SUN RA’s 1959 CRY OF JAZZ (Movie in 6 parts)

Le Sony’r Ra 1953 (Sun Ra)

Touted as the most controversial film since The Birth of a Nation, The Cry of Jazz–a 1959 film essay on the spiritual status of blacks in America read through the structure of jazz music–was framed as a response to the consequences of racial division and oppression made clear in D.W. Griffith’s Klan-centered portrayal of post-bellum America.

Directed by composer Ed Bland, the highly stylized Cry of Jazz features a very early Sun Ra (then known as Le Sun Ra) with his Arkestra demonstrating the film’s argument: that rhythmic form and harmony in jazz are emanations of the restraint and the futureless future suffered by blacks in America, while melodic improvisation and rhythmic conflict are the joyful freedom and liberating deification of the present, which cry out despite the conditions of constraint.

The film, as you can watch in four parts below, famously ends with the controversial claim that jazz, like the ‘negro’ in America, is dead. Filmed at the cusp of post-bop, the film’s conclusion cannot account for the explosion of post-bop, modal jazz and free jazz (not to mention the funk, soul, samba, etc. of the coming decades). And it is worth noting that John Gilmore, saxophonologist for the Arkestra, was giving Coltrane informal lessons around the time of the filming, in the late 50s. And in addition to this, around the time this film was made, Sunny Ra pulled his ‘going electric,’ recording “India” on the album Super-Sonic Jazz–introducing the electric keyboard (a Wurlitzer) to jazz music. Perhaps every faithful congregation needs an occasional theothanatosy to remind them whose job it is to keep the heavenly creature alive.
Debuting April 3-9, 1959, in Chicago, the film is being screened April 9, 2010, at the Orphan Film Symposium put on by the Tisch School of Arts in New York City. Register now, their website warns, Seating Is Limited!

Whether you buy into the larger argument or not (that is: repeated concatenating chord sequences like the chains of enslavement, with bursts of improvisation a kind of cry from the field), the foreground of the vivid present, the image of man peculiarly sensitive to that present, and the liberating energy of the polymetric conflict between the strength and length of musical stresses in response to that sensitivity, are observations relevant to any outlook on creativity in today’s world, especially (it seems to me) to the poet’s.

Maria Bethânia “Bem de perto” documental shared in youtube by Danilo Elias (10 part doc)

shared in youtube by DANILO ELIAS

CHE GUEVARA Documentary 6 part film

EL CHE film “The Hands of Che Guevara”

http://www.thehandsofcheguevara.com/

Steppin’ Razor by Listen Clothing (inpired by Peter Tosh)

Stepping Razor Film Documentary of PETER TOSH

other 9 episodes on this link

Stussy & Dilla Estates

http://stonesthrow.com/news/2010/02/j-dilla-doc-part-1-by-stussy

The Spirit of Samba, The Black Music of Brazil

A documentary on Brazilian samba music and its effects on Brazilian culture, THE SPIRIT OF SAMBA is a rousing film that features a number of exuberant performances from some of Brazil’s greatest samba artists. Though many outside of Brazil know samba and bossa nova through the works of crossover artists such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, the music has deep roots in Brazilian culture and history, which are detailed here. From the hilltop ghettos of Rio to the African rooted region of Bahia, THE SPIRIT OF SAMBA makes a complete survey of one of Brazil’s national treasures. Features performances by Gilberto Gil and Chico Barque.

EL ACORDEON DEL DIABLO Documental, Colombia. (Francisco Rada Batista el Hombre – Pacho Rada)

http://www.acordeon.de/index_1.htm

THE MUSICIANS

Francisco Rada Batista “PACHO RADA”

Was born on May 11th 1907 in Las Mulas, on the great Magdalena river. European ships from have travelled along the river since the mid-19th century and this is where Pacho’s father bought an accordion from German sailors, becoming one of Columbia’s first accordionists.
At a party in a village nearby, young Pacho picked up his father’s accordion while no-one was looking. After trying out a few notes he produced a recognisable rendition of the melody of “La Chencha”, a tune still familiar today. His father embraced him joyfully and a few days later he was given his first accordion.
Pacho Rada was one of the first troubadours to travel around the country playing unaccompanied, with just his voice and the accordion, bearing news and making music wherever someone had something to celebrate. He dreamt up hundreds of new songs on his travels, many of which have become classics.
He is known as the man who invented “son”, one of the four Vallenato rhythms. However, Pacho was already too old by the time that musicians could get rich playing Vallenato music, when it became popular outside the province due to the marihuana boom in the seventies. At the age of 72 he became homeless once again.
His children helped him to put up a simple house on the outskirts of Santa Maria, where he still lives.
Pacho Rada has 422 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Women loved the young musician, but their parents despised him.

