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How Records Were Made – JazzWax

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** How Records Were Made
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Back before Spotify and clouds and downloads and iTunes and CDs, there were things called records, which today are making something of a comeback. First came single-song sides spinning at 78rpm, followed by the 10-inch album, the 7-inch 45rpm and the 12-inch LP. Turntables came with a tonearm and a stylus needle attached. When you placed the needle on one of those records, music magically emerged from the speakers.

http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d084f4f6970c-popup
The whole concept was ingenious and baffling—a durable platter with music hidden in its grooves, music that could only be revealed when the tonearm needle rode the disc. The average record-buyer didn’t really know how the technology worked, but it didn’t matter. As you watched the record spin, something electronically nifty took place between the silvery needle, the shiny disc and the speakers. Sounds of musicians playing emerged, sounds that were the same over and over again, no matter how many times you played the record.

http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c6faf192970b-popup
At different points in time, record companies created films to tout the recording and record-pressing process and to promote the marvel of recorded music and new advances in fidelity. I found five of these films on YouTube:

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ5PQSaDYgU) RCA’s Command Performance, which in 1942 showed viewers how records were recorded and made. The film came on the eve of the first American Federation of Musicians’ recording ban that began in August of that year…

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6IMuRICNP0) Capitol’s 1951 film Wanna Buy a Record?, a whimsical promotional short starring Mel Blanc and Billy May. The film came at a moment in time when record-industry sales were falling due to consumer confusion over the speed war between Columbia’s new 33 1/3 LP format and RCA’s 45rpm. People stopped buying records until the format battle was resolved in ’52. That’s when RCA threw in the towel and begin producing LPs while Columbia and the rest of the industry embraced the 45 as a more durable and convenient replacement for the 78 single…

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otR-MGsmCeE) RCA’s The Sound and the Story. It was released in 1956, when the 12-inch LP began replacing the 10-inch album as the industry standard for all forms of music…

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbG-ps0CSkQ) RCA’s New Dimensions in Sound, a 1957 film to educate buyers about a new technological advance—stereo…

And here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqEeP6YPkGM) , in 1958, RCA chimed in again with its Living Stereo film…

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Easing the blues for down-and-out artists PBS Newshour

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Easing the blues for down-and-out artists PBS Newshour

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Capturing blues in black and white | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour

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BY FRANK CARLSON (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/fcarlson/) October 16, 2014 at 3:26 PM EDT
Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Tim Duffy has spent decades photographing blues musicians who work with his nonprofit, the Music Maker Relief Foundation. His photos and stories, along with those of his wife Denise, are collected in the new book “We Are the Music Makers: Preserving the Soul of American Music.” The photographs are currently on view at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, North Carolina, until Oct. 31, and will be at the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi, from Oct. 23 until Nov. 20th. Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Tim Duffy spent 20 years amassing photographs of blues and roots musicians.

There was Neal Pattman, who sang gospel songs while waiting for airplanes to take off. John Lee Cole, who lived in an old shack with one light bulb. And Dr. G.B. Burt, who called Duffy from his deathbed looking for a gig.

As founder and executive director of the Music Maker Relief Foundation (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/capturing-the-blues-in-black-and-white/a%20href=) , a North Carolina-based nonprofit, Duffy snapped photos while helping musicians make ends meet. The photos and captions in his new book of his black-and-white photography tell a rich and vivid history of the life and music of these artists.
Tim Duffy and Guitar Gabriel in Utrecht, Holland, 1991. “When I knocked on Guitar Gabriel’s door, he hobbled out, hugged me and said, ‘Boy, I know where you want to go. I’ve been there before. I will take you there, but my time ain’t long. I want you to promise me that when I die, you’ll bury me with my guitar.'” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Tim Duffy and Guitar Gabriel in Utrecht, Holland, 1991. “When I knocked on Guitar Gabriel’s door, he hobbled out, hugged me and said, ‘Boy, I know where you want to go. I’ve been there before. I will take you there, but my time ain’t long. I want you to promise me that when I die, you’ll bury me with my guitar.’” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

