Carl Gardner of The Coasters Is Gone

Carl Gardner is on the left.

Move the mouse to the Guardian obit.

Visit The Prof's other blog, Nipper and Me for some toonz.

Gunnar Fischer 1910-2011

Ingmar Bergman and Gunnar Fischer

Read the details at MUBI and follow those links.



The Seventh Seal

Summer Interlude

The Magician

Wild Strawberries





Reading Giddins "Avidly, Avidly"

The Prof eagerly peeled off the shrink-wrap and admired the packaging for the new Criterion DVD of Sweet Smell of Success, relishing the thought of the feast to come: the film restored with a commentary track, and a whole disc of extras including a full length documentary on director Alexander Mackendrick.  But it turned out the booklet that comes with the film was no mere appetizer--it was a banquet unto itself.  (Yeah, the Prof just said "unto."  Don't get shirty.)  The best thing in the very packed booklet is Gary Giddins' essay which weaves together the historical details and an appreciation of the contributions of Tony Curits, cinematographer James Wong Howe, story writer Ernest Lehman, and screenplay writer Clifford Odets.  Giddins also surveys earlier and later films with similar themes and styles, and does some literary detective work linking the film with The Great Gatsby.  It's beautifully written.  Go read it at Criterion's site.

Whew!  And the Prof learned by accident while linking you, fair reader, to the site that Criterion has just released the elusive Kon Ichikawa masterpiece The Makioka Sisters at what is, for Criterion, a bargain price.  More on that and Ray's Jalsaghar (The Music Room) as the Prof gets his sweaty mitts on them.

RIP Remmy Ongala

An obituary from The Guardian here.
 
Here's a mixtape from his three best albums and his AIDS PSA "Things with Socks"  (condoms, get it?) that was banned from Tanzanian radio and became a hit nonetheless.  (Check track 6.)

REMMY ONGALA MIXTAPE

Music Playlist at MixPod.com>

Here's a video of The Doctor performing in 1988:

In Memoriam Tony Moore

Tony in a recent photo with the text book he so lovingly crafted for the course he created.

I spent most of the day yesterday with my friends Brenda and Brian, children of my dear friend Tony Moore, who passed away this week.  (Details in The Courier-Post article here.  An earlier profile from October here.)
Aside from being a dynamite teacher, a gentle man, and a novelist, Tony was also one of the most fanatical devotees of recorded music.  (If The Prof said the man had an enormous music collection, you know what that means.)  We searched throughout his recordings for sounds that meant something special for his memorial service.  Brenda remembered a passage from his novel No Second Eden in which the protagonist hears a bluesman sing the great spiritual "You Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley."  She quickly located this version by Mississippi John Hurt:



Click on the thumbnail below for the audio version:

Playing Around with the New Player

Create a MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com


Testing the new widget.

Dan Levinson and Mark Shane with Molly Ryan at Mt. Laurel Free Public Library

Twelfth Day of Christmas: A Jingle Jammin' Bonus

Just in time for the 6th, an epiphany--a song I'd never heard and added to the latest Christmas mix (vol. 52).  Enjoy!

A Trio of Cinematic Obits

Hideko Takamine.  Read about Naruse's muse at the Daily Notebook on Mubi, and don't foget to take the link to see the Siren's tribute.

Pete Postlethwaite.  Notice in The Guardian here.

Per Oscarsson.  Mike Sragow's appreciation at his blog here.


UPDATE:  ANOTHER FILM DEATH.  Word has just reached the prof that Ann Francis has died.  Details later...

Prof, Interrupted

Technical difficulties, personal entanglemnets, professional responsibilities--most have been solved. So the prof will be back in effect mode forthwith (especially now that his computer "issues" have been resolved). So many artists to whom we must bid adieu...

Happy 200th Birthday, Robert Schumann

Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby, House Concert, Media, PA 6/6/10

Stan Getz and Kenny Barron: "People Time" revisited and expanded

A great record has become greater now that we have all the concert recordings.

Read the review by Francis Davis in The Voice.

Dan Levinson and Molly Ryan with Fete Manouche Celebrate the Django Centennial

Brooklawn, NJ, May 23, 2010.

Christgau on Teachout on Armstrong

The dean on the recent biography and on the significance of Gatemouth the Magnificent here.

Hank Jones has died

A poet of the keyboard, with an inimitable touch, and what Giddins calls "a regal but nimble bearing." For early piano solos try the twofer that contains "The Talented Touch" and "Porgy and Bess." For tasty piano duets find "Our Delights" with the sympatico Tommy Flanagan.

Jones was a great accompanist of horns and singers as you can hear with Coleman Hawkins on "The High and Mighty Hawk" and with Ella Fitzgerald on the to-die-for "Pure Ella." Jones resurgence as an eminence gris in the last two decades meant he got a lot of opportunity to record. The recent "Kids" with Joe Lavano is bracing, but my favorite Jones is on the spirituals-only set with Charlie Haden, "Steal Away."

NYTimes obit is here.

A wonderful appreciation by Giddins in The New Yorker is here.

200th Birthday Chopin Mazurkathon!

Vladimir Sofronitsky

Andej Wasowski

Ignaz Friedman

Alexander Brailowski

Yakov Fliere

Artur Rubinstein

Fou T'song

Happy 200th, Freddy

Blog Alert: Michael Sragow at Baltimore Sun

A former student at the school where I teach, author of Victor Fleming's biography, critic for, among others, The Boston Phoenix, The New Yorker, and now The Baltimore Sun, and a Prof Pal for some time. Read his new blog at: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/blog/

RIP Alex Chilton

CHILDREN BY THE MILLONS

WAIT FOR ALEX CHILTON.

WHEN HE COMES ROUND

THEY SING "I'M IN LOVE.

"WHAT'S THAT SONG?

"I'M IN LOVE

"WITH THAT SONG."

NYTimes obit.

Appreciations: Paul Westerberg. Ann Powers.

The Irish Rep's Production of The Emperor Jones at Soho Rep

You don't need to hear ALL the details, dear readers, but the golden weekend that began with debauchery at J & R music world, continued with a twilit stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge, reached a seeming apex with the Tuli benefit, just got better and better. After a scrumptious lunch and a beer with the TA, yours professingly and Monsieur Rose made their ways to the Soho Playhouse for this performance. It is one of the five greatest theater performances I've ever been fortunate to witness.
See Ben Brantley's review.