A friend had sent me an article – an excerpt really – from 1997 called “Prehistory of Jazz”, from Ted Gioia’s book ‘The History of Jazz‘. Gioa is an editor/writer of the fantastic site Jazz.com (also the site’s blog) .Check out a piece he put together – A History of New Orleans Music in 100 Tracks“)

One thing led to another and I stumbled into an interview with Pat Martino at the Museum of Jazz in Harlem’s video section. On a side note, the Museum should be on Twitter. While watching the interview, noticed a related video titled ‘Martino Unstrung.’ Whoa, what is that! Turns out there’s a documentary by Ian Knox about Martino’s battle with amnesia, losing the ability to play and making a remarkable recovery.

I had the great opportunity to go to a screening of ‘It Might Get Loud’ a week and a half ago. I was to hold my review till the movie releases. No problem. Never mind that some mainstream mags and blogs get to publish theirs whenever they feel like. And never mind that some of those ‘reviews’ I’ve seen so far are as retarded as if I’d attempted to write healthcare reform policies for the government. It’s amazing how publications can get away saying almost nothing about a film and call it a review.

Eh.

So what is ‘It Might Get Loud’ a documentary about? Producer Thomas Tull summed it up best in a Q&A:

“Honestly, I made this film for people like me, people who love music and the experience of a live show. When you love a band or a musician you want to know how and why they do what they do – what makes them tick.”

Amen. This is not a film about the history of the electric guitar as some early retarded reviews may have suggested. This is not a theatrical version of ‘Classic Albums’ or ‘Behind the Music.’ What we see is three guitar players reveal their musical DNA, if you will, to us and to each other as they sit across from one another for the first time. I’ll be honest with you, without Jack White, this film doesn’t work. He is the glue that makes it all stick. From the moment I saw Jack White, age present, and Jack White, age 9, driving down the road I knew I’d be in for a, um, ride.

All three came to pick up the guitar under different circumstances, for different reasons, in different parts of the world, and they all struggled to find what to say with it, how to say it, and where to find the sound. The film lets the guys remember it, show it, perform it. You do get to see what makes them, as Tull put it, tick.

It’s a beautiful film. If you love guitar and guitar films, as I do, you’ll love this film. Just don’t go expecting earth-shattering revelations. And if you don’t like the movie, your keyboard playing sucks balls too!

Noticed tons of searches on ‘Jimmy Page’ landing on my post about the movie from a year ago.  It’s ripe time I updated that. The movie is finally coming out August 14th in LA/NYC with other city release dates scheduled here.

I don’t know about you, I love what the trailer is promising and can’t wait to see the movie. Tip: Don’t skip the Pres Kit section at the site, there’s a Q&A with Producer Thomas Tull and producer/director Davis Guggenheim along with some background and details of the film.

Mass Animation‘s short ‘Live Music’ goes beyond a community project, and signals a wave of future movie projects. Character of Riff, the electric guitar, played by none other than Steve Vai.

Music, film, and photography revolves around me like the moon around the earth. Without them, I’m just another planet. Every chance I get, I try to look up to them and seek comfort from them because…they make me look better than I am. As this blog evolves, you’ll see a lot of that being incorporated.

Meanwhile, let’s check out the work of Rob Sheridan who’s doing exactly what I hope to, and does it well. Sheridan is a designer, photographer, filmmaker hired by NIN back when he was 19. I’ve been salivating over the new Canon EOS 5D MK II since it came out end of last year. I want it. Bad.

This is just an example of what this new camera is able to do, bring music, film, and photography via one portal and make storytelling the king. Amazing, isn’t it! Rob has been putting this camera to excellent use during this particular phase of the NIN tour, in Australia. Check out the videos he’s shot over the past month with the 5D MK II.

If you fused Albert Maysles and Cartier-Bresson into one person, he’d pick this camera.

NIN Sydney 2.24.09 – Mid-show Power Outage [HD]

Stumbled into this almost immediately when I started to look for this Tuesday’s regular N-GD. It follows yesterday’s post about sync perfectly. The video page apparently  links to the filmmakers’s blog. Can’t tell. The short itself is almost 8 years old.

Enjoy.

Other dosages.

One of Sean Penn’s best screen performances, if not the best. This film brought me back to re-discover Django Reinhardt, and Woody Allen. I’ve never recovered. That’s a good thing.

Was living in Queens, not so far from the Kaufman Astoria theaters. Matinee. Don’t remember if I’d planned to watch it after Penn’s Oscar nomination, or before.

Also remember watching Harry Potter at this theater, last year with someone. Had Cuban food nearby. Then coffee a little closer. Will never forget that.

Hmm…kind of had forgotten about this last bit until now. Funny though…since I identified with Emmet Ray’s character but never thought this post would make me connect the two very different episodes. Keyword here: loss.

Anyway…here goes.

Note: Conclusion of Yossi Fine interview Monday 20th, with pictures and another video.

A little time travel here. Just wanted to bring you some of the posts I’ve enjoyed from my ‘early’ days. Let’s start with 5.

1. My first guitar post. Of course it would be Ritchie Blackmore.

2. Jerry’s Reed Played by Two Guys on One Guitar; got over 5mill. plays on YouTube.

3. When I’d ‘dropped by’ Nashville last year I took some photos near the Ryman Auditorium and inside a Gibson Guitars store next to the new Grand Ole Opry. I’d like to go back very much.

4. Trailer of the upcoming Hank Garland biopic Crazy. Can’t wait to see it. Looks good.

5. A post on guitar in Bollywood music, the Burman clan, and links to chord sites and such.

Update: Oct 12: Watch the Letterman performance.

Reed will be performing a song from Berlin, Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse – a film by Julian Schnabel – on Letterman this coming Friday, October 10th. This is how you usually get tickets to Letterman. But if you got connections like Wall Street, and not Main Street, I’m sure you’ll find your way in there.

Anything Schnabel makes, I’ll watch. His last film had a huge impact on me. St. Ann’s Warehouse is a very cool place. If you’re ever there, walk up a few feet and check out Jane’s Carousel.

Check out a track from the album on Reed’s MySpace page and links to iTunes download.

Here. Interview.

Remember how I was saying the two guitarists brought their own personalities into the concert? Well, style is a much better word.

Without overwhelming you with two documentaries in one post, I’ll just start with Lagrene’s doc. It’s in French with no subtitles. But the music makes up for it. A clip of Jaco Pastorius playing is always a good thing.