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JazzTown
''JazzTown'' is a 2021 American documentary film by director and musician Ben Makinen. Through spontaneous conversations and performances, the film highlights the jazz scene of Denver, Colorado and considers jazz as a dynamic art form. Synopsis ''JazzTown'' features interviews with over 50 Colorado jazz musicians, including Freddy Rodriguez Sr., Charles Burrell, Dianne Reeves, and Ron Miles. U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, a fan of the genre, also appears in the film.Solomon, Jon (14 February 2020), "Ben Makinen on ''JazzTown'', a Documentary About Denver Jazz", ''Westword'': retrieved 5 May 2024Link/ref> Conversations span a wide variety of topics, including the history of jazz in Denver and the role of mentorship in jazz communities. Makinen’s informal approach to interviewing was inspired by Art Taylor’s book ''Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews''. Production Ben Makinen, who attended high school in Colorado, produced ''JazzTown'' over the course of twelve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Makinen
Ben Makinen is an American filmmaker, music producer, composer, and drummer best known for the award-winning films ''JazzTown'' (2021) and ''Who Killed Jazz'' (2022). Biography Ben Makinen was born in Maine and grew up in California, Washington, Oklahoma, and Colorado."Ben Makinen". ''Art Unknown Podcast''. Episode 34. September 17, 2019, retrieved 5 May 2024Link/ref> Living in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1982, he was cast as an extra in Francis Ford Coppola’s movie ''The Outsiders''. Makinen's family moved to Aurora, Colorado the following year where he attended high school. Makinen attended the University of Miami in 1986 as a drum set major. Makinen attended the University of Colorado at Denver in 1987 and soon dropped out of school to begin playing drums regularly with pianist Billy Wallace at the Denver jazz club El Chapultepec. Throughout the late 1980s and early 90s Makinen performed and recorded with other up-and-coming jazz musicians including Javon Jackson, Brad Leali, Pat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddy Rodriguez (saxophonist)
Freddy Rodriguez (February 9, 1931 – March 25, 2020) was an American jazz alto and tenor saxophonist and composer. Biography Rodriguez learned to play the clarinet at Baker Junior High School in his native Denver in 1942. He was influenced by Artie Shaw, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young and switched to alto and tenor saxes at West High School. He attended concerts by the visiting jazz greats in the Rainbow Ballroom and began a career as a professional musician. In 1948 he became a regular soldier and played in a military band near Seattle. He also performed with numerous musicians who were on tour. In 1958, he moved to New York City with his family, but was not able to quickly gain a foothold in the jazz scene there, and in 1960 moved again, to Los Angeles. In 1962 and 1963, he played alongside Charles Lloyd in Gerald Wilson's big band. He worked with Horace Tapscott and Harold Land and accompanied Nancy Wilson. Then he was part of Tommy Peltier's Jazz Corps, performing at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dianne Reeves
Dianne Elizabeth Reeves (born October 23, 1956) is an American jazz singer, who has won five Grammy Awards for her albums. Early life and education Dianne Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a musical family. Her father sang, her mother played trumpet, her uncle is bassist Charles Burrell, and her cousin is George Duke. Her father died when she was two years old, and she was raised in Denver, Colorado, by her mother, Vada Swanson, and maternal family. Reeves was raised Catholic and attended Cure D'Ars Catholic School in Denver for much of her early schooling. Career In 1971, she started singing and playing piano. She was a member of her high-school band and while performing at a convention in Chicago was noticed by trumpeter Clark Terry, who invited her to sing with him. "He had these amazing all-star bands, but I had no idea who they all were! The thing I loved about it was the way they interacted with each other – the kind of intimate exchange that I wasn't part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hickenlooper
John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. ( ; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician, geologist, and businessman serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Colorado since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 42nd governor of Colorado from 2011 to 2019 and as the 43rd List of mayors of Denver, mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011. Born in Narberth, Pennsylvania, Hickenlooper is a graduate of Wesleyan University. After a career as a petroleum geologist, in 1988 he co-founded the Wynkoop Brewing Company, one of the first brewpubs in the U.S. Hickenlooper was elected the 43rd mayor of Denver in 2003 Denver mayoral election, 2003, serving two terms. In 2005, Time (magazine), ''TIME'' named him one of America's five best big-city mayors. After incumbent governor Bill Ritter said that he would not seek reelection, Hickenlooper announced his intention to run for the Democrati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Who Killed Jazz
''Who Killed Jazz'' is a 2021 documentary short film by director and musician Ben Makinen. Summary The film delves into the systemic challenges faced by jazz musicians, exploring the dynamics between artists, club owners, and music distributors. Production With a runtime of 22 minutes, ''Who Killed Jazz'' utilizes unused footage from Makinen's 2021 feature-length documentary ''JazzTown''. In May 2021, Makinen sold his home in Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ... to help finance the film's completion while living in Bali, Indonesia. His video files were damaged during heavy rains, but he was able to recover them. Accolades * Best Editing: Short Film, October 2021 Onkyo Film Awards * Gold Award: Short Documentary, October 2021 Hollywood Gold Awards * Bes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Burrell (musician)
