Jim Beard, a pianist, keyboardist, composer, producer and arranger known for his work with Steely Dan as well as jazz musicians Wayne Shorter and John McLaughlin, died March 2 in a New York City hospital from complications of a sudden illness. He was 63.
His death was announced by a representative.
Born August 26, 1960, in Ridley Park, Pa, Beard moved to New York in 1985, launching a career that saw him perform with Steely Dan, McLaughlin, Shorter and Pat Metheny.
A member of Steely Dan since 2008, Beard until had been touring with the band as openers on the Eagles’ Long Goodbye Tour. His last performance with Steely Dan was on January 20 in Phoenix.
Beard also recorded with artists including Dizzy Gillespie, the Brecker Brothers, Dianne Reeves, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toninho Horta and Steve Vai.
Beard has more than 100 published compositions featured on recordings by John McLaughlin, Michael Brecker and many others and in books such as The New Real Book.
His death was announced by a representative.
Born August 26, 1960, in Ridley Park, Pa, Beard moved to New York in 1985, launching a career that saw him perform with Steely Dan, McLaughlin, Shorter and Pat Metheny.
A member of Steely Dan since 2008, Beard until had been touring with the band as openers on the Eagles’ Long Goodbye Tour. His last performance with Steely Dan was on January 20 in Phoenix.
Beard also recorded with artists including Dizzy Gillespie, the Brecker Brothers, Dianne Reeves, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toninho Horta and Steve Vai.
Beard has more than 100 published compositions featured on recordings by John McLaughlin, Michael Brecker and many others and in books such as The New Real Book.
- 3/6/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Not many directors would choose an apocalyptic sci-fi romance spanning several filmmaking disciplines for their feature debut, but Sam and Andy Zuchero wouldn’t have it any other way when it comes to “Love Me.” The film, which will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this week, stars Oscar-nominated duo Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun as a buoy and a satellite falling in love a billion years after humans have gone extinct.
Speaking exclusively to Variety, the married filmmaking team say they first thought of the idea for “Love Me” back in 2019, and shortly after the global pandemic had them ruminating on themes of isolation and human connection.
“We thought that the idea of a buoy and a satellite, the two furthest things from each other, having a conversation was really funny,” Sam says when asked about the seeds of the project. “Then we read Ray Kurzweil...
Speaking exclusively to Variety, the married filmmaking team say they first thought of the idea for “Love Me” back in 2019, and shortly after the global pandemic had them ruminating on themes of isolation and human connection.
“We thought that the idea of a buoy and a satellite, the two furthest things from each other, having a conversation was really funny,” Sam says when asked about the seeds of the project. “Then we read Ray Kurzweil...
- 1/19/2024
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
New York, NY– The Paul Taylor Dance Company’s 2023 Season at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, from October 31 through November 12, will include fourteen dances by five choreographers – Ulysses Dove, Amy Hall Garner, Larry Keigwin, Lauren Lovette, and Paul Taylor – and feature world premieres by Lovette, Ptdc’s Resident Choreographer, and Keigwin, Taylor Company Commissioned choreographer. Music on all programs will be performed live by Orchestra of St. Luke’s (Osl), conducted by Taylor Music Director David Lamarche and Tara Simoncic. Ticket prices for the 2023 Season start at $15 and go on sale September 13. Tickets are available at www.boxoffice.dance.
Continuing his mission to build a repertory for the 21st Century, Artistic Director Michael Novak will present four works by three of today’s leading dance makers.
· Lauren Lovette will be represented by two new works. Dreamachine, set to Michael Daugherty’s percussion suite of that name, will have its New York premiere.
Continuing his mission to build a repertory for the 21st Century, Artistic Director Michael Novak will present four works by three of today’s leading dance makers.
· Lauren Lovette will be represented by two new works. Dreamachine, set to Michael Daugherty’s percussion suite of that name, will have its New York premiere.