At least in the beginning, Duffy says he spent hours behind a viewfinder and in the darkroom in hopes of landing great shots to use for an album cover, or to promote his musicians. What he lacked in formal training, he says he made up for with time and dedication.
Etta Baker, Morganton, North Carolina, 1996. “Etta Baker was a modern master of Piedmont Blues. Her versions of ‘One Dime Blues’ and ‘Railroad Bill’ became standards during the Filk Revival in the 1960s after folk-singer Paul Clayton produced the hugely successful ‘instrumental Music of Southern Appalachians.’ This record has been in print since 1959.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Etta Baker, Morganton, North Carolina, 1996. “Etta Baker was a modern master of Piedmont Blues. Her versions of ‘One Dime Blues’ and ‘Railroad Bill’ became standards during the Folk Revival in the 1960s after folk singer Paul Clayton produced the hugely successful ‘Instrumental Music of Southern Appalachians.’ This record has been in print since 1959.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

“You have to really get lost in the milieu of hanging out with these artists, and spending time, inordinate amounts of time,” Duffy says. “Then there’s that moment — that moment of you together, sitting on a park bench in Lugano[, Switzerland] — you did the festival, and you’re about to go home, and you’re proud … click. That’s how I take pictures.”

“We Are the Music Makers! (https://shop.musicmaker.org/products/353-we-are-the-music-makers-book-cd) ” a collection of 20 years of photographs, written by Duffy and his wife Denise, was published this month.

Listen to some of the songs Music Maker artists have produced over the years. Below is a playlist of a handful of musicians we heard perform near Durham, North Carolina recently.

The photographs are currently on view at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, North Carolina until Oct. 31, and will be at the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi, from Oct. 23 until Nov. 20.
Carl Rutherford, Pinnacle, North Carolina, 1998. “Carl grew up coal mining in War, West Virginia. He migrated to California as a young man to work on the lumber mills.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Carl Rutherford, Pinnacle, North Carolina, 1998. “Carl grew up coal mining in War, West Virginia. He migrated to California as a young man to work on the lumber mills.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Check out more of Tim Duffy’s photos below and stay tuned in the coming days for the PBS NewsHour’s full report on the Music Maker Relief Foundation.
Willie Mae Buckner and Siam, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1994. “One day when I visited her, she called me into her bedroom to see something special. She lifted up her pillow and there were 10 baby pythons coiled around her Smith & Wesson. She cackled, ‘Do you think anyone is going to mess with me?’ Willa was one of our first artists and we made her lifelong dream come true when she performed her hilarious, risque songs in a Circus Blues show at Carnegie Hall in 1993.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Willie Mae Buckner and Siam, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1994. “One day when I visited her, she called me into her bedroom to see something special. She lifted up her pillow and there were 10 baby pythons coiled around her Smith & Wesson. She cackled, ‘Do you think anyone is going to mess with me?’ Willa was one of our first artists, and we made her lifelong dream come true when she performed her hilarious, risque songs in a Circus Blues show at Carnegie Hall in 1993.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-10.jpg

Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-6-.jpg

Macavine Hayes & Little Freddie King, Porto, Portugal, 2006. “When these artists spend time together performing on the road, they are inspired to play their best, to pull out old material and write new songs.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-73.jpg

Pura Fé Crescioni–Charly Lowry (left) & Ejo, Hillsborough, North Carolina, 2011. “Our first meetings with Pura Fé forever changed out understanding of Southern music history. Previously we had seen that history as a black and white story. Pure Fé explained the intertwined lives and musical traditions of African and Native Peoples in America.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-72.jpg

Neal Pattman, Athens, Georgia, 1995. “Neal loved his blues and would sing and play his harp anywhere. I always got a kick when he broke into a gospel song every time we were about to take off on a plane.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-65-.jpg

Lakota John, Layla, Papa John & Tonya Locklear, Lumberton, North Carolina, 2013. “John Lakota Locklear, born in 1997, grew up listening to his dad’s music collection. At 7 years old, he picked up the harmonica and at 9, his first guitar. Intrigued by the sound of the slide guitar, by 10 he had bought himself a glass slide, placed it on his pinky finger and has been sliding ever since.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-61-.jpg

Captain Luther (Luther B Mayer), Hillsborough & Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1994. “Captain Luke has a voice like honey dripping on hot chocolate. He was Guitar Gabriel’s best friend and companion. They were the kings of the Drink House circuit in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for decades.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-51.jpg

