\u003Ch2\u003EJazz Experts Sound Off on “The Great Gatsby”\u003C/h2\u003E
\u003Cp\u003EThe line has been forming for people who have something to say about Baz Luhrmann’s new film \u003Cem\u003EThe Great Gatsby\u003C/em\u003E. Not surprisingly for a story based on the Jazz Age, the jazz world has been eager to find out how the film measures up. \u003Cem\u003EThe Atlantic\u003C/em\u003E asked jazz scholars to weigh in with their views of the film’s soundtrack, and its fidelity to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story and the age it depicts. Check out their reactions.\u003C/p\u003E
\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca class=\u0022content\u0022 href=\u0022http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/05/great-gatsby-soundtrack-reviews/64831/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ERead Article…\u003C/a\u003E\u003C/p\u003E
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Duke Ellington’s Film Debut
Ken Steiner at the Library of Congress recently unearthed what turns out to be the earliest film footage we have of Duke Ellington. It’s a silent film and you can’t blink or you’ll miss Duke (whom you can barely see anyway), but the process of research it took to locate this footage is a worthwhile read from the LOC blog.
-Scott Wenzel
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On Bird: the Man and the Movie
Richard Williams, formerly of the London Times, is absolutely one of the smartest writers on music alive. Thankfully, he has created his own blog. If you don’t know Richard’s work, check out this essay on Clint Eastwood and Charlie Parker, and I think you’ll be hooked.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Read MoreI was continuing to shrink. To become … what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future?
The amazing closing monologue of The Incredible Shrinking Man is Hollywood screenwriting at its best or so we thought until Ed Wood wrote and directed “Plan Nine From Outer Space” two years later. Of course, in the ensuing decades, great minds like Irwin Corey and Glenn Beck have raised the bar of logic and eloquence even higher.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Louis Armstrong on the Beats
This is a funny little piece on the typical ‘50s disconnect. The video features Louis Armstrong’s title tune form “The Beat Generation”, a typical superficial Hollywood treatment of a sub culture. Beyond good reefer, I don’t think Satchmo had anything at all in common with the beats. Wonder what today’s commercials with hip-hop selling phone service will look like in 20 years.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Read MoreSoul — and jazz— singer Fontella Bass RIP
Most of the world knows Fontella Bass as the soul singer who gave the world (and Chess Records) the million-seller “Rescue Me.” Yet to the jazz world, Fontella Bass, who died on the evening of December 26 at age 72, was more than a one-hit wonder. Spouse of trumpeter Lester Bowie of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bass sang on two of the Art Ensemble’s records — “Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass” and the soundtrack to the French film “Les Stances A Sophie.” Here, Bass and the Art Ensemble wail behind this clip from that 1970 film.
Nick Moy
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