"But did he have rhythm?" Madman Films has revealed the first look trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, made by Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez. This film is an entrancing look back at a major moment in global politics during the Cold War, intertwining music history & pop culture with these events. Jazz & decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the Un Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba. After Lumumba was murdered in 1961, the US State Department swings into action by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup in the country. The doc features excerpts from My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin (narrated by Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama), Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, To Katanga & Back by Conor Cruise O’Brien (narrated...
- 5/5/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Louis Armstrong arrived in the Congolese capital, Leopoldville (now known as Kinshasa), on October 28, 1960, armed with his trumpet and wiping sweat from his brow. His visit was part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Africa, an arrangement Armstrong felt ambivalent about. Still, the Congolese people gave Satchmo, as the American jazz trumpeter was known, a near royal welcome. Drummers and dancers carried him to his performance venue on a red chair, fashioned like a throne. Civilians cheered him on. Ten thousand people showed up to watch him play.
This was a momentous occasion, a storied event for the newly independent republic of the Congo. Four months before Armstrong came to play jazz, the country had freed itself from the colonial grip of Belgium to become one of the more than dozen postcolonial African nations formed in 1960. But the region was still plagued with problems, most of them stemming...
This was a momentous occasion, a storied event for the newly independent republic of the Congo. Four months before Armstrong came to play jazz, the country had freed itself from the colonial grip of Belgium to become one of the more than dozen postcolonial African nations formed in 1960. But the region was still plagued with problems, most of them stemming...
- 3/1/2024
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Review: Soundtrack to a Coup d’État is a Vibrant, Complex, and Jazz-Infused Political Essay
It was Mark Twain who said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” which is one way of approaching Belgian filmmaker and multimedia artist Johan Grimonprez’s sprawling, jazz-infused Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. The political essay revisits 1960, a turbulent year in global affairs: Patrice Lumumba rises to power in Congo just as the United States, through the CIA-backed Voice of America radio network, aims to soften America’s image aboard, sending jazz musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, and Max Roach to tour the world. The film positions the jazz musicians as a kind of political cabinet while Gillespie envisions his own run for the White House on TV talk shows back home. It proceeds with a rather kinetic, defiant tone in which the jazz, breaking news, citations, and quotes interrupt the historical footage a more standard documentary may have primarily focused on.
- 2/9/2024
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
“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
Premiering out of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition, the impressionistic essay film “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” refracts the plot against Patrice Lumumba through a kaleidoscopic lens. Cutting between historical footage of the Un General Assembly and home movies shot in liberation-era Congo, weaving in a diverse set of perspectives, and setting the pace to a non-stop rhythm of bebop, rumba and classic jazz, director Johan Grimonprez evokes the euphoria of post-colonial possibility and the heartbreak of the dashed hopes and violent reprisals that would ensue.
“At first, I wanted to explore the colonial legacy of my own country,” says the Belgium-born Grimonprez. “I was already mesmerized by the story of Andrée Blouin, who was an independence leader, an advisor to [Ghana president] Kwame Nkrumah and chief of protocol for [first Congolese prime minister] Patrice Lumumba, but who was almost written out of history. And as a filmmaker, I like to explore those intimate stories within a wider,...
“At first, I wanted to explore the colonial legacy of my own country,” says the Belgium-born Grimonprez. “I was already mesmerized by the story of Andrée Blouin, who was an independence leader, an advisor to [Ghana president] Kwame Nkrumah and chief of protocol for [first Congolese prime minister] Patrice Lumumba, but who was almost written out of history. And as a filmmaker, I like to explore those intimate stories within a wider,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Corporate consolidation, along with shrinking publicity budgets and streaming services’ willingness to bury their own content, have made film festivals and series increasingly desirable to documentary filmmakers who are not only seeking distribution, but also to those nonfiction helmers who have found a platform for their work.
The rocky landscape has made the competition fierce for a slot at not only top-tier festivals, but also regional film events like New York’s Rooftop Films’ Summer Series.
Over the course of the last year, Rooftop Films president Dan Nuxoll received 3,500 film submissions for the nonprofit organization’s 27th annual Summer Series, which kicks off on May 25. Only 23 feature films were accepted. (Not all films have been announced.)
Fourteen of the 23 features Nuxoll chose are documentaries. include high profile docs like Chris Smith’s “Wham!” (Netflix), Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s “The Stroll” (HBO Documentary Films), Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues...
The rocky landscape has made the competition fierce for a slot at not only top-tier festivals, but also regional film events like New York’s Rooftop Films’ Summer Series.
Over the course of the last year, Rooftop Films president Dan Nuxoll received 3,500 film submissions for the nonprofit organization’s 27th annual Summer Series, which kicks off on May 25. Only 23 feature films were accepted. (Not all films have been announced.)
Fourteen of the 23 features Nuxoll chose are documentaries. include high profile docs like Chris Smith’s “Wham!” (Netflix), Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s “The Stroll” (HBO Documentary Films), Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues...
- 5/25/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The National Music Council of the United States will honor music and event producers Ray Chew and Vivian Scott Chew at the organization’s 39th annual American Eagle Awards on Sunday, June 25 at the American Federation of Musicians Convention in Las Vegas.
The honors are presented each year in recognition of those who have made career-long contributions to American musical culture, to promoting the ideal of music education for all children, and to supporting the protection of creators’ rights both locally and internationally.
This year’s presenter will be Academy Award and multi-Grammy-winning artist Regina Belle.
Music director, producer and composer Ray Chew’s work has been celebrated for excellence over the course of decades. His resume includes Dancing With the Stars, Showtime at the Apollo, and American Idol, as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremonies, the 2008 Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Ball,...
The honors are presented each year in recognition of those who have made career-long contributions to American musical culture, to promoting the ideal of music education for all children, and to supporting the protection of creators’ rights both locally and internationally.
This year’s presenter will be Academy Award and multi-Grammy-winning artist Regina Belle.