Dr. G.B. Burt (Grover Burt), Birmingham, Alabama, 2009. “Dr. Burt loved being with people and never stopped spreading joy. He even called us from his deathbed in Detroit, hoping we could find him a gig nearby.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-48.jpg

John Lee Cole, Bobo, Mississippi, 2001. “Joe lived outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi, in a tiny town called Bobo. His home was an old shack with one light bulb. To me, Joe Lee represents the thousands of unknown Southern artists whose work is only known to their families and communities, and I was lucky to get a glimpse of this man.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-40.jpg

Elder Anderson Johnson, Newport News, Virginia, 1994. “Religion and music were a part of Elder Anderson Johnson’s life for as long as he could remember; he began playing the guitar at 6 years old. Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-37.jpg

Mr. Frank Edwards & Cool John Ferguson, Hillsborough, North Carolina, 2002. “Mr. Frank Edwards bought his first guitar at age 12. His father was a ‘Terrible Christian’ and forbade him to play and smashed his instrument. Frank left home that day; he was 14 years old, moved to St. Augustine, Florida and never saw his old man again…This photo was taken after he recorded his last song; three hours later he died at 93 years of age of a heart attack near Greenville, South Carolina, en route to his home in Atlanta, Georgia.” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-28.jpg

Jerry “Boogie” McCain, Gadsden, Alabama, 1994. “Denise and I met ‘Boogie’ in 1995 and we made an acoustic record in a nearby hotel room. When we finished the session, I asked Jerry, ‘After so many decades of bad record deals, what would make you happy?’ He replied, “I want a $10,000 advance and I will make a GREAT electric blues record.’ I shelved our humble recording and in 1999, I arranged a deal with Cello Recordings. Jerry got his advance…and he created the greatest album of his career, “This Stuff Just Kills Me.’” Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Editor’s note: This piece was updated on October 17.

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Capturing blues in black and white | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour

** Capturing blues in black and white
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BY FRANK CARLSON (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/fcarlson/) October 16, 2014 at 3:26 PM EDT
Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Tim Duffy spent 20 years amassing photographs of blues and roots musicians.

Listen to some of the songs Music Maker artists have produced over the years. Below is a playlist of a handful of musicians we heard perform near Durham, North Carolina recently.

Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-6-.jpg

Editor’s note: This piece was updated on October 17.

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Capturing blues in black and white | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour

** Capturing blues in black and white
————————————————————

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BY FRANK CARLSON (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/fcarlson/) October 16, 2014 at 3:26 PM EDT
Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy

Tim Duffy spent 20 years amassing photographs of blues and roots musicians.

Listen to some of the songs Music Maker artists have produced over the years. Below is a playlist of a handful of musicians we heard perform near Durham, North Carolina recently.

Photo courtesy Tim and Denise Duffy
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ForFrankPBS-6-.jpg

Editor’s note: This piece was updated on October 17.

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‘A Great Night in Harlem’ Salutes Herbie Hancock – NYTimes.com

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** ‘A Great Night in Harlem’ Salutes Herbie Hancock
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Photo
From left, Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams, Albert Heath and Julian Priester at the Apollo Theater on Friday. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times

“A Great Night in Harlem,” the annual gala concert for the Jazz Foundation of America (http://jazzfoundation.org/) , pitches itself at the intersection of a joyful noise and a noble cause. This year’s edition — held on Friday at the Apollo Theater, with the usual abundance of tributes and accolades, notably a lifetime achievement honor for Herbie Hancock — was no exception, though the emphasis kept shifting over the course of the evening.

This was possibly inevitable, given the multiple agendas at play. The foundation, established 25 years ago, serves as a musicians’ aid organization, assisting jazz and blues artists with their emergency financial, medical and legal needs. The organization handles more than 6,000 cases a year, with a focus on elderly musicians; its annual budget is $3.1 million.

