Adam

This is excellent! I'm putting together a free jazz film series for 2008 for Los Angeles Filmforum. There are quite a few European films in there that I've never heard of, and will be good to pursue. Too bad the downloadable schedule doesn't have the distributors, but I can write the programmers.

up So, Blue Note, Concerto and Record Palace in Amsterdam?

I'm going to Amsterdam next week (I'll be there Nov 21-27) for the Int'l Documentary Film Festival. Anyone else in town? Any jazz concerts next week there?

It was nice day today for the Getty. I missed the morning, including Ted Gioia, but liked the presentations by Rashida Briggs on Vian's Manual to Saint-Germain, and another on West Coast Jazz Women. The final discussion with Clora Bryant, Ernie Andrews, and Buddy Collette was fun, but only Buddy was really informative. And the weather was utterly gorgeous, one of those breath-taking days here at the Getty. Not crowded, and still tickets for tomorrow night and Thursday night.

Sorry for the late notice, but this has some very interesting events, including Rene Urtreger's first performance ever in Los Angeles! One doesn't need to attend it all. Check out the details! Côte à Côte - Coast To Coast: Art and Jazz in France and California Tuesday, November 13 - Thursday, November 15, 2007 Harold M. Williams Auditorium The Getty Center Côte à Côte explores the intersection of jazz with postwar art and culture. A two-day multimedia program on November 13 and 14 features conversations with artists and musicians, poetry readings, musical performances, and talks on art, literature and music. Daytime events include conversation with master photographer William Claxton with special guests Bud Shank and Dennis Hopper, the premier of George Herms’ free jazz opera featuring Los Angeles based jazz musicians, a reading and performance by renowned poet and musician of the beat generation David Meltzer, sets by Central Avenue jazz legends Clora Bryant, Ernie Andrews and Buddy Collette, and more. On November 14, an evening screening of rare film shorts from French and American archives features live musical accompaniment by René Urtreger. Côte à Côte culminates in a concert on November 15, with West Coast and French musicians playing well-known jazz favorites and new interpretations of jazz classics. Held in conjunction with the Orange County Museum of Art exhibition Birth of the Cool, Côte à Côte explores and explodes creative boundaries—bringing artists, scholars, poets, and musicians of different ages and nationalities together to celebrate their shared love of jazz. Conference Tuesday, November 13, 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 14, 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Film Screening Wednesday, November 14, 7:30 p.m. Concert Thursday, November 15, 8:00 p.m. All events take place at the Harold M. Williams Auditorium, The Getty Center. To register for the conference and to purchase concert tickets please visit www.getty.edu or call (310) 440-7300. The Côte à Côte conference schedule is available online here: http://www.getty.edu/visit/events/cote_a_cote.html

Well, in today's simple question, what is "bad vinyl?" how bad is it? How does a common listener discern such a thing? Should I really care?

The Pogues - all sorts of material. Going to see them tonight in concert at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

The others, ok. But this has some of the worst funk music I've ever heard in a movie. In addition, for me, it fails utterly as a film, though the backstory of how it was made is pretty interesting. I think it's a brilliant film, but I don't remember any of the soundtrack (which I believe was also composed by Melvin Van Peebles).

I just in my head add "in my opinion" to the start of every post by every person. Why is it worth getting upset over?

Hope to see you there as well, probably Thursday night. Have a panel on Wednesday, and expensive tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company at UCLA with Ian McKellen in "King Lear" and "The Seagull" on Friday and Saturday. Travel safely! LA is nice, and it's cool at night - bring a jacket!

I'm just going to wait a few days. Outgrowing the need to get things the day (or week) they come out has been a useful change in my life.

I would say unless the music is danceable swing, in which case people will know that that is teh dancing to be had, and will dance. Semi-obscure hard bop is background at a wedding. :-)

"Add to Wishlist" is now present, on the right side of each set's page.

Woody Herman set #2 vs. Chu Berry? Views?

Saw it at Telluride, and agree, well worth seeing, very good film.