Music director, producer and composer Ray Chew’s work has been celebrated for excellence over the course of decades. His resume includes Dancing With the Stars, Showtime at the Apollo, and American Idol, as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremonies, the 2008 Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Ball,...
- 5/4/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
On Tuesday, the world lost an icon in the legendary performer, civil rights activist, and humanitarian Harry Belafonte. The Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner passed away at the age of 96. After starting his career in his native New York City as a jazz singer in the late 1940s and early ’50s, often backed by the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Max Roach, he released his first hit song “Matilda” in 1953. Then, a year later, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.” His first album “Calypso” was released in 1956 and brought unquestionably the most enduring song of his career, “Day-o (The Banana Boat Song).”
Belafonte went on to regularly perform with the Rat Pack in Las Vegas throughout the years while also transitioning to the screen. During the 1950s, he starred in such films as “Carmen Jones,” “Island in the Sun,...
Belafonte went on to regularly perform with the Rat Pack in Las Vegas throughout the years while also transitioning to the screen. During the 1950s, he starred in such films as “Carmen Jones,” “Island in the Sun,...
- 4/25/2023
- by Matt Tamanini
- The Streamable
Iconic actor, musician, and lifelong activist Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96. The cause, per his longtime spokesman Ken Sunshine, was congestive heart failure.
Belafonte’s singing shaped a musical consciousness for generations of Americans, from traditional folk music and spirituals to Caribbean calypso and protest songs. His acting in films such as “Carmen Jones” and “Odds Against Tomorrow” won praise and helped pave the way for Black performers who would follow. And his activism took him to the front lines of the civil rights movement, where he marched with Martin Luther King Jr., lobbied for the release of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela, and joined other stars to raise money for famine relief on the African continent. Realizing from an early age the power of celebrity to advance social change, Belafonte was among the rare few to have been equally entrenched in the worlds of entertainment and politics with genuine results to spare.
Belafonte’s singing shaped a musical consciousness for generations of Americans, from traditional folk music and spirituals to Caribbean calypso and protest songs. His acting in films such as “Carmen Jones” and “Odds Against Tomorrow” won praise and helped pave the way for Black performers who would follow. And his activism took him to the front lines of the civil rights movement, where he marched with Martin Luther King Jr., lobbied for the release of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela, and joined other stars to raise money for famine relief on the African continent. Realizing from an early age the power of celebrity to advance social change, Belafonte was among the rare few to have been equally entrenched in the worlds of entertainment and politics with genuine results to spare.
- 4/25/2023
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Recordings of 9/11 news reports, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speeches and Henry Aaron’s 715th home run will be preserved alongside Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and other albums and singles — and one podcast — as the Library of Congress released its 2022 list of additions to the National Recording Registry today. See the full list below.
The 25 selections of music and spoken-word pieces added today range span more than 80 years — from James P. Johnson’s 1927 “Harlem Strut” to Mark Maron’s 2010 Wtf podcast featuring Robin Williams — alongside some of the greatest songs and albums of the past 100 years.
Along with the Queen standard, other newly added singles include Nat King Cole’s 1961 holiday chestnut “The Christmas Song,” Ricky Martin’s 1999 smash “La Vida Loca,” Andy Williams’ Oscar-winning Henry Mancini-Johnny Murcer song “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Disneyland Boys Choir’s 1964 earworm “It’s a Small World,” Journey’s 1981 hit “Don’t...
The 25 selections of music and spoken-word pieces added today range span more than 80 years — from James P. Johnson’s 1927 “Harlem Strut” to Mark Maron’s 2010 Wtf podcast featuring Robin Williams — alongside some of the greatest songs and albums of the past 100 years.
Along with the Queen standard, other newly added singles include Nat King Cole’s 1961 holiday chestnut “The Christmas Song,” Ricky Martin’s 1999 smash “La Vida Loca,” Andy Williams’ Oscar-winning Henry Mancini-Johnny Murcer song “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Disneyland Boys Choir’s 1964 earworm “It’s a Small World,” Journey’s 1981 hit “Don’t...
- 4/13/2022
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Next summer is already confirmed to be a “Summer of Soul.”
Oscar, Grammy, and Peabody award-winning documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” has sparked a reimagining of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which the film explores.
Produced and directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “Summer of Soul” was the inspiration for a new outdoor music festival set for 2023. The Harlem Festival of Culture (Hfc) will take place in Marcus Garvey Park, formerly known as Mount Morris Park, the same site as the original festival.
Hfc was founded by Harlem native, Ambassador Digital Magazine editor-in-chief Musa Jackson, who attended the original festival as a child and appeared in “Summer of Soul.” Nikoa Evans and Emmy-nominated event producer Yvonne McNair are also co-founders of the Hfc.
“The original event was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that I will never forget,” Jackson said in a press statement. “With this initiative,...
Oscar, Grammy, and Peabody award-winning documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” has sparked a reimagining of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which the film explores.
Produced and directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “Summer of Soul” was the inspiration for a new outdoor music festival set for 2023. The Harlem Festival of Culture (Hfc) will take place in Marcus Garvey Park, formerly known as Mount Morris Park, the same site as the original festival.
Hfc was founded by Harlem native, Ambassador Digital Magazine editor-in-chief Musa Jackson, who attended the original festival as a child and appeared in “Summer of Soul.” Nikoa Evans and Emmy-nominated event producer Yvonne McNair are also co-founders of the Hfc.
“The original event was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that I will never forget,” Jackson said in a press statement. “With this initiative,...
- 4/13/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
To anyone who doubts that every vote matters, we offer the following proof: Journey are in the Library of Congress.
Today, the Library of Congress announces its list of 25 recordings chosen for the National Recording Registry. The genres represented by albums include girl group pop (the Shirelles’ Tonight’s the Night), mature boomer pop (Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time), world music produced or performed by classic rockers (Linda Ronstadt’s Canciones De Mi Padre set of Mexican music and the Ry Cooder-produced Buena Vista Social Club), jazz (Duke Ellington...
