answer questions in an intimate, one-on-one studio stage.
Using newly discovered footage from the recording of the interview, French-Senegalese filmmaker Gomis reveals a troubling dynamic between Monk and his white interviewer, Henri Renaud — who was an avowed admirer of Monk — and how the musician stands his ground...
The film is set to screen at the 60th annual New York Film Festival later this month, and will open in theaters early next year. The doc uses an interview with Monk in France from 1969, which many would now consider to be deeply problematic, as its centrepiece.
In December 1969, Monk arrived in Paris for a concert at the tail end of a European tour. While there, he was invited to appear on a television interview program, where he was to answer questions in an intimate, one-on-one studio stage.
Using newly discovered footage from the recording of the interview, French-Senegalese filmmaker Gomis reveals a troubling dynamic between Monk and his white interviewer, Henri Renaud — who was an avowed admirer of Monk — and how the musician stands his ground...
- 9/28/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Harry Colomby, who made the unusual career transition from high school teacher to talent manager at the invitation of jazz great Thelonious Monk, died Dec. 25 from multiple causes at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 92.
Although Monk was his first client, Colomby’s career expanded to film and television, managing both comedian John Byner and actor Michael Keaton.
He was the producer or executive producer of 13 film or TV projects, several of them Keaton movies, including “Mr. Mom.” The brother of Bobby Colomby, founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears and, and jazz trumpeter Jules Colomby, Harry also had six screenwriting credits, including the Keaton feature “Johnny Dangerously.”
In an Instagram post, Keaton paid tribute to his business partner. “Unlikeliest of matches, we thought the same, felt the same and laughed at the same things. He was kindhearted, curious, thoughtful and man, was he funny … I loved him and so did all who met him.
Although Monk was his first client, Colomby’s career expanded to film and television, managing both comedian John Byner and actor Michael Keaton.
He was the producer or executive producer of 13 film or TV projects, several of them Keaton movies, including “Mr. Mom.” The brother of Bobby Colomby, founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears and, and jazz trumpeter Jules Colomby, Harry also had six screenwriting credits, including the Keaton feature “Johnny Dangerously.”
In an Instagram post, Keaton paid tribute to his business partner. “Unlikeliest of matches, we thought the same, felt the same and laughed at the same things. He was kindhearted, curious, thoughtful and man, was he funny … I loved him and so did all who met him.
- 12/29/2021
- by Geoff Mayfield
- Variety Film + TV
Thanks to glamorous Paris-set shows like “Lupin” and “Emily in Paris” topping Netflix charts — and daring French female directors Julia Ducournau (“Titane”) and Audrey Diwan (“Happening”) winning top prizes at the Cannes and Venice film festivals — France drew more eyeballs worldwide in 2021 than it has in years. A groundbreaking agreement with global streamers to invest up to €300 million ($333 million) in French content looks to continue that trend. And building on all that momentum, the government is splashing soft money to help French creatives and locations conquer international markets, with a focus on the U.S.
In the streaming era, where language barriers and borders are more permeable, creatives are becoming go-to ambassadors, as evidenced recently by French President Emmanuel Macron’s massive investment scheme, France 2030, which looks to revitalize the country’s industrial sectors, including the film and audiovisual industries. One initiative stemming from the mandate, which targets €600 million for culture,...
In the streaming era, where language barriers and borders are more permeable, creatives are becoming go-to ambassadors, as evidenced recently by French President Emmanuel Macron’s massive investment scheme, France 2030, which looks to revitalize the country’s industrial sectors, including the film and audiovisual industries. One initiative stemming from the mandate, which targets €600 million for culture,...
- 12/22/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
At the premiere of HBO’s inimitable comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm’s,” 11th season, creator and star Larry David dutifully, charmingly performed the requisite press line interviews with nary a hint of his onscreen alter ego’s curmudgeonly agitation, even gamely delivering a “Prettyyyyy, prettyyyyyyy, pretty good” byte to an Australian TV crew. But as he revealed to Variety at the Paramount lot premiere what he imagines TV Larry’s take is on the traditional Hollywood red carpet: “He hates it as much as this Larry.”
Preferring not to reveal too much about a given season’s episodes before they air – just know that the new episodes are set in a future time after Covid – David did offer some insight about his creative process, given that for the last 20 years he’s enjoyed the rare luxury of deciding, on his own terms, if and when he wants to deliver another season.
Preferring not to reveal too much about a given season’s episodes before they air – just know that the new episodes are set in a future time after Covid – David did offer some insight about his creative process, given that for the last 20 years he’s enjoyed the rare luxury of deciding, on his own terms, if and when he wants to deliver another season.
