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05-19-2001, 06:24 PM
| | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Still in Margaritaville | |
Sign in to disble this ad
Roeper and Ebert just awarded a very enthusiastic two thumbs up to a new movie, "Calle 54", which features the top, most revered names in Latin jazz performing in a music studio. The language is Spanish, of course, with English sub titles.
Featuring many closeups of the musicians, the movie is praised by Ebert as being even better than "Buena Vista Social Club", because it is dedicated purely to the musicians as they play and does not have the many cut aways to the personal lives of the musicians as in BVSC.
One scene from the movie shown was of Tito Puente, whom both Roeper and Ebert called Tito Fuente. The scene clearly shows Puente's trademark tongue; it also clearly reveals the passion with which he was involved with his music and the other musicians.
Anyway, because this is the Recordings folder, I checked out Amazon.com and the soundtrack is already available! It costs a cool $34.49 for one disc of sixteen songs, but I presume they are lengthy jams. Even if you don't see the movie, check out the soundtrack. It is certain to be an unforgettable tour de force. (Too, I bet this movie will not be shown in mainstream theaters, but it will be cool to get the video or DVD if and when it ever is released that way.)
If you go to Amazon.com, there is also a detailed review of the movie in which the writer heaps praises on Fernando Trueba, the director and the musicians who appear in it and the choice of Latin styles played.
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"Jazz sounds like a very good blues band that fell down a flight of stairs."
Michael Buble, Canadian standards singer |
05-20-2001, 11:03 AM
| | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Still in Margaritaville | |
What? No Latin jazz buffs here? Come on, I KNOW we have bass players here who play in Latin jazz bands. Isn't anybody at all interested in this fascinating new movie? Why does Ken Burns have to be the alpha male of jazz documentaries?
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"Jazz sounds like a very good blues band that fell down a flight of stairs."
Michael Buble, Canadian standards singer |
05-20-2001, 11:21 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland | | sure, that sounds interesting... 
but I probably won´t see it until after a long time.. if I´ll ever see it
and 35 dollars for a soundtrack?! OMG!! 
latin jazz is cool!
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05-20-2001, 12:46 PM
| | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Still in Margaritaville | | | You are right about the price. It is exhorbitant. However, as it is a collection of the top Latin jazz players today, it might be worth that, rather than spending on five or six separate CDs to hear all these musicians. "Calle 54" might serve as an excellent introduction to Latin jazz.
What I am waiting for, though, is the inevitable Ken Burns-style fallout in which Latin jazz aficionados say, "Hey, why wasn't XXXXX included? No Latin jazz collection is complete without him, etc." Or, "Why wasn't the XXXX genre included?"
The other thing I wonder is if this CD will shoot up the jazz charts like the Ken Burns collections did and are still doing after his jazz series. It might not at that price, but you never know.
__________________
"Jazz sounds like a very good blues band that fell down a flight of stairs."
Michael Buble, Canadian standards singer |
05-20-2001, 05:05 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland | | they could´ve added more artists/songs, and make it a double cd... THEN I´d think it´s a fair price...
hey.. waitamin... http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver...istID=CALLE+54
that seems more fair!
$14.49... I´m gonna go listen to some examples...
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Keep your friends close, but your enemies in the closet.
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05-22-2001, 07:28 AM
| | | | Hey Jason,
There's definitely Latin jazz buffs around. There's actually another thread going now pretty similar to yours under a heading about Anthony Jackson. Check it out. Someone was talking about seeing Michel Camilo in NY last week and "Calle 54" came up b/c I guess they have Michel in it(I haven't seen it yet). |
05-22-2001, 01:37 PM
| | Supporting Member | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Still in Margaritaville | | 
The Bass, thanks for the link to CD Now. I went right there and listened to all the samples. Even those short little samples were impressive!
Now this is what I figured out. CD Now is also offering the $34.95 version, but it is an import. Also it seems to have a few more songs...maybe three. I imagine they are quite long. Also, the Import is 2 CDs. I don't know about the cheaper one. Either one is a great intro to the greatest greats of contemporary Latin Jazz.
The album has a wide variety of genres including Venezuealn Joropos, Cuban danzon, Brazilian Bossa Nova and some "fusion" such as clave/bebop.
The artists include: Paquito D'Rivera, Michel Camilo,
Chucho and Bebo Valdes, Eliane Elias, Jerry Gonzalez, Chano DOminguez, Chachao, Gato Barbieri, and one of Tito Puente's last recordings.
The producer, Fernando Trueba, won a Grammy for producing the album "Spain" with Michel Camilo and Tomatito.
This is my guess. "Calle 54" will be as important to Latin jazz aficionados as the Ken Burns jazz collections have been to jazz enthusiasts in general.
Factoid from CD Now: "Calle 54" is the street in Manhattan where Sony Studios is located. All the music on ths album was recorded live in that studio.
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