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Rising Covid Instances Drive Organizers to Cancel New Orleans Jazz Fest

Rising Covid Cases Force Organizers to Cancel New Orleans Jazz Fest

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has been canceled, officials said Sunday, citing the “exponential growth of new Covid cases in New Orleans and the region.”

The festival, which usually takes place in the spring, has been postponed to October 8-17 in the hopes that vaccinations would make the event possible. Ticket holders will receive emails shortly describing the refund options.

Coronavirus infections hit a record high in Louisiana this month, with the state reporting an average of 4,600 new cases per day over the past week, according to a New York Times database. Hospital stays rose 140 percent to an average of 2,037 per day, and deaths rose 193 percent to an average of 30 per day.

Louisiana reintroduced indoor masking requirements this month in an attempt to contain infections fueled by the state’s low vaccination rate and the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus. Only 37 percent of the state’s population, including children under 12 who are not yet eligible for vaccination, have been fully vaccinated, according to the New York Times.

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Bob Koester, Revered Determine in Jazz and Blues, Dies at 88

Bob Koester, Revered Figure in Jazz and Blues, Dies at 88

Bob Koester, who founded the influential Chicago blues and jazz label Delmark Records and also owned an equally influential record store where players and fans mingled while looking for new and vintage sounds, died Wednesday at a care center in Evanston, Illinois., Near his home in Chicago. He was 88 years old.

His wife, Sue Koester, said the cause was complications from a stroke.

Mr. Koester was a key figure in Chicago and beyond, posting early efforts by Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam, and numerous other jazz and blues musicians. He captured the sound of Chicago’s lively blues scene in the 1960s on records such as Hoodoo Man Blues, a highly admired 1965 album by singer and harmonica player Junior Wells with guitarist Buddy Guy.

“Bob told us,” Play me a record like you played at the club last night, “recalled Guy in a 2009 interview with the New York Times, and somehow caught the electric feeling of a live Performance 1. In 2008 the record was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Around the same time, Delmark took up early examples of avant-garde jazz, which pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and other members of the Chicago Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, founded in 1965, generally proclaimed the high-volume style.

“If he thought something mattered, he wouldn’t think about whether it would sell,” Ms. Koester said over the phone. “He wanted people to hear it and know the meaning.”

Howard Mandel, the jazz critic and author, said in a telephone interview: “He was following his own star. He wasn’t interested in trends at all. “

For decades, Mr. Koester’s record store, Jazz Record Mart, provided enough financial support to allow Delmark to make records that did not sell many copies. The shop was more than a point of sale for Delmark’s artists; It was packed with all kinds of records, many of them from collections Mr. Koester had bought or traded on.

“The place was just an amazing crossroads of people,” said Mr Mandel, who worked there for a while in the early 1970s. Music lovers would look for obscure records; Tourists would come for the reputation of the business; Musicians would come to share stories and ideas.

“Shakey Walter Horton and Ransom Knowling hung out there, and Sunnyland Slim and Homesick James kept dropping by,” harmonica player and bandleader Charlie Musselwhite, who was a clerk at the store in the mid-1960s, told The Times in 2009, rattling the names of some blues musicians. “You never knew what fascinating characters you would wander into, so I always felt like I was in the eye of the storm.”

Mr. Mandel said part of the fun is tapping into Mr. Koester’s deep reservoir of arcane musical knowledge.

“You’d get into a conversation with him,” he said, “and in ten minutes he was talking about an obscure wormhole on a serial number on a press.”

Ms. Koester said the store held a special place in her husband’s heart – so much so that when he finally closed it in 2016, citing rising rents, he almost immediately opened another, Bob’s Blues and Jazz Mart.

“He loved going to the studio in the days when he picked up Junior Wells and Jimmy Dawkins,” she said, “but retail was in his blood.”

He especially loved talking to customers.

“Often times they would come into the store looking for something,” she said, “and he would point them in another direction.”

Robert Gregg Koester was born on October 30, 1932 in Wichita, Kan. His father Edward was a petroleum geologist and his mother Mary (Frank) Koester was a housewife.

He grew up in Wichita. A 78-rpm record by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in his grandfather’s collection fascinated him when he was young, he said in an oral story recorded by the National Association of Music Merchants in 2017. But, he told Richard Marcus in an interview for blogcritics.com in 2008, further musical exploration is not easy.

“I never liked country music, and when I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, there wasn’t much else,” he said. “The names of these old blues guys – Speckled Red, Pinetop Perkins – had a mystery that made them sound really appealing. Probably something to do with a suppressed Catholic upbringing. “

The college at Saint Louis University, where he enrolled to study cinematography, expanded his musical possibilities.

“My parents didn’t want me to go to school in a big city like New York or Chicago because they didn’t want music to distract me from my studies,” he said. “Unfortunately there were black jazz clubs all over the university.”

