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Good Ear
April 17 10:30-12:10 p.m. • AMC Mainstreet 2
Directed by Steve Rudolf
Feature-Documentary • 1:06:54 • U.S.A.
Preceded by: Bewick's Mambo, Is It Jazz Yet?, Swing Hard: Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra
Take a trip with visionary music-promoter Rocco Somazzi to hear a mind-blowing collection of talent at the first-ever Angel City Jazz Festival in Los Angeles. Nels Cline, Arthur Blythe, Leni Stern, Wayne Horvitz and Elliott Sharp are just a few of the names in the remarkably eclectic lineup. Staging it at the funky Barnsdall Art Park and employing a crew of downtown LA’s finest “live-painters” to riff off of the music, Rocco uses his skills as a world-class curator – along with some old-fashioned hustle – to create what is truly an amazing blend of sounds and sights. As Rocco says, ‘Listening to music is like being transported to another world.’
Bewick’s Mambo
Peter Snowdon
Narrative • 0:08:58 • Belgium
Late one night, Adam and Eve find themselves alone in the library. She is studying an 18th century treatise on natural history, he is returning books to their rightful places on the shelves…
Suddenly, the illustrated plants and animals in the books Eve is reading emerge from the pages and come alive. Creepers twine up the shelves, birds perch on her reading lamp. An owl hoots on the balcony, voles gambol under the tables, and a bear prowls through the reading room.
Eve appeals to Adam to save her from the wild things and reimpose order on nature. But the more they struggle to subdue this world which has sprung to life, the more the library is transformed into a lush tropical jungle, replete with a myriad gaudy species – and the more they realize that, they find this new world strangely, powerfully attractive…
Recognizing their destiny, they give up the pretense of ‘civilization’, and succumb to their surroundings, shedding their prejudices together with their clothes. Nature welcomes them with open arms, and they stand forth, naked, in this new Garden of Eden.
But is it a real garden? Or just another picture in a book?
Is It Jazz Yet?
Fred Weems
Narrative • 0:10:40 • U.S.A.
Visualize a white person coming out of the whiteness in a white tux playing a white baby grand piano, but only the white keys. Is it jazz yet? Move on to a female player with a bunch of very colorful belly dancers. Is it jazz yet? How about Benny Goodman with “Sing Sing Sing”, or Duke Ellington with “Caravan”? Those could be jazz. Then consider a black person coming out of the blackness wearing a black tux, playing a black baby grand, but only the black keys. Is it jazz yet, or just another pentatonic scale exercise? How about when the player goes full spectrum, using both black and white keys to full advantage? Is it jazz yet? But about those belly dancers..
Swing Hard: Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra
Vanessa Warheit
Narrative • 0:09:26 • Canada
Dubbed one of the “10 Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area,” Marcus Shelby has been playing the acoustic bass since 1986, and for the past ten years he’s been bandleader and artistic director of the 15-member Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra.”Swing Hard” takes a brief look inside the workings of one of San Francisco’s top jazz artists, exploring what it takes to keep a jazz orchestra alive today.
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