Showing posts with label Duke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Duke. Show all posts
End of an Empire
Like, would the show have a season for each year in a lead-up to a St Valentine's Day Massacre finale? It was in 1929 that six "associates" of Moran's North Side Irish gang were gunned down. So I was disappointed this season jumped forward seven years to 1931 -- although I was heartened to hear mention of Bugs Moran in a recent episode.
As the second season neared the end I reasoned that, as there wasn't a Wikipedia entry for Jimmy Darmody then, Nucky Thompson had nothing to worry about. I also marveled at the longevity of Lucky Luciano.
Gangster history provides rich material for an HBO TV show and, arguably, it is the genre that made the HBO name via The Sopranos in the '90s. Where that show chartered the lives of mobsters in one city, this one followed the intersections of multiple crime gangs in many eastern US cities.
I also think there's something inherently HBO in the Prohibition Era setting because it's an era that surely ends. In the same way the telegraph arrived at Deadwood or the gentrification of Baltimore ended The Wire or winter is coming to Westeros, there's a certain way these shows position their narrative arcs against looming change that I feel adds urgency and appeal to their storytelling.
If history could change one thing about Boardwalk Empire, it would be the music during the introduction each episode. As much as I like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, I can't stand the use of electronic guitar in a show set before the instrument was invented.
Often I found myself wondering which Duke Ellington track might work better to set the world of Boardwalk Empire. Or how they might have a series of covers of a famous track from the era, in the way they memorably changed the intro music for The Wire each season.
Imaginary Forces - Boardwalk Empire from Imaginary Forces on Vimeo.
Mood Indigo
'Mood Indigo' is my second favourite Duke Ellington track (after 'Blue Pepper'), so I hope it features prominently in Michel Gondry's new film -- which looks fantastic (in all senses of the term).
Here's my favourite version of the tune, featuring Ellington with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, from the album "Money Jungle":
March into the archives : Duke Ellington
The following summary of Duke Ellington's career was published in BMA Magazine on 17 February 2000, ahead of Wynton Marsalis leading the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra in a performance of Ellington's songs.
In 1917 when 'Duke' Ellington was eighteen, he'd wanted to become a painter. In the decades that followed, Ellington remained a painter although it was in the guise of a jazz composer.
In conducting his orchestra Ellington arranged music as though it were colour on a canvas, with deft movements of his hand (the piano his brush) he would sketch sonic landscapes and illustrate a path for the other musicians.
Yet Ellington should not be viewed as a maestro in the mold of European composers like Mozart; the Duke's talent was to recognise and arrange melodies that were created through the improvisation of his band. Most Ellington pieces were collective arrangements and as much the music of each individual member but Duke headed the collective.
It was through a dynamic willpower that Ellington stamped his ideas onto his musicians and, while he developed their talents, this leadership is his claim to authorship.
Duke Ellington has earned his stature in the history of jazz for many reasons and it has been claimed that he founded a number of innovations. These included the tune 'Caravan' written by his Puerto Rican-born trombonist Juan Tizol in 1937, which paved the sub-genre of latin jazz; and, perhaps more importantly, the history of jazz bass stretches through Ellington's work form the first recording with an amplified bass, 'Hot and bothered' in 1928, through to the influential playing of Jimmy Blanton in the 1940s, who helped make the instrument what it is today.
Above all, Ellington's career had longevity. From his start with a five-piece combo, who (according to popular myth) were so poor they had to split a hotdog between them to keep from starving, the Duke headed the most significant big band in an era when big bands were like pop groups are today.
His final landmark was the '70th birthday concert' which was chosen in 1969 as 'Jazz record of the year' all over the world. On 25 May 1974 Ellington died of pneumonia in a New York hospital, only a few weeks after musicians including Leonard Bernstein and Miles Davis had paid homage to him on his 75th birthday.
The importance of his music cannot be overstated.
Metropolis
A free screening of the film Metropolis will be held in Chelmsford Place on Saturday 2 April as part of the Leeton Art Deco Festival. "If you haven't seen this classic, then this is a great opportunity to see a film that is the 1920s equivalent of Avatar," said organiser Jason Richardson.
Released in 1927, Metropolis has had an influence on science fiction films like Star Wars and Bladerunner. In 2001 the film was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register and in 2010 Empire Magazine ranked it at number 12 in a list of The 100 Best Films of World Cinema.
The film bankrupted the UFA studio with a budget of over five million Reichsmark, estimated to be worth over $200,000,000 today. "Metropolis was possibly the first cult film," explains Mr Richardson, "as it had an underwhelming response at the box office on its release and took many years to find an audience but is now screened widely
"Metropolis and Avatar share in common is their criticism of contemporary politics. Where Avatar can be viewed as a comment on the US-led invasion of Iraq, Metropolis can be seen as criticising on the rise of the Nazi party in Weimar Germany, as well as promoting unionism and the achievements in establishing modern working conditions.
"It's a Romeo and Juliet-type story that's complicated when the Juliet-character, a community leader, is replaced with a robot manipulated by the Romeo-character's capitalist father," said Mr Richardson.
The silent movies were never silent, cinemas of the 1920s and '30s would have an organist or maybe even a full orchestra to accompany screenings. For the Leeton Art Deco Festival screening, Metropolis will feature a soundtrack drawing on the work of Duke Ellington.
Duke Ellington is one of the foremost figures in American jazz music, with a career that began in 1923 and ended with his death in 1974. "He is arguably the greatest composer of the twentieth century and the Art Deco period was known for big bands, like the orchestra Ellington led," said Mr Richardson.
It's sure to be a great night. "Bring chairs or a blanket to sit on, pack a meal or fill your Thermos and see a film that continues to resonate with audiences nearly 75 years after its release."
Metropolis is rated PG and will start around 7.30pm on Saturday 2 April, projected onto the main water tower in Chelmsford Place as part of the Leeton Art Deco Festival.
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