He also joined the St. Louis Jazz Club, a jazz recognition group. And he started collecting records, especially traditional jazz 78s, from his dormitory and swapping them. The rapidly growing record business ousted his studies.

“I was with for three years Saint Louie U, ”he said in the oral tradition. “They told me not to come back for a fourth year.”

His dormitory business turned into a business selling both new and used records.

“I would regularly walk all the thrift stores, Father Dempsey’s charities, go to places like this, and buy used records,” he told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1993 for an article marking the 40th anniversary of its record label. “And I would order records in the mail. Then I would sell records at the jazz club meetings. That was the beginning of my retail business. “

He had also started recording musicians. He originally named his label Delmar after a boulevard in St. Louis, but when he moved to Chicago in the late 1950s he added the K.

In 1959 he bought a Chicago record store from a trumpeter named Seymour Schwartz and soon turned it into the Jazz Record Mart. His label not only recorded the player of the day, but also reissued older recordings.

“He loved obscure record labels from the 30s and 40s and bought several of them,” said Mandel. “He’s re-edited a lot of stuff from pretty obscure artists who recorded independently. He saved her best work. “

Mr. Koester was white; Most of the artists he dealt with were black.

“He was totally into black music,” said Mr. Mandel. “Not just black music, but he definitely blamed black music in a way that other labels didn’t.”

That made Mr. Koester special in Chicago when he explored the city’s sampling talent.

“When a white man showed up in a black bar, it was assumed he was either a cop, a bill collector, or looking for sex,” Koester told blogcritic.com. “When they found out you were there to listen to music and for no other reason you were a friend. The worst times I’ve had were from white cops trying to kick me out of the bars. You probably thought I was there to trade drugs or something. “

It was the atmosphere of these nightclubs that he tried to capture in his recording studio.

“I don’t believe in the production,” he said. “I’m not going to bring in some stuff that you can’t hear from a guy when he’s on stage.”

In addition to his wife, whom he met while working across the street from his shop and whom he married in 1967, Mr. Koester survives a son, Robert Jr .; a daughter, Kate Koester; and two grandchildren.

Ms. Koester said her son will continue to run Bob’s Blues and Jazz Mart. Mr Koester sold Delmark in 2018.

Mr Koester’s record company played an important role in documenting two genres of music, but his wife said that not only did he play a little piano, but he was also untrained himself.

“He would say his music was listening,” she said.

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Entertainment

Curtis Fuller, a Highly effective Voice on Jazz Trombone, Dies at 88

Curtis Fuller, a Powerful Voice on Jazz Trombone, Dies at 88

Curtis Fuller, a trombonist and composer whose expansive sound and powerful swing made him a driving force in post-war jazz, died on May 8 in a Detroit nursing home. He was 88 years old.

His daughter Mary Fuller confirmed the death but did not give the cause.

Mr. Fuller came to New York in the spring of 1957 and almost immediately became the leading trombonist of the hard-bop movement, which emphasized jazz’s roots in blues and gospel while delivering crisp and humble melodies.

By the end of the year he had recorded no fewer than eight albums as a leader or co-leader for the independent labels Blue Note, Prestige and Savoy.

In the same year he also appeared on saxophonist John Coltrane’s “Blue Train”, one of the most famous albums in jazz, on which Mr. Fuller developed a series of timeless solos. On the title track, which is now a jazz standard, its trombone plays a central role in carrying the bold, declarative Melody.

Mr. Fuller’s five-choir solo in “Blue Train” begins by playing the final notes of trumpeter Lee Morgan’s improvisation, as if curiously picking up an object a friend had just put down. Then he moves through a spontaneous repertoire of syncopated phrases and skillfully crafted flourishes.

In his book, Jazz From Detroit (2019), critic Mark Stryker wrote, “The excitement, authority, and construction of Fuller’s solo explain why he became a major influencer.”

Mr. Fuller was also responsible for naming “Moment’s Notice”, another now classic Coltrane composition on this album. “I made a comment,” Fuller said in a 2007 interview for the National Endowment for the Arts, recalling the scene at the Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey. ‘John, you put this music on us in no time. We have three hours to rehearse this music and we are going to record? ‘And that became the title of the song. “

Mr. Fuller carried his talent for a precisely set melody and for elegantly tracing the harmonic seams of a melody into his work as a composer. His many original pieces include “À La Mode”, “Arabia” and “Buhaina’s Delight”, all of which are now considered standards.

These three pieces found their way into the repertoire of drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Hard Bop’s flagship ensemble, of which Mr. Fuller was a core member from the early to mid-1960s. The band was arguably at its peak in those years when their membership included trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Cedar Walton, and bassist Jymie Merritt (later replaced by Reggie Workman).

“I owe Art Blakey a lot in many ways,” said Fuller. “We were all driven by the fact that he encouraged us all to write. There was no leader. “

In 2007, Mr. Fuller was named NEA Jazz Master, the country’s highest official award for a living jazz musician.