- 10/18/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
¿Qué hace un artista tan grande como Bad Bunny — el artista más reproducido en el mundo durante los últimos tres años — para seguir un álbum como el aclamado Un Verano Sin Ti? ¿Cómo navegar el peligro de que sus oyentes sientan que está cerca de agotarse creativamente?
Recordándoles por qué se enamoraron de él cuando comenzó.
El jueves por la noche, Bad Bunny convocó a 16,000 de sus fieles seguidores en el Coliseo José Miguel Agrelot de San Juan para lo que se anunció como una “fiesta de escucha” de su nuevo álbum,...
Recordándoles por qué se enamoraron de él cuando comenzó.
El jueves por la noche, Bad Bunny convocó a 16,000 de sus fieles seguidores en el Coliseo José Miguel Agrelot de San Juan para lo que se anunció como una “fiesta de escucha” de su nuevo álbum,...
- 10/13/2023
- by Juan J. Arroyo
- Rollingstone.com
What does an artist as big as Bad Bunny — the most streamed artist in the world for multiple years — do to follow up an album like last summer’s acclaimed Un Verano Sin Ti? How does he navigate the danger of listeners feeling like he’s close to hitting a creative wall?
By reminding them why they fell in love with him to begin with.
On Thursday night, Bad Bunny convened 16,000 of his loyal fans at San Juan’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum for what was billed as a ”listening...
By reminding them why they fell in love with him to begin with.
On Thursday night, Bad Bunny convened 16,000 of his loyal fans at San Juan’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum for what was billed as a ”listening...
- 10/13/2023
- by Juan J. Arroyo
- Rollingstone.com
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics releases the film in select theaters on Friday, November 24, with a nationwide rollout to follow in early 2024.
The one thing you can’t accuse “They Shot the Piano Player” of is talking down to its audience. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated documentary about the 1976 disappearance of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. demands your absolute attention with its encyclopedic index of talking heads, and pretty much requires you to have substantial existing knowledge of bossa nova and the South American geopolitics of the 1960s and ’70s. Woe to those who do not. The result is an aggravating missed opportunity to tell a story that absolutely needs to be told to an audience that needs to hear it.
Trueba is a legendary director in Spain. Those who don’t know him for his 1992 Academy...
The one thing you can’t accuse “They Shot the Piano Player” of is talking down to its audience. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated documentary about the 1976 disappearance of pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr. demands your absolute attention with its encyclopedic index of talking heads, and pretty much requires you to have substantial existing knowledge of bossa nova and the South American geopolitics of the 1960s and ’70s. Woe to those who do not. The result is an aggravating missed opportunity to tell a story that absolutely needs to be told to an audience that needs to hear it.
Trueba is a legendary director in Spain. Those who don’t know him for his 1992 Academy...
- 9/14/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
The world is mourning an entertainment legend.
On Friday, iconic pop vocalist Tony Bennett, whose career spanned an incredible nine decades, died at age 96. Bennett’s publicist, Sylvia Weiner, confirmed the news of his death in a statement to Et.
According to the statement, Bennett often said in later life that he hoped to be remembered “as a nice person.”
In a post on Bennett’s official Instagram account, it was revealed that the legendary singer spent his final days doing what he loved.
“Tony left us today but he was still singing the other day at his piano and his last song was, ‘Because of You,’ his first #1 hit,” read the caption, alongside a black and white image of the singer in his youth. “Tony, because of you we have your songs in our heart forever. ”
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On Friday, iconic pop vocalist Tony Bennett, whose career spanned an incredible nine decades, died at age 96. Bennett’s publicist, Sylvia Weiner, confirmed the news of his death in a statement to Et.
According to the statement, Bennett often said in later life that he hoped to be remembered “as a nice person.”
In a post on Bennett’s official Instagram account, it was revealed that the legendary singer spent his final days doing what he loved.