The gala, which had a fund-raising goal of $1.7 million, served all at once as a public relations effort, a reward for donors and a celebration of the organization’s mission. At one point, the first-time filmmaker Alan Hicks took the stage to promote his moving new documentary, “Keep On Keepin’ On,” (http://keeponkeepinon.com/) which chronicles some of the health concerns faced by the irrepressible trumpeter Clark Terry, now 93; Mr. Hicks noted that the foundation had been crucial in arranging for Mr. Terry’s 24-hour home care.
Photo

Mr. Hancock with the piano prodigy Joey Alexander, 11. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times

What followed was a glancing salute to Mr. Terry, led from the piano by Mr. Hancock and featuring Jimmy Heath on tenor saxophone; his brother Albert Heath, known as Tootie, on drums; Wallace Roney on trumpet; and Buster Williams on bass. They played a loose version of “Gingerbread Boy,” a Jimmy Heath tune that Mr. Terry recorded in the 1960s.

Mr. Hancock’s turn in the honoree circle was preceded by a show of his influence. Joey Alexander, an 11-year-old piano prodigy from Indonesia, played his arrangement (http://youtu.be/Y_fQrcEfXRU) of Thelonious Monk’s “ ’Round Midnight,” technically fluent and harmonically astute.

It had been announced that Mr. Hancock was reuniting his band Mwandishi, for the first time since the 1970s. He’d reconvened its original lineup: Mr. Williams, the trumpeter Eddie Henderson, the trombonist Julian Priester, the multireedist Bennie Maupin and the drummer Billy Hart. For a discerning contingent in the house, this was the evening’s main event.

And yet Mwandishi isn’t really the ideal candidate for a fleeting reunion on a crowded bill. In his autobiography, “Possibilities,” just out from Viking, Mr. Hancock describes it as “an R&D band — research and development.” He goes on: “It was all about discovery, uncovery, exploration, the unknown, looking for the unseen, listening for the unheard.”

There wasn’t time for all of that here, but as the band stretched out on a signature tune, “Toys,” (http://youtu.be/BML8qdNwikc) its smudged-charcoal tonalities and cooled-out rhythm packed in a lot of intrigue. More, please.

But Mr. Hancock moved on, inexorably, to the music of his Head Hunters period, with Mr. Maupin joining him on tenor saxophone for “Chameleon.” Each played a knockout solo, full of rolling eloquence, and the house rhythm section — anchored by the evening’s musical director, Steve Jordan, on drums — nailed its task.

That was no less true of the music on the rest of the program: a tribute to Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, featuring his brother Verdine White on bass and Chaka Khan on vocals; a brief number by the singer Angelique Kidjo, in tribute to Nelson Mandela; some roadhouse blues, courtesy of the guitarist and singer Susan Tedeschi, with Bruce Willis, one of the gala’s celebrity presenters, on harmonica; a showpiece by the young Cuban pianist Jorge Luis Pacheco.

What didn’t work so well was the pacing of the program, which started late and ran more than an hour behind schedule. The vigorous soul man Charles Bradley and his band were called offstage after one tune, only to be allowed back on after some audience clamor. Moments like this left the impression of an unfocused marshaling of resources — not the best look for an organization like this, but thankfully, not the last word.

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‘A Great Night in Harlem’ Salutes Herbie Hancock – NYTimes.com

** ‘A Great Night in Harlem’ Salutes Herbie Hancock
————————————————————

Photo
From left, Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams, Albert Heath and Julian Priester at the Apollo Theater on Friday. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Mr. Hancock with the piano prodigy Joey Alexander, 11. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times

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‘A Great Night in Harlem’ Salutes Herbie Hancock – NYTimes.com

** ‘A Great Night in Harlem’ Salutes Herbie Hancock
————————————————————

Photo
From left, Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams, Albert Heath and Julian Priester at the Apollo Theater on Friday. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Mr. Hancock with the piano prodigy Joey Alexander, 11. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times

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‘Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,’ on HBO – NYTimes.com

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** ‘Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,’ on HBO
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Photo
“Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,” a documentary by Alex Gibney, is being shown Monday on HBO. Credit Walter Iooss Jr./Getty Images

There is one interview I remember from my early days as a reporter, and I often recite a line from it because it’s the best answer I’ve ever gotten and ever will get. Naturally, it came from James Brown.

It was in 1989, at the dark, wrong end of Brown’s career, when he was in prison for, among other things, capping a long bout of partying with a high-speed chase through Georgia and South Carolina that ended only after police officers shot out his tires.