In addition to his daughter Mary, seven other children survive, Ronald, Darryl, Gerald, Dellaney, Wellington, Paul and Anthony; nine grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. His first marriage to Judith Patterson ended in divorce. His second wife, Catherine Rose Driscoll, died in 2010 after 30 years of marriage.

Curtis DuBois Fuller was born on December 15, 1932 in Detroit. (His year of birth was incorrectly stated throughout his life – a discrepancy that was not resolved until after his death – in part because at 17 he had exaggerated his age by two years and could enter the world of work.)

His father John, who was from Jamaica, worked at a Ford Motor Company plant but died of tuberculosis before Curtis was born. His mother, Antoinette (Heath) Fuller, a housewife, had come north from Atlanta. She died when Curtis was 9 years old and he spent the next several years in a Jesuit orphanage.

During his mother’s lifetime, she paid for Curtis’ sister Mary to take piano lessons. He listened through the wall and learned the basics of second hand music. He showed interest in the violin at the orphanage, but became discouraged after a teacher told him it was an unsuitable instrument for blacks.

Shortly thereafter, he saw JJ Johnson, the leading trombonist of Bebop, in concert with saxophonist Illinois Jacquet, and he was fascinated by the “majestic sound” of the trombone, he said in an interview with Mr. Stryker.

“Illinois Jacquet was an act: honking and screaming, biting reeds, squeaking and such. The crowd was going to go wild, ”said Mr. Fuller. “But JJ just stood there and played and he looked like the guy who really knew what he was doing.”

He was also impressed by the local trombonist, Frank Rosolino, whom he soon heard performing and who became his teacher. He met a group of young jazz musicians in Detroit, many of whom were destined for jazz notoriety, including pianist Barry Harris and guitarist Kenny Burrell.

“It was like a network in Detroit. We generally stuck together, “he said in 2007.” There was a lot of love and real closeness. “

in the In 1953, Mr. Fuller was drafted into the army, where he joined one of the last all-black military bands, the other members of which were future stars Cannonball Adderley and Junior Mance.

After leaving the armed forces, he returned to the Detroit scene before traveling to New York in 1957 with saxophonist Yusef Lateef’s band. When Miles Davis offered him a job, he decided to stay.

Playing with Davis led to his meeting two particularly important people: Coltrane, the band’s tenor saxophonist, and Alfred Lion, a founder of Blue Note Records, who heard Mr. Fuller on stage with Davis’ band and invited him for the Record label.

As he made a name for himself as a band leader, Mr. Fuller also found work alongside celebrity musicians such as Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and James Moody.

Holiday, who became a mentor, encouraged him to consider the range and tempo of his own voice when improvising. “When I came to New York, I always tried to impress people and play long solos as quickly as possible – lightning fast,” Fuller said in 2007. “And suddenly Billie Holiday said, ‘When you’re playing, you’re talking to me People. So learn how to edit your thing you know ‘ That I have learned. “

In 1959 Savoy released The Curtis Fuller Jazztet, a lively album that featured saxophonist and composer Benny Golson. Soon afterwards, Mr. Golson and the trumpeter Art Farmer formed their own band under the name Jazztet with Mr. Fuller as a side musician. It would be one of the epitome of the 1960s jazz ensemble, but Mr. Fuller soon moved on to other endeavors. (He and Mr. Golson remained close friends until his death.)

The untimely death of Coltrane, who was also a dear friend, and Mr. Fuller’s sister in 1967 plunged him into a depression, and he left the music business and took a job at the Chrysler Corporation in downtown Manhattan. But about a year later, Gillespie persuaded Mr. Fuller to join his band on a world tour, and he re-entered the jazz scene for good.

In the mid-1970s he spent two years in Count Basie’s orchestra and again directed his own ensembles.

In the 1990s, he survived a battle with lung cancer (although he had never smoked) and had part of a lung removed. He spent two years reinventing his trombone technique to accommodate his impaired breathing ability. He succeeded and released a number of well-received albums in the late 1990s and 2000s.

But as his health continued to deteriorate, he devoted himself more to teaching, transferring to faculty at Hartford University’s Hartt School of Music and the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program.

When asked in 2007 to describe the distinctive sound that had so indelibly shaped jazz, Mr. Fuller mentioned the importance of accepting one’s own identity. “I’m trying to be warm. Warm and effective, you know. And sometimes I feel cold and defective, ”he said. “This is how water runs. I am not God, I am not perfection. I’m just me “

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Business

NBA legend Dwyane Wade buys possession stake in Utah Jazz

NBA legend Dwyane Wade buys ownership stake in Utah Jazz

Dwyane Wade # 3 of the Miami Heat blows on his hand during the team’s shooting prior to the game against the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena on December 12, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Chris Gardner | Getty Images

Dwyane Wade, 13-time NBA All Star and three-time NBA Champion, is joining Utah Jazz’s group of owners, the jazz announced on Friday.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Wade will join the group of owners led by tech entrepreneur and Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith and his wife Ashley, who acquired a controlling interest in Utah Jazz in late 2020.