“Tony left us today but he was still singing the other day at his piano and his last song was, ‘Because of You,’ his first #1 hit,” read the caption, alongside a black and white image of the singer in his youth. “Tony, because of you we have your songs in our heart forever. ”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Tony Bennett (@itstonybennett)
Read...
- 7/21/2023
- by Corey Atad
- ET Canada
Sad news hit this morning that Tony Bennett has died following a long battle with Alzheimer’s. The legendary crooner had one of the longest careers in the history of popular music. His debut LP, Because of You, landed in 1952, and he worked steadily in the studio and on the road until 2021.
Fans who came of age in the Fifties will likely remember early hits like “Cold, Cold Heart,” ” Rags to Riches,” and “Strangers in Paradise.” Children of the Sixties are more likely to think of songs like “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,...
Fans who came of age in the Fifties will likely remember early hits like “Cold, Cold Heart,” ” Rags to Riches,” and “Strangers in Paradise.” Children of the Sixties are more likely to think of songs like “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,...
- 7/21/2023
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
The sovereign citizen movement in the United States is one of the more ridiculous conspiracy-theory-driven notions to come down the pike during this (thus far) very absurd century. Adherents claim that while they were born in the U.S., they are subject only to their hilariously selective reading of common law. This, of course, exempts them from such civic necessities as paying taxes and registering their cars. How does this work out for them? They get arrested and go to jail, where they fulminate to anyone who will listen via ludicrously overwrought manifestos.
Most sovereign citizens are relatively harmless, but they do tend to be gun fanatics, and, on occasion, they take up arms against people charged with enforcing the laws they wrongly believe do not apply to them. One such incident went down on May 10, 2010. When Jerry Kane Jr. and his 16-year-old son Joe were pulled over by West Memphis,...
Most sovereign citizens are relatively harmless, but they do tend to be gun fanatics, and, on occasion, they take up arms against people charged with enforcing the laws they wrongly believe do not apply to them. One such incident went down on May 10, 2010. When Jerry Kane Jr. and his 16-year-old son Joe were pulled over by West Memphis,...
- 5/27/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Glendining was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2020.
Conic has acquired all UK-Ireland distribution rights to Ella Glendining’s documentary Is There Anybody Out There?.
The Glasgow-based distributor is planning a theatrical release for autumn 2023, having bought the title from sales agent Autlook.
Is There Anybody Out There? premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival in January, going on to play SXSW, Thessaloniki, Cph:Dox and HotDocs.
The film follows filmmaker Glendining’s search for someone with a body that looks like hers, and explores what it takes to love yourself fiercely as a disabled person in an ableist world.
Conic has acquired all UK-Ireland distribution rights to Ella Glendining’s documentary Is There Anybody Out There?.
The Glasgow-based distributor is planning a theatrical release for autumn 2023, having bought the title from sales agent Autlook.
Is There Anybody Out There? premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival in January, going on to play SXSW, Thessaloniki, Cph:Dox and HotDocs.
The film follows filmmaker Glendining’s search for someone with a body that looks like hers, and explores what it takes to love yourself fiercely as a disabled person in an ableist world.
- 5/9/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
As if we needed another reason to like Keanu Reeves, the John Wick star has revealed his fandom for the Canadian indie pop group Alvvays.
“I like me a good pop song, and I like me a kind of inventiveness in it,” Reeves said in a recent interview with NME. “I think the lead singer [Molly Rankin], she’s great, and the textures of it.”
When asked about what he’s been listening to lately, Reeves mentioned the band’s 2022 release Blue Rev, which we named one of our Top 50 Albums of last year. Though he owns it digitally, the actor expressed a strong desire to have it “on LP.” Despite his virtual ownership, he joked about the album being his “favorite album to be.”
“Can I say that? Because I love that band,” he harped. “I mean, I love bass guitar and drums and I like their energy.” Reeves...