I agree, but more because it's all obviously just there for entertainment and big big money. This lip service given to the ideals of amateur athletics is ridiculous. It's all just a circus.

up

Looked her up myself: Cleo Patra Brown, piano-voice; b. 12/8/09 Meridian, MS; d. 4/15/95 http://www.iaje.org/bio.asp?ArtistID=44 She bears the distinction of being the first woman instrumentalist honored with the NEA American Jazz Masters Fellowship. Her brother Everett, who worked with Pine Top Smith, taught her the boogie-woogie piano style, and she is credited with being an early influence on Dave Brubeck’s playing. Cleo’s family moved to Chicago in 1919 and four years later, at age 14, she started working professionally with a vaudeville show. She performed in the Chicago area during the late 1920s. Through the 1950s she worked frequently at that city’s Three Deuces club. Brown also found work in New York, where she had her own radio show on WABC, Hollywood, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. Unfortunately illness cut short her touring career for a time in the early 1940s. She was able to resume playing and made records with among others the Decca All-Stars, and for Capitol Records while living in Los Angeles. Her latter years were spent as a church musician in her Seventh Day Adventist Church in Denver, CO. Perhaps her final, most public late career performance was on Marian McPartland’s long-running NPR series Piano Jazz in 1987.

Here's the full list of the NEA's Jazz Masters: http://www.arts.gov/national/jazz/alljazzmasters.html Some oddities in there, although mostly expected. But Sun Ra was one of the first 3! I wouldn't have expected Sun Ra to be at the top of a government organization's list. They've increased the numbers of each year, trying to get everyone, and increasing the non-musicians. Who is Cleo Patra Brown, and why should she (he?) be picked so early? NEA Jazz Masters 1982: Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Sun Ra 1983: Count Basie, Kenneth Clarke, Sonny Rollins 1984: Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Max Roach 1985: Gil Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Jonathan "Jo" Jones 1986: Benny Carter, Dexter Gordon, Teddy Wilson 1987: Cleo Patra Brown, Melba Liston, Jay McShann 1988: Art Blakey, Lionel Hampton, Billy Taylor 1989: Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Sarah Vaughan 1990: George Russell, Cecil Taylor, Gerald Wilson 1991: Danny Barker, Buck Clayton, Andy Kirk, Clark Terry 1992: Betty Carter, Dorothy Donegan, Harry "Sweets" Edison 1993: Milt Hinton, Jon Hendricks, Joe Williams 1994: Louie Bellson, Ahmad Jamal, Carmen McRae 1995: Ray Brown, Roy Haynes, Horace Silver 1996: Tommy Flanagan, J.J. Johnson, Benny Golson 1997: Billy Higgins, Milt Jackson, Anita O'Day 1998: Ron Carter, James Moody, Wayne Shorter 1999: Dave Brubeck, Art Farmer, Joe Henderson 2000: David Baker, Donald Byrd, Marian McPartland 2001: John Lewis, Jackie McLean, Randy Weston 2002: Frank Foster, Percy Heath, McCoy Tyner 2003: Jimmy Heath, Elvin Jones, Abbey Lincoln 2004: Jim Hall, Chico Hamilton, Herbie Hancock Luther Henderson, Nancy Wilson, Nat Hentoff 2005: Kenny Burrell, Paquito D'Rivera, Slide Hampton, Shirley Horn, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Smith, George Wein 2006: Ray Barretto, Tony Bennett, Bob Brookmeyer, Chick Corea, Buddy DeFranco, Freddie Hubbard, John Levy 2007: Toshiko Akiyoshi , Curtis Fuller, Ramsey Lewis, Dan Morgenstern, Jimmy Scott, Frank Wess, Phil Woods 2008: Candido Camero, Andrew Hill, Quincy Jones, Tom McIntosh, Gunter Schuller, Joe Wilder

Are you registered? It's possible that you have to log in before you can add anything to the wishlist. I am registered, logged in and still there is no "add to wishlist" button. It's now called Mosaic Wishlist - in the navigation bar on the left. Mike, I know how it's called, this is not the problem. The problem is that there is no "add to wishlist" button which used to be near the "add to cart" button. I logged in, checked the first page & the details page for each - yep, no add to wish list button. That's an error. A note to send to their webmaster...

