[Dixielandjazz] Marian McPartland
vaxtrpts at aol.com
vaxtrpts at aol.com
Sun Dec 23 13:16:38 PST 2012
There is also a documentary movie of the same name. My band played for the presentation of it at the Prescott (Arizona) Film Festival. We played before and after the film. Nice crowd there for it. It is a fantastic film and I'm sure - like the book - really shows her wonderful and important contributions to jazz music. Even though she hosted Piano Jazz for all those years, I think she never really got her "due" from many critics. I, for one, certainly enjoyed her playing as well as her abilities as an interviewer and her lovely way of working with all those great musicians who performed with her on her show.
Mike Vax
Friends of Big Band Jazz, Prescott Jazz Summit,
Stan Kenton Alumni Band
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com
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To: vaxtrpts <vaxtrpts at aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Dec 23, 2012 1:04 pm
Subject: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 120, Issue 29
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Today's Topics:
1. Woody Herman documentary reviewed - Hartford Courant
(Robert Ringwald)
2. Marian McPartland book reviewed (Robert Ringwald)
3. Re: Marian McPartland (Marek Boym)
4. Art Jacob's New Year's eve story (Henry C. Mason)
5. Re: Marian McPartland: in person (Art Wood)
6. Remembering Christmas is On Tonight - Sacramento Roseville CA
Area (Robert Ringwald)
7. Question about sound... (Steve Heist)
8. Re: Question about sound... (david richoux)
9. Re: Woody Herman documentary reviewed - Hartford Courant
(Steve Voce)
10. FW: Question about sound... (Jim Kashishian)
11. Impending doom (Steve Voce)
12. Re: Impending doom (Allan Brown)
13. "Vitaphone Varieties" reviewed (Robert Ringwald)
14. Re: Impending doom (Marek Boym)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 11:58:46 -0800
From: "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Woody Herman documentary reviewed - Hartford
Courant
Message-ID: <0EEF87743CE94829B856ACD3DCF0FFB6 at BobPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Woody Herman documentary reviewed
by Owen McNally
Hartford Courant, December 2, 2012
Any fan of the legendary bandleader Woody Herman is sure to be pleased with
receiving
the interview-packed and music-laced DVD documentary tribute, "Woody Herman:
Blue
Flame" (Jazzed Media, $18.99).
Right up until the time Herman died at 74 in 1987, he was still grinding it out
on
the road, leading, singing, playing clarinet and saxophone with his talent-laden
band, a resilient orchestra that in its remarkable half-century run under his
wise
guidance had produced a lode of great music.
A celebration of what would have been Herman's centennial year in 2013, this
loving
homage serves rarely seen slices of vintage musical selections, including some
rocking
appearances on, of all things, "The Ed Sullivan Show." It presents an array of
insightful
interviews with many great Herman alumni, including saxophonist Joe Lovano and
vibraphonist
Terry Gibbs, plus commentary from such jazz historians as Dan Morgenstern and
Dr.
Herbert Wong.
What the cascade of interviews reveals is Herman's amazing ability to somehow
always
get the best out of his cast of often brilliant but sometimes drug-addicted or
booze-addled
geniuses who brought great glory to his early, historic Thundering Herds. You
get
an insider's point of view, including differing opinions on which of the many
evolving
incarnations of the Herman band was the all-time greatest. It sounds like
knowledgeable
Yankee fans mulling over which championship lineup was the greatest for the
Bronx
Bombers.
There are also tragic notes, including Herman's profound tax woes of nearly $2
million,
with the IRS breathing down his neck as he virtually works himself to death on
the
road, perilously touring, relentlessly but necessarily into old age and,
ultimately,
sickness unto death.
What's irrepressibly redeeming, however, is Herman's vibrant legacy of joyful
orchestral
jazz. That and the road hero's unshakeable certainty that his one true calling
in
life was to make great, swinging big band music, no matter how crushing his
fiscal
or physical problems could be.
-30-
-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551
"The vote is the instrument and symbol of a free person's power to make a
fool of himself, and a wreck of his country." -Ambrose Bierce
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 12:05:57 -0800
From: "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Marian McPartland book reviewed
Message-ID: <48B5B200FE61477580D6BD89C6FFB85E at BobPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Marian McPartland Bio Hits All the Right Notes
"Shall We Play That One Together? The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian
McPartland,"
by Paul de Barros. St. Martin's Press, 496 pp., $35.
by Gene Seymour
Newsday, December 21, 2012
Paradise may be a great place to live, but the implicit lack of conflict makes
it
a lousy home for a dramatist. In similar fashion, it's challenging for any
biographer
to take on the life of an exemplary human being and fashion a compelling story
out
of it.
