Charlie Parker

Bird

Clint Eastwood's moody, evocative direction and Forest Whitaker's strong, sensitive performance are the chief proponents to recommend an otherwise muted biopic of '40s jazz legend Charlie Parker, who fell victim to his chemical excesses and convinced the doctor who pronounced him dead that he was a good four decades older than he actually was. The film doesn't try to assign clear blame for Parker's demons, though the era's racism is addressed unflinchingly. Clearly a labor of love, Eastwood's movie structurally attempts to ape the angular music of bebop itself (there are flashbacks within flashbacks, which gets a little confusing), but doesn't quite capture the smolder of the period. Diane Venora registers strongly as Bird's wife, Chan, the woman who can't rescue Bird from the abyss into which he peers. --David Kronke

Bird The year: 1946. The event: Oakland's "Jazz at the Philharmonic." The music streaked into the unknown, daring listeners to grab hold and fly there, too. On stage was the creator of those new sounds: Charles "Yardbird" Parker. In the crowd was the 16-year-old who would someday bring Parker's extraordinary story to the screen: Clint Eastwood. "Americans don't have any original art except Western movies and jazz," observes Eastwood. Movie fans, of course, know that few heroes sit as tall in the saddles as Eastwood. Now the legendary America icon, whose Dirty Harry films have been praised for their jazz scores, ventures deeper into that other original American art. Eastwood produces and directs Bird, a film burnished with the magic of that 1946 concert encounter between legend and future legend and honored with an Academy Award for Best Sound in its spellbinding recreation of a man and his music. Like jazz itself, Bird rings with counterpoints and embellishments. Past and future overlap as the film explores Yardbird's soaring skill and destructive excesses. Forest Walker (Good Morning Vietnam, The Color of Money), in his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor performance, is a candle ablaze at both ends as Parker. Diane Venora (Wolfen, Ironweed, F/X) shares that glorious light, winning the New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress Award for her portrayal of steadfast wife Chan Parker. For Bird's wall-to-wall-to-everywhere digitally-processed Surround Stereo soundtrack, Eastwood went to the source: Parker's recordings (including cuts never before released). Backgrounds were electronically eliminated. These parker "solos" were then rerecorded with accompaniment by modern musicians attuned to Yardbird's bold improvisations. It's "like Bird was in the studio," says music supervisor Lennie Niehaus. He's elsewhere, too. That's why jazz buffs and now film fans have a saying 'Bird liv

Bird (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Clint Eastwood's moody, evocative direction and Forest Whitaker's strong, sensitive performance are the chief proponents to recommend an otherwise muted biopic of '40s jazz legend Charlie Parker, who fell victim to his chemical excesses and convinced the doctor who pronounced him dead that he was a good four decades older than he actually was. The film doesn't try to assign clear blame for Parker's demons, though the era's racism is addressed unflinchingly. Clearly a labor of love, Eastwood's movie structurally attempts to ape the angular music of bebop itself (there are flashbacks within flashbacks, which gets a little confusing), but doesn't quite capture the smolder of the period. Diane Venora registers strongly as Bird's wife, Chan, the woman who can't rescue Bird from the abyss into which he peers. --David Kronke

The year: 1946. The event: Oakland's "Jazz at the Philharmonic." The music streaked into the unknown daring listeners to grab hold and fly there too. On stage was the creator of those new sounds: Charles "Yardbird" Parker. In the crowd was the 16-year-old who would someday bring Parker's extraordinary story to the screen: Clint Eastwood. "Americans don't have any original art except Western movies and jazz" observes Eastwood. Movie fans of course know that few heroes sit as tall in the saddles as Eastwood. Now the legendary America icon whose Dirty Harry films have been praised for their jazz scores ventures deeper into that other original American art. Eastwood produces and directs Bird a film burnished with the magic of that 1946 concert encounter between legend and future legend and honored with an Academy Award for Best Sound in its spellbinding recreation of a man and his music. Like jazz itself Bird rings with counterpoints and embellishments. Past and future overlap as the film explores Yardbird's soaring skill and destructive excesses.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS UPC: 883929008650 Manufacturer No: 1000036880

Idlewild (Widescreen Edition)