I was a Time magazine reporter, and he was working in the prison cafeteria. The warden let me wave through a window at Brown, inmate No. 155413 (http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,957082,00.html) , as he wiped down tables in a cook’s white coat and cap, embellished by purple wraparound sunglasses and matching scarf. Brown was allowed to speak by phone.

I didn’t even know where to begin, so I asked how he was feeling.

“I’m well rested now,” he said, and waited a beat. “But I miss being tired.”

That reply is almost reason enough for watching “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,” an HBO documentary (http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/mr-dynamite-the-rise-of-james-brown) directed by Alex Gibney (http://movies.nytimes.com/person/91461/Alex-Gibney?inline=nyt-per) , on Monday night. But there are plenty of others. This is a smart, informative and compassionate look at the artist known as the Godfather of Soul, whose music changed America.
Photo

“Mr. Dynamite” is an informative and compassionate look at James Brown, whose R&B, soul and funk altered American music. Credit Emilio Grossi/HBO

And you can dance to it.

Brown, who died in 2006, was a fascinating and confounding figure. Just this year, he inspired a biographical movie, “Get On Up,” (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/movies/james-brown-is-celebrated-in-get-on-up.html) with Chadwick Boseman as Brown, and there have been a steady stream of biographies, including two memoirs that he wrote with co-authors.

He was a magnetic, kinetic master of R&B, soul and funk, with roots in gospel and big-band music. He was a beloved performer and an often terrible boss and violent husband. (His third wife, Adrienne Lois Rodriguez, told me he once laid out her mink coat on the bed and then shot it.) He played an important role at critical moments in the civil rights movement and also shocked his fans by supporting Richard M. Nixon in 1972.

Of course, there is also the music.

The film opens with Brown sweating through a muscle T-shirt and chanting the opening words of “Soul Power (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXejtMCZdI) ” to a frenzied audience at the Olympia in Paris in 1971.

The narrative threads his scratch-poor boyhood dancing for nickels in the segregated South to his lasting influence on rock, hip-hop and rap. The film doesn’t dwell on his sad last days, but it does address his many contradictions — personal, musical and political. All of it is set to the beat of his music, which gets the last word.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who was a friend and protégé and contributed to one of Brown’s memoirs, tries to explain why his hero supported Nixon. “James Brown believed in bootstrap economics, lift yourself up,” he says, “so the appeal of Richard Nixon, which was a total, total atrocity to me, but to James Brown it was black capitalism.”

The camera cuts to Brown performing “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing.”

Mick Jagger, a producer of “Mr. Dynamite,” also has a lot to say about Brown, an artist he copied early in his career. Mr. Jagger, of the Rolling Stones, has the grace to admit his debt, saying he tried “to steal everything I could possibly do.” But he also uses the occasion to correct a legend about “The T.A.M.I. Show,” a performance feature film shot in 1964, when the Stones followed Brown and were upstaged by his electrifying performance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vruy2GRUsV8) . Michael Veal, a musician and author, says he heard that while Brown blew up the room, Mr. Jagger stood watching on the side of the stage, “just being devastated and traumatized.”
Continue reading the main story

Mr. Jagger says that although Brown did indeed “kill,” the concert was filmed as a movie, which was heavily cut and edited, and that the Stones’ performance was filmed hours later with a different audience. (In fairness, the Stones’ rendition of “It’s All Over Now (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0DxBIP3wE) ” at that concert does not seem nearly as insipid and embarrassing as Gerry and the Pacemakers’ singing of “How Do You Do It?”)

Some of the most revealing moments come from the memories of less famous friends and colleagues, including Bobby Byrd, the musician who took in Brown when he got out of jail at 20 and who founded what was eventually known as Brown’s backup group, the Famous Flames. Other musicians who played in Brown’s band express joy and pride in their work and also deep disappointment with a boss who was aloof, a loner and a bit of a skinflint.

One time, when band members gathered to confront Brown, he stormed out. Another time, when band members said they were fed up, Brown brought a group of new musicians onto the stage, where the current band members were already preparing to play: It was their cue that they were all dispensable.

