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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/03/2015 in all areas

  1. Seems like when I sit down in front of a computer, the electric waves - or whatever - radiate and stimulate my memory. I find things popping into my head, tidbits from a vast store of trivia stored in my brain over the years. Most of the things I write are off the top of my head, which is why I'm not that great on specific dates and I sometimes have trouble with names, recently referring to poet Langston Hughes as Langston Houston. Anyhoo, on the subject of sampling what jumped into my head is that this practice goes waay back. It just wasn't called sampling. The origin of the jazz standards and classics, most often the solo ballads of saxophoists like Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, John Coltrane and later Paul Desmond sideman of Dave Brubeck, are songs taken from what is known as "the great American song book", or Tin Pan Alley, hits from Broadway and Hollywood musical from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s decades, composed by legendary musicans such as Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and others. These saxophonists always injected little snippets from other songs in the course of the improvization that characterizes jazz. Jazz pianists and other horns did this,too, as did Be-bop horn men in their frenzy solos. Music is not only universal it is timeless.; the old is new; the new is old. Am I wrong in making a distinction between the music sound track of a moive, and the score of it, which would consist of the background music? To me, if a black musician such as Quincy Jones scores that background music of a white movie, that's noteworthy. And it's not as if Blacks scoring black movies was something that was common but does not happen much anymore. They never did do this in great numbers. Furthermore, to me, scoring a movie is not that big a deal. It's in a class with other behind the scene jobs such as make-up artists or stunt men, or script girls, or gaffers or best boys or camera men. Blacks may be under-represented in this positions, too. But what's significant about this? It's like everything else.
    2 points
  2. How dope is that!!!!!! Very cool Troy. I'm smiling hard as hell right now, so I know you are just cheesing and really eating this up. Then again, she's promoting building Facebook page. Do I sense some internal family struggle on the horizon, lol.
    2 points
  3. Very good point! You aren't wrong at all about the distinction. I honestly don't know very many people who purchase the score cd of a film. I do know a ton who purchase the soundtrack and in that case Blacks are doing very well. Your point about the beginning with something else and starting your improv was featured in one of the best movies ever Finding Forrester. Just like you when I read these posts it often sparks a memory and that is a beautiful thing. Check out this scene. Forrester gives Jamaal some of his work to jump start his own work so that Jamaal can find his own voice. This is exactly what you are saying Cynique and this scene represents it beautifully. One of the greatest writing films ever.
    1 point
  4. Face it, Troy. She is the voice of the future. Millenials, for all of their rebelliousness, pick their fights, and as far as the Internet goes, they see the possibilities in joining it, since they can't defeat it...right away. Zoe is an "n" away from her own zone. You, go, Girl!
    1 point
  5. Another off topic, but not really since Troy brought up sampling, is this article on Hip-Hop and Jazz. http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/hip-hop-jazz-in-the-90s-blue-note-records/
    1 point
  6. I do think this is a direct reflection in the shift of music in the Black community. More important the lack of music in schools and the lack of interest in learning the craft of making music. Interestingly enough it is not the fault of Hip-Hop as it seems only the Hip-Hop community is attempting to score films at all in the Black community. I guess we could say Pharrell scored a film, Despicable Me, but that's not a Black film. Then again, Hip-Hop isn't even scoring soundtracks. They are making albums, but not scoring. The closest thing we have to a person scoring soundtracks is Terrence Blanchard with Spike Lee. I do think Red Hook Summer was not very well constructed and relied on a lot of Spike's cinematic go to's as opposed to him reaching to break new ground. We know with Spike we are going to get the floating character shot and the erratic camera during dialogue, but it's not enough to cover the fact that Spike seems bored with indie film and is now fully entrenched in creating major films to pay the bills (which isn't a problem, get your money Spike). It is unfortunate that we don't have any major film scores being produced by Blacks though. However it isn't surprising at all when you consider that most of our art dwells in the realm of immediacy. Black music is no longer soulful in the mainstream. We don't have composers anymore. We only have producers. Guys just don't care for the music that much (generalization). We know this is not really the case though when we look at D'Angelo, Robert Glasper, Jose James and Timothy Bloom. We are making music and composing, but we aren't being chosen to score films.
    1 point
  7. I know Quincy Jones scored "The Color Purple". I checked and he also scored "The Italian Job," "In the Heat of the Night," "In Cold Blood," and "Mirage," among others.
    1 point
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