Consider the case of Marian McPartland, pianist, composer and longtime host of
NPR's
peerless "Piano Jazz" series. For those who know McPartland only through her
recorded,
live and broadcast appearances, the encomium bestowed by composer Alec Wilder in
a letter she saved for years pretty much nails her down:
"You are very talented, you are witty, warm, good, ethical, tender, tolerant,
angry,
responsible, elegant, stylish, strong, steadfast, womanly, understanding,
romantic,
demanding, and sensitive, civilized, a trustworthy, generous, indeed a sensible
example
of the potential splendor of human kind at its best."
So we're done here, right? Not by a long shot, thanks to Paul de Barros'
engrossing
and illuminating biography, "Shall We Play That One Together?," its title a
direct
reference to the query she asked of Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles,
Esperanza
Spalding, Elvis Costello, Tony Bennett, Norah Jones, Steely Dan (!), Clint
Eastwood
(!!) and many other guests on "Piano Jazz" over more than 30 years. (McPartland,
94, retired as host last year, though she remains the show's artistic director.)
De Barros, jazz critic and pop music editor for The Seattle Times, approaches
McPartland's
long, rich life as both a knowledgeable fan and an evenhanded observer. She was
born
in Slough, England, in 1918 "with perfect pitch -- the ability to pick out any
note
she heard and play it, the way other people might identify a color or shape."
This
gift served her through her classical music education at London's Guildhall
School
of Music, and after she dropped out to tour with a vaudeville act that would
eventually
entertain troops in World War II Europe -- where she met Jimmy McPartland.
The Chicago-born cornetist was an infantryman stationed in Belgium when he met
Marian
during her USO tour in 1944. They married in Germany and, upon returning to the
United
States, he became her guide to the still-burgeoning jazz scene in Chicago and
then
New York.
Theirs was, putting it mildly, a rocky relationship. Jimmy drank too much. She
tried
to make him stop. Her reputation gradually matched and soon exceeded his at
nightclubs
throughout Manhattan. Her most significant gig was a 12-year residency at the
long-defunct
Hickory House on fabled 52nd Street, where her drummer -- and longtime lover --
was
the rhythmically resourceful Joe Morello.
With poise, de Barros recounts the particulars of her affair with Morello and,
for
that matter, the marriage to McPartland, which officially ended in a 1970
divorce.
Their relationship, however, endured as they lived together in Bellmore and
remarried
shortly before Jimmy's death from lung cancer in 1991. Their original divorce,
as
Marian often quipped, "was a failure."
Such is an example of Marian McPartland's shrewd, self-deprecating wit, on
display
throughout "Shall We Play That One Together?," as are her flashes of pique and
bruised
vanity. (Regular listeners of "Piano Jazz" might be surprised to find that the
gracious
host "could, and often did, swear like a sailor.") The overall portrait de
Barros
presents is one of an open-minded, openhearted artist who struggled over
seemingly
improbable circumstances, not the least being gender prejudice, to continue
evolving,
growing and giving back as much inspiration as she reaped.
-30-
-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551
"The vote is the instrument and symbol of a free person's power to make a
fool of himself, and a wreck of his country." -Ambrose Bierce
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 23:26:01 +0200
From: Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com>
To: Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Marian McPartland
Message-ID:
<CABGvO8Asq8G4XXL=UV9h=4v6j29kD=q8Hy3pu4uTScVdkQGf7g at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Isn't it strange that Marian McPartland got no entry in either John
Chilton' "Who Is Who in Jazz" nor in his "Who Is Who of British Jazz?"
She's mentioned in passim under Jimmy McPartland as Marian Page whom
he married, but nothing about her illustrious career.
Cheers
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:59:56 -0500
From: "Henry C. Mason" <hmncro at gmail.com>
To: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Art Jacob's New Year's eve story
Message-ID:
<CAG6NOK9PQH4fx4WTVFNQQrqx6rKDnRh15vB-uoetdoeonpXqbA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi Listmates,
Every year I put this story up on my website about a "modern" New Years
Eve. This was done by my friend Art Jacob now 87 who played bass in my
band for many years in Atlanta. One year, right after New Year's Eve I
got a letter from him containing this "review" . When I stopped laughing I
typed it up for our website and every year I repost it in Art's honor. I
just read it over and thought you guys might enjoy it.
*
By Art Jacob
I guess its the old fire horse in me but there's no way I can hit the sack
before midnight on New Year's Eve and I always get such a hoot out of
listening to some rock band just prior to the drop of the peach.
This year some ditzy blonde was skipping back and forth in front of a
couple of guitars and drums...apparently this was her sole talent. They
dropped the peach, which actually looked more like a Squash with a thyroid
problem , and that instant the guitars set off on "Auld Lang Syne" in more
or less one key and the blonde kept cavorting back and forth while
screaming the lyrics in ANOTHER key. This went on for an interminable time
until they got to what should have been the bridge, but no one would
venture into this uncharted area so they all just tapered off to nothing
one by one.
It takes a pile of nerve to tackle an old folk song and screw it up that
badly. New Year's eve used to be the climax to a musical year, now it's
just a hollow mockery. In more than 50 years, big and small I've never
heard such a mess in my life . Truly this was a golden moment in musical
history.
Art Jacob is a retired Atlanta bassist who has played many New Year's Eve
gigs. He has settled comfortably into his new role of music critic.
*
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 14:03:49 -0800
From: Art Wood <artwoo at aol.com>
To: Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Marian McPartland: in person
Message-ID: <28a3ff69-07ac-4a40-8879-0c317f3338e5 at email.android.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Hi: Marion McPartland is a treasure.
A few years ago she performed at Yoshi's in Oakland.
The highlight of that night went like this: "I think I'll play a little song
Jimmy taught me which he learned from Bix...it goes like this"
Then she began playing "Singing the Blues."
A wave of emotion hit me: She was offering a direct link from Bix to the
audience through her heart and hands.
That was a powerful musical moment.
Merry Christmas.
Art Wood
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 14:58:24 -0800
From: "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Remembering Christmas is On Tonight -
Sacramento Roseville CA Area
Message-ID: <53BCCDF27594449AB6BDC86A63DC245B at BobPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
List Mates,
If any of you are in the Sacramento, Northern California area, don?t miss this
event.
--Bob Ringwald
Remembering Christmas is on tonight, Saturday Dec 22. We have been waiting to
get the word due to the weather and yippee, we will be there with bells on, 6:00
? 8:00 PM. Hope you will be there too.
We, the Fulton Street Jazz Band played for this event last week and it was
great!
Here is some info about the event.
Free, outdoor 1940s era Christmas village, open 5:00 ? 9:00 PM
Think Main Street Disneyland meets South Lake Tahoe.
This is a full scale village with everything from an old fashioned bakery, to a
vintage
theatre with an outer kiosk to purchase popcorn and tickets, to a 30 foot
Christmas
tree and Christmas
tree lot, to street carolers, to coffee shops, to live snow falling, and even to
a full light show that runs every hour as the entire place lights up in sequence
to songs.
The Fulton Street Jazz Band will perform on the Main Stage Friday Dec 14 and Sat
Dec 22 6:00 ? 8:00 PM.
Everyone?s invited. Bring the whole family.
www.christmasremembered.org
Bridgeway Christian Church
3735 Placer Corporate Dr.
Rocklin, CA 95765
916/ 769-4001
Here is a note about the event posted on a Dixieland Jazz Mailing list after our
last performance.
???
My wife and I attended this event last night in Rocklin, California,
primarily to hear Fulton Street. (Mr. Ringwald had sent an email about the
free event.) It turned out to be a marvelous re-creation of a 40's main
street, with various "stores", refreshments, and all of the participants
dressed in 40's-era clothing. The chestnuts were hand-roasted over open
fires, and were perfectly cooked. Fulton Street was great and added hugely
to the atmosphere. Kids (little ones) got in front of the stage and danced
with abandon to the beat. One couple in 40's clothing performed entire
dance routines from that era. And the kids got their parents out dancing
with them. Fulton Street played a variety of Christmas and traditional
numbers, all of which the audience loved. Thank you to Mr. Ringwald for
letting us know about this opportunity, and kudos to the entire band for the
brightness they brought to this marvelous event...
???
-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 19:41:30 -0500
From: Steve Heist <steveheist at videotron.ca>
To: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Question about sound...
Message-ID: <9D2CB33A309849B7A3026ECE41B0D74F at SteveHeistPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII; format=flowed;
reply-type=original
Hi gang and Merry Christmas,
I'm going to play a gig on New Year's Eve - just solo piano (it's at a fancy
spa in Northern Quebec). The room is small (50 to 100 people) and I'm
wondering what kind of reverb is best on acoustic piano sound (no vocal
involved)??? When I sing, I just put a plate reverb on my voice and have
the piano with no reverb which works well, but I could use some help here...
especially from Kash... I know he knows a lot about sound reinforcement...
ANY help will be greatly appreciated and thanks!
ALL the Best,
Steve "Stubby" Heist
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 23:57:27 -0800
From: david richoux <domitype at gmail.com>
To: Steve Heist <steveheist at videotron.ca>, DJML Jazz
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Question about sound...
Message-ID:
<CAO_WAAWxAU2M1S7C1uvymhR=JHUzHQO+o0sO_p72Rf=CGWhQGA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I would say keep it dry first - if the piano is good quality and in tune,
there is no need for any effects.
If it is a dog, don't go overboard! (It will just get muddy, especially in
a small room.)
Dave Richoux
On Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 4:41 PM, Steve Heist <steveheist at videotron.ca>wrote:
> Hi gang and Merry Christmas,
> I'm going to play a gig on New Year's Eve - just solo piano (it's at a
> fancy spa in Northern Quebec). The room is small (50 to 100 people) and
> I'm wondering what kind of reverb is best on acoustic piano sound (no vocal
> involved)??? When I sing, I just put a plate reverb on my voice and have
> the piano with no reverb which works well, but I could use some help
> here... especially from Kash... I know he knows a lot about sound
> reinforcement... ANY help will be greatly appreciated and thanks!
> ALL the Best,
> Steve "Stubby" Heist
>
>
> ______________________________**_________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/**mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz<http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz>
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:43:33 +0000
From: Steve Voce <stevevoce at virginmedia.com>
To: Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Woody Herman documentary reviewed -
Hartford Courant
Message-ID: <50D6D245.5080903 at virginmedia.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
I reviewed this for Jazz Journal:
WOODY HERMAN
BLUE FLAME
A film by Graham Carter (110 minutes)
Jazzed Media DVD JM9005
It's some time since I enjoyed two hours so much. Graham Carter's film
of Woody Herman's career succeeds on so many counts. It sits beside the
few outstanding films about bandleaders -- one thinks of notable
depictions of Shaw, Quincy Jones and Teagarden. If only someone could do
the same for Basie and some of the others....
The opening titles include a copious list of chapters, and it's
because the story flows so smoothly between these chapters (from the mid
'30s to the mid '80s) that one sits spellbound from the opening to the
close. Along the way Herman's character is rounded out as his sidemen
confirm that he was a kind and generous man, a vital link between his
musicians and their audience, an imaginative band leader, an unsurpassed
and instinctive editor of his writers' works, a superb alto player, a
much better clarinettist than you might think and a jazzman whose
mission in life was to give a platform to new and young talent. Not much
for one man, eh?
The work that Carter has put in to amassing and editing his material
is remarkable and one might think that a large production team has been
involved. However, Mr Carter has form. His were the vivid 'A Life in E
Flat' on Phil Woods and 'Against the Tide' for Bud Shank. He also
created one that I haven't seen - 'Artistry in Rhythm' - to cover you
know who.
He's been assiduous in interviewing anyone that's left, and that
means 35 musicians and historians like Dan Morgenstern and Bill Clancy
(Clancy wrote the finest book on Herman). But for me the great pleasure
is seeing close up on camera people like Ralph Burns, Phil Wilson, Nat
Pierce and Med Flory. There are also many clips from interviews with
Woody himself over the years. The voluble Terry Gibbs is a valuable
contributor and there's much wisdom from a variety of people including
Bill Holman, John Fedchock and so on.
The collection of music is good, with much reliance on a
comprehensive full colour 1976 television broadcast from Iowa. This has
a fine Four Brothers and Alan Broadbent's remarkable 12-minute
exposition of Blues in the Night (nobody should need reminding what a
fine singer Woody was). There's a vintage Lemon Drop by the Second Herd
with Gibbs and a splendid I've Got News for You. The First Herd was
sadly never properly done on film, so there's no Flip Phillips and no
more than a mention of the Candolis. One brief Bill Harris solo and
mentions only of Fontana and Urbie Green because of course the Third
Herd didn't get much on camera either. Never mind, the whole thing has
tremendous atmosphere and there's enough typical Herman music to make
sure that the time flies by.
Incidentally the 'includes almost 400 rare photographs' claim
mightn't sound sensational. But the truth is these pictures are
absorbing and, surprisingly to someone who's been a lifelong fan of
Woody's, they are largely new to me. They have also been beautifully
reproduced.
Most importantly, this is the kind of DVD that you'll want to watch
again...and again.
Steve Voce
------------------------------
Message: 10
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 10:40:31 +0100
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] FW: Question about sound...