Pacho “Who would have wanted a penniless son-in-law, especially if he travelled around like a vagabond and spent his days enjoying music, rum and women. But they couldn’t do a thing about it. Who can stop a woman in love?”

Manuel Rada is Pacho Rada’s youngest son.

He travels around the country just like his father used to, together with his cousin, Rafael Valencia, living on whatever he can earn here and there for performing. There are no records of his music, he doesn’t appear on television but plays at parties and other festive occasions or throws an ad-hoc concert in his neighbourhood when the mood takes him.
While the means of transport that carry him may have changed since Pacho Rada’s day, Manuel has remained true to his father’s music. He plays traditional Vallenato music, with the European accordion accompanied only by the Indian guacharaca and the African caja drum. He composes original songs narrating episodes from his life.

Alfredo de Jesús Gutiérrez

Was born on April 17th 1944 in Paloquemao, Sucre. His work as a song-writer and composer gave a boost to the position of folk music in his country. He ranks among the country’s greatest musicians, thrice crowned Vallenato King, having won the competition and been voted best accordionist at the Vallenato festival held every year in Valledupar.
It was Alfredo Gutiérrez who first won international renown for his country’s music in the eighties. In the sixties he set up the legendary group “Los Corraleros de Majagual” with Calixto Ochoa and Daniel Montes, creating an international big band sound by adding electrical guitar, bass and a wind section to the traditional instruments. Over the decades Alfredo Gutiérrez honed and perfected the big band concept and has performed with his well-rehearsed team in the USA and Europe, as well as throughout Latin America.

SHIFT OF THE AGES. doc. about 2012

The Shift of the Ages film shares the Mayan Cosmo-Vision and Prophecy through the wisdom and teachings of Grandfather Cirilo Perez Oxlaj, also known as Wandering Wolf, Grand Elder of the living Maya. The film will be released in early 2010, first at film festivals, then theaters, then via DVD and digital media.

The National Counsel of Elders Mayas, Xinca and Garifuna of Guatemala has an important message for the world. Their leader, Grandfather Cirilo, the protagonist of the Shift of the Ages film, discloses previously unavailable visions, concepts and ancient prophecies.

Many people know that a grand cycle of the famous Mayan Long Count Calendar ends in the 2011-2012 timeframe, but they may be misinformed about its meaning. According to Mayan prophecy, we have entered a unique period of time during which it is both safe and necessary to share this information to the public.

The Shift of the Ages film is the first official Maya discourse to the world.

The ominous date, December 21, 2012, may not be relevant to the Mayan Calendar; this is a Gregorian Calendar date. The crucial period of their prophecy is Año Cero or Year Zero in the Sacred Mayan Calendar. The Shift of the Ages film is about the special time in which we are living and the unique transition or “shift” between epochs of creation, what they call “Suns.”

1. Why is there so much fear about December 21, 2012?
2. What are the keepers of Mayan Prophecy saying now about this epoch “shift”?
3. Why has the film crew shot over 300 hours of footage and 13,000 still photographs on five continents in remote areas rarely visited by Westerners to capture the essence of the Shift of the Ages?

Be the first to learn the answers to these and many other questions by becoming a Shift of the Ages Ambassador, and be instrumental in this monumental, evolutionary epoch of human history.