Today, the Library of Congress announces its list of 25 recordings chosen for the National Recording Registry. The genres represented by albums include girl group pop (the Shirelles’ Tonight’s the Night), mature boomer pop (Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time), world music produced or performed by classic rockers (Linda Ronstadt’s Canciones De Mi Padre set of Mexican music and the Ry Cooder-produced Buena Vista Social Club), jazz (Duke Ellington...
- 4/13/2022
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
“I believe that a big reason why this ambitious idea of throwing a music festival in Harlem in which somewhere between 70,000 to 90,000 people every weekend would see performances was so that there was something joyous and hopeful for people at that point were kind of at the end of their rope,” Summer of Soul (Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson says about the importance the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival had to a Black America ravaged by violence and assassination.
“It was a healing moment, if you will,” Thompson added during the film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees event. The Roots drummer, bestselling author, musicologist and now Oscar nominee made his feature directorial debut with the feature documentary.
Having premiered at the virtual Sundance Film Festival in 2021, Summer of Soul took home the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the documentary categories in Park City.
“It was a healing moment, if you will,” Thompson added during the film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees event. The Roots drummer, bestselling author, musicologist and now Oscar nominee made his feature directorial debut with the feature documentary.
Having premiered at the virtual Sundance Film Festival in 2021, Summer of Soul took home the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the documentary categories in Park City.
- 3/5/2022
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
George Ferencz, a longtime mainstay of the Off Broadway scene who directed premieres and revivals of plays by Sam Shepard, Aishah Rahman and Amiri Baraka, died Sept. 14 following a long illness. He was 74.
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
His death was announced today by the three-time Emmy-winning costumer designer Sally Lesser, his wife of 35 years and collaborator on more than 65 theater productions.
Among the other then-new playwrights directed by Ferencz in significant stagings were Jean-Claude van Itallie, Mac Wellman and Yasmine Rana. Ferencz also directed established works by playwrights including Eugene O’Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Sean O’Casey and Agatha Christie.
“We would regularly run into his colleagues and former students on the street,” actor Jenne Vath, who worked in numerous Ferencz productions, said in a statement. “They would invariably say that George changed their life. George was a great spirit and a rock star...
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
His death was announced today by the three-time Emmy-winning costumer designer Sally Lesser, his wife of 35 years and collaborator on more than 65 theater productions.
Among the other then-new playwrights directed by Ferencz in significant stagings were Jean-Claude van Itallie, Mac Wellman and Yasmine Rana. Ferencz also directed established works by playwrights including Eugene O’Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Sean O’Casey and Agatha Christie.
“We would regularly run into his colleagues and former students on the street,” actor Jenne Vath, who worked in numerous Ferencz productions, said in a statement. “They would invariably say that George changed their life. George was a great spirit and a rock star...
- 9/23/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Early rock & roll drummer Charles Connor — who played with Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and James Brown in the Fifties — died in his home in Glendale, California, after a battle with the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus. He was 86.
“He was one of those drummers that was a bricklayer of creating that rock & roll genre,” his daughter, Queenie Connor Sonnefeld, told the Associated Press. “He played behind so many legendary musicians in the Fifties. He was a loving grandfather and was very proud of his family and took a lot of...
“He was one of those drummers that was a bricklayer of creating that rock & roll genre,” his daughter, Queenie Connor Sonnefeld, told the Associated Press. “He played behind so many legendary musicians in the Fifties. He was a loving grandfather and was very proud of his family and took a lot of...
- 8/3/2021
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Mr. Soul!, the award-winning documentary about the public television variety show Soul!, is coming to HBO Max August 1st, and the streaming service has released a trailer for the film that captures just how influential and ahead of its time Soul! was.
Produced and directed by Melissa Haizlip, the documentary chronicles how her uncle, enigmatic producer and host Ellis Haizlip, created Soul! (1968-1973) as a celebration of black music, politics, literature, dance, and poetry during a tumultuous time for black Americans. The show featured countless performances by and interviews with...
Produced and directed by Melissa Haizlip, the documentary chronicles how her uncle, enigmatic producer and host Ellis Haizlip, created Soul! (1968-1973) as a celebration of black music, politics, literature, dance, and poetry during a tumultuous time for black Americans. The show featured countless performances by and interviews with...
- 7/22/2021
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
Questlove was skeptical. In early 2019, the Roots’ drummer was approached by two Hollywood producers who claimed to have 45 hours of footage from a long-forgotten music festival in Harlem that had included performances from Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, and more. Questlove, who’s renowned for his encyclopedic knowledge of music history, had never heard of the event. He had, however, become used to fellow crate-digging obsessives trying to one-up him with dubious historical tidbits.
“That’s really what I thought it was,...
“That’s really what I thought it was,...
- 6/1/2021
- by Jonathan Bernstein
- Rollingstone.com
"The revolution will not be televised!" Searchlight Pictures has unveiled the first teaser trailer for the new music history documentary Summer of Soul, the feature directorial debut of DJ / musician Questlove - who Mc'd the Academy Awards show live last night. Summer of Soul first premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, and it will stop by HotDocs next. This film won over critics and audiences with audacious, joyful, uplifting look back at this remarkable music event. Summer Of Soul is a doc feature about the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which celebrated African American music and culture, and promoted Black pride and unity. The documentary feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach and more. This is an amazing ...
- 4/26/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
When he’s not part of a Grammy-winning band, providing tunes for late night TV, being involved with Broadway sensations, or DJ’ing the Oscars, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is also making movies. His directorial debut Summer of Soul premiered at Sundance earlier this year, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.
Bringing to life a once-forgotten part of Black history, The Harlem Cultural Festival, the riveting documentary unearths footage from the 1969 summer concert that was sitting in a basement for decades, finally now seeing the light of day. Featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach, and more, the first teaser has now arrived ahead of a July 2 release in theaters and on Hulu.
Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his Sundance review, “In many ways, it’s a miracle. Interspersed with crucial historical context, Summer of...
Bringing to life a once-forgotten part of Black history, The Harlem Cultural Festival, the riveting documentary unearths footage from the 1969 summer concert that was sitting in a basement for decades, finally now seeing the light of day. Featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach, and more, the first teaser has now arrived ahead of a July 2 release in theaters and on Hulu.
Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his Sundance review, “In many ways, it’s a miracle. Interspersed with crucial historical context, Summer of...
- 4/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In 2002, when Halle Berry won the Oscar for her performance in “Monster’s Ball,” becoming the first African American to take home the Academy Award for best actress, after 30 seconds of convulsive tears she said, “This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll…And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance, because this door tonight has been opened.” To achieve something by standing on the shoulders of others is a profound feeling. And what Halle Berry’s speech hit home is that where those earlier performers had allowed her to become a giant, they were giants too — more than contemporary audiences often know.
“How It Feels to Be Free” is a documentary, at once sobering and enchanting, that interweaves portraits of six legendary stars, all of them Black women, telling the story of the trails they blazed,...
“How It Feels to Be Free” is a documentary, at once sobering and enchanting, that interweaves portraits of six legendary stars, all of them Black women, telling the story of the trails they blazed,...
- 4/18/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
The Inheritance Review: History, Art, Ideology, and Love Converge in Thrillingly Alive Debut Feature
History, art, ideology, and love make up the four pillars of Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance, a thrillingly alive debut feature that resides both inside the square rooms of a West Philadelphia house and outside the boundaries of genre. As its title suggests, to assume the past experiences, lessons, and artistic creations of others can be liberating. But there’s also great personal responsibility to pass on that knowledge in some productive way.
With every jarring cut, temporal jump, and splash of vibrant color, Asili seems to be asking one central question: what do we do with the brimming feelings accumulated from learning about tragic events, listening to social justice leaders, experiencing the poems of living legends, and hearing live music? It’s a central conundrum facing young people immediately after experiencing a genuine moment of epiphany.
That sense of untapped energy fuels the scripted drama about a group of...
With every jarring cut, temporal jump, and splash of vibrant color, Asili seems to be asking one central question: what do we do with the brimming feelings accumulated from learning about tragic events, listening to social justice leaders, experiencing the poems of living legends, and hearing live music? It’s a central conundrum facing young people immediately after experiencing a genuine moment of epiphany.
That sense of untapped energy fuels the scripted drama about a group of...
- 3/11/2021
- by Glenn Heath Jr.
- The Film Stage
One wonders what Notorious B.I.G would have thought about smartphones. The late New York Mc, who is the subject of a new Netflix documentary titled Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, was an eager evangelist of the humble camcorder. Early on in the documentary, his longtime friend Damion “D-Roc” Butler explains how Biggie instructed him to capture the audiences at their concerts. The resulting footage is electric — a preserved vision of a hip-hop golden era, shown from the vantage point of one of its most culturally influential stars.
- 3/3/2021
- by Jeff Ihaza
- Rollingstone.com
Biggie Smalls, born Christopher Wallace but Aka Notorious B.I.G., is a contradictory legend. A rapper who was always heard singing, a serious artist who never stopped clowning, he took the streets with him knowing it would take him down. His first album was called Ready to Die and his next was Life After Death, but he had a life in between. It is sad how his legacy is posthumous. But, as Sean Combs says at the very start of Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, “This story doesn’t have to have a tragic ending.”
Combs, who co-produced the film, celebrates the contradictions and how they informed the music. When Biggie rapped he had “so much style I should be down with the Stylistics” he was being artistically autobiographical. Smalls had been singing those soul classics and listening to jazz greats from the earliest age. It’s...
Combs, who co-produced the film, celebrates the contradictions and how they informed the music. When Biggie rapped he had “so much style I should be down with the Stylistics” he was being artistically autobiographical. Smalls had been singing those soul classics and listening to jazz greats from the earliest age. It’s...
- 3/2/2021
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Diddy, and Notorious Big’s mother and others discuss dark rumours and chart the rapper’s rise to fame in this significant documentary
Perhaps posthumous legacy was always on the mind of late rapper Christopher “Notorious Big” Wallace. His impactful debut album Ready to Die was followed by Life After Death, released 16 days after he was killed aged 24, in a still-unsolved, drive-by shooting. Yet while there have been several filmic attempts to capture this legascy –– including Nick Broomfield’s 2002 documentary Biggie & Tupac and the 2009 biopic Notorious –– this Netflix release is the first to successfully sidestep the quicksand of murder mystery, and focus instead on what Wallace accomplished in life.
Clearly redressing that balance was the motivation of at least two executive producers, including Wallace’s label boss and friend, Sean “Diddy” Combs, who early on declares: “This story doesn’t have to have a tragic ending.” It’s the contribution of Wallace’s mother,...
Perhaps posthumous legacy was always on the mind of late rapper Christopher “Notorious Big” Wallace. His impactful debut album Ready to Die was followed by Life After Death, released 16 days after he was killed aged 24, in a still-unsolved, drive-by shooting. Yet while there have been several filmic attempts to capture this legascy –– including Nick Broomfield’s 2002 documentary Biggie & Tupac and the 2009 biopic Notorious –– this Netflix release is the first to successfully sidestep the quicksand of murder mystery, and focus instead on what Wallace accomplished in life.
Clearly redressing that balance was the motivation of at least two executive producers, including Wallace’s label boss and friend, Sean “Diddy” Combs, who early on declares: “This story doesn’t have to have a tragic ending.” It’s the contribution of Wallace’s mother,...
