Topic: Bessie on HBO

[wreid75]

Bessie Smith is being played by Queen Latifah and Ma Rainey is being played by Mo' Nique.  I am hoping that this doesn't suck.


http://queenlatifah.com/fun/entertainment/queen-latifah-hbo-films-bessie-smith/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3704352/

[Bunker Hill]

There maybe a Full Cast & Crew but not one citation for Chris Albertson. Hmm

[David Kaatz]

Apologies if this has been covered already. Heard about it on NPR. Starring Queen Latifah! Who actually probably has the talent to pull off the singing, and maybe the acting as she has been doing light movie roles for a while now.
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/28/402850016/how-bessie-smith-ushered-in-the-jazz-age

Dave


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tinpanallygurl]

And it unfortunately appears as if no one gives a flying *$&#.  Sad really sad

[uncle bud]

Topics merged.

I'm sure lots of people will be keen to see this project, and I'll be curious to see how it's all treated. I hope it has more substance than that Christian McBride interview though.

[Johnm]

Queen Latifah can sing really well.  She did some terrific Jazz singing in the movie "Living Out Loud" from a few years back.  And as Dave said, she's a natural at acting.  I'm not normally a huge fan of biopics, especially of musicians or artists, but it will be interesting to see how this one turns out.
All best,
Johnm

[Stuart]

No question about QL's talent. As John says, it was prominent in "Living Out Loud." Hopefully the production will be faithful to Bessie's life and talent as well. We don't get HBO, but the film will be probably be available at some point, and I look forward to watching it. In the meantime:

[Mr.OMuck]

I found the Christian McBride interview depressing as I invariably do when jazz people talk about the Blues. More Blues people need to speak up and speak to the great differences between the two musics rather than whatever family resemblance jazz musicians insist is there.

[iwbiek]

I found the Christian McBride interview depressing as I invariably do when jazz people talk about the Blues. More Blues people need to speak up and speak to the great differences between the two musics rather than whatever family resemblance jazz musicians insist is there.

Amen!  I'm so sick of blues being talked about as if it were nothing more than an antecedent of jazz.  People tend to forget that not all blues players approved of jazz or even considered it real music.  Wolf scornfully referred to jazz as "bleep-blop."  Little Walter apparently could match jazz trumpeters (or saxophonists? can't remember) note for note on harmonica, yet never condescended to record any jazz.  And Muddy said WHO was blues's baby?  Wasn't jazz...  Yet to hear jazz musicians and jazz critics, you would think blues was the John the Baptist to jazz's Jesus Christ.  Jazz is considered great simply because much of it is so esoteric (read: unlistenable) that people are afraid they might be stupid if they don't stand in awe of it.

[iwbiek]

I'm just afraid this is going to perpetuate the "Ma Rainey kidnapped Bessie and taught her everything she knew" myth.  There's way to much emphasis on the guru relationship in careless blues scholarship already, which detracts from the originality of the artists.  I'm talking about rubbish like dividing early Chicago blues into those influenced by Charley Patton, like Wolf. and those influenced by Son House, like Muddy, as if blues can be divided into neat little "schools" with "founders."

Everything I've read about Bessie tells me she played disciple to nobody, nor would she ever train anyone to "chop her head" later on.

[CF]

I found the Christian McBride interview depressing as I invariably do when jazz people talk about the Blues. More Blues people need to speak up and speak to the great differences between the two musics rather than whatever family resemblance jazz musicians insist is there.

Amen!  I'm so sick of blues being talked about as if it were nothing more than an antecedent of jazz.  People tend to forget that not all blues players approved of jazz or even considered it real music.  Wolf scornfully referred to jazz as "bleep-blop."  Little Walter apparently could match jazz trumpeters (or saxophonists? can't remember) note for note on harmonica, yet never condescended to record any jazz.  And Muddy said WHO was blues's baby?  Wasn't jazz...  Yet to hear jazz musicians and jazz critics, you would think blues was the John the Baptist to jazz's Jesus Christ.  Jazz is considered great simply because much of it is so esoteric (read: unlistenable) that people are afraid they might be stupid if they don't stand in awe of it.

You need to listen to more Jazz! Billie Holiday is unlistenable?!?!

I'm looking forward to this, hope it's a good production

[Mike Billo]

 I've hated every musical biopic I've ever seen, because it's never about the music (Which is what I'm interested in)
 It's never about the musical evolution of the performer(s),  who played on what record, who wrote and arranged songs, where the songs came from, the "process" of how it became finished product, etc.

It's always about who they slept with, what they ate for breakfast, their unhappy childhood, their unhappy marriages, drug or alcohol problems, they got ripped off....blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
  What a yawn.

   Biopics about Musical Artists are extremely formulaic, to say the least

I get HBO and I'll watch it, but I have no illusions about it being anything other than what I've described, above

[iwbiek]

You need to listen to more Jazz! Billie Holiday is unlistenable?!?!

No, of course not.  I love Billie Holiday.  Love Ella too.  And Nina Simone.  And Mose Allison is one of my all-time favorites.  I was mostly talking about the endless jamming of instrumental jazz, be-bop in particular but even dixieland is often guilty of this.  This is precisely the type of jazz that people like to get snooty about.  I don't hate ALL instrumental jazz: Miles has moments, particularly on Porgy and Bess, and I like Django and Charlie Christian, but so much of it is just...unlistenable.  Except maybe as background while you're working around the house or something.

[David Kaatz]

You need to listen to more Jazz! Billie Holiday is unlistenable?!?!

...  I was mostly talking about the endless jamming of instrumental jazz, be-bop in particular but even dixieland is often guilty of this. 

Not that there's ever any endless jamming when listening to blues, right?
 

[iwbiek]

Not that there's ever any endless jamming when listening to blues, right?
 

Sure there is, but if you can dance to Miles Davis's "Jack Johnson" album, you must be from another dimension!

Seriously, though, in my experience blues fans are, on the whole, less pretentious than jazz fans (especially jazz fans that talk condescendingly about the blues), so they're more likely to acknowledge an artist is taking it too far.  Buddy Guy is often rightly criticized for his never-ending instrumentals (and I love Buddy Guy), and, as has been pointed out many times before, if you can honestly sit in an easy chair and listen to one of John Lee's late '70s "endless boogie" numbers, appreciating every nuance of 8+ minutes of one chord, without your mind wandering, you should be breaking codes for the military.  Of course, that's the reason why John Lee keeps saying, "We can boogie, we can dance all night, good party record, etc."--it's not supposed to be listened to sitting down, looking oh-so-hip, with shades on!

I don't know, maybe the demise of the 78 is to be blamed for all this: in the old days, it was 3 minutes and you're done!  (Well, most of the time...)