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Theme Songs Integral Part of Classic Remakes
Source:
All About Jazz
Studios capitalize on title tunes familiar to both old and young. In a year when the TV Academy nearly abolished its Emmy “main title theme" category, classic TV themes are turning out to be incredibly valuable properties -- especially when it comes to remakes.
An update of “Hawaii Five-O" is coming to CBS in the fall, and Morton Stevens' classic theme (a top-10 hit for the Ventures in 1969) is not only integral to the show, it's a major element ...
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Top Ten Jazz Movies
Source:
All About Jazz
The Bottom Line: This category was not as crowded as I would have liked because there are few great movies about jazz but several movies with great jazz.
This is a very difficult epinion for me to write because I love jazz so much and movies about jazz are few and far between or just plain lousy. In the 50's, there was a trend to memorialize some of the big band greats, but with one exception, they were mostly inferior ...
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Camping with Qaddafi
Source:
All About Jazz
Spending quality time with the Libyan dictator is in the realm of living dangerously-Risky Business.
Radan Popovic, 45, sits in the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in West Hollywood, a cup of tea in one hand, the other running through his head of thick, black hair. Hes your average, mild-mannered, former Eastern-bloc cinematographer living the Hollywood dream. A Los Angeles resident of 18 years with a hint of a Serbian accent, he has a beautiful family and a thriving career ...
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Harry Gregson-Williams Works for Ogres and Princes Alike
Source:
Michael Ricci
It's the life of a film composer: One week you're in a fairy-tale world populated by green ogres and talking donkeys, the next week you're dashing around 6th century Persia with a spunky princess and a magical dagger.
“Had the tasks been similar, it would be a very dull life," says Harry Gregson-Williams, composer of both “Shrek Forever After" and “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," two big summer movies opening within a week of each other this month. ...
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Lee DeWyze is Season 9 'Idol'
Source:
Michael Ricci
This is it: The new “American Idol" gets crowned tonight, as America says goodbye to Simon Cowell. (Until next year when he returns to Fox with his new show.) What was it like to actually be inside the Nokia?
[Spoiler alert: This contains details from the finale of “American Idol."]
This year, the Nokia has a special surprise waiting for its “Idol" guests. To get to your seat, you have to first stand in a line that wraps around ...
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Davell Crawford: New Orleans Jazz Musician Featured on NBC's the Today Show
Source:
Michael Ricci
Almost five years ago, New Orleans jazz & R&B sensation Davell Crawford, like many others, was tragically struck hard by the torment of Hurricane Katrina.
The proclaimed “Prince of New Orleans" had his home, studio, piano and all other possessions destroyed and turned to rubble - and although the rebuilding process still has a long road ahead, Davell Crawford is beginning to see a bright light at the end of this otherwise dreary tunnel.
This is thanks in large part ...
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Animating a Blockbuster: How Pixar Built Toy Story 3
Source:
All About Jazz
Screenwriter William Goldman once famously declared that the most important fact of life in Hollywood is that nobody knows anything.
It was his way of describing a reality that continues to haunt the movie business: Studio executives have no idea which pictures will make money.
Unless, of course, those pictures are made by Pixar Animation Studios. Since 1995, when the first Toy Story was released, Pixar has made nine films, and every one has been a smashing success. Pixars secret? ...
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Dexter Gordon Stars in "Round Midnight"
Source:
Michael Ricci
NO actor could do what the great jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon does in Round Midnight, Bertrand Tavernier's glowing tribute to the golden age of be-bop.
Mr. Gordon, who stars in the film as an expatriate American named Dale Turner, becomes the very embodiment of the music itself. It's in his heavy-lidded eyes, in his hoarse, smoky voice, in the way his long, graceful fingers seem to be playing silent accompaniment to his conversation. It's even in the way he habitually ...
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