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Echoes Of Tradition: New Documentary By Award-winning Director Ben Makinen Honors Native American And LGBTQ+ Contributions To Jazz – Watch Free On Patreon
Source:
Ben Makinen
ECHOES OF TRADITION A Film by Ben Makinen “Echoes is beautifully shot and edited with a relaxed feel that flows like water.” —Bruce Boyd Raeburn, former Curator, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University “Ben Makinen’s latest documentary is a comprehensive and absorbing work that breaks tradition by highlighting exceptional and groundbreaking musicians while calling for change.” —The Sleepless Critic “All the credit's gone to the Africans for the wonderful rhythm in jazz, but I think a lot of it should go ...
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On April 25, Explore The Life And Times Of A Singular Jazz Icon With 'Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got', Winner Of The 1986 Oscar For Best Documentary, Now Restored In 4k
Source:
Michael Krause
Outspoken, manipulative, independent thinking and oftentimes controversial, Artie Shaw (1910-2004) was one of the most popular stars of the Swing Era, who famously broke the color barrier by hiring the legendary Billie Holiday, Hot Lips Page and Roy Eldridge for his bands. His complex love-hate relationship with his own celebrity caused him to walk away from performing almost as many times as he walked away from his marriages. Winner of the 1986 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Artie Shaw: ...
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Documentary: Melvin Sparks
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Melvin Sparks was one of the finest and most important guitarists during the jazz-funk movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For the Prestige label, Sparks recorded with Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer Jr., Johnny Hammond Smith, Caesar Frazier and many others. He was known for his Houston shuffle rhythm guitar and funky jazz lines. Sparks came out of the Houston blues and soul scene in the 1960s and began playing soul-jazz with organist Brother Jack McDuff mid-decade. ...
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Doc: The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
From 1957 to 1965, photographer W Eugene Smith lived in loft space at 821 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Smith had already established himself as a pioneer of the journalistic photo essay—a collection of images that told a story in magazines, most notably Life. Before the rise of the documentary in the early 1960s with the advent of the portable shoulder camera, Smith's photo montages served the same purpose in still images. In 1957, Smith left his wife and four children ...
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Documentary: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Sister Rosetta Tharpe began recording on the electric guitar in 1941, for her first Decca sides with Lucky Millinder's band. She was one of the first true fusion artists, combining multiple styles of music in her delivery. At this point in time, hundreds of thousands of black Americans were on the move, leaving the farms of the South and Southwest for better-paying manufacturing jobs up North and out West, where blacks' lives weren't at the same level of risk. Since ...
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Documentary: Billie
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the late 1960s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl planned to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Beginning in 1970, she spent eight years tracking down and recording interviews with key artists and personalities who knew the singer, who died in 1959. These interviews included conversations with Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms, and Count Basie as well as Holiday's cousin, school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her. Kuehl's Holiday archives included interviews on ...
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Innovative TV Director-guitarist Kerilie McDowall Celebrated At Win Awards
Source:
All About Jazz
Humbled and honored, TV film Director of In the Zone: Rick Kilburn, jazz guitarist Kerilie McDowall was surprised and thrilled to win the Women of Influence WIN Creative Innovator Award, an award sponsored by Canada’s Inland Truck & Equipment. McDowall attended the evening with 100 fellow nominees in 11 categories in her city of Nanaimo, British Columbia in February 2024. The Women of Influence WIN objectives were extremely special to McDowall. Proceeds went to the Footprints Infertility & Pregnancy Loss ...
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