The designers would have made a full mock-up some time before delivery.

I had been thinking of going to a few concerts - not the whole thing, although I've been to a couple of the festivals in teh past. But I haven't gotten any tickets yet, and my weekend seems to be filling up with other things. I woudl like to see the Clare Fisher & Bill Holman Big Bands.

In an interview with Scott in the Sunday's LA Times, he says that he's a replicant. And a lot more... http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca...1,1225728.story THE DIRECTOR'S CUT 'Blade Runner,' Take 3 It was coolly received in 1982, but Ridley Scott's bleak science fiction film has undergone revisions, and this time he thinks they got it right. By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 30, 2007 RIDLEY SCOTT was living in London in 1980 but looking for a leading man for his first Hollywood movie. The script was a strange one -- it was a surreal tale adapted from a 1968 novel about murderous artificial people in futuristic Los Angeles -- and Scott didn't have a certain title since he couldn't use the more-than-a-mouthful name of the book: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Scott did have a star in mind, though: He had seen "Star Wars" and decided that he wanted his star to be the actor who had played that charming scoundrel Han Solo. "The reaction of one of the producers was: 'Who the hell is Harrison Ford?' One of the reasons I went for Harrison was the fact that I knew that Steven [spielberg] and George [Lucas] were doing this thing called ["Raiders of the Lost Ark"]. It smelled good to me. I simply called up Harrison's agent and said, 'I want to meet Harrison as soon as possible.' Like two days later we met and he turned up with the stubble and the hat and the leather jacket on because he had been shooting. It was like 10 o'clock at night. So my meeting for 'Blade Runner' was with Indiana Jones." Scott chuckled at the memory, then groaned, reached for a bag of ice and propped his leg up on a chair. The 69-year-old British filmmaker was fresh from knee surgery -- "Too much tennis," he said with a sad shrug -- and at the time was still working on his 19th film, "American Gangster," due in theaters in November. But he was eager to talk about "Blade Runner" and the past because he's getting a rare chance to revisit and reengage both. Scott oversaw a new remastered version of the film that enhances its Vangelis score, adds snap to its visual effects and even includes a bit of new footage, all for the 25th anniversary of the dystopian epic. "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" will be shown for a month at the Landmark Theatre in West L.A. and then will go on sale as a DVD in November. The tale of "Blade Runner" is not a sunny one. The version of the film that reached theaters in 1982 (it opened against "E.T.") was weighted down with a somnambulant voice-over narrative and a tacked-on ending that Scott loathed; the set too had been a contentious one, with Ford and Scott locked in a surly struggle. Also, Philip K. Dick, the author of "Do Androids Dream," died just four months before the film reached the screen. Then, famously, the history of the film took a sharp turn away from ignominy. First, the advent of the home-video era brought the movie to a wider audience, one that was increasingly attuned to the film's cyberpunk visions and its technological concepts. Then, close to the film's 10th anniversary, a so-called director's cut was given a theatrical run in Los Angeles and broke revival-house records. That version was actually a preview print, as Scott refers to it, which might have been missing the monkey-wrench additions (like that clunky Ford voice-over) but also was missing large chunks of music and a key dream sequence. This current "Final Cut" version, Scott said, comes closest to what the film could have been and, in his mind, should have been. "It's quite a thing to come back to this film now, after all this time, after a quarter of a century," said Scott, whose résumé includes "Thelma & Louise," "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down." "This is a film that, in many ways, has echoed throughout popular culture in a very special way." The film also seems to have been a career landmark for just about everyone involved. "I was never on another movie set quite like that one," said Daryl Hannah, who portrayed the sexualized android called Pris. "I was very young, and every day it felt the way you fantasize that making a movie would be -- like you're stepping into another world." Rutger Hauer, the Dutch actor who played the menacing but poetic killer android called Roy Batty, talks about how the movie "captured a vision of the future that to this day holds up. That's quite an achievement. It was a film all of us knew was going to be special. A lot of that is because of Ridley." Although in hindsight everyone seems to laud Scott's bold film, at the time there was considerable debate on the quality of his anachronistic noir vision. There were critics who were divided on the film, but, before that, there was also the crowd of financial backers and studio executives who felt it was too convoluted and complicated and needed to be dumbed down for audiences. "I learned a lesson from all of that," Scott said, leaning over again to rub his rebuilt knee. "I learned to stand my ground. I was stubborn, but I learned I should have been more stubborn." Future visionWATCHING "Blade Runner: The Final Cut," anyone who lives in Los Angeles today would be struck by how prescient the film was about the direction of society and