Que viva Duke Ellington!

Duke Ellington was born April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C. A major figure in the history of jazz music, his career spanned more than half a century, during which time he composed thousands of songs for the stage, screen and contemporary songbook. He created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in Western music and continued to play what he called "American Music" until shortly before his death in 1974. - See the complete Biography here.

Celebrating Ellington's birthday, Bobby Sanabria has a full day with the two Afro-Cuban Jazz orchestra he leads.

Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra performed under the bless of Duke Ellington statue at 5th Ave. & 110th St. A lot of fun and joy in a beautiful spring day!

Now, I'm going to the second round. The New School Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra will perform in 50 minutes at Nuyorican Poet's Cafe in 3rd St between B and C avenues. See you there.

Guess it right

Where had I been filming this evening?

Accompanied by Sam Allen.

The New School

One Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra is not enough for Bobby Sanabria's energy. So he leads, as maestro and teacher, two of them: one at Manhattan School of Music and another at The New School, both in Manhattan.

In the day I film Kyla, I called Mr Sanabria to ask about a time for doing his interview. Instead scheduling it, he asked me to go to The New School to film the senior recital of a multi-talented student: Matt Berman.

I went there and recorded the recital with the assistance of the dear friend Fernando Nogueira (later in that day we went to the crazy Japanese place posted before).


Matt Berman, saxophone from Celina Lerner on Vimeo.

Here is Matt's bio from the New School Website:

Although Matt Berman is only twenty-one, the New York City-based alto saxophonist, composer, and singer already boasts a resume with which any jazz enthusiast couldn’t help but be impressed. Bobby Sanabria, Slide Hampton, Bobby Watson, Jimmy Heath, Adam Holzman, Bernard Purdie, and Gerald Clayton are among the major- league musicians Berman has studied and played with along the way. He is a product of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Performing Arts where he was accepted into The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz High School division; and now, a soon-to-be graduate of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Formed in 2010, Berman’s band Matt and The City Limits released a highly successful EP distributed through Island/Def Jam records; showcasing Berman’s writing, arranging, and overall musicianship as a saxophonist and singer. He has been the talk of many jazz authors, with featured articles in The Aquarian Magazine, In Tune Magazine (where Berman is paired with Bruno Mars and Peter Frampton), and Hellhound Music. Seven time Grammy nominated drummer Bobby Sanabria states, “The Legacy of the alto saxophone is well in hand with Matt Berman, who’s among a crop of young players keeping the tradition of Hodges, Bird and Cannonball alive while forging new ground in the 21st century.” In addition to music, Berman has proven himself a successful actor with roles on many television shows and films including HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and The CW’s The Carrie Diaries. Matt Berman is a “total package” performer who has just begun his already thriving career. This is just the first of much more music to come.

Fun in Harlem

My dear classmate Sam Allen was filming with me in the MSM Afro-Cuban Orchestra performance at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem on March 21st. In the end of the party, oops, in the end of the concert he made this video with his cellphone.

El corazón latino

There's a heart in the MSM Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra that beats in the rhythm of La Clave. Jesus Viramontes is the trombonist with Mexican roots, maybe the only musician in the group that grew up listen to those Latin rhythms that are on basis of Latin Jazz.

He came from California with his trombone, much hope and the love of his life. Where do we find this kind of amor hoy en día? I was thrilled with this demonstration of love - recorded yesterday in Central Park.


Irresistible, por Jesus Viramontes from Celina Lerner on Vimeo.

Technical note:

I will be very honest. In 15 years as an independent documentary filmmaker, I never bothered much with the audio of my films. The voice is audible? It is possible to understand what they're talking about? So it is great!

But everything changed with La Clave. The film is about music and I have to have a good audio. Little by little, with the huge help of new friends, this movie is entering in the audio world. External audio recorder and a good lavalier. I hope we can do a good sound to you guys.

I'd like to thanks my virtual friends from Profissionais do Video community, special thanks to: Yuri Kopcak, Keila Angela de Souza, Fabio Carneiro Leão, Werner Figueiredo, Mauricio Domene.

This video was recorder with a Canon 60D and the audio is just the sound of the lavalier mic (Countryman B3) recorder in a external audio recorder (Tascam DR-40). That's the fourth time I used this kit and I guess now I'm more confortable with it.

Good vibes, good food, good luck

The work day started yesterday with the trumpeter Kyla Moscovich, then I went straight to The New School to film Matt Berman senior recital. I came back home, slept four hours and took the slow weekender train all the way up to finally found Jesus at Central Park. Three different film locations in a row. I'm working more the TV daily news crew.

The tradition of TV news crew set up that after shot we must go to a restaurant and enjoy good food as locals. That's one of the best ways to know exciting places around the city.

It was my pleasure to end the evening in an incredible Japanese restaurant in Saint Mark's Place.