“Shortly after Smith acquired Utah Jazz, he and Wade began talks about Wade joining the Utah Jazz Ownership Group and Smith Entertainment Group (SEG), the first of many joint business ventures,” a Utah statement said Jazz.

“As a kid from the south side of Chicago, this partnership goes beyond my wildest dreams of basketball and I hope to inspire the next generation of dreamers,” Wade said in a statement.

Wade joins a growing list of current and retired athletes who have invested in sports teams around the world. Earlier this week, former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, along with former Walmart e-commerce CEO Marc Lore, bought the Minnesota Timberwolves for $ 1.5 billion.

Correction: Updated this story to remove any mention that Smith’s group of owners is the youngest in the NBA.

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Entertainment

New York’s Pop-Up Live shows Kick Off With Jazz at a Vaccination Web site

New York’s Pop-Up Concerts Kick Off With Jazz at a Vaccination Site

At first it seemed like a small, no-frills concert in a carefully controlled environment: Jazz musician Jon Batiste sat at a piano in an auditorium in the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side, performing in front of about 50 seated health care workers in evenly spaced rows – some wear scrubs, other army clothes.

The dancer Ayodele Casel began to knock, with no musical accompaniment other than a recording of her own voice, and her increased convulsive roles filled the room. And the opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo played “Ave Maria” in the angelic tones of a countertenor.

But about half an hour later, the performers stepped off the stage and left the room. What began as a formal concert turned into a boisterous procession of music and dance that ran through the sterile building – the convention center was turned into a field hospital early in the pandemic and is now a mass vaccination site – where hundreds of hopeful people are had come on Saturday afternoon to get their shots.

Batiste switched to the melodica, a stylish, hand-held reed instrument with keyboard, and the band of musicians, which had been expanded to include a horn section and drummer, marched up the escalator and through the convention center, finally reaching a climax. Ceiling room where dozens of people quietly waited 15 minutes after the vaccination for the required waiting times.

This concert roaming party was the first in a series of “pop-up” shows in New York designed to give the arts a jolt by giving artists paid work and audiences the chance to perform live after nearly a year see darkened theaters and concert halls. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo last month announced plans for the “NY PopsUp” series in which he stated “we need to bring art and culture back to life,” adding that their revitalization is essential for the economic revitalization of New York the city is of decisive importance. The shows begin as he comes under fire for the government’s handling of Covid-19 deaths of nursing home residents.

Since the program doesn’t attract crowds, most of the performances will be unannounced and suddenly pop up in parks, museums, parking lots and street corners. The idea is to bring a dose of inspiration into the lives of New Yorkers – a moment when they can disrupt their planned lives and experience art during a pandemic year when human contact is limited and people’s activities are severely restricted.

“We need more spontaneity; That’s the beauty of it, ”said Batiste in an interview. “You don’t know what’s around the corner.”

As the band of musicians roamed the Javits Center, the audience of healthcare workers followed them, clapping to the beat, and recording the spectacle on their cell phones. Batiste, the bandleader on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” drove his musicians around the room (most of whom played with the show’s house band, including Endea Owens on bass, Tivon Pennicott on saxophone, and Joe Saylor and Nêgah Santos on drums).

Bre Williams, a 35-year-old blue scrub nurse who had come from Savannah, Georgia to help out in New York, watched wide-eyed.

“You guys do all that stuff up here?” she said with a laugh.

Just before the music ended, some of the health workers rushed off to continue their work day (this concert, after all, took place during their breaks).

The series is being created by a public-private partnership led by producers Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal along with the New York State Council for Art and Empire State Development. Zack Winokur, the director and interdisciplinary artist in charge of the program, said the group intends to have more than 300 pop-up performances in all counties and across the state by Labor Day. The performers are selected by an artists’ council – including Batiste, Casel and Costanzo – who are each asked to use their own networks to find participants.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a live performance,” said Winokur in an interview. “It’s a much needed experience right now.”

After performing at the Javits Center for the first time, the musicians made their way to Brooklyn, where they began another flash mob style street jam that started from Cadman Plaza Park and snaked through Dumbo to land at a skate park where teenagers stared at them curiously before hopping back on their skateboards. The free, mobile concerts are described by Batiste, who previously planned them on social media, as “love riots”. This drove over sidewalks and slushy snow and sometimes slowed down traffic.

Casel was prevented from tap dancing in the street and beat out rhythms by clapping her hands on the metal plates of her tap shoes. Costanzo danced with the band and at one point grabbed the megaphone to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

While the music was meant to offer passers-by a spontaneous display, the march itself was as strictly regulated as any event from the time of the pandemic. Security guards guided members of the musical entourage through rough terrain and dog litter. Another employee asked viewers to spread out when they started violating social distancing guidelines.