- 3/1/2021
- by Ellen E Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
When the late Notorious B.I.G. was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November, he, like the other living or dead inductees, was celebrated in the HBO special that served as a virtual ceremony with a biographical short film — one that was just well done enough to make a lot of viewers wonder: Why has Christopher Wallace’s story never been made into a theatrical feature? It had, but that’s just how forgettable the 2009 biopic “Notorious” was; 13 years later, it’s as if that film never existed, leaving the life of the man many still regard as hip-hop’s greatest star ripe for re-mythologizing.
Some of the producers behind that earlier effort, including Sean “Puffy” Combs and Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, have joined with new collaborators for another, much better try at burnishing the hip-hop titan’s legacy with Netflix’s “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell.
Some of the producers behind that earlier effort, including Sean “Puffy” Combs and Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, have joined with new collaborators for another, much better try at burnishing the hip-hop titan’s legacy with Netflix’s “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell.
- 2/24/2021
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
As Sly and the Family Stone’s 1971 tune says, it’s a family affair,
Less than two weeks after his directorial debut Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) was picked up in a multi-million dollar Sundance Film Festival deal, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is heading back behind the camera for a documentary on Sly Stone – with some long time collaborators on board.
“It goes beyond saying that Sly’s creative legacy is in my DNA….it’s a black musician’s blueprint….to be given the honor to explore his history and legacy is beyond a dream for me,” the Roots drummer and musicologist said in a statement today on MRC Non-Fiction project.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stone formed and fronted the genre and culturally defining Family Stone. This latest film on Stone is expected to focus not just on his successes, but also...
Less than two weeks after his directorial debut Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) was picked up in a multi-million dollar Sundance Film Festival deal, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is heading back behind the camera for a documentary on Sly Stone – with some long time collaborators on board.
“It goes beyond saying that Sly’s creative legacy is in my DNA….it’s a black musician’s blueprint….to be given the honor to explore his history and legacy is beyond a dream for me,” the Roots drummer and musicologist said in a statement today on MRC Non-Fiction project.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stone formed and fronted the genre and culturally defining Family Stone. This latest film on Stone is expected to focus not just on his successes, but also...
- 2/19/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Two days after picking up Sundance’s Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Summer of Soul has been picked up by Searchlight and Hulu.
The acquisition of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s directorial debut is for worldwide rights, parent company Disney says, in a deal put together by Disney General Entertainment’s Bipoc Creator initiative, led by Tara Duncan and brokered by Cinetic Media.
With appearances by Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, the Staples Sisters, Stevie Wonder, Glady Knight and the Pips, Max Roach, Abby Lincoln and many more, the music-themed documentary is set for a theatrical release as well as streaming on Hulu in America and internationally on Star and Star+.
A true time capsule of then and now, Summer of Soul is packed with newly unearthed footage of the nearly forgotten but star-studded Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. In that vein,...
The acquisition of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s directorial debut is for worldwide rights, parent company Disney says, in a deal put together by Disney General Entertainment’s Bipoc Creator initiative, led by Tara Duncan and brokered by Cinetic Media.
With appearances by Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, the Staples Sisters, Stevie Wonder, Glady Knight and the Pips, Max Roach, Abby Lincoln and many more, the music-themed documentary is set for a theatrical release as well as streaming on Hulu in America and internationally on Star and Star+.
A true time capsule of then and now, Summer of Soul is packed with newly unearthed footage of the nearly forgotten but star-studded Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. In that vein,...
- 2/5/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Premiering tonight at the semi-virtual Sundance Film Festival, Summer Of Soul is both an exhilarating and chastising experience.
Unearthing a cultural sarcophagus of 1969 Black America, the dexterous directorial debut about 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is full of triumphal performances from some of the greatest musicians of that era and any other.
This is living hidden history that you need to hear and know, as Gladys Knight says in the documentary: “It wasn’t just about the music.”
Completed during the Covid-19 crisis, the nearly two-hour Summer of Soul moves through time and memory with sit-down interviews with people who were in the 300,000 strong crowd or up on-stage. Yet, like a previous Sundance opening night documentary, 2015’s What Happened Miss Simone? (which actually contains about 30-seconds of the 1969 footage), the brutal reality of how much of the oppression and...
Unearthing a cultural sarcophagus of 1969 Black America, the dexterous directorial debut about 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is full of triumphal performances from some of the greatest musicians of that era and any other.
This is living hidden history that you need to hear and know, as Gladys Knight says in the documentary: “It wasn’t just about the music.”
Completed during the Covid-19 crisis, the nearly two-hour Summer of Soul moves through time and memory with sit-down interviews with people who were in the 300,000 strong crowd or up on-stage. Yet, like a previous Sundance opening night documentary, 2015’s What Happened Miss Simone? (which actually contains about 30-seconds of the 1969 footage), the brutal reality of how much of the oppression and...
- 1/29/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
A pulsating panorama of “Black, beautiful, proud” people, “Summer of Soul,” is . But this one, which marks the directorial debut of The Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, comes with a most unfortunate history: Its film reels were buried in a basement for 50 years, largely unseen, until now.
The “Questlove Jawn,” as it’s introduced in opening credits, covers the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, aka “The Black Woodstock.” The name stuck over the years not only because the concerts coincided with that other big rock festival upstate. The idea for the event flowered from the ashes of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, as well as the Civil Rights movement, and was created to celebrate African-American music, culture and politics, and to promote Black pride and unity.
It wasn’t the first time. The initial Harlem Cultural Festival took place in 1967, when a thirtysomething Harlemite singer named...
The “Questlove Jawn,” as it’s introduced in opening credits, covers the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, aka “The Black Woodstock.” The name stuck over the years not only because the concerts coincided with that other big rock festival upstate. The idea for the event flowered from the ashes of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, as well as the Civil Rights movement, and was created to celebrate African-American music, culture and politics, and to promote Black pride and unity.
It wasn’t the first time. The initial Harlem Cultural Festival took place in 1967, when a thirtysomething Harlemite singer named...