- 10/23/2021
- by Scott Huver
- Variety Film + TV
Of the many music documentaries that screened at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, many – in fact, most – spend a lot of time telling you how great their subjects are. And then there’s “Listening to Kenny G,” which spends a lot of time telling you how much smooth-jazz saxophonist Kenny G sucks.
Mind you, it’d be impossible to make a Kenny G doc without addressing the elephant in the room, which is that the former Kenneth Gorelick is to many, particularly in the jazz community, a living embodiment of everything that can be wrong with popular music. And director Penny Lane, whose previous work includes “Our Nixon” and “Hail Satan?” is smart enough to know she can’t avoid the topic of Kenny G’s extreme divisiveness and playful enough to make it the defining characteristic of her film.
So while we hear from Kenny’s old high-school music teacher,...
Mind you, it’d be impossible to make a Kenny G doc without addressing the elephant in the room, which is that the former Kenneth Gorelick is to many, particularly in the jazz community, a living embodiment of everything that can be wrong with popular music. And director Penny Lane, whose previous work includes “Our Nixon” and “Hail Satan?” is smart enough to know she can’t avoid the topic of Kenny G’s extreme divisiveness and playful enough to make it the defining characteristic of her film.
So while we hear from Kenny’s old high-school music teacher,...
- 9/17/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
George Wein — the legendary festival promoter who helped turn the Newport Jazz and Folk festivals into fixtures of the American concert calendar, founded the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and paved the way for the modern music fest — died Monday at age 95. His spokesperson Carolyn McClair announced the news.
“It is with immense sadness that we let you know of the passing of our founder and north star, George Wein,” read a note posted on both Newport fests’ Twitter accounts. “We have all lost a giant champion of jazz,...
“It is with immense sadness that we let you know of the passing of our founder and north star, George Wein,” read a note posted on both Newport fests’ Twitter accounts. “We have all lost a giant champion of jazz,...
- 9/13/2021
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Powerful musical moments are undercut by exasperating blandness in this rerelease of Bert Stern’s film of the 1958 Newport jazz festival
This rerelease of Bert Stern’s filmed record of the 1958 Newport jazz festival happens to arrive in the UK just after Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem cultural festival, known then as the “Black Woodstock”. Both events and both movies feature the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson – but there the comparison ends. Where Summer of Soul is amazingly vibrant and passionate, Jazz on a Summer’s Day is exasperatingly sedate and restrained and often just bloodless and dull, despite some occasionally intriguing musical offerings from musicians such as Thelonious Monk, George Shearing and Gerry Mulligan; Chuck Berry is there, on his bland best behaviour, and finally we get some powerfully charismatic appearances from Louis Armstrong and Jackson herself.
During the daytime, the movie bizarrely intercuts shots of the musicians on...
This rerelease of Bert Stern’s filmed record of the 1958 Newport jazz festival happens to arrive in the UK just after Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem cultural festival, known then as the “Black Woodstock”. Both events and both movies feature the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson – but there the comparison ends. Where Summer of Soul is amazingly vibrant and passionate, Jazz on a Summer’s Day is exasperatingly sedate and restrained and often just bloodless and dull, despite some occasionally intriguing musical offerings from musicians such as Thelonious Monk, George Shearing and Gerry Mulligan; Chuck Berry is there, on his bland best behaviour, and finally we get some powerfully charismatic appearances from Louis Armstrong and Jackson herself.
During the daytime, the movie bizarrely intercuts shots of the musicians on...
- 8/27/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Yasiin Bey was announced as the star of a Thelonious Monk biopic on Wednesday, but as of Thursday, he appeared to be backing out the project in the wake of complaints coming from the late jazz great’s estate about the planned film.
“If the Monk Estate is not happy with it, if Mr. Monk III is not happy with it, then neither am I,” said Bey, the actor and musician formerly known as Mos Def, on Instagram Thursday morning. “To be clear, I was given every indication by the production company that the family was on board. It was one of my primary questions. … I took them at their word and clearly that wasn’t the case.”
Added Bey, “I can’t lie — I’m super excited, still, if there’s an opportunity to tell this type of story, but in the right way and only with the estate...
“If the Monk Estate is not happy with it, if Mr. Monk III is not happy with it, then neither am I,” said Bey, the actor and musician formerly known as Mos Def, on Instagram Thursday morning. “To be clear, I was given every indication by the production company that the family was on board. It was one of my primary questions. … I took them at their word and clearly that wasn’t the case.”
Added Bey, “I can’t lie — I’m super excited, still, if there’s an opportunity to tell this type of story, but in the right way and only with the estate...