The eclectic, pell-mell energy of hip-hop maestros Outkast gives a jolt to Idlewild, their first movie as a team (both have acted independent of each other: Andre Benjamin, a.k.a. Andre 3000, has previously appeared in Four Brothers and Be Cool, and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton was in ATL). Young bootlegger Rooster (Patton) and undertaker's son Percival (Benjamin) are best friends from childhood, but adult life has become woefully complex: Rooster's wife despises his life at the nightclub Church, Percival is stuck taking care of his depressed father, and an ambitious gangster (Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow, Crash) kills Rooster's mentor (Ving Rhames, Rosewood) to take over the gangster's bootlegging operation. The arrival of a high-handed cabaret singer (Paula Patton, Hitch) may help Rooster save Church, but when she and Percival fall in love, troubles multiply. Idlewild's musical numbers are packed with dynamic spectacle--not surprising, given that director Bryan Barber previously directed music videos for Outkast. Unfortunately, Barber's script is lackluster, taking some particularly cliche turns toward the end. Still, there are plenty of pop-out performances--singer Macy Gray turns up the heat in the opening number--that put Idlewild a step above such pop-star-driven flicks as Under the Cherry Moon and Glitter. --Bret Fetzer

Improvisation: Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and More

In 1944 Norman Granz and Gjon Mili collaborated on a film about jazz music called Jammin' the Blues. In 1950 they collaborated again on a film about jazz improvisation that was never completed. This footage has now been combined with other film of jazz improvisation shop by Granz at different times and locations to create this new film. Included is material by Mili in 1950 Duke Ellington at the Cote D'Azur Count Basie at Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977 Joe Pass in 1979 Ella Fitzgerald in 1979 and Oscar Peterson at Montreux in 1977. Extras of Granz narrated by Nat Hentoff portraits by David Stone Martin extra rushes interviews photo gallery and original 1944 Jammin' theSong Titles:Opening Title Ballade Celebrity Ad Lib Pennies From Heaven Blues For Greasy (Mili) Blues for Joan Miro (Ellington) Nob's Blues Kidney Stew These Foolish Things (Basie) Ain't Misbehavin' Prelude To a Kiss (Pass) Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good (Fitzgerald) Ali & Frazier (Peterson).System Requirements:Running Time: 280 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSIC DVD/CONCERTS Rating: NR UPC: 801213906093 Manufacturer No: EE39060-9

Elvis by the Presleys

The King of Rock and Roll would have turned 70 in 2005, the same year Elvis by the Presleys was released. An impressive number, but it's a pea in the ocean compared to the amount of posthumous products bearing his name; and the really amazing part is that some of them actually manage to shed new light on this much-studied icon. Assuming one has the time, stamina, and interest to wade through the enormous amount of material presented on Elvis by the Presleys, this ambitious, well-made documentary-reminiscence certainly falls into that category.

The presence and participation of Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla, and daughter Lisa Marie, as well as Priscilla's parents and sister, Elvis' first cousin, and "Memphis Mafia" member Jerry Schilling, lend an air of authenticity to the project. There isn't a lot here about Elvis' music, although the interpolation of many clips from his TV appearances, movies, concert performances, and recordings more than adequately convey the singer's ineffable (and apparently eternal) appeal. Elvis by the Presleys is more specifically designed to provide an inside look at the day-to-day life of Presley, his family, and those in his immediate orbit, and on that level it succeeds rather well.

There is a lot of talk here--nearly four and half hours' worth (including bonus material), spread out over two discs. Some of the territory covered is yawn-inducingly familiar: Elvis was well-mannered but moody, he was exceedingly generous, he loved Christmas, he appreciated his fans, and on and on. But there are more surprising (at least to the casual fan) revelations as well: Presley was an accomplished horseman; he was not only a good Christian but a voracious reader with an interest in spiritual as well as purely religious matters (he even joined the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles); and he suffered mightily from insomnia. Moreover, while this is a loving tribute, it's not hagiography. Priscilla makes it clear that she and everyone else around Elvis were expected to surrender their own lives to suit his needs and whims, a demand she eventually found unendurable. Nor do they gloss over Elvis' final years, when he was fat, drug-ridden, and disillusioned. Little matter that Elvis Presley is dead. Long live the King! --Sam Graham

ELVIS BY THE PRESLEYS, a new entertainment special that will feature a collection of new, intimate interviews with his former wife, Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, and their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, includes exclusive, never-before-seen television performances, photographs from the Presley Estate archives and Presley family home movies.

In the special, Priscilla and Lisa Marie speak with unguarded candor about their lives with the legendary Elvis Presley and offer an intimate look at their family and private life. Rare interviews with Elvis's first cousin, Patsy Presley Geranen, and Priscilla's parents, Ann and Paul Beaulieu, are also featured.

Vintage, never-before-seen performance footage will be interwoven with photographs from the Presley Estate archives and press coverage of Elvis over the years. Private home movies of the Presley family illustrate and illuminate his story with vivid detail, honest insight and great warmth. Different aspects of Elvis's life, including his tours, his time in Hollywood and his home life, are depicted with the insight that only his family can bring. His career ups and downs, his kindness and generosity and his human frailties are all brought to light as well as a reflection on his place in entertainment history and his enduring legacy.