- 1/29/2021
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Not many people know his name, but half a century ago Tony Lawrence created something extraordinary in the middle of New York City. And few people know the name Hal Tulchin, but he documented the feat. It was called the Harlem Cultural Festival, and over six weekends in the summer of 1969 it showcased more than five dozen acts and drew 300,000 people, who were charged not a cent to see — are you ready? — Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Staple Singers, Sly and the ...
- 1/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Not many people know his name, but half a century ago Tony Lawrence created something extraordinary in the middle of New York City. And few people know the name Hal Tulchin, but he documented the feat. It was called the Harlem Cultural Festival, and over six weekends in the summer of 1969 it showcased more than five dozen acts and drew 300,000 people, who were charged not a cent to see — are you ready? — Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Staple Singers, Sly and the ...
- 1/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Stream of the Day: ‘Free Angela and All Political Prisoners’ Still Holds the Power to Inspire Change
With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.
Forty years after the high-stakes trial that catapulted 26-year-old scholar and Marxist feminist Angela Davis into the spotlight as a revolutionary icon, Shola Lynch’s 2012 documentary, “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” relives those transformative years of Davis’ life. It’s quite a journey: Even as she was branded a terrorist, Davis spurred a worldwide political movement for her freedom. The portrait of that story reignites discussion on the radical movement she joined and eventually led, and it still holds the power to inspire a new generation to similar acts of collective progressivism, all in the name of political and social reforms.
“Terrorist” is far from the only label Davis has faced over the years: activist, intellectual, inspiration, and fearless leader all...
Forty years after the high-stakes trial that catapulted 26-year-old scholar and Marxist feminist Angela Davis into the spotlight as a revolutionary icon, Shola Lynch’s 2012 documentary, “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” relives those transformative years of Davis’ life. It’s quite a journey: Even as she was branded a terrorist, Davis spurred a worldwide political movement for her freedom. The portrait of that story reignites discussion on the radical movement she joined and eventually led, and it still holds the power to inspire a new generation to similar acts of collective progressivism, all in the name of political and social reforms.
“Terrorist” is far from the only label Davis has faced over the years: activist, intellectual, inspiration, and fearless leader all...
- 7/23/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
“I wanted to be one of the best — that was my wish,” Nigerian drum legend Tony Allen said on the Trap Set podcast during a 2015 interview. “To be the best, it’s not when you are doing the same thing with others…. To be the best means I have to find a way to put something on the road, create something that wasn’t there, for other people to learn from.”
Few would dispute that Allen, who died Thursday at age 79, lived up to his objective. When he joined up...
Few would dispute that Allen, who died Thursday at age 79, lived up to his objective. When he joined up...
- 5/1/2020
- by Daniel Kreps, Elias Leight and Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Tony Allen, the pioneering drummer who helped define Afrobeat during his tenure with Fela Kuti, died Thursday evening. He was 79.
Allen’s manager, Eric Trosser, confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone, adding that Allen was taken to Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, where he died of abdominal aortic aneurysm. “He was in great shape,” Trosser added to France 24. “It was quite sudden.” Sahara Reporters first reported Allen’s death.
As a member of Kuti’s band Africa 70, Allen helped revolutionize the art of drumming, simultaneously anchoring...
Allen’s manager, Eric Trosser, confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone, adding that Allen was taken to Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, where he died of abdominal aortic aneurysm. “He was in great shape,” Trosser added to France 24. “It was quite sudden.” Sahara Reporters first reported Allen’s death.
As a member of Kuti’s band Africa 70, Allen helped revolutionize the art of drumming, simultaneously anchoring...
- 4/30/2020
- by Daniel Kreps and Elias Leight
- Rollingstone.com
Every musician who worked steadily with John Coltrane in the Sixties achieved a certain kind of immortality. But drummer Rashied Ali earned a special distinction thanks to a February 1967 duo recording date with the legendary horn player, five months before Coltrane’s death. Released seven years later as Interstellar Space, the music from that session essentially launched an entire subgenre of fervent, spiritually attuned free jazz played by just a saxophonist and drummer.
Yet as a new series of reissues and archival releases shows, Interstellar Space is only part of the Rashied Ali story.
Yet as a new series of reissues and archival releases shows, Interstellar Space is only part of the Rashied Ali story.
- 1/23/2020
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
When Ginger Baker was a teenager, his life was transformed in two lasting ways. While at a party around age 15, he was encouraged to sit down at a drum kit and play; classmates had noticed he would drum on his desktop and thought he’d be good at it. Before long he had given up dreams of being a pilot or a championship bicyclist for a musician’s life. Around the same time, he belatedly read a letter his late father, a bricklayer who had died in World War II,...
- 10/12/2019
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Ginger Baker, the wildly influential and innovative drummer who laid the groundwork for heavy metal and world music and played with everyone from Fela Kuti to John Lydon to Max Roach, died Sunday after a lengthy hospital stay. He was 80.
“We are very sad to say that Ginger has passed away peacefully in hospital this morning. Thank you to everyone for your kind words over the past weeks,” the drummer’s Facebook confirmed Sunday, nearly two weeks after Baker’s family said he was “critically ill” in the hospital.
“Dad passed away peacefully,...
“We are very sad to say that Ginger has passed away peacefully in hospital this morning. Thank you to everyone for your kind words over the past weeks,” the drummer’s Facebook confirmed Sunday, nearly two weeks after Baker’s family said he was “critically ill” in the hospital.
“Dad passed away peacefully,...
- 10/6/2019
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
It’s hard to dispute Ginger Baker’s status as a rock icon. Unless you’re Ginger Baker, that is. “Oh for god’s sake, I’ve never played rock,” the drummer, who turns 80 today, said testily during a 2013 interview. “Cream was two jazz players and a blues guitarist playing improvised music. We never played the same thing two nights running. … It was jazz.”
Related: 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time
Baker’s history with jazz dates back to the mid-Fifties, when he began playing in British Dixieland-revival groups and absorbing...
Related: 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time
Baker’s history with jazz dates back to the mid-Fifties, when he began playing in British Dixieland-revival groups and absorbing...
