robertoart

RIP Ernest. Your gruff features and voice will forever be a part of my childhood tv and movie memories. Anyone remember Barabbas? Borgnine (and others like Tony Curtis and Anthony Quinn's) presence in these type of epic 'swords and sandals' movies makes me smile now, especially when I look back on the incongruities of their streetwise and hard bitten American vernacular

They've certainly 'bixed' a few pounds onto Sir Mick - sitting on the bed in the Stones shot. One thing you can say with certainty about old rubber lips - is he never went through a 'fat Mick' period. Er...accept in this painting And what's the story behind the Ray Charles image

Ha. That's weird. I was just driving home from a football game tonight, and was thinking of this thread - and was planning to check if anyone had mentioned the 'sirs" Sir Roland Hanna Sir Charles Thompson Sir Mick Jagger

You win the coolest ringtone ever award. Has your phone ever rung in public and a stranger acknowledged your ringtone. I would have to acknowledge it politely at least if I heard it on a train

Happy birthday Hank. Have all the boards 'Hankophiles' given up on any Hank film ever emerging? Could there be a Hank clip or two sitting in some 'special collectors collection'. Some film of Hank seems to be the only thing missing from his legacy. I can't believe there is not something from Europe at least. Here's hoping Hank fan's.

Snoozer Quinn Jemeel Moondoc You read my mind. I posted a few pages back - George Adams with this exact thing in mind

He took the copyright all the way to the grave

Not exactly a visit, but of interest to the art buffs will be this - in regard to everyone's favourite cinematic-like painter. My link If I am reading between the lines, these works have always been known (and indeed the self portrait drawing was immediately familiar to me), but it looks like a couple of Art-scholars are looking to re-energise the discourse. I find this most interesting as well... "But the pieces could also significantly alter Caravaggio’s biography. The artist, most known for his chiaroscuro, or shadow and light technique, was always believed to be self-taught. But according to research done by Curuz and Fedrigolli, which led to the discovery of the drawing, he was actually an aristocrat by birth, and was surrounded by art and artists from a very young age. Caravaggio also allegedly was the lifelong protégé of Costanza Sforza Colonna, in whose palace he lived with his grandfather. Through his aristocratic mentor, Caravaggio was later introduced to the powerful Barnabite Order in Milan, from which he received his first commission, the experts claim". I haven't read the recent expansive literary 'biopics' like these by Graham-Dixon and Peter Robb My link My link but wonder whether the 'toffiness' of Carravaggio's background is well known, or is new researched information As an aside to the 'bixing' thread, Art histories (like Carravaggio's) can rival Jazz 'bixing' anyday

Otis 'Candy' Finch Rudy McDaniel - Jamaaladeen Tacuma Bern Nix and for its generic potency - George Adams

Here's a start on remedying that: http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2008/07/godfrey-cambridge-show-live-at-hotel.html#uds-search-results Yeah. I was gonna do it

Fats Theus Boots Mussulli

This is a very poor post coming from you Ms. Mobley. Not very witty (or pithy) at all. You should post more to get your touch back. I actually liked Moms post. Well having read many Moms/Clementine posts over the years, I would expect him to find not a little virtue in a book such as this. Some 'dodgy' architecture notwithstanding. I do however have a soft spot for Stan Freberg - after being first exposed to him via some old footage on Cavett. But I know not of Godfrey Cambridge. Also, having just seen a two part Woody Allen doco, I have to admit to still being a little creeped out about the whole Manhattan/Soon Yi turn. Even after all these years. But I can't imagine a world without 'Zelig'.

This is a very poor post coming from you Ms. Mobley. Not very witty (or pithy) at all. You should post more to get your touch back.

I always wanted to have 'Baby Talk' from the Music Revelation Ensemble's - No Wave album. The one on Moers.

If you have a lot of spare time or have lost the will to live, you can visit the Charlie Christian Yahoo list and read the long-winded and non-conclusive argument as to where is Christian really buried. At your own peril. F I will check it out as soon as possible. You might find it interesting, because the documentary maker does not have any archival footage or info to use, so instead it focuses on oral history and connecting with those still alive that new CC. It's an incredibly grass roots approach, you would like it I'm sure. So would I. I'd visit his grave in KC if allowed, also the Charlie Parker Museum. That is if I ever get there. I want to watch it again myself, now I have brought it up. But I can only find the cover. I think I left it in my old el-cheapo dvd player that I recently sent to the electronic recycler

It would have been better with some photos of Grant Green gigging around NYC. Got any?

Well if you made it to page 24, Bob Porter is quoted as saying, "you could go and hear him play the funk all night long, and he'd simply sit back and play impressions of something and knock everybody on their ass". So probably it was meant to be, 'play Impressions or something' - or perhaps even - "play Impressions instead of Something" So maybe it was hard to transcribe the interviews from one of those old hand held cassette tape recorders, and hard to hear Pee Wee Russell for Stevie, when you don't have the genre knowledge to fill in the gaps. I still think with regard to the wealth of information the biography contributes - to what was not presently in the public record - these oversights are like complaining about piffling minutia.

