Hollywood On 52nd Street
George and Ira Gershwin composed S’Wonderful and How Long Has This Been Going On were composed for the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face by George and Ira Gershwin. S’Wonderful was used in the 1951 musical movie An American In Paris before making its appearance in this film. How Long Has this Been Going On was dropped from the Broadway musical and makes its introduction when Audrey Hepburn sing it in this 1957 movie musical of Funny Face that also starred Fred Astaire in a reprisal of his Broadway role. Although having the same title as the Broadway musical, the plot is totally different and only four of the songs in the stage musical are included. Kay Thompson also stars in a supporting role as Astaire portrays still photographer Dick Avery, loosely based on photographer Richard Avedon.
The Story: Maggie Prescott (Thompson) is a fashion magazine publisher and editor for Quality magazine, looking for the next big fashion trend. She wants a new look to be both “beautiful” and “intellectual”. She and famous fashion photographer Dick Avery want models that can “think as well as they look.” The two brainstorm and come up with the idea to find a “sinister-looking” bookstore in Greenwich Village and discover “Embryo Concepts.”
They put Jo Stockton (Hepburn) in the first shot and toss her out of the store until the shoot ends. Jo wants to go to Paris to hear famed philosopher Emile Flostre speak on empathicalism. Dispatched on an assignment, New York City-based fashion photographer Avery is struck by Jo’s beauty, a shy bookstore employee he’s photographed and he believes has the potential to become a successful model. He gets Jo to go with him to France, where he snaps more pictures of her against iconic Parisian backdrops. In the process, they fall for one another, only to find hurdles in their way.
Joao Gilberto & Lonette McKee/Dexter Gordon
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Ben Hirsh Sidran was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 14, 1943 and raised in Racine, Wisconsin. Attending the University fo Wisconsin he became a member of The Ardells along with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs. When Miller and Scaggs left Wisconsin for the West Coast and stardom, he stayed behind to earn a degree in English literature. After graduating in 1966, he enrolled in the University of Sussex, England to pursue a PhD degree in American Studies.
Sidran rejoined Miller in an English recording studio the next year, playing on the album Children of the Future and while in England, he was a session musician for Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton and Charlie Watts. When Scaggs and Jim Peterman departedfrom Miller’s band in 1969, he joined as a full-time keyboardist. After a brief stint in Los Angeles, where he began his career as a recording artist, he returned to Madison in 1971 and has kept the university town as a home-base ever since, playing often with such Madison-based talents as drummer Clyde Stubblefield and his keyboardist-composer son, Leo.
Over the years, while continuing to travel, perform and produce, he taught the business of music courses at the University and, beginning in 1981, hosted a variety of jazz programs for NPR, including the Peabody Award Winning “Jazz Alive” series and for VH1 television where his “New Visions” series in the early 1990s won the Ace Award.
As a musician and a producer Ben has released thirty-four solo recordings and collaborated with jazz and pop artists that include Mose Allison, Van Morrison, Diana Ross and Rickie Lee Jones. His written works include the book “Black Talk,” (on the sociology of black music in America), the memoir “A Life in the Music,” “Talking Jazz,” a collection of his historic interviews with jazz musicians.
He authored “There Was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream,” a cultural history of the Jewish contribution to American popular music during the 20th century and a finalist for the 2012 National Jewish Book Award. He has recorded 33 albums for Capitol, Blue Thumb, Arista, Bluebird/RCA, Horizon, Polystar, Island, Go Jazz, Nardis and Bonsai record labels. Pianist, organist, vocalist, writer and educator Ben Sidran continues to expand his legacy or performance and education.
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Mulgrew Miller was born August 13, 1955 in Greenwood, Mississippi. Growing up in a home with a piano he played tunes on the piano from the age of six, playing by ear. He had piano lessons from the age of eight and during his childhood he played blues and R&B for dances, and gospel music in a church. His principal influence on piano at this stage of his life was Ramsey Lewis.
While in high school, Miller formed a trio that played at cocktail parties and around the age of fourteen after hearing Oscar Peterson on the Joey Bishop Show he decided to become a jazz pianist. After graduating from Greenwood High School, he attended Memphis State in 1973 on a band scholarship. He played euphonium and met pianists Donald Brown and James Williams who introduced him to the music of well-known players such as Wynton Kelly, Bud Powell, and McCoy Tyner.