- 8/19/2019
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
It's arrived -- thanks in part to a successful Kickstarter campaign, this nearly comprehensive compendium of American 'Race Films' is here in a deluxe Blu-ray presentation. Pioneers of African-American Cinema Blu-ray Kino Classics 1915-1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 952 min. / Street Date July 26, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 99.95 Directed by Richard Norman, Richard Maurice, Spencer Williams and Oscar Micheaux
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Black Cinema History? We didn't hear a peep about any such thing back in film school. Sometime in the 1980s PBS would broadcast a barely watchable (see sample just below) copy of a creaky silent 'race movie' about a 'backsliding' black man in trouble with the law, the Lord and his wife in that order. The cultural segregation has been almost complete. It wasn't until even later that I read articles about a long-extinct nationwide circuit of movie theaters catering to black audiences, wherever the populations were big enough to support the trade.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Black Cinema History? We didn't hear a peep about any such thing back in film school. Sometime in the 1980s PBS would broadcast a barely watchable (see sample just below) copy of a creaky silent 'race movie' about a 'backsliding' black man in trouble with the law, the Lord and his wife in that order. The cultural segregation has been almost complete. It wasn't until even later that I read articles about a long-extinct nationwide circuit of movie theaters catering to black audiences, wherever the populations were big enough to support the trade.
- 8/6/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A review of tonight's "The Leftovers" coming up just as soon as I email my manuscript to myself... "They won't jump out of the way." -Laurie After two episodes set largely in Jarden, "The Leftovers" returns to the Tri-State area(*), and to the most divisive of the many divisive elements of season 1, with Laurie and Tommy taking on the Guilty Remnant in "Off Ramp." (*) No, not that Tri-State area, even if Damon Lindelof wrote a "Lost"-themed "Phineas & Ferb" episode. When Laurie's potential book publisher asks her to explain exactly what the Remnant believes and why, he's acting as a stand-in for the many "Leftovers" viewers who didn't understand and/or like what all those chain-smoking ghouls in white jumpsuits were up to last season. And with Laurie finally able to speak — she speaks so much in this episode that you can feel all those words relieved to get out...
- 10/19/2015
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
“Rhythm is everything in cinema,” says director Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
Making the unique choice for the Birdman soundtrack, Iñárritu went with an almost total drum score by four-time Grammy Award winner Antonio Sanchez.
Sanchez is considered by many critics and musicians alike to be one of the most prominent drummers, bandleaders and composers of his generation.
Sanchez will open the 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Awards with a special drum performance from Birdman. Held at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, November 4, Sanchez will play his critically acclaimed drum score live to a scene from the film.
Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance is a black comedy that tells the story of an actor (Michael Keaton) – famous for portraying an iconic superhero – as he struggles to mount a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career,...
Making the unique choice for the Birdman soundtrack, Iñárritu went with an almost total drum score by four-time Grammy Award winner Antonio Sanchez.
Sanchez is considered by many critics and musicians alike to be one of the most prominent drummers, bandleaders and composers of his generation.
Sanchez will open the 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Awards with a special drum performance from Birdman. Held at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, November 4, Sanchez will play his critically acclaimed drum score live to a scene from the film.
Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance is a black comedy that tells the story of an actor (Michael Keaton) – famous for portraying an iconic superhero – as he struggles to mount a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career,...
- 10/23/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Dinah Washington (8/29/24-12/14/63) was one of the last great examples of female blues singers regularly working in a jazz band context. Many aficionados would say that she was surpassed in this style only by Bessie Smith. First Issue: The Dinah Washington Story, the two-cd set that proudly features the commemorative stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 1993 to mark the 30th anniversary of her premature death at age 39 (from an overdose of alcohol and diet pills), offers the finest overview of Washington's artistry, ranging from her first records under her own name in 1943 to her classic material for the Verve, Mercury, EmArcy, and Wing labels from 1946 through 1961 (with at least one item from every year in that span), missing only her last two years, when she was on Roulette.
As vocalist expert Chris Albertson's liner notes observe, "Dinah was a gospel, blues, pop, and jazz singer all rolled into one,...
As vocalist expert Chris Albertson's liner notes observe, "Dinah was a gospel, blues, pop, and jazz singer all rolled into one,...
- 8/29/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
"Are you kidding me, man?!" composer Angelo Badalamenti howls jokingly when Rolling Stone asks him what he thought of Twin Peaks, the TV series he scored in the early Nineties. "It was really off the wall. I thought it was either going to sink violently down the drain or, hopefully, capture the intrigue of enthusiastic people conversing by the office water cooler on a Monday morning."
12 Things We Learned from David Lynch's Talk at Bam
As it turned out, Twin Peaks was an instant hit when it premiered on April 8th,...
12 Things We Learned from David Lynch's Talk at Bam
As it turned out, Twin Peaks was an instant hit when it premiered on April 8th,...
- 7/25/2014
- Rollingstone.com
★★★☆☆ The very fact that rockumentary Beware of Mr. Baker (2012) exists at all is solely down to director Jay Bulger's strange passion for the irate and ferociously talented flame-haired drummer Ginger Baker. Not that the musician doesn't deserve his own documentary, but it was both brave and insightful of Bulger to choose the fledgling Baker as a subject, dust him down and reintroduce the man to a world that had almost forgotten he existed. Last year's critically acclaimed Searching for Sugar Man (2012) also trod a similar path, but if Rodriguez is a softly-spoken, peace-loving messianic figure, then Baker is the Antichrist.
Some may see only a bitter and acid-tongued musical monster, who spends the majority of the film seemingly wishing Bulger would put him back under the rock he found him under. Undoubtedly a master of his instrument, Baker grew up in South London during the blitz, lost his father...
Some may see only a bitter and acid-tongued musical monster, who spends the majority of the film seemingly wishing Bulger would put him back under the rock he found him under. Undoubtedly a master of his instrument, Baker grew up in South London during the blitz, lost his father...
