Category: Video & film

  • Another take on the “Graceland” 25th anniversary re-package…

    Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ boxed set revisits controversial and brilliant album | NJ.com.

  • Doc Pomus documentary

    UPDATE (May 13) Just came back from the first-ever screening of the documentary, A.K.A. Doc Pomus at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema as part of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. What a great film. It did an excellent job of capturing the spirit of Doc’s life (as well as the music and the stories.  I […]

  • “Under African Skies”: Documentary on “Graceland”, 25 years on (updated)

    Update, May 24: See this page for details on the various CD/DVD/Blu-ray packages being released June 5. Update (May 18): The film will be shown on A&E (TV), May 25 at 10pm. Update (May 13): A couple of film reviews: LA Times (May 11) The Age (Australia) (May 14) And, to capture a bit of […]

  • Don’t miss Khaira Arby May 8: “It’s boom! It’s flash! It’s great!”

    Anyone who’s followed this website, or my newsletter for the last couple of years, knows that I’m a huge fan of the Malian singer Khaira Arby. Over the summer of 2010, I followed news & reviews of her first-ever North American tour, and finally saw her perform in Toronto that September, at the Ashkenaz Festival […]

  • Doc Pomus: documentary, biography & appreciation

    A new documentary, AKA Doc Pomus will screen on May 13 at the Bloor Hot Docs Theatre as part of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. (Screening details here) I don’t know the documentary, but  highly recommend this, based only on what I know of Doc Pomus’s life. Doc grew up as a short, overweight Jewish […]

  • “Appalled by Dick Clark”: Joe Boyd on Clark’s Bandstand beginning

    He may not be hip, but he was clean Two very, very different rock & roll figures died within a day of each other this past week, and have each received, in their own way, extensive media & internet coverage. Below is one take on Dick Clark. One of the news stories I read about […]

  • The crisis in Mali, Tuareg music and rebellion

    For some people, when you say “Timbuktu”, it is like the end of the world, but that is not true. I am from Timbuktu, and I can tell you we are right at the heart of the world. — Ali Farka Touré. from the liner notes to his 1994 album, Talking Timbukutu In 1994, I […]

  • Gospel (and other) music for Easter

    An appropriate time for a bit of gospel… Mahalia Jackson From the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, the intro says it all: “The World’s Greatest Gospel Singer… Miss Mahalia Jackson”   Sister Rosetta Tharpe Gospel and rock & roll: The connection is well known. Numerous soul singers had roots in that tradition, starting with Ray Charles,  […]

  • Khaira Arby at the Lula May 8

    Great news, that Malian singer Khaira Arby is finally playing a concert in town with her band.  Of course, given the situation in Mali, especially in her region, around Timbuktu, we can all hope not only that she gets here, but that the fighting is resolved soon, and the people there can enjoy peace. She, […]

  • “O Death”

    Death masks of the long-gone famous, set to Ralph Stanley’s well-known version of the tradtional song: