The News Review:
- The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival opens in Seattle…
- The blues come to Iraq
- Marsalis’ Mass Blends Gospel and Jazz
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The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival opens in Seattle…
Seattle Times – Apr 9, 2008
betts who attended the festival last year with his Oscar Brown documentary “Music Is My Life Politics My Mistress” will be on hand opening night to introduce John Sayles’ “Honeydripper. ” The film which had a brief Seattle run earlier this year is filled with music: Set in 1950 Alabama it stars Danny Glover as a roadhouse owner planning a make-or-break concert. Closing night also will feature a special guest: Recently rediscovered African-American filmmaker Charles Burnett will visit the festival with a screening of his new film “Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation. ” Burnett’s earlier films “Killer of Sheep” and “My Brother’s Wedding” (from 1977 and 1983 respectively) have recently been restored and seen locally including at the Port Townsend Film Festival last fall. “Namibia” focuses on Samuel Nujoma (Carl Lumbly) the young man who would become Namibia’s first president and a key figure in its struggle for independence from South Africa. The film which screens in 35mm (a rarity for this festival which generally screens on DVD) is a three-hour epic shown with an intermission followed by a discussion with Burnett.
The blues come to Iraq
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Pittsburgh Post Gazette – Apr 9, 2008
BlueNotes certainly accepts that. It’s a worthy use of the music which is really designed to lift the blues and not cause them. What better place than a war zone?The tour was created by blues producers Steve Simon and John Hahn and is presented by Armed Forces Entertainment. Touring are Bobby Rush Janiva Magness Billy Gibson and Tony Braunagel from The Phantom Blues Band. I got an e-mail yesterday from the Betsie Brown at Blind Raccoon music with an update on the tour from Chip Eagle publisher of.
Marsalis’ Mass Blends Gospel and Jazz
FOXNews – Apr 9, 2008
not by escaping things but through confronting them with the power of love. Before composing the music Marsalis spent hours talking with Butts about the significance of each part of the prayer service. He further drew upon his diverse influences: his music professor father’s lessons about traditional spirituals hymns and gospel music; his own experience as a classical trumpeter playing the religious works of Bach Handel and Palestrina; and his encyclopedic knowledge of all styles of jazz dating back to its roots in his native New Orleans. Marsalis also highlighted the common links between jazz and the African-American religious rite by including call-and-response patterns and leaving room for improvisation. Both Marsalis and Butts acknowledge that such a collaboration would have been unlikely a century ago when many black preachers denounced jazz as the “devil’s music. “A lot of that feeling came out of ignorance born of the fact that people of African descent had been stripped of a lot of our culture and followed the lead of those who enslaved us… In the early ’90s Marsalis performed his only other major religious work at the Harlem church _ “In This House On This Morning” a suite the trumpeter wrote and recorded with his septet. Marsalis’ adviser on that project: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright who preached a sermon on the trumpeter’s album “The Majesty of the Blues. Butts says the recent controversy surrounding Wright Barack Obama’s former pastor has resulted in “a little bit of the maligning of the black church. “I’m hoping that people will come away with a better understanding of the importance of our religious experience and what it’s meaning truly has been for America and the world” Butts said. “I want this expression of jazz music and the African-American religious and sermon tradition to serve as a foundation for unity among all people. That’s the height of our religious expression in America ever since we were enslaved people.
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Naples Daily News – Naples Daily News – Apr 9, 2008
• Mameli: live music 6 p. Yabo 16681 McGreggor Blvd.