Despite the logistics, the plan managed to arouse a spontaneous curiosity for dozens of people who unexpectedly came across the music. The band moved through narrow streets and shopping streets, making people stop, stare and sometimes groove a bit. Children peered through windows along Washington Street; A doorman shot out of an apartment building to see what all the noise was about. Pharmacy workers leaned out the door to film the procession on the sidewalk.

However, not everyone seemed to appreciate the music. At one point, someone in a residential building threw objects from several floors at the protesters (one of the security officers said he saw an orange juice container and a trophy in the snow).

The band, used to improvising, simply avoided the flying objects and marched a little faster, the music never stopped.

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Entertainment

Jazz Onscreen, Depicted by Black Filmmakers at Final

Jazz Onscreen, Depicted by Black Filmmakers at Last

In the middle of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the new Netflix drama based on August Wilson’s acclaimed play, the title character drifts into a monologue. “White people don’t understand the blues,” muses Rainey (Viola Davis), an innovator at the intersection of blues and jazz with an indomitable trust in her own expressive machine.

“They hear it coming out, but they don’t know how it got there,” she says as she prepares to record in a 1927 Chicago studio. “They don’t understand that’s the way of life to talk.” You don’t sing to feel better, you sing because that is your way of understanding life. “

Time seems to stand still when Rainey speaks. The gap between their words and what white society is ready to hear shows well before us. They realize that this is the fertile space in which their music exists – an ungoverned area too full of spirit, expression and abstention for politics and law to interfere.

But maybe this scene is only so amazing because it was so rare in all of film history. With a few exceptions, the films have hardly ever told the story of jazz through the lens of black life.

Now, inexcusably late, that is beginning to change.

Piloted by veteran theater director George C. Wolfe, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is one of three feature films released this holiday season that focus on jazz and blues. All of them were made by black directors or co-directors. The other two are New York stories: “Sylvie’s Love” by Eugene Ashe, a mid-century romance between a young jazz saxophonist and an aspiring TV producer, and “Soul”, a Pixar feature film by Pete Docter and Co – Director: Kemp Powers, who uses a pianist’s near-death experience to raise open questions about inspiration, compassion and how we all manage life’s endless counterpoint between frustration and resilience.

The films present black protagonists in full bloom – musically, visually, thematically – and give these characters a dimensionality and depth that the music itself reflects. It is reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s explanation of why she wrote Jazz, her novel in 1992: she wanted to examine the changes in African American life brought about by the great migration – changes she later wrote “were abundantly evident in music. ”

The new films surpass many, if not all, of the problems of past jazz films, which in the past have delineated the boundaries of the white gaze better than showing where the music came from or how it can transcend. White listening and patronage don’t really enter the narratives of these new films as anything other than distraction or necessary inconvenience.

Earlier this year, critic Kevin Whitehead released “Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories in Film,” an overview of jazz’s long history on screen. As he notes, jazz and cinema grew up together in the interwar period. But in those years and far beyond, writes Whitehead, the films repeatedly whitewashed jazz history: “In film for film, African-Americans who invented music are marginalized when white characters don’t push them completely off the screen . ”

It applied to “New Orleans,” a 1947 film starring Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday that was originally intended to be about Armstrong’s rise but was rewritten at the behest of its producers to focus on a story of white romance. It applied to “Paris Blues”, a 1961 vehicle for Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier, based on a novel about the interracial love affairs of two jazz musicians. However, this key element has been more or less deleted from the script. Ultimately, the film is about Newman’s trombonist Ram’s struggle to convince himself and others that jazz is worthy of his obsession. He insists that a career as an improvising musician requires such a unique dedication that he cannot sustain a relationship.

In the last few years, jazz has emerged most prominently on screen in the work of Damien Chazelle. His “Whiplash” (2014) and “La La Land” (2016) tell the stories of young white men who, like Ram, have painfully dedicated themselves to jazz and the associated feeling of excellence. In these films, jazz is a challenge and an albatross. But in “Sylvies Liebe”, “Ma Raineys Black Bottom” and “Soul” the music is more of an ointment: a river of possibility flowing through a hostile country and – as Rainey says in Wilson’s script – simply the language of life .

“Whiplash” focuses on the relationship between a demonic music teacher (played by JK Simmons in an Oscar-winning performance) and his most dedicated young student, Andrew (Miles Teller), who is driven by a desire to become a drum master. The film offers an insight into the current life after jazz in conservatories, in which the students learn their language using diagrams and theoretical frameworks. However, most teachers pay little attention to the spiritual or social properties of music. Again, we run into the slightly misogynistic – and deeply depressing – idea that devotion to music cannot coexist with romantic love and caring: Andrew’s dating behavior is disastrous, and he proudly declares that it’s music.