- 7/22/2021
- by A.D. Amorosi
- Variety Film + TV
Yasiin Bey has stepped back from his role portraying Thelonious Monk in an upcoming biopic after the jazz legend’s estate issued a statement to “condemn” the unauthorized film.
On Wednesday, production company Jupiter Rising Film revealed to Rolling Stone that the rapper-actor formerly known as Mos Def would play the title role in Thelonious, centered on “his struggles for musical success, mental illness, and the spiritual love triangle between his wife, Nellie, and one of the world’s richest women, Nica Rothschild.”
However, just hours after the biopic’s announcement,...
On Wednesday, production company Jupiter Rising Film revealed to Rolling Stone that the rapper-actor formerly known as Mos Def would play the title role in Thelonious, centered on “his struggles for musical success, mental illness, and the spiritual love triangle between his wife, Nellie, and one of the world’s richest women, Nica Rothschild.”
However, just hours after the biopic’s announcement,...
- 7/22/2021
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Jazz legend Thelonious Monk will have his story brought to life by Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def). The musician and actor will portray Monk in an upcoming biopic from production company Jupiter Rising Film. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Jupiter Rising heads Peter Lord Moreland and Alberto Marzan discussed their passion for the project and finding the right man […]
The post Yasiin Bey Will Play Jazz Legend Thelonious Monk in Upcoming Biopic appeared first on /Film.
The post Yasiin Bey Will Play Jazz Legend Thelonious Monk in Upcoming Biopic appeared first on /Film.
- 7/21/2021
- by Danielle Ryan
- Slash Film
Yasiin Bey, the musician formerly known as Mos Def, will portray jazz piano legend Thelonious Monk in the biopic “Thelonious,” which is slated to begin production in the summer of 2022. The project is being brought to the screen by Jupiter Rising Film and its co-founders, Alberto Marzan and Peter Lord Moreland.
Moreland will also write the screenplay for the film, which “will center around [Monk’s] struggles for musical success, mental illness and the spiritual love triangle between his wife Nellie and one of the world’s richest women, Nica Rothschild,” according to a statement.
“This role is one that requires great depth and a unique understanding of who and what Thelonious Monk was and how his lasting impact can still be heard throughout the music world today,” said Marzan. “The moment I met Yasiin, I knew we found our Thelonious. It’s an honor to be the first to tell this...
Moreland will also write the screenplay for the film, which “will center around [Monk’s] struggles for musical success, mental illness and the spiritual love triangle between his wife Nellie and one of the world’s richest women, Nica Rothschild,” according to a statement.
“This role is one that requires great depth and a unique understanding of who and what Thelonious Monk was and how his lasting impact can still be heard throughout the music world today,” said Marzan. “The moment I met Yasiin, I knew we found our Thelonious. It’s an honor to be the first to tell this...
- 7/21/2021
- by Jonathan Cohen
- Variety Film + TV
Years ago, screenwriter-producer Peter Lord Moreland watched Straight No Chaser, the landmark 1988 documentary on bebop pianist-composer Thelonious Monk. Thus began a near-obsessive fascination with the jazz legend that “was already triggered by one of my favorite jazz ballads of all time: ‘Round Midnight.’”
As his career progressed, Lord Moreland began researching the musician and started on a working script to document his life and career. “My entire life, I have been an artist, a person, and a thinker who seems to have an alternative view of creating, hearing, and seeing the world,...
As his career progressed, Lord Moreland began researching the musician and started on a working script to document his life and career. “My entire life, I have been an artist, a person, and a thinker who seems to have an alternative view of creating, hearing, and seeing the world,...
- 7/21/2021
- by Jason Newman
- Rollingstone.com
Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli, and Yasiin Bey have partnered with subscription podcast network Luminary on the new podcast “The Midnight Miracle.”
The show is described as salon style and features the three hosts and creators as well as their friends and featured guests. “The Midnight Miracle” was recorded during Chappelle’s 2020 Summer Camp at “The Shack” — a mechanic’s garage retrofitted as a clubhouse. The conversations are intermixed with sketches, impersonations, archival audio clips, and a soundtrack that includes music from Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, D’Angelo, Heatwave featuring Johnny Wilder, and more.
“Making a podcast isn’t the obvious next move for me, but it’s the right one,” Chappelle said. “‘The Midnight Miracle’ gives you a look into how me and my friends process the world around us, and I think it will change the way listeners think of what a podcast can be.”
The show...