culture. To Edward James Olmos, the film, set in 2019, amounted to a crystal ball in many of its details. "What you see now is how unique this image of Los Angeles is and, in hindsight, how correctly it predicted so much, such as the mix of urban Latino and Asian cultural influences in the city," said Olmos, who portrayed a taciturn cop in the movie. "About the only thing in the film we haven't gotten yet is those flying cars." L.A. today perhaps isn't quite the blow-torch skyline and acid-rain megalopolis of "Blade Runner," but the film certainly created standard images and codified themes for several generations of science fiction films. It's hard to watch such movies as "The Matrix," "The Terminator," "The Fifth Element" or "Minority Report" (which was also based on Dick's writing) and not see links to "Blade Runner." MTV, cyber-punk fashion, graphic novels and even some architecture have pulled elements from the visual accomplishments of "Blade Runner." From the novel by Dick, the film took its core plot of a bounty hunter on grim, dying Earth chasing down androids who have a pre-set "death date." For the film, these hunters were called "blade runners" (a name that came from an unrelated William S. Burroughs novel; producer Michael Deeley and Scott just liked the sound of it) and the androids were called "replicants." That term came from screenwriter David Peoples' daughter, who was studying biology at the time and offered the term. "We were going to call them humanoids," Scott said, "but that sounded pretty good, so we used it instead." What may be most unusual about the film is how many of the key components came from the actors involved. One example: Hauer, concerned that his death scene was too protracted, jotted down a few lines about the nature of death, and that became his soliloquy during the powerful rooftop scene in which his character dies in a downpour. "He wrote these lines, they were like Shelley," Scott said with a measure of awe. "He wrote it in his trailer and, like 45 minutes later, we just did it up there on the roof. I always have cast actors who are not afraid to speak up. On 'Blade Runner,' there were some significant contributions." Maybe none were more significant than the contributions by Olmos. It was his idea that his character talk in "Cityspeak," the hybrid of four languages that shows the polyglot nature of L.A., and it was also his notion to fiddle with a piece of paper and create origami while in the background of one scene. "I really was trying to find a way to blend into the background and not do anything but also not look like I wasn't doing anything; it's difficult to do that, you don't want to distract from the action in the scene, but you also don't want to look artificially still," Olmos said. "You need to be like a tree in the wind." The casual creation of fidgeting became a key part of the film; the origami, linchpin symbols in the film. The paper unicorn shaped by Olmos' character, for instance, telegraphs to the audience a huge plot point: that Ford's character, Deckard, is himself an android. "It all fit together perfectly, but that shows how confident Ridley is on the set and how he is constantly working toward the place the story should go and how open he is even while filming," Olmos said. "It's a true talent, and he has that confidence to embrace the art around him." Still, the embraces during the making of "Blade Runner" were sometimes more like a wrestling match than a hug-fest. "Yes, there was a lot of passion and conflict, it's true," said Sean Young, who portrayed Rachael. "But I think that's because there were things worth fighting for." Scott, who had already directed "Alien," had come to the project after a stellar career making television commercials (a few years later, he would make the celebrated "1984" ad for Macintosh) and right after walking away from an aborted attempt to bring the Frank Herbert novel "Dune" to the screen. Scott's older brother had just died unexpectedly, and the director hoped that in making his first film in America he might distract himself from the grief. "I wanted to make a movie," Scott said, "where I walked through the gates at Warner Bros., the ones I had only seen in Cary Grant movies and old horror movies." That sort of carefree daydream soon gave way to sour complications. There were several versions of the script, and the first writer, Hampton Fancher, quit after Peoples was brought in to rework the story. Much has been made too of the squabbles between Scott and Ford. "No, we're fine," Scott said. "Actually, I got on all right with him at the time, but it was such a difficult film to convey that I got tired of explaining it . . . and Harrison tends to be a person who keeps himself to himself, particularly in those days, and if that happens with an actor, then so do I." Scott paused and then grinned mischievously. "And generally speaking, I actually think the movie was one of the better things he's done. Hee hee." Even with Ford as reluctant star (he was the lone notable absence when "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" made its premiere at the Venice Film Festival a few weeks ago), the resonance of "Blade Runner" is unmistakable now. For one thing, it propelled the late Dick to the status of Hollywood concept machine; there have been eight other films based on his writings and three more are in the hopper. None of them, though, has matched "Blade Runner" and its mix of Philip Marlowe and fire-pit future tech. Scott, meanwhile, has not revisited science fiction. "I suppose I haven't found a future that is as interesting as that future."

