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Clint Eastwood
Piano Blues Directed by Clint Eastwood Director and piano player Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me, Bird, Unforgiven) explores his life-long passion for piano blues, using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition to interviews and performances by such living legends as Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck and Marcia Ball. Says Eastwood: The blues has always been part of my musical life and the piano has a special place, beginning when my mother brought home all of Fats Waller's records. Also, the music has always played a part in my movies. A piano blues documentary gives me a chance to make a film that is more directly connected to the subject of the music than the features that I have been doing throughout my career. I think I liked playing the piano. Eastwood found a certain comfort at the piano, the one thing his family always took with them. His mother, who is 96-years-old, nurtured her son’s love of music. Well, Eastwood recalled, when I was 11-years old, I used to imitate records and try to bang 'em out on the piano. I drove my mother crazy, I think. ‘Cause I'd be sitting there working a riff over 20 times in a row. You taught yourself? My mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so, I was listening to records and I'd play 'em over and over. And in those days, they were ‘78s’ and vinyl. So they'd get sort of gray after a while. It's one of the oldest jokes in the book: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The answer, of course, is practice. As a jazz pianist, Clint Eastwood has taken a roundabout route to the august New York City concert hall. But when the legendary sixty-six-year-old actor/director finally took the stage at Carnegie Hall for a special musical performance the autumn of 1997, there was no question that he had earned the right to be there. Eastwood is the most secure of American icons, one who grows in stature with each new film. Eastwood has filled his films with his favorite music. Bird (1988), his sinuous biopic of saxophonist Charlie Parker, was structured like bebop - full of motifs, improvisations, and sensations. Eastwood was also a "friend" of Round Midnight (1986), Bertrand Tavernier's loving homage to bebop, and he executive produced Charlotte Zwerin's Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988).
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Jazz Lovers Series: Clint Eastwood
by Jeff Fitzgerald, Genius
It goes without saying that those who appreciate Jazz are a special lot. You will rarely find lovers of Our Music who have not managed to distinguish themselves in their chosen vocations, be it in the arts, business, the humanities, or the kid at Subway who earned Employee of the Month honors while listening to The Bad Plus and making my Cold Cut Combo exactly the way I like it. Clint Eastwood is a shining example of this ...
Continue ReadingBob Dylan, Clint Eastwood Get White House Awards
Source:
All About Jazz
President Barack Obama honored actor and director Clint Eastwood and singer Bob Dylan with arts and humanities awards Thursday. The White House called Dylan “an icon of youthful rebellion and poetic sensitivity" and said Eastwood's films and performances are “essays in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American." “Obviously, their careers have marked the landscape of American culture for decades," Obama said noting their absence from the East Room ceremony. Others who made ...
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Johnny Mercer Honored in TCM Special Executive-Produced by Clint Eastwood
Source:
All About Jazz
Turner Classic Movies to Celebrate Legendary Singer-Songwriter Johnny Mercer as Clint Eastwood Presents JOHNNY MERCER: THE DREAM'S ON ME
In-Depth, Music-Filled Portrait of Mercer to Premiere in November, Commemorating 100th Anniversary of His Birth
“Hooray for Hollywood"; “Jeepers Creepers"; “That Old Black Magic"; “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"; “Skylark"; “Blues in the Night"; “Moon River"; “The Days of Wine and Roses." Some of the most beloved songs of the 20th century came from the pen of a ...
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"Charlie O's is the Best Jazz Club in L.A." -Clint Eastwood
Source:
All About Jazz
JULY JAZZ at CHARLIE O's Charlie O's is the coolest place to be for the hottest jazz this July.
We celebrate our own John Heard’s birthday with a big celebration on the 3rd, a birthday party for Slyde Hyde on the 5th, a birthday celebration for Ron Jones on the 12th with his 22 piece Jazz Orchestra Influence and special guest Seth MacFarland, a birthday party for Plas Johnson on the 25th, a CD Release Party for Jon ...
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Clint Eastwood Gets Lifetime Palme D’Or
Source:
All About Jazz
PARIS - Clint Eastwood on Wednesday became only the second person to receive a lifetime achievement honor from the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival.
The actor/director received the honorary Palme d’Or during an intimate news conference and cocktail party at a restaurant.
“I’m very, very flattered that you’ve chosen me for this,” Eastwood said. “French cineastes have always been very supportive of me along the way. When I directed my first movie, French cineastes and critics encouraged me, while ...
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Clint Eastwood Nominated for Golden Globes Best Film Score
Source:
Michael Ricci
Clint Eastwood is riding high. Giving a first time screen writer a boost, in June green lighting Gran Torino, then beginning shooting in July. The film just released and this morning Eastwood was nominated for Best Song for the film as well as Best Original Score for his motion picture soundtrack the Changeling.
The other nominations:
ORIGINAL SCORE
Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Clint Eastwood, Changeling James Newton Howard, Defiance Hans ...
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Clint Eastwood's Grand Torino
Source:
All About Jazz
At 78, perhaps the only actor in the history of American cinema to convincingly kick the butt of a guy 60 years his junior, the hard-headed, snarly mouthed Clint Eastwood of the 1970s comes growling back to life in Gran Torino.
Centered on a cantankerous curmudgeon who can fairly be described as Archie Bunker fully loaded (with beer and guns), the actor-director's second release of the season is his most stripped-down, unadorned picture in many a year, even as it ...
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Clint Eastwood Make's His Day Keeping Jazz Alive!
Source:
All About Jazz
Last week, I happened to view for the 20th time the film “Bird." In case you have yet to see this film, it is a brief biography about one of the most prolific jazz musicians in history, Charles “Yardbird" Parker, aka “Bird." Parker's life was one of ups and downs, so I imagine it was difficult to capture it all on film. However, credit should be given to the one and only “Dirty Harry" or as he's sometimes known as ...
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Clint Eastwood and Other Illustrious Artists Honor Jazz Legend Dave Brubeck
Source:
All About Jazz
Stockton, CA - Clint Eastwood has announced that he will executive produce a Bruce Ricker documentary about jazz legend Dave Brubeck. Eastwood also said that he will chair the new honorary board formed to preserve and continue the legacy of Brubeck through the work of the Brubeck Institute at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.
“Dave Brubeck is an American legend," Eastwood said. “He is an American original who continues to make significant contributions to music, introduced a whole ...
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