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He was deceptively pedestaled as the king of cool, since he also imbued a sense of meek comedy and relatable passivity to the everyman- far more versatile in his screen presence than meets the eye. One of the greats

Jean-Pierre Adams, the former France and Paris Saint-Germain defender who spent 39 years in a coma, has died. He was 73.
Footballer went in for knee surgery in 1982 at age 34 and botched anesthesia left him in a coma from which he never recovered. Rather spooky.

Michael K. Williams. Bye, Omar.

MichaelB wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 2:31 pm Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Ugh, rough few weeks. But 88's a good run, especially after his stroke. (I haven't seen his last film, but at least in the trailer it looked like he made a substantial recovery if not a complete one.)

What a fucking awful day

Habit Rouge wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:16 pm Michael K. Williams. Bye, Omar.

RIP to one of the greats, and one of us.

Williams struggled with addiction for most of his adult life. Another sad reminder of the power of the disease, taking yet another casualty. "One of us," indeed. So, so tragic.

Habit Rouge wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:16 pm Michael K. Williams. Bye, Omar.

What... the fuck

My favorite Belmondo performance is in Leon Morin, Priest - he's such an unlikely priest that I think it works for the movie. It's as if he's been dropped into the village by aliens, and it's easy to see why his coming, in the circumstances of the war and occupation, would be such a fundamental shock to a character as inquisitive and casually defiant as Barny. And for that matter, it seems like a sly joke that the Belmondo persona, with its attendant misogynistic roughness, would be repurposed as an expression of chastity and priestly virtue.

But beyond just the optics of Belmondo in the part, I think it's a terrific performance, somehow suggestive of any number of personal struggles his character went through before the events of the movie. Who knows what? Maybe fights with the Church, fights with the Nazis and their collaborators, maybe with other perishes he'd led in the past ... probably all of the above. There's a real sadness to it, of both stinging lessons learned in the past combined with a faith that points towards something more optimistic for the future. In a bigger picture, it's very suitable for the middle of Melville's three occupation films - emotionally somewhere in between the impassioned (by Melville standards, anyway) sense of duty and commitment of Le Silence de la mer and the disillusioned intellectuality of Army of Shadows.

Anyway, sad that both leads of that film are now gone.

Nice appreciation, cosign

Nino Castelnuovo.

Just watched him last night in Massacre Time and thought he needs to be in more westerns!

Phil Schaap. A well-known but controversial figure, there's no doubting his passion for jazz. Though he has gotten a number of things wrong and has had professional conflicts with his peers, he's been the music's most visible and passionate advocate as a reissue producer, radio host and scholar for a very long time.

I've been listening to Phil Schaap for four decades on WKCR. Sure sometimes he'd talk too much and his digressions could have multiple digressions. But damn did he know his jazz history, and would delve into minutiae and make it all seem alive and vibrant. There were times during interviews with old jazz legends where he'd gently correct their memory or maybe supply a forgotten bass player's name on a particular 1940's date. As a kid in the late 50's and 60's he hung around old jazz musicians in his Queens neighborhood, absorbing their stories and learning their craft. Papa Jo Jones was a family friend and frequently young Schaap's babysitter and they'd listen to and discuss jazz records together. Schaap became a professor of jazz at a number of top schools despite having no academic background. But his whole life was a jazz masterclass. Had a wikipedic knowledge of jazz, and was always teaching and learning. A rather unique and remarkable figure in the latter history of jazz.

Lemmy Caution wrote: Wed Sep 08, 2021 8:53 pm I've been listening to Phil Schaap for four decades on WKCR. Sure sometimes he'd talk too much and his digressions could have multiple digressions. But damn did he know his jazz history, and would delve into minutiae and make it all seem alive and vibrant. There were times during interviews with old jazz legends where he'd gently correct their memory or maybe supply a forgotten bass player's name on a particular 1940's date. As a kid in the late 50's and 60's he hung around old jazz musicians in his Queens neighborhood, absorbing their stories and learning their craft. Papa Jo Jones was a family friend and frequently young Schaap's babysitter and they'd listen to and discuss jazz records together. Schaap became a professor of jazz at a number of top schools despite having no academic background. But his whole life was a jazz masterclass. Had a wikipedic knowledge of jazz, and was always teaching and learning. A rather unique and remarkable figure in the latter history of jazz.

Absolutely. In terms of getting it wrong, I wasn't referring to his radio programs but rather his reissue work. For example, well-intentioned remixes that don't quite get it right (thinking of the Miles Davis/Gil Evan box set), misidentifying occasional finds (thinking of Ella Fitzgerald's famous Berlin concert and how the CD reissue includes performances that actually didn't take place there), and the consistent mastering issues with his reissues (shrill, piercing sound from a terribly thin, bass-shy EQ curve, and the phasing issues introduced by incorrect playback of mono recordings). The behind-the-scenes politics is another thing (probably not dissimilar to what you'd find in academia), but considering how much he's done on so many levels, it would be difficult to bat 1.000 in every department. He really gave his life to an art form that was never that lucrative, and it's hard to imagine anyone else coming along with the same depth of knowledge. He really was irreplaceable in that regard.

MichaelB wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:56 pm Nino Castelnuovo.

swo17 wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 8:21 pm Just watched him last night in Massacre Time and thought he needs to be in more westerns!

He is of course going to be remembered the most as the romantic lead opposite Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (as well as appearing in Rocco and His Brothers for Visconti and The Creatures for
Agnès Varda) but I still want to put in a word for his amazingly committed performance in the giallo Strip Nude For Your Killer. That was a pretty fearless role to take on to portray a pretty vile character!

MichaelB wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 2:31 pm Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Criterion's A Tribute to Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Earlier this year Christian McBride's Jazz Night in America dedicated an hour to Phil Schaap. As McBride says in the intro, 99% of the time they feature a jazz musician, but Schaap was a unique figure worthy of consideration on his own terms.

Phil recounts how his parents were both working, so after school he'd go to family friend and Count Basie alum Jo Jones' house for a few hours. They'd watch Bugs Bunny cartoons, then Papa Jo would put on a record and play a song repeatedly and discuss what the music was up to, and finally pull down a book and have Phil read out loud for 20 minutes. That was a typical after-school/before dinner afternoon for young Phil Schaap. His father Walter Schaap was a noted jazz scholar, and after awhile the old jazz musicians in Queens just got used to a little kid popping in and wanting to hear stories about the old days of jazz. Sounds like something out of a movie ...

Susan Anway, the Magnetic Fields' first vocalist. (She sang on their first two albums.)

agnamaracs wrote: Fri Sep 10, 2021 4:58 pm Michael Constantine

He was also one of the potential suitors for Mary in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore show- yet another person associated with that show to pass recently, and one whose career and even appearance was so similar to his on-screen MTM-episode co-star Ed Asner.

Saadi Yacef, Algerian freedom fighter, politician, and co-star of Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers, at the ripe old age of 93

María Mendiola of the Spanish duo Baccara.

Ben Best, co-creator of Eastbound and Down

George Wein, Newport Jazz Festival co-founder, dies at 95

Wein pretty much invented the music festival. Starting with Newport. Also created the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. So along with Phil Schaap that's two hugely significant jazz historians/promoters/non-musicians gone in a week. Wein was an aspiring pianist and made a few recordings. But known as a promoter.