The Story of Jazz (Masters of American Music)

Produced as the title segment to a six-part series, this 90-minute documentary traces the evolution of jazz from its 19th-century origins in New Orleans's Congo Square, where slaves first introduced American listeners to the complex rhythms and earthy textures of African music. How that cultural diaspora combined with European and American folk, classical, and popular styles to become jazz, "America's classical music," is an oft-told tale, but it's handsomely served here by an intelligent script shaped by veteran jazz journalist Chris Albertson, and a well-chosen array of performances: Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Lunceford, Charles Mingus, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, and Gil Evans all appear, representing as complete a pantheon of major innovators and influences as could be hoped for. Period footage, including both stills and rare film clips, and interviews with musicians and scholars round out a portrait equally appropriate for hard-core jazz fans and novice listeners looking for a point of entry. --Sam Sutherland

Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker

This 1987 film represents the first substantial documentary devoted to virtuoso saxophonist and bebop icon Charlie Parker, whose wildly inventive style and hip charisma made him a legend well before his untimely death at 34. Parker's huge, ultimately self-destructive appetites and sad demise long ago confirmed him as a poster boy for the doomed romanticism associated with the jazz life, and arguably apotheosized in a number of the bop era's most brilliant players, but while the film doesn't ignore Parker's life as a long-term heroin addict, the portrait hews more closely to exploring his creative genesis.

Through film clips, stills, and interviews with family members, musical peers, and writers, we follow Parker from his native Kansas City, Kansas, through his apprenticeship with band leaders Jay McShann and Bennie Moten, and on to New York. There, Parker would step forward as a de facto co-architect (with erstwhile partner Dizzy Gillespie, among others) of bebop, the small-group style that hot-wired swing rhythms and pop melodies with breakneck tempi, inventive harmonies, and extended improvisations, leaving behind the terra firma of swing for the high wire of a musician's music that mainstream listeners initially found daunting to follow.

Liberally scored with Parker's best-known performances, Celebrating Bird represents one of the most literate jazz documentaries extant, thanks to writer and codirector Gary Giddins, one of America's most thoughtful jazz writers, and Toby Byron, the producer behind the Masters of American Music series including The Story of Jazz. Engaging interviews with McShann, Gillespie, drummer Roy Haynes, veteran jazz writer Leonard Feather, first wife Rebecca Parker Davis, and final companion Chan Parker provide a balance of musical analysis and personal insight. For Bird's fans, this is a treat; for newly converted listeners, the story represents a keystone to the history of the music's crucial transition from swing to bop and beyond. --Sam Sutherland

Celebrating Bird is a revealing look at an enigmatic yet endlessly appealing man, who soared to the heights of creative freedom but couldn't beat a lifelong addiction to heroin. It includes a TV appearance with Dizzy Gillespie and rare footage with jazz greats including Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Kenny Clarke and Lucky Thompson, Lester Young, among others. This exciting soundtrack contains many of Parker's finest recordings including: Ballade, Yardbird Suite, Relaxin' At Camarillo, Just Friends, Koko, Confirmation, Au Privave, Kim, and Bloomdido.

The Last of the Blue Devils - The Kansas City Jazz Story

Kansas City in the 1930s was a wild, wide-open place. Under political boss Tom Pendergast, the booze flowed freely, prostitution and gambling flourished, and the Depression pretty much passed the city by, making it an ideal spawning ground for some great music. Pianist-bandleader Count Basie, saxophone immortals Lester Young and Charlie Parker, and blues belters Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing were all working there, along with a host of lesser- known but equally formidable musicians, and they all played the blues, Kansas City style.

Director Bruce Ricker's 90-minute The Last of the Blue Devils chronicles the 1979 reunion of many of these legendary players, combining interviews, vintage film footage, photos, and some inimitably swinging performances by Basie, Turner, pianist Jay McShann, and many others to create an intimate, good- natured portrait of what one old-timer calls the "cool, relaxed sound" of the city. The camaraderie among these men, all of whom are colorful raconteurs (drummer Ernie Williams's harangues to some bemused local kids are especially entertaining), is palpable. But it's the music, unsurprisingly, that's the main attraction; performances include some familiar tunes, like Turner's "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and a Basie big band version of "Night Train" (featuring tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, the tune's composer) that's as greasy as the local barbecue. The Last of the Blue Devils is an absolute delight. --Sam Graham

The Further Perils of Laurel and Hardy

THE FURTHER PERILS OF LAUREL & HARDY is a career retrospective of one of the world's greatest comedy duos. This compilation by Robert Youngson charts every stage of Laurel & Hardy's rise to fame. Featuring examples of the comedy duo's solo work with cli

Founding Fathers of Be Bop