Message-ID: <CDFBF728F2ED4C8A82E708EE7BE44B03 at JIM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>and I'm wondering what kind of reverb is best on acoustic piano sound (no
vocal involved)??? Steve "Stubby" Heist
Steve, actually, I know little about "sound reinforcement" with editing &
mastering being my forte. However, all that is needed in audio is common
sense & decent ears! We've all got both, but some do those things better
than others!
I wouldn't use any reverb on the piano usually, but if you do, you should
make sure you don't notice it. Your question then will be "why bother if it
is not noticeable?" Reverb should be used to help the sound, but if it
becomes a sound in itself, it is an "effect".
Jim
------------------------------
Message: 11
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:38:12 +0000
From: Steve Voce <stevevoce at virginmedia.com>
To: Jazz Journal <editor at jazzjournal.co.uk>,
Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com, duke-lym list <Duke-lym at concordia.ca>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Impending doom
Message-ID: <50D6D104.1040605 at virginmedia.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
To-day is my 79th birthday.
I've been writing the jazz obituaries for The Independent for 25 years
and two months.
It's time I was taken out and shot.
I'm retiring today.
Steve Voce
------------------------------
Message: 12
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 10:37:12 +0000
From: Allan Brown <allanbrown at dsl.pipex.com>
To: stevevoce at virginmedia.com
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Impending doom
Message-ID: <6DFDC18E-6BF9-456E-BD0F-2BE6A455397A at dsl.pipex.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Steve, I appreciate that you're making more time for your cat Daniel. I suspect
the true reason for your retirement though, is to take control of your team's
reigns - someone's got to do it!
Enjoy your retirement.
All the best,
Allan
> To-day is my 79th birthday.
> I've been writing the jazz obituaries for The Independent for 25 years and two
months.
> It's time I was taken out and shot.
> I'm retiring today.
>
> Steve Voce
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz
Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
------------------------------
Message: 13
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 08:49:37 -0800
From: "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] "Vitaphone Varieties" reviewed
Message-ID: <0BD9A64BAD9647EA9D485DA0A3DBC830 at BobPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Vitaphone Varieties: Vol. 2 (Warner Archive)
by Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle, December 23, 2012
Starting in 1926, a year before "The Jazz Singer," Warner Bros. started
producing
a series of sound shorts, usually musical or comedy acts, mostly taken from the
vaudeville
stage. These shorts have been difficult to see and much coveted by aficionados.
Last
year saw the release of a magnificent four-disc collection of these shorts,
"Vitaphone
Varieties." Now comes "Vitaphone Varieties: Vol. 2," a two-disc collection of 35
short films, which originally played in theaters in the years 1927 through 1931
and
haven't been seen since. So you're really seeing some kind of miraculous
resurrection,
and I can't help but wonder, watching these films, what the people in them would
think of their being seen again, now in people's homes, over 80 years later.
Most
of these people were not stars. Take the hula girl who sits off to the front
left
in the 1927 film "Hawaiian Nights." Because she's not an actress, she's not
acting;
she's just being herself, and being herself, she seems like any 19-year-old girl
today. If she were alive in 2012, she'd be 104, which means she is almost
certainly
dead, but whatever became of her? What was her life like? These are the things
you
think when you watch the films in this set. However, the shorts are much better
in
the first Vitaphone collection. Many of the films in the new collection are from
later in the Vitaphone era, and as such they're more polished, more professional
and less interesting. There are too many shorts of orchestras just sitting there
playing, and too much Edgar Bergen. If you are a Vitaphone completist, by all
means
get this. But if you want to have the ideal Vitaphone immersion, stick with the
earlier
collection.
-30-
-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551
"The vote is the instrument and symbol of a free person's power to make a
fool of himself, and a wreck of his country." -Ambrose Bierce
------------------------------
Message: 14
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:42:15 +0200
From: Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com>
To: stevevoce at virginmedia.com
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Impending doom
Message-ID:
<CABGvO8CZNKUMiJXg0i9dP26eT3udwY_55aYbBGeOHOJsTtkZ9A at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Retirement is just a beginning!
Besides, why shot? Why not go to the ice desert like the Inuit?
You'll have more time for music, not only for the cat.
And mazal tov (literally - good luck, but that's what we here in Isrel
say instead of "happy birthday.").
On 23 December 2012 11:38, Steve Voce <stevevoce at virginmedia.com> wrote:
>
> To-day is my 79th birthday.
> I've been writing the jazz obituaries for The Independent for 25 years and two
months.
> It's time I was taken out and shot.
> I'm retiring today.
>
> Steve Voce
>
> _______________________________________________
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Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
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>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
------------------------------
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End of Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 120, Issue 29
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