The show is described as salon style and features the three hosts and creators as well as their friends and featured guests. “The Midnight Miracle” was recorded during Chappelle’s 2020 Summer Camp at “The Shack” — a mechanic’s garage retrofitted as a clubhouse. The conversations are intermixed with sketches, impersonations, archival audio clips, and a soundtrack that includes music from Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, D’Angelo, Heatwave featuring Johnny Wilder, and more.
“Making a podcast isn’t the obvious next move for me, but it’s the right one,” Chappelle said. “‘The Midnight Miracle’ gives you a look into how me and my friends process the world around us, and I think it will change the way listeners think of what a podcast can be.”
The show...
- 4/20/2021
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
Prince, Sign O’ the Times: Deluxe Edition (Warner)
On this 1987 masterpiece, Prince’s second double LP in less than five years, the R&b futurist responded to the serial crises in his personal life — the end of an affair; the firing of his band, the Revolution; escalating wartime with his label — in a kinetic tour de force of tightly wired pop, exploding bedroom funk, and soaring, redemptive climax. The big-box version of this reissue reveals the depth of Prince’s urgency in three CDs of unreleased studio treasures: diamonds...
On this 1987 masterpiece, Prince’s second double LP in less than five years, the R&b futurist responded to the serial crises in his personal life — the end of an affair; the firing of his band, the Revolution; escalating wartime with his label — in a kinetic tour de force of tightly wired pop, exploding bedroom funk, and soaring, redemptive climax. The big-box version of this reissue reveals the depth of Prince’s urgency in three CDs of unreleased studio treasures: diamonds...
- 12/8/2020
- by David Fricke and Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
Kesha had just finished previewing her new album, Rainbow, for industry types at a Los Angeles recording studio three years ago when she encountered a stout, bearded guy with a “friendly, happy” vibe in the hallway. “You must be an artist,” he said, referring to her bright-red Nudie suit festooned with images of sea creatures.
She didn’t know who he was — and, it turned out, he didn’t recognize her either — but she soon learned he was a producer named Hal Willner, and he immediately recognized her name when she introduced herself.
She didn’t know who he was — and, it turned out, he didn’t recognize her either — but she soon learned he was a producer named Hal Willner, and he immediately recognized her name when she introduced herself.
- 9/2/2020
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
An Easy Girl (Rebecca Zlotowski)
The director herself calls An Easy Girl a “simple film on a complex subject,” which is as fine a one-liner as I’ll ever come up with. This is a straightforward coming-of-age story from France, a country for whom this is almost a national cliché, but elevated by a key eye for gender roles of its protagonists and an up-to-date message for a teenage generation growing up in a #MeToo world. – Ed F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Capone (Josh Trank)
Thanks to a bout of syphilis contracted before the age of fifteen, Alphonse Gabriel “Scarface” Capone found himself trapped inside a prison...
An Easy Girl (Rebecca Zlotowski)
The director herself calls An Easy Girl a “simple film on a complex subject,” which is as fine a one-liner as I’ll ever come up with. This is a straightforward coming-of-age story from France, a country for whom this is almost a national cliché, but elevated by a key eye for gender roles of its protagonists and an up-to-date message for a teenage generation growing up in a #MeToo world. – Ed F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Capone (Josh Trank)
Thanks to a bout of syphilis contracted before the age of fifteen, Alphonse Gabriel “Scarface” Capone found himself trapped inside a prison...
- 8/14/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The first feature-length concert film with live sound, Jazz on a Summer’s Day paved the way for movies like Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Photographing the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, director Bert Stern and his crew captured performances by Thelonious Monk, Dinah Washington and Louis Armstrong, among many others. A historic achievement, added to the National Film Registry in 1999, it was the first opportunity for some viewers to see these stars on stage, in color. To celebrate the film’s 60th anniversary, the non-profit IndieCollect and the National Film Preservation Foundation financed a new, 4K restoration that enhanced the soundtrack as well as the color camerawork. The restoration played to sold-out screenings at last year’s New York Film Festival, and is now streaming available via Kino Lorber’s Virtual Cinema platform Kino Marquee. With the film now available for a wider audience, the makings of capturing this momentous event provide...
- 8/14/2020
- by Daniel Eagan
- The Film Stage
"We are at the jazz festival, and let me tell you it is really wonderful." Kino Lorber has revealed an official trailer for a 4K restoration re-release of a classic concert doc called Jazz on a Summer's Day. Legendary photographer Bert Stern's groundbreaking concert documentary shot at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival featuring performances by Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, Mahalia Jackson and more. The 1959 classic is considered one of the most extraordinary and possibly the first concert film ever made. The film was named to the National Film Registry in 1999, and its restoration was funded by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress in time to celebrate the film's 60th Anniversary. This looks like an awesome film to see in 4K in a cinema with full-on sound! An exceptional round of jazz music from some of the finest musicians...
