Film: A "Gold Standard" gangster flick passes its Silver Anniversary

On this day in 1990, the Martin Scorsese-directed Mafia film Goodfellas, starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco and Joe Pesci, opens in theaters around the United States. The movie, which was based on the best-selling 1986 book Wiseguy, by the New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi, tells the true story of the mobster-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill (Liotta), from the 1950s to the 1980s. Goodfellas earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Pesci won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the psychotic mobster Tommy DeVito.

Martin Scorsese, who was born on November 17, 1942, in New York City, received critical acclaim for one of his earliest films, Mean Streets (1973), which marked the first time he worked with Robert De Niro. The two men also collaborated on Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and The King of Comedy (1982). FollowingGoodfellas, in which De Niro played the Irish mobster Jimmy Conaway, the actor collaborated with Scorsese on Cape Fear (1991), which co-starred Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange, and Casino (1995), which was co-written by Pileggi and co-starred Pesci and Sharon Stone. Scorsese’s movie credits also include Gangs of New York(2002), The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006), which earned him his first Best Director Oscar after five previous nominations in the same category.

Prior to co-starring in Goodfellas, Ray Liotta, who was born on December 18, 1954, appeared in such films as Something Wild (1986), with Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels, and Field of Dreams (1989), with Kevin Costner. Liotta’s later credits include Cop Land (1997), with Sylvester Stallone, Hannibal (2001), with Anthony Hopkins, and Narc (2002).

Joe Pesci, who was born on February 9, 1943, appeared in such movies as Raging Bull, Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) before his award-winning performance in Goodfellas. His later film credits include the blockbuster Home Alone (1990), in which he played a bumbling burglar; the comedy My Cousin Vinny (1992), with Marisa Tomei; and A Bronx Tale (1993), which marked Robert De Niro’s directorial debut.

Lorraine Bracco, who was born on October 2, 1954, earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in Goodfellas as Henry Hill’s wife, Karen. Bracco, who began her career as a model, later appeared in such movies as Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), Radio Flyer (1992), The Basketball Diaries(1995), with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Riding in Cars with Boys (2001). She is perhaps best known for her role as Tony Soprano’s psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the hit HBO series The Sopranos, which originally aired from 1999 to 2007.

Music: Saluting a Journeyman Sax player who made fantastic musical journeys

- from Jazz Promo Services Saturday, September 24, 2016 • 5 pm Saint Peter’s Church Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, NYC BARRY HARRIS LEROY WILLIAMS RONI BEN-HUR TARDO HAMMER RAY DRUMMOND MELBA JOYCE BILL SAXTON JOE MAGNARELLI TYLER MITCHELL MURRAY WALL DAVID WILLIAMS RICK GERMANSON RALPH LALAMA LEE HUDSON GEORGE COLEMAN TEX ALLEN LOUIS HAYES NEAL SMITH LARRY RIDLEY RICHARD CLEMONS GEORGE CABLES VICTOR LEWIS ADDITIONAL PERFORMERS TO BE ANNOUNCED SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Born in Goodman, Mississippi, Charles Davis was raised in Chicago and graduated from DuSable High School before studying at the Chicago School of Music. Davis also studied privately with John Hauser. He played with Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Sun Ra, Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Philly Joe Jones, Shirley Scott, Illinois Jacquet, Elvin Jones and Ahmad Jamal to name a few. He also performed and recorded with Kenny Dorham, with whom he was associated musically for many years.   He recorded and toured the world accompanying the Clifford Jordan Big Band, Barry Harris Jazz Ensemble, Dizzy Reece, Aaron Bell and the Duke Ellington Tribute Orchestra, Roni Ben-Hur and the El Mollenium Band, the Charles Davis All Stars, Apollo Hall of Fame Band and was the musical librarian for Spike Lee's Mo Better Blues. In 1964 he won Downbeat's International Jazz Critics Poll for the baritone saxophone and in 1984 he was named a BMI Jazz Pioneer.   Davis instructed private students from The New School; taught at the Lucy Moses School and for over 25 years was an instructor at Jazzmobile and also trained students internationally.   He leaves behind his legacy in his recordings and his family: daughters Linda Harris and Talya Wilkinson, sons Louis Davis and Lewis Holmes, grandchildren Chantell Harris, Danielle Walker, Fyielle Howard, Rachelle Jennings and Sha- keem Jennings, seven great-grandchildren, a host of relatives, friends, fellow musicians, students, and fans.   He has released multiple albums and is featured on over 100 recordings. His final release FOR LOVE OF LORI a tribute to his late wife Lori Samet Davis with Charles Davis (ts), Steve Davis (tb), Rick Germanson (p), David Williams (bass), Joe Magnarelli (tp), Neal Smith (d) Reade Street Records (2014). Other releases include: BLUE GARDENIA Charles Davis (ts), Cedar Walton (p), Peter Washington (b), Joe Farnsworth (d) Reade Street Records; OUR MAN IN COPENHAGEN Charles Davis (ts), Sam Yahel, Ben Street, Kresten playing the music of Bent Jaedig. Fresh Sound Records (2008); LAND OF DREAMS Charles Davis (ts), Tardo Hammer (p), Lee Hudson (b), Jimmy Wormworth (d) Smalls Records (2007); INGIA! Charles Davis (bs), Gerald Hayes (as), Ronnie Mathews (p), Tex Allen (tp), David Williams (b), Louis Hayes (d) with his son Louis Davis on guitar. Strata-East Records (1974)    Charles Davis forged his bracing, bebop tenor saxophone style in Chicago’s clubs and jam sessions, but it was only when he began to specialise on the more cum- bersome baritone that he found his true voice and gained wider international recognition. It was his instrumental com- mand and solo fluency on baritone that brought Davis several recording oppor- tunities and led band leaders as varied as the trumpeter Clark Terry and jazz mystic Sun Ra to recruit him for their touring orchestras. It also led to Davis combining with Gary Smulyan and Ronnie Cuber in the memorable Three Baritone Saxophone Band which played Ronnie Scott’s in 1998 – my first encoun- ter with the majesty of his playing. (John Gilmore and Clifford Jordan (mid 50s)  Latterly, Davis had returned to the tenor saxophone as his main instrument, fronting his own quartet and playing with the all-star Jimmy Heath big band while still taking the occasional tour with Marshall Allen’s Sun Ra Arkestra.