He was an important, thrilling voice during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. After Brown performed in Mississippi, Dick Gregory said, “This is black power, baby.” And Brown played a heroic role in Boston in 1968 right after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. He went on with a scheduled concert and persuaded the enraged and distraught audience, and the entire city, to stay calm.

Not everything about him was admirable. Mr. Sharpton gets the second-to-last word, explaining, “What was his negative may have ended up being his strength.”

Last and best comes Brown, performing back when he felt good because he was feeling tired.
Correction: October 27, 2014

An earlier version of this review misidentified the person who said “This is black power, baby” after a performance by James Brown in Mississippi. Although the HBO transcript identifies the speaker as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the comment was by Dick Gregory, not Dr. King, who also attended the concert.

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‘Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,’ on HBO – NYTimes.com

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** ‘Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,’ on HBO
————————————————————

Photo
“Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,” a documentary by Alex Gibney, is being shown Monday on HBO. Credit Walter Iooss Jr./Getty Images

I didn’t even know where to begin, so I asked how he was feeling.

“I’m well rested now,” he said, and waited a beat. “But I miss being tired.”

“Mr. Dynamite” is an informative and compassionate look at James Brown, whose R&B, soul and funk altered American music. Credit Emilio Grossi/HBO

And you can dance to it.

Of course, there is also the music.

The camera cuts to Brown performing “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing.”

Not everything about him was admirable. Mr. Sharpton gets the second-to-last word, explaining, “What was his negative may have ended up being his strength.”

Last and best comes Brown, performing back when he felt good because he was feeling tired.
Correction: October 27, 2014

Jazz Promo Services
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Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

October 27, 2014 / No Comments / More

‘Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,’ on HBO – NYTimes.com

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/jazzpromo https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jazz-Promo-Services/216022288429676
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/arts/television/mr-dynamite-the-rise-of-james-brown-on-hbo.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/arts/television/mr-dynamite-the-rise-of-james-brown-on-hbo.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0)

** ‘Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,’ on HBO
————————————————————

Photo
“Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown,” a documentary by Alex Gibney, is being shown Monday on HBO. Credit Walter Iooss Jr./Getty Images

I didn’t even know where to begin, so I asked how he was feeling.

“I’m well rested now,” he said, and waited a beat. “But I miss being tired.”

“Mr. Dynamite” is an informative and compassionate look at James Brown, whose R&B, soul and funk altered American music. Credit Emilio Grossi/HBO

And you can dance to it.

Of course, there is also the music.

The camera cuts to Brown performing “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing.”

Not everything about him was admirable. Mr. Sharpton gets the second-to-last word, explaining, “What was his negative may have ended up being his strength.”

Last and best comes Brown, performing back when he felt good because he was feeling tired.
Correction: October 27, 2014

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

October 27, 2014 / No Comments / More

Herbie Hancock, in His Own Words, on Improvisation, Chanting, and Unfunny Drunks – Esquire

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http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/herbie-hancock-book-interview?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_news&date=102714 (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/herbie-hancock-book-interview?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_news&date=102714)

** One of America’s best musicians, in his own words
————————————————————

The publication this month of Herbie Hancock’s new memoir, Possibilities (http://www.penguin.com/book/herbie-hancock-possibilities-by-herbie-hancock/9780670014712) , is a choice opportunity for the master musician to look back on his protean career and what it taught him. The book covers the many highlights: Growing up a classical-piano prodigy in Chicago. Joining Miles Davis’s second great quintet at 23. The hit tunes (“Cantaloupe Island,” “Watermelon Man,” “Maiden Voyage,” “Rockit,” et al), albums (Head Hunters), and Grammy wins (most notably River: The Joni Letters, which in 2008 became the second jazz album in Grammy history to be voted album of the year). The fascination with technology that put him in friendly competition with Stevie Wonder to be first to own each new synthesizer as it came on the market. Scoring TV shows (Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids) and films (Blow-Up, Death Wish, best original soundtrack-winning ’Round Midnight, in which he also acted).
Extra-musical successes include being named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and delivering a series of six lectures at Harvard this past spring as Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry. More significantly, the book explores Hancock’s long, deep commitments to his wife, Gigi, and to chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo each day as an adherent of Nichiren Buddhism.