- 7/30/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Nick Cave shared a tender interpretation of T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer,” the first offering from the upcoming tribute compilation, Angelheaded Hipster, which was produced by the late Hal Willner. The record will arrive September 4th via BMG.
For his cover, Cave transformed “Cosmic Dancer” into a poignant piano ballad buoyed by a rich orchestral arrangement. The track arrived with a video of Cave and others recording the song in the studio, paired with a montage of archival footage of T. Rex.
Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T.
For his cover, Cave transformed “Cosmic Dancer” into a poignant piano ballad buoyed by a rich orchestral arrangement. The track arrived with a video of Cave and others recording the song in the studio, paired with a montage of archival footage of T. Rex.
Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T.
- 4/29/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Hal Willner, a longtime sketch music producer for Saturday Night Live and a music producer and compiler of tribute albums and concerts, died Monday of complications related to Covid-19, according to multiple reports. He was 64.
Willner, who joined SNL in 1981, also produced albums for such artists as Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithfull and Lucinda Williams. He was a score producer for films including Finding Forrester (2000) and Gangs of New York (2002) and served as a music consultant or supervisor on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Bewitched (2005) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), among many other credits.
More from DeadlineNotable Hollywood & Entertainment Industry Deaths In 2020: Photo GalleryAllen Garfield Dies: Veteran Film Actor Had Covid-19 Complications, Was 80'snl's Michael Che Says He Lost His Grandmother To Coronavirus: "I'm Obviously Hurt And Angry"
“As unique a person I ever had the fortune to cross paths with,” tweeted Seth Meyers,...
Willner, who joined SNL in 1981, also produced albums for such artists as Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithfull and Lucinda Williams. He was a score producer for films including Finding Forrester (2000) and Gangs of New York (2002) and served as a music consultant or supervisor on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Bewitched (2005) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), among many other credits.
More from DeadlineNotable Hollywood & Entertainment Industry Deaths In 2020: Photo GalleryAllen Garfield Dies: Veteran Film Actor Had Covid-19 Complications, Was 80'snl's Michael Che Says He Lost His Grandmother To Coronavirus: "I'm Obviously Hurt And Angry"
“As unique a person I ever had the fortune to cross paths with,” tweeted Seth Meyers,...
- 4/7/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Hal Willner — the respected producer who worked with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull, was a long-time Saturday Night Live staffer and compiled a series of eccentric all-star tribute albums — died Monday at the age of 64. A rep for Willner confirmed the producer’s death to Rolling Stone. While a cause of death has yet to be announced, a source close to Willner tells Rolling Stone he was suffering from symptoms consistent with the coronavirus.
“Absolutely devastated to get this news about my weird and lovely pal, Hal,” tweeted Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
“Absolutely devastated to get this news about my weird and lovely pal, Hal,” tweeted Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
- 4/7/2020
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
“A good day for living and a good day to die,” Bob Dylan sings on his epic, nearly 17-minute-long, song “Murder Most Foul.” Dylan released the track at midnight, March 27, according to Variety. The song uses the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to chronicle the decade it defined. “The day they killed him, someone said to me, son, the age of the antichrist has just only begun,” he sings. The offering is perfect for lyrical deconstructionists to pick apart while stuck at home during periods of enforced isolation.
“Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years,” Dylan wrote when he announced the song via Twitter. “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.”
There is no indication on when the song was recorded,...
“Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years,” Dylan wrote when he announced the song via Twitter. “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.”
There is no indication on when the song was recorded,...
- 3/27/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Bob Dylan, who hasn’t released an original song since 2012’s Tempest, unexpectedly dropped a previously unheard, nearly 17-minute-long new track, “Murder Most Foul,” late Thursday night.
Dylan didn’t say exactly when the song was recorded, but his delicate vocal delivery resembles the way he’s been singing in his live shows in the past couple of years. “Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty over the years,” Dylan said in a statement. “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while...
Dylan didn’t say exactly when the song was recorded, but his delicate vocal delivery resembles the way he’s been singing in his live shows in the past couple of years. “Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty over the years,” Dylan said in a statement. “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while...
- 3/27/2020
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Chris Simpson, frontman of emo favorites Mineral, unveiled his new solo project Mountain Time with a lush folk-rock track, “Rosemary, Etc.” The song marks the first offering from Mountain Time’s upcoming album, Music for Looking Animals, out June 26th via Spartan Records.
“Rosemary, Etc.” is a bustling tune that finds Simpson arranging a pastoral mix of horns, twinkling guitars and choral vocals around a steady acoustic strum and percussion stomp. The track reflects Simpson’s deep dive into Sixties and Seventies music, where he found particular inspiration in artists like Van Morrison,...