He would go on to study with Madame Margaret Chaloff but left her tutelage to play with Ricky Ford and Bill Pierce. By 1976 he was the substitute for the regular pianist in the Duke Ellington Orchestra but left in in 1980 after being recruited by vocalist Betty Carter, then joined Woody Shaw’s band from 1981 to 1983, with whom he made his 1981 he made his studio recording debut, on Shaw’s United. During the early 1980s he also accompanied vocalist Carmen Lundy and played and recorded with saxophonist Johnny Griffin.
Mulgrew joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1983 under the recommendation of Terence Blanchard and Donald Harrison. Although struggling to fit in with the dominating rhythm section his playing matured during his tenure. His recording career as a leader began in 1985, with Keys to the City, the first of Miller’s several Landmark Records recordings. He left Blakey to become Tony Williams’ pianist in 1986 and remained busy forming his own bands Wingspan and later Trio Transition with Reggie Workman and Freddie Waits
He would go on to work with Wallace Roney, Frank Morgan, Benny Golson, Steve Nelson and Donald Byrd, and toured internationally and domestically with the New York Jazz Giants with Jon Faddis, Tom Harrell, Lew Tabackin, Bobby Watson, Ray Drummond and Carl Allen. He continued to accompany and record with vocalists including Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson, and played and recorded with saxophonist Joe Lovano.
For several years after he had turned 40, Miller concentrated on composing and playing his own music. In 1997 he toured Japan with 100 Golden Fingers, a troupe of 10 pianists, then joined bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson in 1999 to record duets based on 1940s performances by Duke Ellington and Jimmy Blanton. He signed with Maxjazz producing albums as a leader with Derrick Hodge, Rodney Green, Karriem Riggins, as well as trio projects and touring with bassist Ron Carter and guitarist Russell Malone, and as sideman with John Scofield, Kluvers Big Band, Yusef Lateef and Archie Shepp.
As an educator Mulgrew became heavily involved in music education as the Director of Jazz Studies at William Patterson University from 2005, and was the Artist in Residence at Lafayette College, from which he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Performing Arts. Pianist Mulgrew Miller’s list of accomplishments continued with his recording as a leader, working with his own trio and quintet until his passing on May 29, 2013 in Allentown, Pennsylvania from a stroke at the age of 57.
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Bill Heid was born August 11, 1948 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and came of age hanging out in the clubs that proliferated the Hill District like the Hurricane Bar and the Crawford Grill. With all the jazz greats regularly playing in town during the Sixties he took every opportunity to sit in on piano and learn from these masters. In addition he had hometown natives Ahmad Jamal, Art Blakey, Errol Garner, George Benson, Eddie Jefferson, Mary Lou Williams and Stanley Turrentine to learn from.
Bill took these lessons and experiences and headed West to Detroit and on to Chicago, building a solid blues resume, touring and recording as a pianist with Jimmy Witherspoon, Koko Taylor, Alberta Adams and Fenton Robinson amongst many others. He also played jazz piano on two major Impulse/MCA recordings for Chicago guitarist Henry Johnson.
As an organist Heid has produced several jazz albums as a leader during the mid to late Nineties for Muse/Westside and Savant labels. He spent a number of years in Japan and has toured all over the world as a Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department. Soul jazz and hard bop pianist and organist Bill Heid currently performs at different venues in the Washington, DC area.
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Léonardo Gandelman was born Leonardo Gandelman on August 10, 1956, in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. He spent his childhood studying classical music and by age sixteen he was a soloist with the Brazil Symphony Orchestra. He furthered his studies on saxophone, composition and arrangements at Berklee College of Music.
Returning home in 1979 he began his professional career combining Brazilian rhythms and jazz. Eight years later he launched his solo career and to date has participated in over 800 recordings.
Leo has played with Luis Santos, guest appeared in Titas’ single Telecisao and is famous for composing Brazilian telenovelas, films and series soundtracks. He has performed at Lincoln Center and festivals such as Hollywood Rock and the Montreux Festival. The Jornal do Brasil has voted him the most popular instrumental artists 15 consecutive years.
Composer, arranger and saxophonist Leo Gandelman has performed with Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, Luiz Melodia, Leny Adrade, Ney Matogrosso, Joel Nascimento and Leila Pinheiro as well as with the Bahia Symphony Orchestra, the Ribeirai Preto Symphony Orchestra and the Young Orchestra of Caracas. He continues to perform, record and tour.
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