JazzThey Call Her Lady Fingers - This documentary traces Hawaii's Jazz scene through the prolific life of Betty Loo Taylor. Could a female Chinese-American pianist really play hot, swinging jazz with the big boys? Yes she could and 40 years later she is still busting the scene! "They Call Her Lady Fingers" won the Audience Award as Best Documentary at the 2003 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) and later was named 2006's Best Music DVD at the Hawaii Music Awards. Come and share the legacy of Taylor from tangled family tree, to the ups and downs of a life on stage: the world-class musician, the philanthropist, the woman Betty Loo Taylor!
Jazz Musician Wynton Marsalis - Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center managing and artistic director, talks about growing up with racism, who his biggest influencers were, and how he kept performing during the pandemic. He appears on the latest episode of "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations." The interview was recorded Oct. 31, 2020.
Jazz Shots from the West Coast - This series devoted to West Coast jazz will be divided into three episodes featuring performances taken in clubs, festivals and TV studios. Although, as drummer Shelly Manne acknowledged, "all the musicians on the West Coast came from New York," it is undeniable that for about a decade there was a sensual alternative to bop orthodoxy. Essentially championed by white musicians who had found a very active scene in California, both in Hollywood studios and in clubs, what is cataloged as West Coast Jazz is in fact a movement with a complex and shifting reality in which one recognizes a supreme elegance. What are the points of convergence between Art Pepper, Zoot Sims, Shelly Manne, Conte Candoli and Chet Baker that favored the blossoming of this West Coast movement? They played in Stan Kenton and Woody Herman’s big bands, frequently crossed paths for club gigs and studio recording sessions, and recorded for California labels like Pacific Jazz Records and Contemporary Records. The presence of pianist Phineas Newborn on the program - who is excellent by the way - and guitarist Wes Montgomery are more surprising, although the latter's marvelously balanced melodic discourse does not detract from the elegance displayed by the other musicians. The black and white recordings, remarkably put into images, were mostly filmed during the 1950s/1960s; only that of Chet Baker, in color, is later. Needless to say, the music is of superior quality.
Ken Burns's Jazz - JAZZ celebrates America's greatest original art form. The film opens at the dawn of the 20th century, incorporating American culture and historical events that interact directly with the music. From the 1890s through the ferment of the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age, to the Great Depression, New Deal, Second World War, and beyond, JAZZ paints an astounding portrait of a nation and the roots of its improvisational core of music.
The Life of Billie Holiday - Everything has been written about the private life of Billie Holiday: a youth shattered by violence, a marital journey with many lows and an addiction to hard drugs which ate away a good part of her life. Skilfully crafted, the documentary "Billie Holiday, The Life And Artistry Of Lady Day" takes the opposite view of this tragic destiny and above all recalls the main musical chapters of the lady with the gardenia. Short but precise, this film presents her trajectory in the clubs of the Big Apple and her musical collaborations with Teddy Wilson and Artie Shaw. Summarized here in a few shots, the meeting with the saxophonist Lester Young nevertheless testifies to a most inspired artistic collaboration. And the racist lynchings of the Deep South are openly denounced with a masterful interpretation of the terrible "Strange Fruit," based on a text by Abel Meeropol. Obviously the post-war period and the signatures with labels like Decca and Verve are rightly described as creative. The bewitching timbre of Billie Holiday’s voice loses its fluidity, however, and develops a dusky tone. A fact confirmed with the moving “Lady In Satin,” a disc of unfathomable sadness and a swan song of the woman who, in his time, Lester Young nicknamed Lady Day.
Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes - Discover the life and music of jazz luminary Ron Carter, the most recorded bassist in history. Featuring original concert footage and candid interviews with jazz legends such as Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins and Jon Batiste, Finding the Right Notes is a vibrant portrait of one of America's great musical trailblazers.