 

Quantic Y Su Combo Barbaro: TRADITION IN TRANSITION short film by B+

We are very excited to announce this short promotional tour to help launch Quantic’s amazing new album – Tradition in Transition and to screen our poetic thirty minute film A Postcard from Cali. All dates will have a screening and Quantic and B+ will dj afterwards…. (May-June 2009 Europe Release Tour)  Its gonna be fun!  MOCHILLA.COM

http://vimeo.com/4204763

Trailer from the forthcoming Mochilla/Sonido del Valle production. Shot in Cali and Buenaventura in Colombia.
Based around the music of Quantic and his Combo Barbaro from their forthcoming Tradition in Transition album on Tru Thoughts Records featuring the talents of Will Quantic, Alfredito Linares, Nidia Gongora, Freddy Colorado, Arthur Verocai, Joao Comanche Gomes and Malcolm Catto.

CLICK to visit Quantic's site

QSO is no more. Long live QCB!
Formed from the ashes of the Quantic Soul Orchestra, Quantic continues his musical explorations of the South Americas with the formation of his ‘band of Barbarians’.

On the crest of a burgeoning worldwide wave of interest in the lesser-tapped sources of music from the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa, Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro are leading the charge. The stunning album, ‘Tradition In Transition’ (out on Tru Thoughts in July), and upcoming live tour of selected spots in Europe and America throughout August and September, will see this international cast of acclaimed musical creators fusing those rediscovered psychedelic, experimental and rhythmically rich sounds of the past with deep funk and soul elements, giving life to an explosive sonic snapshot of the eclectic and ever-evolving musical landscape of the Americas.

Band leader William Holland – the English producer, musician and record collector better known as Quantic – has sold in excess of 100,000 records in his various guises, including solo projects and with his acclaimed live funk band, The Quantic Soul Orchestra. His track ‘Mi Swing Es Tropical’ with Nickodemus featured in Apple’s worldwide iPod advert throughout 2007, bringing him further to the world’s attention. In 2007 Holland moved to Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, to pursue his passion for both unearthing lost treasures from Colombia’s musical past and making new music with the golden array of talent available today. As a travelling music maker/DJ, continually searching for unconventional destinations to both find and showcase his music, Holland found it to be a rewarding move, and Colombia was to prove a perfect home-base to fuel his remarkably prolific creativity.
Since he settled in Cali, Holland has set up an analogue studio and recorded and released two albums (2007’s highly lauded ‘Tropidelico’ by The Quantic Soul Orchestra; and the debut from his tropical-dub side project Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno, in 2008) featuring some of the cream of Cali musicianship. Upon realising the potency and sheer depth of quality present in these players, Holland assembled his Combo Bárbaro (literally translating as ‘group of barbarians or people from outside Europe’) to take up the baton from The Quantic Soul Orchestra in the realisation of the next phase of his musical vision.
The stellar array of musicians at the core of the Combo Bárbaro are: pianist Alfredo Linares, who wowed the sell-out crowds with his virtuoso performances on The Quantic Soul Orchestra’s 2008 tour; Freddy Colorado, the energetic, charismatic cornerstone of the Cali music circuit, on congas; Fernando Silva on baby bass; William Holland himself on electric guitar; and London-based drummer and long time Quantic collaborator Malcolm Catto, also well known for his own band The Heliocentrics, in fine form.

‘Tradition In Transition’ also benefits incalculably from the talents of veteran Brazilian writer, arranger and musical innovator Arthur Verocai, who scored and directed a 12 piece string section on several themes. Legendary Panamanian soul singer Kabir lends his rich vocal tones to two tracks; Indian-born singer Falu, now based in the USA, brings her beguiling mix of North Indian Classical and rock-influenced vocal styles; and Pacific folklore singer and award-winning songwriter Nidia Góngora contributes her beautiful song “Un Canto A Mi Tierra”.

In crafting the sound of Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro, Holland felt it was imperative to have the core stable of musicians in the same room, creating an organic dialogue between them – a simple rule which, in an age of drum machines, samples and voice correction, is all too often overlooked. People will be instinctively drawn time and again to revisit the music made in this traditional, substantial way, undoubtedly because strange, unexpected things take place, musicians improvise and exciting musical statements are made, and this was the environment needed for the recording of ‘Tradition In Transition’. The result is a multi-cultural patchwork – a record bathed but not exclusively rooted in Colombian musical culture, embracing the musical range of all the American continent – honouring and utilising its contributors’ individual backgrounds while conjuring up a unique brand of contemporary music that is a joy and a celebration to listen to, and a live experience that defies comparison.

FUTUREBOOGIE.COM