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Kansas City (movie)
''Kansas City'' is a 1996 American crime film directed by Robert Altman, and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte, Michael Murphy and Steve Buscemi. The musical score of ''Kansas City'' is integrated into the film, with modern-day musicians recreating the Kansas City jazz of 1930s. The film was entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Plot A kidnapping goes down in 1934 Kansas City. Blondie O'Hara's (Leigh) petty thief husband Johnny is taken by gangster "Seldom Seen" and held prisoner at the Hey Hey Club, one of the hot spots of the Kansas City jazz scene. Blondie herself kidnaps the wife of a local politician, Mrs. Stilton, who is addicted to laudanum (an opium liquid) and has secrets of her own. Blondie's plan is to blackmail Mr. Stilton into helping to free Johnny. Despite the risk to his re-election campaign, Mr. Stilton does everything he can in order to free his wife by saving Johnny, including using his connections to the Tom Penderga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era. Altman's style of filmmaking covered many genres, but usually with a " subversive" twist which typically relied on satire and humor to express his personal views. Altman developed a reputation for being "anti-Hollywood" and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style. Actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a multitrack recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a more natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooke Smith (actress)
Brooke Smith is an American actress, known for her roles as Dr. Erica Hahn on the ABC medical drama series ''Grey's Anatomy'', as Sheriff Jane Greene on the A&E horror series '' Bates Motel'', and as Catherine Martin in the 1991 film '' The Silence of the Lambs,'' along with roles in several movies and guest starring and recurring appearances in many television shows including '' Big Sky'' and ''Them''. Early life Smith was born in New York City. Her father, Eugene "Gene" Smith, worked as a publisher, and her mother, Lois Smith (publicist) (née Wollenweber), had worked with Robert Redford and other actors and directors. Career Smith has appeared in numerous films, including ''The Moderns'' (1988), '' The Silence of the Lambs'' (1991), ''The Night We Never Met'' (1993), '' Mr. Wonderful'' (1993), '' Vanya on 42nd Street'' (1994), '' Last Summer in the Hamptons'' (1995), ''Trees Lounge'' (1996), ''Kansas City'' (1996), ''The Broken Giant'' (1997), ''Random Hearts'' (1999 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Craig Handy
Craig Mitchell Handy (born September 25, 1962) is an American tenor saxophonist. Born in Oakland, California, he attended North Texas State University from 1981 to 1984, and following this played with Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Abdullah Ibrahim, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, George Adams (musician), George Adams, Ray Drummond, Conrad Herwig, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and David Weiss (musician), David Weiss among many others. He is a member of the Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty (band), Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra. Handy plays the role of Coleman Hawkins in the 1996 film ''Kansas City (1996 film), Kansas City'' . He is credited for performing the ''Cosby Show'' season 6 theme. Discography As leader As sideman With Cecil Brooks III *''Hangin' with Smooth'' (Muse Records, Muse, 1990) With George Cables *''The George Cables Songbook'' (HighNote, 2016) With Betty Carter *''Droppin' Things'' (Verve Records, Verve, 1990) With The Cookers *''Warriors'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman (born February 1, 1969) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He is the son of jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman (1931–2006). Life and career Joshua Redman was born in Berkeley, California, to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer and librarian Renee Shedroff. He is Jewish. He was exposed to many kinds of music at the Center for World Music in Berkeley, where his mother studied South Indian dance. Some of his earliest lessons in music and improvisation were on recorder with gamelan player Jody Diamond. He was exposed at an early age to a variety of musics and instruments and began playing clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary instrument, the tenor saxophone, one year later. Redman cites John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley, his father Dewey Redman, as well as the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, the Police and Led Zeppelin as musical influences. Redman graduated from Berkel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Bernstein (musician)
Steven Bernstein (born October 8, 1961) is an American trumpeter, slide trumpeter, arranger/composer and bandleader from New York City. He is best known for his work in The Lounge Lizards, Sex Mob, Spanish Fly and the Millennial Territory Orchestra.Layman, Will (2006)A Reluctant 'Jazz' Hero: An Interview with Trumpeter, Composer, and Arranger Steven Bernstein, PopMatters, November 1, 2006. Retrieved November 8, 2014 Sex Mob's 2006 CD ''Sexotica'' was nominated for a Grammy. Bernstein has been the musical director for the Kansas City Band (from Robert Altman's film ''Kansas City''), Jim Thirlwell's Steroid Maximus and Hal Wilner's Leonard Cohen, Doc Pomus and Bill Withers projects. Bernstein has released four albums under his own name on John Zorn's Tzadik Records: ''Diaspora Soul'', ''Diaspora Blues'', ''Diaspora Hollywood'' and ''Diaspora Suite''. He has performed with jazz giants including Roswell Rudd, Sam Rivers, Don Byron and Medeski, Martin & Wood, as well as mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Willner
Hal Willner (April 6, 1956 – April 7, 2020) was an American music producer working in recording, films, television, and live events. He was best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles (jazz, classical, rock, Tin Pan Alley). He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by the virus. Early life Willner was born in Philadelphia in 1956. His father and uncle were Holocaust survivors. Willner moved to New York City in 1974 to attend New York University, but did not graduate. Career In the late 1970s, Willner worked under record producer Joel Dorn, credited as associate producer on Leon Redbone's albums ''Double Time'' and '' Champagne Charlie'', and The Neville Brothers' ''Fiyo on the Bayou''. Willner became the sketch music producer of ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1980, where he chose the music to be used in sketches for four decades. From 1988 to 1990 he produced the TV program '' Sunday Night' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Gui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thieves Like Us (film)
''Thieves Like Us'' is a 1974 American crime film, set in the United States of the 1930s. It was directed by Robert Altman and starred Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Edward Anderson, which also supplied source material for the 1948 film '' They Live by Night'', directed by Nicholas Ray. The Altman film sticks much closer to the book. The supporting cast includes Louise Fletcher and Tom Skerritt. The film was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Plot summary Bowie, a young man convicted of murder when a teenager and Chicamaw, an old lag, escape from a Mississippi prison in 1936 and join up with another old lag, T-Dub, who has hired a cab to meet them. They hide out with an acquaintance, who owns a garage and set to work robbing banks. Here Bowie gets to talk to Keechie, the garageman's daughter. They next hole up with T-Dub's sister-in-law Mattie and her children, including her older daughter Lula, the object of T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike". Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music. Early life and career Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on August 27, 1909. to Lizetta Young (née Johnson), and Willis Handy Young, originally from Louisiana. Lester had two siblings – a brother, Leonidas Raymond, known as Lee Young, who became a drummer, and a sister, Irm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay McShann
James Columbus "Jay" McShann (January 12, 1916 – December 7, 2006) was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and bandleader. He led bands in Kansas City, Missouri, that included Charlie Parker, Bernard Anderson, Walter Brown, and Ben Webster. Early life and education McShann was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and was nicknamed Hootie. During his youth he taught himself how to play the piano through observing his sister's piano lessons and trying to practicing tunes he heard off the radio. He was also heavily influenced by late-night broadcasts of pianist Earl Hines from Chicago's Grand Terrace Cafe: "When 'Fatha' (''Hines'') went off the air, I went to bed". He began working as a professional musician in 1931 at the age of 15, performing around Tulsa, Oklahoma, and neighboring Arkansas. Career 1936–44 McShann moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1936, and set up his own big band which variously featured Charlie Parker (1937–42), Al Hibbler, Ben Webster, Paul Quin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches." Hawkins cited as influences Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins' virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Count Basie
William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams. Biography Early life and education William Basie was born to Lillian and Harvey Lee Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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