“La La Land” follows a pianist, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), who left music school for a few years. At first he saw him dyspeptically hit the tape deck in his convertible and tried to memorize the notes on a recording of Thelonious Monk as if they were timetables. He sees himself as the guardian of the past successes of jazz and is committed to the opening of a club that preserves what is often referred to as “pure” jazz. It’s a cultural legacy that, as a fellow musician played by John Legend gently reminds him, hasn’t exactly asked for his help – though that doesn’t put him off.

There is a big difference between these characters’ relationships with jazz and those of, for example, Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), the saxophonist in “Sylvie’s Love”, or Joe, the pianist in “Soul”. While Sylvie Robert watches while playing, she sees him settle deep inside himself. There is no gap between what he is on and off the stage other than that he could be freer up there. Performing doesn’t become an unhealthy obsession; So life is.

While “Sylvie’s Love” depends on a “Paris Blues” -like tension between art and romance, the two can ultimately coexist. Spike Lee’s “Mo ‘Better Blues” (1990) and “Crooklyn” (1994) were halfway there and showed what it looks like for jazz musicians to have loving marriages. (Lee, whose father is a jazz musician, doesn’t make it seem easy. But possible? Yes.) “Sylvie’s Love” takes this conflict and melts it away like great film romance can.

On many levels, “Soul” is the most expansive and impressive of the new jazz films. Joe, a middle school pianist and band teacher, is about to die when his mind creeps into the Great Before, where uninitiated souls prepare to invade bodies at birth. There he meets 22, an unruly soul who has failed to persuade a human body.

In his classroom, Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx) preaches the glory of jazz improvisation, drawing on a true story that haunted the famous pianist Jon Batiste, who made the music Joe plays, the film’s director, Docter, and the co-director had told Powers. “This is the moment I fell in love with jazz,” Joe recalls the first time he walked into a jazz club as a kid. He caresses the piano keys as he speaks. “Hear this!” he says. “See, the tune is just an excuse to get you out.”

After an accident lands Joe in intensive care and his soul drifts out of his body, he and 22 come up with a plan to bring him back to life. He finds out that all souls need a “spark” to touch their passion and guide them through life. He knows immediately that he plays the piano. That is his purpose in life. But one of the spiritual guides and counselors who populate the Great Before (all called Jerry) quickly makes it clear. “We don’t assign purposes,” said Jerry. “Where did you get this idea from? A spark is not a soul’s purpose. Oh, you mentors and your passions – your “intentions”, your meanings of life! So basic. “

Your conversation remains wonderfully open. But the point becomes clear, subtle as it is: Above meaning, above purpose, above any means to an end, there is only life. That is, music.

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How Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Animates Jazz

How Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Animates Jazz

Pixar’s animators have done an impressive job in the past, making characters and textures feel more authentic in increasingly complex ways. (That flowing hair! These landscapes!) But how would they represent jazz?

With “Soul” (streaming on Disney +) the challenge was to translate the emotional and improvisational qualities of the music through a technical process with little room for improvisation. While many animations have awakened the spirit of jazz over the years, “Soul” sits right next to the piano keys to show in detail how a musician creates. And Pixar knew that many eyes, especially those of jazz musicians, would examine his work.

The film follows Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a school band teacher by day, a talented but unsuccessful jazz pianist by night (and always). He struggles to perform, but when he’s at the piano he’s transported, his stress subsides and his passion emerges with every note.

The Pixar filmmakers, known for their attention to detail – in “Cars”, the engine noise of each vehicle came from the actual engine of the same model – knew that without the collaboration of jazz artists it would not be possible to capture the fundamentals of jazz performance .

“We wanted to make sure that when this guy becomes a jazz musician, he knows the clubs and the backstory,” said the film’s director Pete Docter in a video interview. He and his team went to clubs in New York to gain a better understanding. “We just went upstairs and talked to musicians and asked them where did you study?” he said. “How did you get here? What other jobs did you do? And tried to really refine the world of these characters.”

They also consulted with a number of marquee musicians, including Herbie Hancock, jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, and Questlove (who also did vocal work).

Pixar also brought in keyboardist Jon Batiste, band leader and music director of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”. He created the original compositions that Joe performs on the screen. Batiste recorded the music with a band in a New York studio, and Docter captured those sessions with multiple cameras. “We have 80 GoPros set up everywhere,” said Docter. They then studied the video to get a more detailed picture of how the scene could be animated.

Docter said the animators exaggerated certain movements in Joe’s game for visual effects, but “in terms of posture and striking the right notes, this was crucial for us to make sure it really felt authentic.”

Together with the video, they were able to digitally save the notes they played. This digital stream could be programmed backwards into the animation in a way that acted almost like a player piano, signaling to the animators which key was being played with each note. When you see Joe at the piano, he’s playing the exact notes you hear.

At the recording sessions, Docter said, his approach to directing Batiste was similar to directing actors: he avoided doing certain line readings or inputs to the music and instead tried to paint a picture so that Batiste set the mood of the Scene could understand.