“I like me a good pop song, and I like me a kind of inventiveness in it,” Reeves said in a recent interview with NME. “I think the lead singer [Molly Rankin], she’s great, and the textures of it.”
When asked about what he’s been listening to lately, Reeves mentioned the band’s 2022 release Blue Rev, which we named one of our Top 50 Albums of last year. Though he owns it digitally, the actor expressed a strong desire to have it “on LP.” Despite his virtual ownership, he joked about the album being his “favorite album to be.”
“Can I say that? Because I love that band,” he harped. “I mean, I love bass guitar and drums and I like their energy.” Reeves...
- 3/29/2023
- by Cervanté Pope
- Consequence - Music
As if we needed another reason to like Keanu Reeves, the John Wick star has revealed his fandom for the Canadian indie pop group Alvvays.
“I like me a good pop song, and I like me a kind of inventiveness in it,” Reeves said in a recent interview with NME. “I think the lead singer [Molly Rankin], she’s great, and the textures of it.”
When asked about what he’s been listening to lately, Reeves mentioned the band’s 2022 release Blue Rev, which we named one of our Top 50 Albums of last year. Though he owns it digitally, the actor expressed a strong desire to have it “on LP.” Despite his virtual ownership, he joked about the album being his “favorite album to be.”
“Can I say that? Because I love that band,” he harped. “I mean, I love bass guitar and drums and I like their energy.” Reeves...
“I like me a good pop song, and I like me a kind of inventiveness in it,” Reeves said in a recent interview with NME. “I think the lead singer [Molly Rankin], she’s great, and the textures of it.”
When asked about what he’s been listening to lately, Reeves mentioned the band’s 2022 release Blue Rev, which we named one of our Top 50 Albums of last year. Though he owns it digitally, the actor expressed a strong desire to have it “on LP.” Despite his virtual ownership, he joked about the album being his “favorite album to be.”
“Can I say that? Because I love that band,” he harped. “I mean, I love bass guitar and drums and I like their energy.” Reeves...
- 3/29/2023
- by Cervanté Pope
- Consequence - Film News
Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features pianist Alan Pasqua.
When Bob Dylan entered the recording studio in early 2020 to cut his 17-minute epic “Murder Most Foul,” he could have phoned...
When Bob Dylan entered the recording studio in early 2020 to cut his 17-minute epic “Murder Most Foul,” he could have phoned...
- 1/27/2023
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Also in the works is the next feature from ’Is There Anybody Out There?’ director and Screen Star of Tomorrow Ella Glendining.
UK production outfit Hot Property Films has unveiled a bustling slate of projects with partners and talent attached including The Worst Person In The World actor Anders Danielsen Lie and producer Emily Morgan.
Hot Property Films was set up in 1995 by producer Janine Marmot and writer-director Simon Pummell. Credits include Kieran Evans’ 2014 title Kelly + Victor, for which Evans won the Bafta for outstanding debut for a British writer, director or producer.
Lie is set to star in Grant Gee...
UK production outfit Hot Property Films has unveiled a bustling slate of projects with partners and talent attached including The Worst Person In The World actor Anders Danielsen Lie and producer Emily Morgan.
Hot Property Films was set up in 1995 by producer Janine Marmot and writer-director Simon Pummell. Credits include Kieran Evans’ 2014 title Kelly + Victor, for which Evans won the Bafta for outstanding debut for a British writer, director or producer.
Lie is set to star in Grant Gee...
- 12/7/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
When the Rolling Stones’ original bassist Bill Wyman retired in 1993, it might have thrown sand into the steel wheels of the world’s preeminent rock n’ roll band. Instead, the group was able somehow to find a replacement worthy of Wyman in the fleet fingers and thumping thumb of Darryl Jones.
