"As well as exploring Simone’s dynamism as a performer, the documentary is set to shed light on her mental health issues and struggle with bipolar disorder. Her passion for politics and association with the African-American civil rights movement are also highlighted in the film."
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Friday, June 12, 2015
Ornette Coleman, Saxophonist Who Rewrote the Language of Jazz, Dies at 85 - NYTimes.com
"Ornette Coleman, the alto saxophonist and composer who was one of the most powerful and contentious innovators in the history of jazz, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 85.
The cause was cardiac arrest, a family representative said.
Mr. Coleman widened the options in jazz and helped change its course. Partly through his example in the late 1950s and early ’60s, jazz became less beholden to the rules of harmony and rhythm while gaining more distance from the American songbook repertoire.
His own music, then and later, embodied a new type of folk song: providing deceptively simple melodies for small groups with an intuitive, collective musical language and a strategy for playing without preconceived chord sequences. In 2007, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his album “Sound Grammar.”
Monday, June 01, 2015
Terence Blanchard on pushing for social change The sounds of jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard have provided the sonic backdrop to nearly thirty years of American cinema. He joins Melissa Harris-Perry to discuss how his social consciousness informs his art and gives a special performance of his song...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)