Charles Davis, jazz saxophonist, composer and educator, born 20 May 1933; died 15 July 2016 –– Peter Vacher The Guardian

Quote of the Day #1

Our first in a new series comes from William Saroyan (1908-1981), the American dramatist, author and Pulitzer Prize winner.He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film adaptation of his novel The Human Comedy.
He wrote:

"Try as much as possible to be wholly alive; when you laugh, laugh like hell, and when you get angry, get good and angry. You'll be dead soon enough"

words to live by

Where WoRds WanDer #5: Pull the wool over one's eyes

The actual source is unknown, and although this expression was first recorded in America (1839), it's thought to be of older, English origin. Wool here is the hair of wigs. In the 19th century, the status of men was often indicated by the size of their wigs - hence our word bigwig to indicate importance. 

Judges often wore these poor-fitting wigs, which frequently slipped over the eyes, and it may have been that a clever lawyer who tricked a judge bragged about his deception by saying that he pulled the wool over his eyes. Such bigwigs were worth robbing. 

Street thugs would pull the wig down over the victims eyes in order to confuse him - the wool had been pulled over his eyes. 

'The American': Sex, Violence and....Silence?

Within the first 10 minutes of this movie, star (and producer) George Clooney has had sex and killed three persons (one them the sex partner he enjoyed the night before) before calmly heading to Rome, Italy.

Who were they? why did he kill them? Why did he feel threatened by them? Helmed by Anton Corbijn, this movie seems more skilled at raising questions, although that's not altogether a bad thing.

Of course, by the time Clooney's character links with his contact Larry (Bruce Altman of this fall’s Peter and Vandy), we've gathered that he is a contract killer. What then ensues is bit of a "working holiday" as Jack holes up in a small Italian town and relishes being away from death - but not far from weaponry - for a spell.
For Jack is hard at work (and quietly too), fabricating a special rifle for an assignment in which he is personally not invovled, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten of Focus’ award-winning In Bruges). Uncountable minutes pass in silence as Jack applies himself to the craft. The reverie is broken only by his surprising friendship with the local priest, Father Benedetto (Italian screen and stage veteran Paolo Bonacelli) and sex with local prostitute Clara (Italian leading lady Violante Placido).
Corbijn, hitherto known as the creative force behind videos for the likes of U2 and Depeche Mode, puts his prior photographic background to good use, giving us cobblestone lanes, and red-roof villas jumbled against hillside backdrops.

His deliberate pacing will faze many a local Jamaican viewer, weaned on thrill-a-minute action schlock (A Facebook discussion prior to this screening saw a youngster flat-out stating that "Clooney is for old people"). There is a chase (Clooney on Vespa, bad guy in compact), there is gunfire, and there is graphic nudity and some sex, but overall the film retains the coiled tension of the classic Euro-thrillers of the 70s and 80s.

In the words of Depeche Mode: enjoy the silence - and the spaces in between