The acclaimed musician, who cut his chops playing with Miles Davis barely out of his teens, is the subject of the new documentary Darryl Jones: In the Blood. The film from Greenwich Entertainment, directed by Eric Hamburg, is now playing in theaters in limited release and debuted Friday on VOD platforms, including Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Darryl Jones (R) plays with the Rolling Stones
“It’s not an easy thing to replace someone who is an integral founding member of a band like the Stones,” Hamburg noted at a Q&a for the film in Santa Monica Thursday night.
The acclaimed musician, who cut his chops playing with Miles Davis barely out of his teens, is the subject of the new documentary Darryl Jones: In the Blood. The film from Greenwich Entertainment, directed by Eric Hamburg, is now playing in theaters in limited release and debuted Friday on VOD platforms, including Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Darryl Jones (R) plays with the Rolling Stones
“It’s not an easy thing to replace someone who is an integral founding member of a band like the Stones,” Hamburg noted at a Q&a for the film in Santa Monica Thursday night.
- 10/8/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Chick Corea, an American jazz pioneer, composer, keyboardist and bandleader, died Tuesday, according to a post on his Facebook page. He was 79. The Facebook statement says Corea died from “a rare form of cancer which was only discovered very recently.”
Corea was the fourth-most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys, with 65 nominations, winning 23 times. He also earned three Latin Grammy Awards, the most of any artist in the Best Instrumental Album category.
From straight-ahead to avant-garde, bebop to fusion, children’s songs to chamber music, along with some far-reaching forays into symphonic works, Corea had an astonishing number of musical bases in his illustrious career.
His compositions “Spain,” “500 Miles High,” “La Fiesta,” “Armando’s Rhumba” and “Windows” are jazz standards. He was a member of Miles Davis’ band in the late 1960s, participating in the birth of jazz fusion. Corea played on several classic Davis albums, including Bitches Brew,...
Corea was the fourth-most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys, with 65 nominations, winning 23 times. He also earned three Latin Grammy Awards, the most of any artist in the Best Instrumental Album category.
From straight-ahead to avant-garde, bebop to fusion, children’s songs to chamber music, along with some far-reaching forays into symphonic works, Corea had an astonishing number of musical bases in his illustrious career.
His compositions “Spain,” “500 Miles High,” “La Fiesta,” “Armando’s Rhumba” and “Windows” are jazz standards. He was a member of Miles Davis’ band in the late 1960s, participating in the birth of jazz fusion. Corea played on several classic Davis albums, including Bitches Brew,...
- 2/11/2021
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
Gwyneth Paltrow is celebrating someone special this week: her mom! As is likely no secret to fans, the Goop founder hails from another very famous woman—Blythe Danner. The Emmy-winning actress, famous for work like Meet the Parents, Huff and Will & Grace, celebrated her 78th birthday on Wednesday, Feb. 3. Of course, the occasion did not pass without a tribute from her firstborn. "This beautiful creature fills our hearts with so much warmth," Gwyneth wrote on Instagram. "She gets words and names mixed up in the most hilarious and unique of ways. She is full of life and incredibly strong. She loves her grandchildren more than anything in the world. She loves Bill Evans, eating...
- 2/4/2021
- E! Online
When we talk about rock, we talk about bands: Zeppelin, the Who, the Stones. But when we talk about jazz, we tend to talk about individuals: Miles, Monk, Coltrane. On some level, that makes sense: If the song is the primary mode of rock expression, the solo is generally the way you make your mark in jazz. Whether you’re considering Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, or the colossal, now-retired Sonny Rollins, it was when they stepped out front and said their piece that they truly embodied their legendary status.
- 3/7/2020
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Returning to Broadway, Harry Connick Jr. chooses his muse wisely and well, taking the stage in an attractively modern, multi-media setting to celebrate that most sophisticated of the American songbook’s founders, Cole Porter.