- 7/23/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Jay Bulger, the American director of TV commercials and writer on rock music, comes to the task of making a documentary on wild man and virtuoso drummer Ginger Baker with one important qualification: while a student at New York's Fordham University he boxed in several Golden Gloves tournaments for young amateur pugilists. At the end of their extended filming session in South Africa where the septuagenarian Baker now lives, Bulger remarked that he was going on to film interviews with Ginger's former associates. Furious at this suggestion, Baker unleashed a string of obscene abuse and then struck Bulger with the walking stick he's being using since developing osteoarthritis. The blow broke the documentarist's nose, and we're shown it at the beginning and end of Beware of Mr Baker. Like the experienced fighter he is, Bulger took it like a man in the best Golden Gloves tradition, smiled and completed his film.
- 5/18/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The Simpsons‘ has tapped Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins to play himself in an episode of the Fox animated comedy, TVLine has learned exclusively.
Related | An Animation Domination Halloween Treat for You!
In a spring episode titled “Whiskey Business,” Rollins appears as a hologram to Lisa when she takes exception to a “Tupac-at-Cochella”-style hologram of blues icon Bleeding Gums Murphy and starts a letter writing campaign to stop this holographic exploitation.
Related | Simpsons Boss on Carell’s Violent Tendencies, Cumberbatch’s Eagerness and ‘Bart’s Annie Hall’
Rollins is a Grammy-winning jazz tenor saxophonist who has played with greats like Miles Davis,...
Related | An Animation Domination Halloween Treat for You!
In a spring episode titled “Whiskey Business,” Rollins appears as a hologram to Lisa when she takes exception to a “Tupac-at-Cochella”-style hologram of blues icon Bleeding Gums Murphy and starts a letter writing campaign to stop this holographic exploitation.
Related | Simpsons Boss on Carell’s Violent Tendencies, Cumberbatch’s Eagerness and ‘Bart’s Annie Hall’
Rollins is a Grammy-winning jazz tenor saxophonist who has played with greats like Miles Davis,...
- 10/11/2012
- by Kimberly Roots
- TVLine.com
This year’s SXSW had a few strong themes running throughout its selections, and in the documentary category, this was seen in the numerous films about '70s rock icons such as “Paul Williams: Still Alive,” “Marley,” the preview of “Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me,” and heck, even “Bad Brains: A Band in DC” fits into this category. But the Documentary Feature winning film, “Beware of Mr. Baker,” about Cream drummer Ginger Baker, certainly earned its award, as it blows those other (quite remarkable) films out of the water, starting with one vicious rap to the nose.
The film’s title is a literal one, taken directly from the sign at the gate of Ginger Baker’s South African compound. It also refers to the opening sequence of the film -- the camera obscured, with Baker shouting “I don’t want those fucking people in my film!” before lashing...
The film’s title is a literal one, taken directly from the sign at the gate of Ginger Baker’s South African compound. It also refers to the opening sequence of the film -- the camera obscured, with Baker shouting “I don’t want those fucking people in my film!” before lashing...
- 3/20/2012
- by Katie Walsh
- The Playlist
Carl Vernlund Jaimoe (center) and the Jasssz Band.
The last year saw a flood of solo releases by members of the Allman Brothers band. The first three, by Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks’ Tedeschi Trucks Band, were all nominated for the Best Blues Album Grammy Award. But the fourth and final release may be the best of all: “Renaissance Man” by founding Allman Brothers drummer Jaimoe and his Jasssz Band.
Released December 17th by lil’Johnieboy Records, “Renaissance Man” is a laid-back delight.
The last year saw a flood of solo releases by members of the Allman Brothers band. The first three, by Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks’ Tedeschi Trucks Band, were all nominated for the Best Blues Album Grammy Award. But the fourth and final release may be the best of all: “Renaissance Man” by founding Allman Brothers drummer Jaimoe and his Jasssz Band.
Released December 17th by lil’Johnieboy Records, “Renaissance Man” is a laid-back delight.
- 1/27/2012
- by Alan Paul
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
From left, Stefon Harris, David Sanchez, and Christian Scott.
Many super groups are less than the sum of their super parts. But vibraphonist Stefon Harris, 38, trumpeter Christian Scott, 28, and tenor saxophonist Dávid Sanchez, 42, are looking to beat the odds with their collaborative project, “Ninety Miles,” released this week on Concord Picante.
Together, the three musicians — all bandleaders in their own right, all labelmates as well — journeyed to Havana, Cuba (hence the album’s title) to work and record with Cuban...
Many super groups are less than the sum of their super parts. But vibraphonist Stefon Harris, 38, trumpeter Christian Scott, 28, and tenor saxophonist Dávid Sanchez, 42, are looking to beat the odds with their collaborative project, “Ninety Miles,” released this week on Concord Picante.
Together, the three musicians — all bandleaders in their own right, all labelmates as well — journeyed to Havana, Cuba (hence the album’s title) to work and record with Cuban...
- 6/23/2011
- by Jozen Cummings
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
It’s so strange, writing this so long after the announcement yesterday. In today’s internet world of instant information, and twenty four second news cycles, yesterday’s August 2011 Criterion Collection new releases may as well have happened last week, or last month. I’m sure that the page views for this post will be markedly smaller than the usual, as I have tried consistently to have the new release post up within minutes of the pages going live on Criterion’s website. I know this all sounds like inside baseball stuff, but it’s on my mind, and darn it, this is my website.
I had a whole, several paragraph long, write up of the August titles, but since I’m finding myself writing this at 10pm on Tuesday evening, I think it’s better if I just scrap that whole thing and start over. I was going on...
I had a whole, several paragraph long, write up of the August titles, but since I’m finding myself writing this at 10pm on Tuesday evening, I think it’s better if I just scrap that whole thing and start over. I was going on...
- 5/18/2011
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
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