Well, I would look to the excellent and informative post by Mark Stryker above ...especially "people lie (benevolently or willfully)". Not to say that Barry Harris was lying, but rather he was offering an opinion and memory regarding the talents of Grant Green. It came across to me (his whole quote in context) as a great musician paying respect to another great musician, by offering the highest praise he could, even if it may have been a little bit of a benevolent one. That's part of the fun of reading a book like this - about someone whose music you know well - in that you can ponder the quotes and opinions expressed by others. For instance, in the case of Elvin Jones - who played on so many truly great GG sessions - I doubt there is any conflating going on at all with what he offers. Indeed, there may not be by Barry Harris either. And the recollections of George Benson are really pivotal to the book. But he still gets a few jabs in, especially with regard to Grant Green's ego

So did you know Vernon Reid's family is from Haiti and he lived in England for a while when he was a kid? And it seems a lot of people have some good things to say about this band

I'm really taking a swipe at the people who didn't appreciate this book and seemed to want something that corresponded to expanded liner note writing or 'guitar player magazine' type focus. I knew zilch about Grant Green's relationship to the Nation of Islam, or his early years in St Louis or that fact that his father carried a gun, or that Barry Harris considered him the greatest guitarist he ever played with. I always wanted to read George Benson reflecting on his experience of knowing GG. etc etc. I stand by what I wrote above. It is obvious when you first begin the book where the author is coming from, and once you appreciate that, it makes it a very contemporary grass roots approach. If you read that book, and can't perceive the skill involved in the presentation and choices made by the author, then so be it. The 'certain basic facts right' are largely irrelevant to the broader scope of this book. Just like a good improvised solo. An African American Black music scholar like Robin D. G. Kelley would obviously be coming from a different place than the author of this book, but Andrews Green is not trying to be something she's not. For what it's worth, I bet Robin D. G. Kelley would love and appreciate this book. And tellingly, I doubt if any of the White-ass bemoaners of this book had bothered to write it themselves, that they would have given the time of day to some of the people Andrews Green features in the text. Or gotten some of the insights and memories she did. And that's partly why this book is unique and treasured by me.

Bedazzled is uneven, but has some great moments. I don't know why, but for years I labored under the misconception that it was a Richard Lester film. I love Bedazzled as well. There is some funny stuff in that. The pop star wish is hilarious. I've read people write that the 'pop star' Peter Cook plays in this scene is strangely pre-empting David Bowie's stage persona of a few years later http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ-1uO5H0Vk

I disagree. I think the author wisely provides a forum for the people who knew Grant Green intimately, to speak for themselves. As well as skilfully presenting some divergent recalled memories of events - to be left for the reader to decide. Part of the books great achievement is never letting the reader forget Grant Green was an African American musician immersed in an African American music community. I think the 'bixing' of people remembering Grant is more the point, and the author made good choices about how to deal with that I think. I found it very moving to read people like George Benson, Elvin Jones and Lou Donaldson talk about what Grant Green's artistry meant to them. I can see how a lot of people might really dislike a book done in this way. Really dislike it. I loved it. And it was one of the first times I felt I got a great insight into the life of one of my musical heroes. Who never survived to tell his own story in the way Pat Martino has been able to in the above link. And what's more, I doubt a White (and possibly male) researcher would have had the knowledge to be aware of - and focus on - several important aspects of Green's personal history. Sure, I would also like to have - the 'White-Male-Jazz scholar's book on GG as well - but I doubt that will be coming out anytime soon, and if I had a choice, this kind of book is more worthy.

Cook and Moore - Hounds Of The Baskervilles Not their best film, but a funny scene nonetheless.

Pretty soon (if not already) all the people who significantly knew the first wave of Jazz and Blues men and women will be dead. And all that will remain are whatever public records and archival information has been gathered from them. Save for unrecorded oral histories. Current and future writers/historians will then make of it what they will. But that's all that will be left. At least recent times have given many more musicians (or those reliable witnesses who knew them) the chance to speak for themselves, so future historians will have a lot more primary sources to work from. And will not need to fill in so many gaps. And if people stretch the truth, or assert opinion as a fact, it will more easily be able to be seen for what it is, or at least better argued against. Also the paper and media trail back to the original sources will not be so problematic. Perhaps also the fact that White writers will no longer dominate the 'historical and scholarly' future might help. Recent interesting 'narrative-gap' filling and 'anti-Bixing' contributions I have felt enlightening re-Jazz guitar are; The recent info on Wes Montgomery (from Buddy or Monk) - that despite the common knowledge, Wes actually began the study of guitar at a far younger age than previously believed - on a tenor guitar! - and before his brothers began. The Grant Green oral history book by Sharony Andrews Green. And this exhaustive and incredibly candid oral history interview with George Benson My link As well as this very good 13 part interview with Pat Martino Of course, this is not to say that the musicians themselves are not guilty of a little 'Bixing' on their own behalf