At its frequent best, Harry Connick Jr.: A Celebration of Cole Porter, opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre, pairs Porter’s songwriting genius with Connick’s superb musicianship, supple, ear-pleasing vocals and a brash confidence that pushes the music from the comfort of classic pop into bolder, jazzier terrain. Connick, with his years on American Idol, movie screens and concert stages, is certainly the most popular interpreter of American standards, and he takes fine advantage of that good will, unafraid to slip in an occasional dissonance or to slow down a vocal like a train creeping to its halt. Where Connick leads, his audience knows to follow.
It helps, of course, to entice with some...
At its frequent best, Harry Connick Jr.: A Celebration of Cole Porter, opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre, pairs Porter’s songwriting genius with Connick’s superb musicianship, supple, ear-pleasing vocals and a brash confidence that pushes the music from the comfort of classic pop into bolder, jazzier terrain. Connick, with his years on American Idol, movie screens and concert stages, is certainly the most popular interpreter of American standards, and he takes fine advantage of that good will, unafraid to slip in an occasional dissonance or to slow down a vocal like a train creeping to its halt. Where Connick leads, his audience knows to follow.
It helps, of course, to entice with some...
- 12/13/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s hard to imagine that there could be a better-looking movie at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival than John Crowley’s adaptation of Donna Tartt’s bestselling novel “The Goldfinch.” And that makes the many areas in which the film falls short all the more frustrating.
A high-toned adaptation of the novel from Crowley, the Irish director responsible for the Oscar Best Picture nominee “Brooklyn,” “The Goldfinch” is less straightforward than the novel, jumping back and forth in time, but it also feels far more conventional. Where Crowley’s previous film was an understated gem that captured the gentle poetry of Colm Toibin’s novel, his new one is bigger, bolder and more earthbound.
The bigness and boldness are of necessity. “The Goldfinch,” which had its world premiere this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a coming-of-age story of a young boy whose mother is...
A high-toned adaptation of the novel from Crowley, the Irish director responsible for the Oscar Best Picture nominee “Brooklyn,” “The Goldfinch” is less straightforward than the novel, jumping back and forth in time, but it also feels far more conventional. Where Crowley’s previous film was an understated gem that captured the gentle poetry of Colm Toibin’s novel, his new one is bigger, bolder and more earthbound.
The bigness and boldness are of necessity. “The Goldfinch,” which had its world premiere this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a coming-of-age story of a young boy whose mother is...
- 9/11/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
It’s fascinating to watch mainstream audiences fall in love with Jon Batiste on a nightly basis as the bandleader of “The Late Show.”
At 32, Stephen Colbert’s congenial foil — an adroit pianist equally agile and equally playful on melodica and organ — is known for his eclectic crossover compositions which juxtapose pop, gospel and the R&b of his Louisiana youth with an adventurously spritely and subtly avant-garde brand of sonorous jazz.
It is the latter, something Batiste calls “melodious atonality,” that flows through his newest album, “Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard.” Recorded during a six-night Vanguard residency in the fall of 2018, “Anatomy of Angels” has Batiste summoning the ghosts of heroes and old friends (friend-trumpeter Roy Hargrove who passed last autumn) with no edits or retakes. “It’s a snapshot of live art,” said Batiste.
Variety caught up with Batiste on a humid July afternoon in Manhattan.
At 32, Stephen Colbert’s congenial foil — an adroit pianist equally agile and equally playful on melodica and organ — is known for his eclectic crossover compositions which juxtapose pop, gospel and the R&b of his Louisiana youth with an adventurously spritely and subtly avant-garde brand of sonorous jazz.
It is the latter, something Batiste calls “melodious atonality,” that flows through his newest album, “Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard.” Recorded during a six-night Vanguard residency in the fall of 2018, “Anatomy of Angels” has Batiste summoning the ghosts of heroes and old friends (friend-trumpeter Roy Hargrove who passed last autumn) with no edits or retakes. “It’s a snapshot of live art,” said Batiste.
Variety caught up with Batiste on a humid July afternoon in Manhattan.