“Rosemary, Etc.” is a bustling tune that finds Simpson arranging a pastoral mix of horns, twinkling guitars and choral vocals around a steady acoustic strum and percussion stomp. The track reflects Simpson’s deep dive into Sixties and Seventies music, where he found particular inspiration in artists like Van Morrison,...
- 3/26/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
By 1982, Roy Haynes had been playing drums professionally for close to 40 years. That December, during a concert at the White House with pianist Chick Corea and bassist Miroslav Vitous, he showed that he was still operating on the cutting edge of jazz.
Instead of playing it safe and running through a couple familiar tunes, the group presented an unusual medley, based on a concept documented on its then-recent Ecm album Trio Music. That LP featured a novel structure: half searching free improvisations, half swinging renditions of pieces by Thelonious Monk.
Instead of playing it safe and running through a couple familiar tunes, the group presented an unusual medley, based on a concept documented on its then-recent Ecm album Trio Music. That LP featured a novel structure: half searching free improvisations, half swinging renditions of pieces by Thelonious Monk.
- 3/13/2020
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
McCoy Tyner, one of the most distinctive and influential jazz pianists of the past 60 years, who became best known for his work with John Coltrane’s legendary 1960s quartet, died at age 81.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of jazz legend Alfred ‘McCoy’ Tyner,” his family wrote in a statement. “McCoy was an inspired musician who devoted his life to his art, his family, and his spirituality. McCoy Tyner’s music and legacy will continue to inspire fans and future talent for generations to come.”
Tyner...
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of jazz legend Alfred ‘McCoy’ Tyner,” his family wrote in a statement. “McCoy was an inspired musician who devoted his life to his art, his family, and his spirituality. McCoy Tyner’s music and legacy will continue to inspire fans and future talent for generations to come.”
Tyner...
- 3/6/2020
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
The ultimate goal of Birding With Charles was always to bring people together to marvel at the wonderful world of birds. In the spring, a very stoned Valee stood in awe of the majestic creatures as he learned how to use binoculars. As the summer ended, Doja Cat remixed her viral hit “Moo!” into “Bitch, I’m a Bird.” Then on a brisk November morning, Jeff Goldblum decided to come to Central Park to partake in the serene world of birdwatching. Throughout the day, Jeff saw cardinals, blue jays, and...
- 12/20/2019
- by Charles Holmes
- Rollingstone.com
Paris-based Moroccan filmmaker Laila Marrakchi is developing a pair of daring female-driven projects, “Casa Girls,” a series about four twentysomething single women living in Casablanca, and a drama based on a real-life sex scandal set against an agricultural backdrop in Spain.
Marrakchi, who has so far directed “Rock the Casbah” and “Marock,” both of which were box office hits in Morocco and traveled well, as well as episodes of the hit spy thriller series “The Bureau,” just wrapped the shoot of two episodes of Damien Chazelle’s anticipated Netflix series “The Eddy,” and is getting ready to helm a couple of episodes of “The Opera,” an ambitious show unfolding at the Paris Opera that will start filming next spring.
In between those two shoots, the much sought-after director is developing the scripts of both “Casa Girls” and her next feature film, which will be inspired by a New York Times...
Marrakchi, who has so far directed “Rock the Casbah” and “Marock,” both of which were box office hits in Morocco and traveled well, as well as episodes of the hit spy thriller series “The Bureau,” just wrapped the shoot of two episodes of Damien Chazelle’s anticipated Netflix series “The Eddy,” and is getting ready to helm a couple of episodes of “The Opera,” an ambitious show unfolding at the Paris Opera that will start filming next spring.
In between those two shoots, the much sought-after director is developing the scripts of both “Casa Girls” and her next feature film, which will be inspired by a New York Times...
- 12/3/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
IndieCollect oversaw 4K restoration. Film will open in 2020 theatrically and on new VOD platform.
Kino Lorber has acquired Us and all international rights to Bert Stern’s recent 57th New York Film Festival revival screening Jazz On A Summer’s Day, in collaboration with longtime partner Adopt Films.
The film will release the 1959 film – regarded as one of the first live concert films – theatrically in 2020 before making it available on the company’s new VOD platform KinoNow, and home video.
IndieCollect oversaw a 4K restoration on Jazz On A Summer’s Day, with colour correction by Oskar Miarka. The film...
Kino Lorber has acquired Us and all international rights to Bert Stern’s recent 57th New York Film Festival revival screening Jazz On A Summer’s Day, in collaboration with longtime partner Adopt Films.