Better than the izacaya-crazy place, was the company of Fernando Nogueira, dear Brazilian friend who was my assistant this time. He was just looking for a some fun and I told him about this jazz concert I was filming. I've just forgotten to tell him he would have to take care of the audio ;)

 

The girl

Kyla Moscovich is The Girl in MSM Afro-Cuban Orchestra. She plays the trumpet. the same instrument her dad plays and love. Playing music and loving it has no scientific method. It's something there is in the blood of the players or in the air of those one who breath music. Listen to it is not enough, you have to feel it. And then, you will be able to live it.

Waiting for Jesus

This Wednesday morning I waited for Jesus. It was a sunny day in Central Park. The weather was comfy and I was happy with the beginning of the spring.

In my way from Brooklyn to Manhattan I was thinking how cool is meeting people. When our path crosses other person path, life hapens. We learn, we feel, we view new realities, we experience new points of view.

As the Brazilian poet wrote: "A vida e' a arte do encontro", life is the art of meeting up.

So there I was waiting for Jesus. But before my rabbi having a heart attack, I feel obligate to explain that the Jesus I'm talking about is not the famous one. I was wating for the not so famous but also not anonymous trombone player Jesus Viramontes. (who is texting me right now)

We arranged to meet in Central Park, near the 110th - St. Cathedral Pkway Station. I understood: in the station. He thought: in the park. And we both, each in one place, waited for the other. Although life is the art of meeting up, there is a lot of mismatching in the life, as Vinicius de Moraes completed his verse.

Check the no-meeting and part of the Vinicius de Moraes song with a cool introduction in Spanish:



A arte do encontro from Celina Lerner on Vimeo.

Well, the day was beautiful and it was good to walk in the sun. We cleared the misunderstanding during the day and rescheduled the interview for Saturday. Jesus has an important role in the film, since he was one of the two students with Latin roots in the orchestra. The other latina is Kyla Moskovish, who should be interviewed this afternoon. Hasta luego, amigos.

It's all about Jazz

Finaly music! That's what this film is about, right?

Here is a Duke Ellington's song performed by MSM Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria at Dizzi's Club. Prepare your ears and press play:




This song is a little sample of a full night's edition led by bluesman Ladell McLin. That's audivisual! Hard work, good friends and fun.

Thank you, dear Ladell McLin for choosing this song and mixing it!

Summertime!

In this beautiful spring day with temperatures reaching 82°F, we interviewed the young (22 years old he said!) and talented trumpeter Ben Benack III. Yes, III. The third Ben in a line of jazz musicians.

Sitting on a stair just across the street from the Manhattan School of Music, where he lives, Ben talked about his family, New York, Bobby Sanabria, adult life and love, oh love!

Stereotypes

Many, many years ago, I received a funny email about the personality of each musician in an orchestra. I look for it in Google and voilà! The text is in Portuguese, I'll translate some of it soon.

Meeting the young musicians of the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra of the Manhattan School of Music, I ended up recalling the text and I started to notice the personality of each one relating it wich their instruments.

I still don’t know if all of them fit to the stereotypes… So I decided to do a game: look to the pictures at right the column and try to figure out which instrument those young musicians play.

Let’s play!

La Ensaladera

"Afro-Cuban Jazz was born out of a cultural melting pot that is synonymous with the New York City experience", wrote maestro Bobby Sanabria in his Clave Chronicles.

Coincidence or not, one of the first stories I found making this film was the composing of “La Ensaladera”, a ballad turned into mambo composed and arranged by Takao Heisho.

Talking about the piece, Bobby told me a delicious story: Takao, this amazing musician that came from Japan to the U.S. looking for jazz, used to eat in a restaurant. In this place, there was a girl that made salads. So he composed this song to la ensaladera, the girl that make salads.

Seduced by this romantic story, I interviewed Takao. When I asked him about the inspiration for “La Ensaladera”: surprise! There was no girl in the story!

“La Ensaladera” is a metaphor for NYC. It means salad bowl. For Takao, the city and more specifically his jazz experience in the city could be compared to a salad bowl where you put a lot of different ingredients together to make one thing.

The teacher wrote melting pot. The student said salad bowl. The convergence between both metaphors is clear.

But they have an important difference.  In the melting pot, you put some different ingredients together, heat them, make them dissolve and then merge as a new and homogeny thing. Es algo que suena muy latino: la mescla, el mestizaje. In the salad bowl, you put tomato, cucumber, lettuce, onion, mushroom, nuts, berries even pasta and a sauce. Everything is in the same pot, they are together making a new thing: the salad. But they are still themselves. The tomato is a tomato and you can identify it. The cucumber also.  And so on.  

As Brazilian, I wish NYC was a melting pot. Estoy acostumbrada y me gusta la mescla. Pero lo que veo en la ciudad es la ensalada. Maybe in the 1930’s, when Mario Bauzá and his brother-in-law, Francisco “Machito” Grillo formed an orchestra combining the harmonic sophistication of a jazz orchestra percussion of AfroCuban rhythms, the city was more open to fusion in music and between people. But we are in 2013, and I have to agree with Takao. NYC is a salad bowl.

Takao Heisho