And a link to a blog with links to You Tube posts of most of the new songs in live performances. http://machinist.salon.com/

LA Times today answering that very question: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...e-entertainment A record price for a Radiohead album: $0 Laurent Gillieron / AP Radiohead will release its new album via its Web site on Oct. 10. The famed British band lets fans decide what to pay for a new release online. By Geoff Boucher and Chris Lee, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers October 2, 2007 The great riddle facing the record industry in the digital age has been pricing. Napster and its ilk puckishly offered music for "free" in the late 1990s, and the major labels have largely clung to an average of $13 for CDs despite plummeting sales and seasons of downsizing. Now, one of the world's most acclaimed rock bands, Radiohead, is answering that marketplace riddle with a shrug. "It's up to you," reads a message on the Web page where fans can pre-order the band's highly anticipated seventh album and pay whatever they choose, including nothing. The British band, which has twice been nominated for a best album Grammy, will sidestep the conventional industry machinery altogether Oct. 10 by releasing the album "In Rainbow" as a digital download with no set price. The album will be available only from the band and at radiohead.com, its official site. FOR THE RECORD: Radiohead album: An article in Tuesday's Section A about Radiohead's decision to let buyers who pre-order its new album decide the price gave the name of the album as "In Rainbow." The correct title is "In Rainbows." It may sound like a gimmicky promotion, but industry observers Monday framed it in more historical terms: Radiohead, they said, is the right band at the right time to blaze a trail of its own choosing. "This is all anybody is talking about in the music industry today," said Bertis Downs, the longtime manager of R.E.M., the veteran alt-rock band that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. "This is the sort of model that people have been talking about doing, but this is the first time an act of this stature has stepped up and done it. . . . They were a band that could go off the grid, and they did it." Another high-profile manager said he was still trying to process the boldness of the Radiohead venture. "My head is spinning, honestly," said Kelly Curtis, who represents Seattle-based Pearl Jam. "It's very cool and very inspiring, really." Radiohead is hardly abandoning the idea of making money. Its website will also sell a deluxe edition of "In Rainbow" that comes with versions in three formats (CD, vinyl and download) along with eight bonus songs and a lavish hardcover book with lyrics, photos and a slipcase. That package costs 40 British pounds (about $82). In the coming weeks, Courtyard Management, which represents the band, will reportedly negotiate with labels about a conventional release for "In Rainbow" that would put it on store shelves in 2008. Sources with the band acknowledge that the major labels may balk at the notion of releasing an album that has been available free for months. Still, previous Radiohead albums collectively sell about 300,000 copies a year, according to Nielsen SoundScan, so "In Rainbow" should still have value at the cash register. "Only a band in Radiohead's position could pull a trick like this," is how Pitchforkmedia.com summed it up Monday. That's because the band became a free agent after its contract with music giant EMI expired with its most recent album, "Hail to the Thief" in 2003. That set the stage for a one-band revolution, even if the five members don't see it that way themselves. "It's more of an experiment. The band is not fighting for the sake of the fight or trying to lead a revolution," said their spokesman, Steve Martin of New York publicity firm Nasty Little Man. The group declined to comment Monday. Radiohead isn't the only artist taking bold steps to keep pace with the digital age. The firebrand R&B star Prince, for instance, has taken a maverick path by giving copies of one album away as an insert in a major British newspaper or as an extra to anyone who bought a seat on his high-grossing concert tour. Prince took considerable heat