The film will release the 1959 film – regarded as one of the first live concert films – theatrically in 2020 before making it available on the company’s new VOD platform KinoNow, and home video.
IndieCollect oversaw a 4K restoration on Jazz On A Summer’s Day, with colour correction by Oskar Miarka. The film...
- 10/21/2019
- ScreenDaily
The centerpiece of Scott Ora’s cluttered San Fernando Valley apartment is the 1939 Oscar his step-grandfather, the late lyricist Leo Robin, was presented for co-writing “Thanks for the Memory.” Sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the film “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” the trophy sits proudly on the piano where Robin worked on some of his biggest hits. The movie marked the comedian’s breakout role and Leo’s tune, co-written with frequent collaborator Ralph Rainger, soon became Hope’s theme song. It was Robin’s only Academy Award win out of a total of 10 nominations.
Over the course of 20 years, from 1934 (when the best original song category was introduced and he was nominated for “Love in Bloom”) through 1954, Robin, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame who died in 1984 at the age of 84, earned 10 Oscar nominations (two in 1949 alone). His impressive catalog includes signature tunes for Maurice Chevalier...
Over the course of 20 years, from 1934 (when the best original song category was introduced and he was nominated for “Love in Bloom”) through 1954, Robin, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame who died in 1984 at the age of 84, earned 10 Oscar nominations (two in 1949 alone). His impressive catalog includes signature tunes for Maurice Chevalier...
- 10/1/2019
- by Roy Trakin
- Variety Film + TV
Tony Sokol Sep 6, 2019
The film Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles never existed. But what might have filled the gap?
In Danny Boyle's film Yesterday, a struggling young musician played by Jack Malik suffers an accident at exactly the same moment a major power surge burns all evidence of former skiffle group the Beatles out of the collective memory of the masses. Only the musician remembers the songs, the stories, and the band's place in the history of popular music. The film, however, is still set in a world where the culture that was shaped by the influence of four relatively working class musicians from a port city remained curiously intact. The Rolling Stones are still around; so is Childish Gambino, thank the gods of music. But Oasis doesn't come up on Google searches when partnered with “Wonderwall.” We can assume there was no Squeeze, Electric Light Orchestra,...
The film Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles never existed. But what might have filled the gap?
In Danny Boyle's film Yesterday, a struggling young musician played by Jack Malik suffers an accident at exactly the same moment a major power surge burns all evidence of former skiffle group the Beatles out of the collective memory of the masses. Only the musician remembers the songs, the stories, and the band's place in the history of popular music. The film, however, is still set in a world where the culture that was shaped by the influence of four relatively working class musicians from a port city remained curiously intact. The Rolling Stones are still around; so is Childish Gambino, thank the gods of music. But Oasis doesn't come up on Google searches when partnered with “Wonderwall.” We can assume there was no Squeeze, Electric Light Orchestra,...
- 9/5/2019
- Den of Geek
It’s fascinating to watch mainstream audiences fall in love with Jon Batiste on a nightly basis as the bandleader of “The Late Show.”
At 32, Stephen Colbert’s congenial foil — an adroit pianist equally agile and equally playful on melodica and organ — is known for his eclectic crossover compositions which juxtapose pop, gospel and the R&b of his Louisiana youth with an adventurously spritely and subtly avant-garde brand of sonorous jazz.
It is the latter, something Batiste calls “melodious atonality,” that flows through his newest album, “Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard.” Recorded during a six-night Vanguard residency in the fall of 2018, “Anatomy of Angels” has Batiste summoning the ghosts of heroes and old friends (friend-trumpeter Roy Hargrove who passed last autumn) with no edits or retakes. “It’s a snapshot of live art,” said Batiste.
Variety caught up with Batiste on a humid July afternoon in Manhattan.
At 32, Stephen Colbert’s congenial foil — an adroit pianist equally agile and equally playful on melodica and organ — is known for his eclectic crossover compositions which juxtapose pop, gospel and the R&b of his Louisiana youth with an adventurously spritely and subtly avant-garde brand of sonorous jazz.
It is the latter, something Batiste calls “melodious atonality,” that flows through his newest album, “Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard.” Recorded during a six-night Vanguard residency in the fall of 2018, “Anatomy of Angels” has Batiste summoning the ghosts of heroes and old friends (friend-trumpeter Roy Hargrove who passed last autumn) with no edits or retakes. “It’s a snapshot of live art,” said Batiste.
Variety caught up with Batiste on a humid July afternoon in Manhattan.