Hancock’s life has not been trouble-free, however. His book makes public for the first time how he eventually overcame an addiction to crack cocaine. Just out of rehab at the tail end of 1999, he toasted the new millennium with Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider instead of champagne, and decided that night that he was giving up alcohol, too. Hancock spoke of all this with me by phone in late August. This is what he said:

Going out into the unknown, there’s nothing really to fear. But it opens the doorway toward new possibilities. A broadening of one’s talent. Growth. Moving forward. All of those things that make life exciting and wonderful.

What I’m thinking about is the purpose of jazz, the purpose of music, the purpose of improvisation. It really is a vehicle for bringing people together. It’s not just about playing notes. It’s encouragement. It’s hope. It’s courage itself. Because we’re improvising, we’re in the moment, we don’t know what we’re going to play next. At its best, we are really fearlessly stretching out and trying things—and getting outside of the comfort zone.

I got a lot of encouragement from Miles, because his whole impetus was in being true to yourself musically. Doing what you believe in, and not depending on someone else’s reaction or response to it. It’s a great life lesson to learn how to have what in Buddhism we call “stand-alone spirit.” To have the conviction to be true to yourself, and not have to depend on the opinions of others. That’s been a rock for me.

Yet, we’re committed to not just serving ourselves, but to sharing this experience with an audience. The audience becomes a member of the band, in other words. That’s why live recordings sound different from studio recordings: because the lives of the people are part of the equation.

My outlook and my perspective of life got a lot clearer. It was almost like putting on glasses for the first time, when I was about 7. I mean, what I thought was clear before wasn’t clear. But I didn’t know that until I put the glasses on. Then I realized, “Oh, this is what it really looks like.” That’s what Buddhism does.

Actually, chanting refreshes you. It’s like clearing out the cobwebs.

This is the 21^st Century, and it looks horrible—the world is more difficult now than it was when I was younger. But personally, I really think that it’s the storm before the calm.

We have to create the kind of world where we actually work together in harmony. I use the metaphor of the human orchestra—working toward that.

We have a huge challenge for humanity, and that’s global warming. We can’t solve that fighting these stupid wars that are going on now, having values turned upside down. Having power being at the top of the list, having money being at the top of the list. That’s not what should motivate people. That’s just greed and ignorance. What’s going to lead us into a more harmonious road is placing value in the potential that every human being has. The greatness that’s in every human being. That’s what Buddhism talks about—about building and encouraging that.

Look, slavery is over. I don’t want to be another slave to that. I want freedom.

I had snorted coke before. Many people have done that. I didn’t realize that first time that crack is not something you can just fancy seeing what it is, and then say, “Oh, okay, that’s what that is,” and walk away from it. I didn’t know that until I actually did it. And when I did it that first time, as it says in the book, I said inside, “Oh, no. I should have never done this.” Because it threw me into this hole that’s not easy to get out of.

I needed the intervention that happened, that my wife did. For me, it was like, “The jig is up.” On one hand, I was relieved. At the same time, I was totally embarrassed and ashamed. But I knew that this was the end. I’ve got my road out of this. And I had to go to rehab. And I said, “I have to chant my butt off. And I want to do everything they say and do it right, because I don’t want to have any regrets about, like, I didn’t try hard enough.” I went to AA meetings and chanted every day in the hospital, in rehab.

I wasn’t that heavy a drinker. I mean, I could drink heavy. I’m not saying that I couldn’t. But I stopped.

The first thing that I noticed happened when I went to one of my favorite spots here, a little bar that’s in Beverly Hills not far from my house. They have a piano in there, musicians—usually rock musicians—would come in there. Sometimes they would just start playing some music, and I would sit in with different people. When I stopped drinking, I went to that club, and I just drank water and juice. And for the first time, I saw what happens to people.

I didn’t realize how severe it was until I observed it sober. I’m watching other people drink and what happens to them. They thought they were clever. And it wasn’t at all. It was annoying.

The most important thing is for you not to depend on the other person for your happiness. Your happiness is your own responsibility. It’s not something that you put on anybody else. And they have to do the same thing. And it’s not about you changing another person, either. The only person you have a responsibility to change is yourself.

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