Charles Burrell (October 4, 1920 – June 17, 2025) was an American classical and jazz bass player most prominently known for being the first African American to be a member of a major American symphony (the Denver Symphony Orchestra, now known as the Colorado Symphony). For this accomplishment, he is often referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of Classical Music". Early life, family and education Charles was born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Great Depression, Depression-era Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Denverado, was the daughter of an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister from Denver, Colorado. In grade school, Charles excelled in music. When he was twelve years old, he heard the San Francisco Symphony under renowned conductor Pierre Monteux on his family's crystal radio and vowed to one day play as a member of the orchestra under his direction. He played bass as a student at Cass Tech High School, where he was instructed by two musicians from the Detroit Symphony O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denver, Colorado
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Western United States, in the South Platte River, South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains (United States), High Plains east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. With a population of 715,522 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010 United States census, 2010, Denver is the List of United States cities by population, 19th most populous city in the United States and the fifth most populous state capital. Denver is the principal city of the Denver metropolitan area, Denver Metropolitan area (which includes over 3 million people), as well as the economic and cultural center of the broader Front Range Urban Corridor, Front Range, home to more than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Miles
Ronald Glen Miles (May 9, 1963 – March 8, 2022) was an American jazz trumpeter, cornetist, and composer. He recorded for the labels Prolific (1986), Capri Records (Jazz record label), Capri (1990), and Rykodisc, Gramavision. His final album, ''Old Main Chapel'', his second on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label, was released posthumously in 2024. Early life Miles was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 1963. His parents, Fay Downey Miles and Jane Miles worked for the United States federal civil service, federal civil service. The family relocated to Denver, Colorado, when he was eleven, partly because his parents thought the mountain climate would be better for his asthma. He began learning the trumpet during this time at a summer music program. He attended East High School (Denver, Colorado), Denver East High School, where he played in its jazz combo together with Don Cheadle. After graduating, Miles initially studied electrical engineering at the University of D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Taylor
Arthur S. Taylor Jr. (April 6, 1929 – February 6, 1995) was an American jazz drummer, who "helped define the sound of modern jazz drumming".Watrous, Peter (February 7, 1995)"Art Taylor, 65, Jazz Drummer Who Inspired Young Musicians" ''The New York Times''. Early life Born in New York, United States, Taylor grew up in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem. He was often nicknamed A.T. or Mr. Cool with those who knew him well. Career As a teenager, Taylor first decided that he wanted to become a musician after hearing Sid Catlett play at a jam session at the current site of the Lincoln Center. He joined a local Harlem band that featured Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean and Kenny Drew. After playing in the bands of Howard McGhee (1948), Coleman Hawkins (1950–51), Buddy DeFranco (1952), Bud Powell (1953–58; 1961; 1964), George Wallington and Art Farmer (1954), Wallington again (1954–55), Gigi Gryce and Donald Byrd (1956), he formed his own group, Taylor's Wailers.Feathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bali, Indonesia
Bali (English:; Balinese: ) is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller offshore islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, Denpasar, is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar, in Eastern Indonesia. Denpasar metropolitan area is the extended metropolitan area around Denpasar. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre. The province is Indonesia's main tourist destination, with a significant rise in tourism since the 1980s, and becoming an Indonesian area of overtourism. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of the Bali economy. Bali is the only Hindu-majority province in Indonesia, with 86.9% of the population adhering to Balinese Hinduism. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Documentary Films About Jazz Music And Musicians
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and Media studies, media analyst Bill Nichols (film critic), Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Research into information gathering, as a behavior, and the sharing of knowledge, as a concept, has noted how documentary movies were preceded by the notable practice of documentary photography. This has involved the use of singular Photograph, photographs to detail the complex attributes of History, historical events and continues to a certain degree to this day, with an example being the War photography, conflict-related photography achieved by popular figures such as Mathew Brady during the Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