- 8/2/2019
- by A.D. Amorosi
- Variety Film + TV
A change of outfit can do wonders for one’s outlook on life. Just ask Robert Ellis. Never one to be bashful about the pleasures of a good suit — witness his specially made space cowboy threads from recent years — he wears that flair firmly on the sleeve of his new LP, Texas Piano Man. Donning a sharp white tuxedo that gleams like a blank slate against the blue skies and rolling hills of Marfa, Texas, it’s a turn that Ellis comes by honestly.
“This idea of the ‘Texas Piano Man,...
“This idea of the ‘Texas Piano Man,...
- 2/13/2019
- by Jeff Gage
- Rollingstone.com
Michel Legrand, who died in Paris Saturday at the age of 86, was among the most renowned film composers and songwriters of our time. He won three Oscars and five Grammys, and many of his songs have entered the pantheon as among the greatest of the 20th century. Here are 10 great film music moments from the career of this French genius:
1. “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964). The close collaboration of Legrand and filmmaker Jacques Demy produced this stunning, all-sung romantic drama about a star-crossed couple. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and ultimately earned five Oscar nominations (three of them for the score). “I Will Wait for You” was the biggest song hit that emerged and quickly became a standard:
2. “The Young Girls of Rochefort” (1967). Legrand and Demy reunited for this splashy, colorful musical that added Americans Gene Kelly and George Chakiris to the usual French cast. The tuneful score...
1. “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964). The close collaboration of Legrand and filmmaker Jacques Demy produced this stunning, all-sung romantic drama about a star-crossed couple. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and ultimately earned five Oscar nominations (three of them for the score). “I Will Wait for You” was the biggest song hit that emerged and quickly became a standard:
2. “The Young Girls of Rochefort” (1967). Legrand and Demy reunited for this splashy, colorful musical that added Americans Gene Kelly and George Chakiris to the usual French cast. The tuneful score...
- 1/27/2019
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Michel Legrand, composer of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Yentl and The Thomas Crown Affair, died Saturday at the age of 86.
Legrand’s death was first reported by Agence France-Presse. The songwriter’s publicist also confirmed Legrand’s death to Variety, adding that he died early Saturday at his Paris home with his wife, French actress Macha Meril, by his side. His cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Former and current presidents of the Cannes Film Festival Gilles Jacob and Pierre Lescure expressed their condolences to the Paris-born legend on Twitter.
Legrand’s death was first reported by Agence France-Presse. The songwriter’s publicist also confirmed Legrand’s death to Variety, adding that he died early Saturday at his Paris home with his wife, French actress Macha Meril, by his side. His cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Former and current presidents of the Cannes Film Festival Gilles Jacob and Pierre Lescure expressed their condolences to the Paris-born legend on Twitter.
- 1/26/2019
- by Ilana Kaplan
- Rollingstone.com
The lights on Broadway dimmed tonight for a minute as a tribute to playwright Neil Simon, who died Sunday at age 91.
Simon, the creator of Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple and so many other Broadway staples, was remembered earlier in the afternoon by a gathering of friends and family at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. Attendees included Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (who appeared in The Odd Couple), Christine Baranski, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marsha Mason, Stockard Channing and Elizabeth Ashley. Speakers included longtime Simon publicist Bill Evans and Simon daughters Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.
After the service on the Upper East Side, the attendees went to Sardi’s, the eatery where tradition dictates you go to read the first reviews of your play.
The party was briefly interrupted at 6:30 p.m. Et, as guests went outside to see the theater district’s marquee lights going dark.
Simon, the creator of Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple and so many other Broadway staples, was remembered earlier in the afternoon by a gathering of friends and family at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. Attendees included Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (who appeared in The Odd Couple), Christine Baranski, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marsha Mason, Stockard Channing and Elizabeth Ashley. Speakers included longtime Simon publicist Bill Evans and Simon daughters Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.
After the service on the Upper East Side, the attendees went to Sardi’s, the eatery where tradition dictates you go to read the first reviews of your play.