from retailers for the newspaper giveaway. Then there's the business model of New Orleans' top rapper, Lil Wayne, who made dozens of tracks available free via the Internet to cement his stardom. Even old-school icon Bruce Springsteen seems to see the changing times. He gave away downloads of his new song, the aptly titled "Radio Nowhere." Geoff Mayfield, the director of charts for Billboard, pointed out that Radiohead was not unique because singer-songwriter Jane Siberry offered a similar optional payment download a few years ago. Radiohead has sold close to 9 million albums in the U.S., and three of its CDs have debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard album charts. The band has in effect made sure that won't happen with "In Rainbow" by taking its unorthodox approach. The group has a reputation for daring, which has earned it "relationship fans," core loyalists who skew older, travel to see them play live and urgently seek out the latest release. Those fans, Mayfield said, are not the type to take the new music and leave the Radiohead "tip jar" empty. "If that loyalty dictates consumer behavior," Mayfield said, "a good number are going to pay what's considered a fair price as opposed to 2 cents." Several observers said all of that made this experiment far safer than it would be for a pop act that needed a major label to secure radio airplay and television exposure or an up-and-coming rock act that could not fall back on the receipts from sold-out arena shows. "It's a road act with proven appeal, so as long as they have the right people to take care of touring logistics and the business end of getting music out to market, they might be able to make a go on their own," Mayfield said. "It wouldn't work for everyone. You don't want to be an amateur. We're in a brave new world, but you want to make sure dots connect in terms of getting the music out." That brave new world is a harsh one for the traditional recording industry. The major labels that enjoyed huge profits in the 1980s as fans replaced their music collections with CDs have suffered over the last decade as a new generation instead plucked its hit songs from the Internet, often without paying for them. There have been steady declines in recent years. As of midyear 2007, CD sales were off 19.3% from the same period in 2006. And there's intense competition now from video games and DVDs. But even as the old empire collapses, new ideas take hold. Though its cerebral soundscapes are avant art rock, Radiohead's earnest and emotionally plaintive ethos puts it in line with acts such as U2. That's why, according to Wired editor Nancy Miller, all eyes have been on the band at the career and marketplace crossroads. "We've been waiting for just the right band at just the right moment," Miller said. "Right now is it. Radiohead is the perfect band. After finishing its contract, we expected something revolutionary. I thought they would start their own label. Instead, they have done something more interesting: They decided not to decide." Some pundits weighed in saying that although Radiohead's move might have been a sharp detour for an established band, it was hardly a path newer acts could follow. Curtis, the Pearl Jam manager, said that years on a major label roster established the Radiohead brand and made it possible for it to buck the system. "It's the newer bands I really feel sorry for," Curtis said. Pearl Jam and other groups with intense followings, such as the Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M., Metallica and Nine Inch Nails, will probably learn the most from Radiohead's experience, Curtis said. "Everyone will keep an eye on this because this is the most exciting thing we've seen to this point." On Monday, Radiohead was trying to deal with that excitement. Intense interest and pre-orders overwhelmed the website, according to Martin, the band spokesman. Wired's Miller, for one, predicted the band's gamble would pay off. "We've seen the crumbling of bigger labels, but there haven't been any big 'Aha!' moments, that risky departure," Miller said. "It's an interesting move, a terrific example of an artist exerting a terrific amount of control. It's definitely going to be successful." geoff.boucher@latimes.com chris.lee@latimes.com