- 8/2/2019
- by A.D. Amorosi
- Variety Film + TV
Jazz is an art form that can be examined any number of ways — historically, racially, structurally, even philosophically — but choosing one of those runs the risk of ignoring the equally-important rest. Sophie Huber’s thoughtful but unfocused documentary “Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes” falls short primarily because it tries too much, examining history, modern-day impact and legacy all in one.
Nevertheless an engaging thumbnail overview of the record label’s heyday, its key players, and the descendants and disciples committed to carrying on its name and vision, “Beyond the Notes” succeeds better as an introduction to Blue Note and jazz in general than as an expert or in-depth examination of the musical genre or one of its most iconic distributors.
Part of the challenge is deciding where to start: With the musicians who pioneered the genre, or the earliest fans-turned visionaries who helped get them heard? Huber begins with Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff,...
Nevertheless an engaging thumbnail overview of the record label’s heyday, its key players, and the descendants and disciples committed to carrying on its name and vision, “Beyond the Notes” succeeds better as an introduction to Blue Note and jazz in general than as an expert or in-depth examination of the musical genre or one of its most iconic distributors.
Part of the challenge is deciding where to start: With the musicians who pioneered the genre, or the earliest fans-turned visionaries who helped get them heard? Huber begins with Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff,...
- 6/12/2019
- by Todd Gilchrist
- The Wrap
Musicians young and old drop a lot of heavy-duty jazz wisdom throughout Beyond the Notes, a new documentary about Blue Note Records that features commentary from the label’s Sixties stars such as Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter and new-school trailblazers like Robert Glasper and Ambrose Akinmusire. But the film’s single most eloquent statement might come from A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad who, reflecting on how Blue Note’s output fueled his own art through sampling, says that improvisation is akin to “finding a portal that...
- 6/12/2019
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Jennifer Hudson made a surprise appearance at the Pulitzer Prize awards ceremony in New York City to pay tribute to Aretha Franklin. The singer offered a rousing version of “Amazing Grace” at annual Pulitzer Prize luncheon at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library, which honored the 103rd class of Pulitzer winners.
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Special surprise guest, Academy Award-winning actress and Grammy Award-winning recording artist Jennifer Hudson @iamjhud performing "Amazing Grace" at the Pulitzer luncheon @Columbia University today, in honor of 2019 #Pulitzer Special Citation awardee, the #QueenOfSoul @ArethaFranklin.
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Special surprise guest, Academy Award-winning actress and Grammy Award-winning recording artist Jennifer Hudson @iamjhud performing "Amazing Grace" at the Pulitzer luncheon @Columbia University today, in honor of 2019 #Pulitzer Special Citation awardee, the #QueenOfSoul @ArethaFranklin.
- 5/29/2019
- by Emily Zemler
- Rollingstone.com
Aretha Franklin was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize’s Special Citation, the prestigious journalism and the arts organization announced Monday.
Franklin was recognized “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades,” the Pulitzer Prize board added of the honor.
Franklin is one of less than a dozen musicians – and the first female artist – to receive the Pulitzers’ Special Citation for the arts; previous winners include Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan and, most recently in 2010, Hank Williams.
Congratulations...
Franklin was recognized “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades,” the Pulitzer Prize board added of the honor.
Franklin is one of less than a dozen musicians – and the first female artist – to receive the Pulitzers’ Special Citation for the arts; previous winners include Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan and, most recently in 2010, Hank Williams.
Congratulations...
- 4/15/2019
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Bam
A series on Czech titan Věra Chytilová has commenced.
Metrograph
King Hu’s The Fate of Lee Khan has been restored.
Films about Thelonious Monk play back-to-back.
Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant and a print of Cronenberg’s Spider can be seen.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on Latin America’s recent sci-fi...
Bam
A series on Czech titan Věra Chytilová has commenced.
Metrograph
King Hu’s The Fate of Lee Khan has been restored.
Films about Thelonious Monk play back-to-back.
Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant and a print of Cronenberg’s Spider can be seen.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on Latin America’s recent sci-fi...
- 4/12/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
‘Soundtrack of America’: Inaugural Performance at the Shed in New York City Engages Emerging Artists
How do you open a new arts complex in New York City — one that costs nearly half a billion dollars and is on the edge of a glittery enclave that locals have swiftly rejected as a wealthy gated community — without wallowing in cultural elitism? Alex Poots, the Scottish artistic director of the Shed — which opened on Friday night without much pomp but plenty of circumstance — must have been worrying about that for years.
As the former director of the Manchester International Festival, he’s leaning into his global connections to...
As the former director of the Manchester International Festival, he’s leaning into his global connections to...
- 4/7/2019
- by Jerry Portwood
- Rollingstone.com
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