“I could just say, ‘You know the point when you play and the world just disappears and you wake up and three hours have passed? This is what we’re looking for, ”said Docter. Batiste made adjustments to his composition during the session to suit the needs of the film. “It was a pleasure to watch him work,” said Docter. “It was like a private concert.”

Batiste said that he had a connection with Docter in creating these scenes – “Pete is a healer and a philosopher,” he said via email – and that he was glad to see the care with which black music was treated .

Docter grew up with music. Two sisters are professional musicians and his parents are music educators. That made it easier to sync with the film’s musical passions. And on his team, he said, those who animated a particular instrument often had either experience with that instrument or a strong appreciation for it.

Joe in all his complexity is brought to life in three ways: through Foxx’s vocal performance; the design and movement of the character; and Batiste’s compositions and performances. These close-ups of Joe’s moving hands reflect the pianist’s spirited playing style – so much so that Batiste was surprised when he saw these moments on screen.

“My hands are central to my life,” he said. “I had tears in my eyes when I saw my essence come to life in Joe. To have this as part of my creative heritage is an honor. “

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Business

Utah Jazz proprietor Ryan Smith: CNBC interview

Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith: CNBC interview

Gail Miller, owner and chairman of the Larry H. Miller group of companies and Utah Jazz, announced today that they have reached definitive agreements to sell a controlling stake in Utah Jazz and other sports to technology entrepreneur Ryan Smith.

Melissa Majchrzak | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

Subscribe to CNBC Pro to Read the full Q&A with Qualtrics CEO and new owner of the Utah Jazz, Ryan Smith.

Ryan Smith, the new owner of Utah Jazz, says he’s still not sure what kind of owner he’ll be, but he already knows his focus will be on improving the fan and gaming experiences.

Smith, 42, officially joined the Sports Brotherhood after the National Basketball Association approved his $ 1.6 billion purchase of Jazz on Friday. Qualtrics Co-Founder and CEO will provide final decision-making for the team’s business and basketball operations.

The new group of owners also adds Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Ryan Sweeney of venture capital firm Accel as minority partners.

In an interview with CNBC Pro’s “A View from the Top,” Smith said he had no plans to go behind the scenes. Unlike other NBA owners, however, running jazz won’t be his full-time occupation. Qualtrics will be spun off from SAP early next year, less than two years after the German software giant took over the company. Smith says he expects it to be “a big company”.

“I think I’ll be practical,” Smith told CNBC’s Alex Sherman. “But we have phenomenal leadership. We have Dennis Lindsey, a world class general manager, and Quin Snyder, who is one of the best coaches in the league. There are some owners who do everything they do full time. And that am not me. ” I’m still very, very deeply involved with Qualtrics. “

Prior to buying the Jazz, Smith said he was researching the purchase of several NBA franchises, including Minnesota Timberwolves. The chatter among sports bankers familiar with the process suggests Timberwolves owner Glenn Taylor is considering keeping the team for the time being.

“There are still a few minority pieces,” Smith said of minor NBA team involvements. “You will see them come around.”

Smith said he had a chat with fellow NBA owners with a tech background, including Mark Cuban, owner of Dallas Mavericks and Steve Ballmer, owner of Los Angeles Clippers, formerly CEO of Microsoft, prior to the purchase. Both are among the most visible team owners at NBA games. Like Cubans and Ballmer, Smith said he planned to continue sitting at court.

“I’ve had a unique view because I’ve spoken to Mark about it five or a few times over the years,” said Smith. “And I’ve met a lot of other owners in the league just because this was my passion. But they gave me different advice. Nobody ever said that you have to do it that way.” Everyone has their own style. “

Smith said he believes his basketball insights will help jazz align better with a technology and social media league.

“I understand basketball,” he said. “I get basketball. I play basketball three days a week. There is the basketball side and the business side. Each one is equally interesting to me. One from an experience standpoint and one from an understanding standpoint.”

When asked what jazz fans can expect from his property, Smith replied, “You will see it. You are already seeing it. You know me – many of them do.”

“I’m just swapping places,” said Smith of the seats in the yard next to previous owner Gail Miller. “But I have to do a paycheck now.”

read this entire CNBC Pro interview with Ryan Smith.

WATCH: That inspired Ryan Smith to own Utah Jazz

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Entertainment

Piano Bars and Jazz Golf equipment Reopen, Calling Reside Music ‘Incidental’

Piano Bars and Jazz Clubs Reopen, Calling Live Music ‘Incidental’

Although most indoor live performances in New York have been banned since the deadly spread of the coronavirus began in March, about a dozen people showed up at Birdland, the jazz club near Times Square, for a 7 p.m. performance on Wednesday night Live jazz was billed for dinner. They had reservations.

Among them was Tricia Tait, 63, from Manhattan, who came for the band, led by tuba player David Ostwald, who plays the music of Louis Armstrong. Until the pandemic, it had played on Birdland most Wednesdays. She admitted having health concerns “in the back of your mind” but said, “Sometimes you just have to take risks and enjoy things.”

