Tag: albums

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies Music

The Session Man

Director – Michael Treen – 2023 – UK – Cert. 12a – 90m

***

A look at legendary pianist Nicky Hopkins who played with numerous bands and on numerous records – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 21st

Nicky Hopkins may not exactly be a household name, but anyone who paid attention to credits on rock music albums from the early 1960s through to the early 1990s is likely to have heard of him. Trained as a classical pianist at the Royal Academy of Music, he simultaneously discovered rock and roll and began playing in bands at the start of the sixties as a 16-year-old. The right place at the right time. Up and coming British bands of the early 1960s like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, and The Who – essentially bands consisting of guitars and drums – got him playing piano on their albums to fill out the sound. He was playing with Jeff Beck around the time of the Truth album, which took him to the US, where he became based for the rest of his life, occasionally returning to the UK to work on specific albums.

Narrated by Bob Harris, formerly of BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, this music documentary follows the obvious format of, film a lot of interviews with people who know the subject and intersperse footage of the musician concerned playing live or in recording sessions to break the interviews up a bit.… Read the rest

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Music

Raf And O
as
The Kick Inside
play
the songs
of Kate Bush

Bar & Co, Temple Pier, Embankment, opposite Temple tube between Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridges, London.

2018.02.25

*****

This article was originally written as a post on Facebook 2018.02.26.

Raf And O’s debut appearance as The Kick Inside to play the songs of Kate Bush, now relaunched as online gigs, 12.00, 20.00 hrs on Saturdays from September 26th. Booking info here.

This was an amazing evening in which Raf Mantelli and O Richard Smith (aka Raf And O) performed the songs of Kate Bush under the moniker The Kick Inside launch: The Kick Inside play the songs of Kate Bush.

I can’t honestly say I really got Kate Bush back in the day when EMI first pumped lots of money into her career: I remember enjoying the Hounds Of Love album (her fifth) when it came out but I only really clicked some years later when I was given an unexpected copy of Aerial for Christmas (thanks again Sue), a fantastic (double) album.

That’s a long time after the songs represented here which covered, I think, the first five albums. The early stuff. (If there was anything later than Hounds Of Love, someone can correct me.)

Anyway, the gig itself: the venue was London’s Bar & Co.,… Read the rest

Categories
Documentary Features Live Action Movies Music

Bill Frisell:
A Portrait

Director – Emma Franz – 2017 – US – 118m

*****

Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell is a unique talent, a shy man and an extraordinary individual about whom fellow musician turned director Franz has made a remarkable film – now on DVD, BD and VoD

This extraordinary character study of one of the most significant jazz guitarists of modern times is remarkable not only for the portrait it paints of Frisell himself but also for the noteworthy list of names it interviews in passing. The newcomer with little knowledge of who’s who in jazz could take a notebook and and acquaint themselves with a remarkable number of incredible musicians of one sort or another, from the late drummer Paul Motian through more familiar, popular stars like singer Paul Simon and guitarist Bonnie Raitt to big band orchestra leader and composer Michael Gibbs. Indeed, the latter’s 2009 concert at London’s Barbican Centre featuring Frisell bookends the film allowing Franz to close on ‘Throughout’, the first of Frisell’s self-composed tunes the guitarist ever recorded. And that’s just one reason why you should watch Bill Frisell: A Portrait.

Australian independent director Franz worked for a while as a musician herself, which means that her director’s eyes and ears are attuned to what musicians do in composition and performance as well as how their minds work.… Read the rest