The party was briefly interrupted at 6:30 p.m. Et, as guests went outside to see the theater district’s marquee lights going dark.
- 8/31/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Bill Evans served as publicist for Neil Simon, who died Sunday at 91, for three decades. Simon’s longtime friend and associate, who is director of media relations for the Shubert Organization, told Variety he is “very emotional right now, but very grateful to be part of his life.”
Simon took a chance on hiring Evans as he was getting his start in the business in 1976, working on “California Suite,” and they continued working together up until 2006, on some 20 plays.
But Evans wasn’t just Simon’s friend and publicist — in 2004, he donated a kidney to Simon, who was very ill with kidney failure. Doctors said a transplant could possibly end up giving him 10 more years of life, and Simon lived for 14 more years.
“It was an honor to contribute” to someone of Simon’s stature, said Evans, who calls himself “a supporting actor” in Simon’s life.
The New York Times...
Simon took a chance on hiring Evans as he was getting his start in the business in 1976, working on “California Suite,” and they continued working together up until 2006, on some 20 plays.
But Evans wasn’t just Simon’s friend and publicist — in 2004, he donated a kidney to Simon, who was very ill with kidney failure. Doctors said a transplant could possibly end up giving him 10 more years of life, and Simon lived for 14 more years.
“It was an honor to contribute” to someone of Simon’s stature, said Evans, who calls himself “a supporting actor” in Simon’s life.
The New York Times...
- 8/26/2018
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Neil Simon, one of the most prolific playwrights in American history, has died ... TMZ has learned. Sources tell TMZ, Simon died Sunday morning at 1 Am Et after being on life support. We're told he had a failing kidney and also Alzheimer's and dementia. A rep said Simon died as a result of complications from pneumonia. Simon had a kidney transplant in 2004 and the donor was his longtime friend and publicist Bill Evans. Simon's first big...
- 8/26/2018
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
For devotees of John Coltrane, whose adoration of the late, pathfinding saxophonist borders on the religious, 2018 has been a banner year.
In March, Sony Legacy released a four-cd set of Coltrane’s 1960 European live performances with trumpeter Miles Davis, with whom he had famously worked on and off since the mid-‘50s. The collection – the first legit issue of material previously available only in gray-market packages – compiled concert dates on which Trane upstaged his boss with boundary-pushing, screaming playing that drew cheers and catcalls in equal measure.
The import of those exciting sides is superseded this week with the materialization of an unexpected and thrilling treasure, finally unburied: a never-before-released session featuring Coltrane in the full flush of his solo fame, with his “classic quartet” of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones.
Titled “Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album,” the set released by Impulse!/Verve...
In March, Sony Legacy released a four-cd set of Coltrane’s 1960 European live performances with trumpeter Miles Davis, with whom he had famously worked on and off since the mid-‘50s. The collection – the first legit issue of material previously available only in gray-market packages – compiled concert dates on which Trane upstaged his boss with boundary-pushing, screaming playing that drew cheers and catcalls in equal measure.
The import of those exciting sides is superseded this week with the materialization of an unexpected and thrilling treasure, finally unburied: a never-before-released session featuring Coltrane in the full flush of his solo fame, with his “classic quartet” of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones.
Titled “Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album,” the set released by Impulse!/Verve...
- 6/29/2018
- by Chris Morris
- Variety Film + TV
Every American generation has its own crop of white boys who, having fallen in love with jazz, look around them and ask, "Do I have any right to the sense of belonging I feel with this music?" Some turn this anxiety into self-righteous preservationism (see Ryan Gosling's character scolding black musicians about authenticity in La La Land); some discover the white musicians who earned black peers' praise (Bix Beiderbecke, Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans, et al) and feel less threatened; some conclude, correctly, that any person who is moved by music is entitled to that enjoyment, and entitled to make it...
- 4/9/2018
- by John DeFore
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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