As the daily number of new coronavirus cases in New York City has risen to levels not seen since April, face-to-face learning in public middle and high schools has been suspended, and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo warned this week not to allow indoors dine It could soon be banned in the city. Birdland and a number of other well-known jazz clubs and piano bars across town are once again offering quietly live performances, arguing that the music they are presenting is “random” and therefore will be allowed by the pandemic. Era guidelines set by the State Liquor Authority.

These guidelines state that “only random music is allowed at this time” and that “advertised and / or ticket shows are not allowed”. They continue: “Music should be part of the culinary experience, not the draw.”

That hasn’t stopped a number of New York City venues better known for their performances than their cuisine – including Birdland, the Blue Note, and Marie’s Crisis Cafe, a West Village piano bar that reopened on Monday with a show tune after she declared herself to be the establishment – from offering live music again.

“We think it’s coincidental,” said Ryan Paternite, Birdland’s program and media director, of its calendar of events, which includes a marching band and a jazz quartet. “It’s background music. That’s the rule. “

The rules have been challenged in court. After Michael Hund, a guitarist from Buffalo, filed a lawsuit against her in August, a US District Court judge in New York’s western district issued an injunction last month preventing the state from enforcing its ban on advertised and ticketed Enforce shows. “The minor music rule prohibits one type of live music and allows another,” wrote Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. in his November 13 ruling. “This distinction is arbitrary.”

The state appeals the judgment.

“Science recognizes that mass gatherings can easily become super-spreader events, and it cannot be overlooked that companies would seek to undermine tried and tested public health rules like these as infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise “said William Crowley, a spokesman for the alcohol authority, said Thursday. He noted that a federal judge in New York City had ruled in another case that the restrictions were constitutional. He said the state will “continue to vigorously defend our ability to fight this pandemic if it is challenged”.

However, it is unclear what exactly “random” music means. Does that mean a guitarist in the corner? A six-piece jazz band like the one that played at Birdland on Wednesday night? The Harlem Gospel Choir, who will perform at Blue Note on Christmas Day? Mr Crowley on Thursday did not respond to questions seeking clarity or what enforcement action the state has taken.

Robert Bookman, an attorney who represents a number of New York City’s live music venues, said the venues interpreted the judgment as allowing them to advertise and sell tickets to occasional music performances during dinner.

Hence, the venues have carefully chosen their words. They take dinner reservations and announce line-up calendars for what Mr. Paternite of Birdland calls “background music during dinner.” Unlike Mac’s public house, the Staten Island Bar, which declared itself an autonomous zone and was recently ridiculed on Saturday Night Live, they have no interest in openly disregarding regulations.

Mr Paternite said that after laying off nearly all 60 employees in March, Birdland is now returning to what he calls the “skeletal staff” of about 10 people.

“It is a big risk for us to be open,” he said. “And it only pays in a cent. But it helps us with our arrangement with our landlord because in order to pay our rent over time and keep our utilities and taxes updated we need to stay open. But we lose huge amounts every day. “

If the venues don’t reopen now, he fears they may never do so. Jazz Standard, a popular 130-seat club on East 27th Street in Manhattan, announced last week that it would be permanently closed due to the pandemic. Arlene’s Grocery, a club in the Lower East Side where the Strokes took place before they became known, said it was “life sustaining” and had to close on February 1 without assistance.

Randy Taylor, the bartender and manager of Marie’s Crisis Cafe, said the last time the piano bar served food was likely in the 1970s – or maybe earlier. “There is a very old kitchen that is completely disconnected upstairs,” he said. Dining options are extremely limited: there are currently $ 4 bowls of chips and salsa on offer. “We have to sell them,” he said. “We can’t just give them away.”

Steven Bensusan, the president of Blue Note Entertainment Group, said he hoped the state doesn’t move to stop eating indoors.

“I know the cases are sharp,” he said. “But we’re doing our best to keep people safe, and I hope we can stay open. We won’t be profitable, but we have the opportunity to give work to some people who have been with us for a long time. “

The clubs said they are taking precautions. In the Blue Note, which reopened on November 27th, the tables that were previously divided are now two meters apart and separated from one another by plexiglass barriers. The two nightly seats for dinner are each limited to 25 percent or about 50 people. At Marie’s Crisis Cafe, where masked pianist Alexander Barylski sat behind a clear screen on Wednesday night as he led a cheering group choir from “Frosty the Snowman,” Taylor said the tables were separated by plastic barriers and that the venue conducted temperature tests and collected contact tracking information at the door.

Marie’s Crisis Cafe had streamed live on Instagram and his Facebook group page, but Mr. Taylor said it wasn’t the same. On Wednesday night, 10 customers strapped Christmas music through masks, some having had their first drinks at a venue since March.

“There were some tears,” said Mr. Taylor. “People really missed us. We can’t see their smiles through their masks, but their eyes say it all. “