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List Price: $22.99Price: $20.49You Save: $2.5 (11%)Render - Spanning Time with Ani DiFranco
Actors: Ani DiFranco, Righteous Babe
ASIN : B000066BWI
Sales Rank : 59364
Studio : RIGHTEOUS BABE
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0748731702694
UPC : 748731702694
Release Date : December 11, 2002
Publisher : RIGHTEOUS BABE
Manufacturer : RIGHTEOUS BABE
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : RIGHTEOUS BABE
Running Time : 112
DescriptionJoin Ani DiFranco, her band, and members of the extended Righteous Babe family as they crisscross the country in this long-awaited, one-of-a-kind portrait of the Li'l Folksinger at work. Videographers spent years on Ani's trail, capturing her onstage, in the studio, and on the tour bus--footage which Ani herself shaped into a very personal self-portrait. The resulting movie, which draws on material from as far back as 1997, focuses on her 2000 and 2001 tours. This impressionistic collage takes you way behind the scenes; you'll watch a new song take shape and learn the stories behind some favorite older ones. Over two dozen songs are featured, including two brand new Ani songs and previously unreleased live versions of many of her classics. As dynamic, thought-provoking, and fun as one of her concerts, Render gives you a sneak peek into Ani's life and music in her own words, on her own terms. It's a visual live album, it's a road film, it's an art flick, it's a document of a movement in time. Amazon.comRender isn't a documentary or concert video, but a combination of the two--bathed in the casual intimacy of a home movie. In the 2002 film (directed by Hilary Goldberg and DiFranco), the folksinger is shown backstage with her band, in rehearsal, in concert, in the studio, etc. The highlights are the vibrant live performances from Austin, Texas; Knoxville, Tennessee; and New Haven, Connecticut. DiFranco comes in to her own on stage--singing, chatting, relating--she has the charisma of Janis Joplin and the political savvy of Joan Baez, along with the punk rock spunk of Chrissie Hynde (her "Bad Boys Get Spanked" T-shirt testifies to that). Over 20 songs are featured, including such favorites as "The Slant" (from her 1989 debut) and "Cradle and All." Guest performers include Sekou Sundiata and Bitch & Animal, a duo on her Righteous Babe label. Render is the ideal accompaniment to DiFranco's live CD, Living in Clip. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Reviews for the Render - Spanning Time with Ani DiFranco
List Price: $24.99Price: $22.49You Save: $2.5 (10%)American Caruso
Actor: Mario Lanza
ASIN : B00003M5GD
Sales Rank : 22038
Studio : Kultur Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780769712956
ISBN : 0769712959
UPC : 032031129597
Release Date : December 30, 1999
Publisher : Kultur Video
Manufacturer : Kultur Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Kultur Video
Running Time : 70
DescriptionMario Lanza did more to bring classical music and opera to the masses through the popular art of movies than anyone else. His unique tenor voice was known to millions through such hit films as The Great Caruso and The Toast of New Orleans, and on such chart-topping records as "Be My Love." The chubby "singing truck driver" from Philadelphia became a Hollywood legend, only to be destroyed by his own excess. In a brief twelve years, Lanza went from being a star to an overeating has-been. He died tragicaly at the age 38 alone and near penniless in a diet clinic under mysterious circumstances. Through clips of his popular recordings, and from interviews his story is now told. This revealing video profile presents the highs and lows of this remarkable performer. Video hosted by Placido Domingo. 1983, color, 70 minutes.
Reviews for the American Caruso
New Price: $12.59Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back
Actors: Bob Dylan, Albert Grossman, Bob Neuwirth, Joan Baez, Alan Price
ASIN : B000035P7X
Sales Rank : 15459
Director : D.A. Pennebaker
Studio : Docurama
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780767022163
ISBN : 0767022165
UPC : 767685944738
Number Of Discs : 1
Release Date : December 04, 2000
Publisher : Docurama
Manufacturer : Docurama
Label : Docurama
Running Time : 96
DescriptionWhen acclaimed documentary filmmaker D A Pennebaker (Monterey Pop, The War Room) filmed Bob Dylan during a three week concert tour of England in the Spring of 1965, he had no idea he was about to create one of teh most intimate glimpses of the rock legend Amazon.com essential videoBoth a classic documentary and a vital pop-cultural artifact, D.A. Pennebaker's portrait of Bob Dylan captures the seminal singer-songwriter on the cusp of his transformation from folk prophet to rock trendsetter. Shot during Dylan's 1965 British concert tour, Don't Look Back employs an edgy vérité style that was, and is, a snug fit with the artist's own consciously rough-hewn persona. Its handheld black-and-white images and often-gritty London backdrops suggest cinematic extensions of the archetypal monochrome portraits that graced Dylan's career-making early-'60s album jackets. Pennebaker's access to the legendarily private troubadour enables us to witness Dylan's shifting moods as he performs, relaxes with his entourage (including then lover Joan Baez, road manager Bob Neuwirth, and poker-faced manager Albert Grossman), and jousts with other musicians (notably Animals alumnus Alan Price and Scottish folksinger Donovan), fans, and press. It's a measurement of the filmmaker's acuity that the conversations are often as gripping as Dylan's solo performances. Grossman's machinations with British promoters, Baez's hip serenity, a grizzled British journalist's surrender to the fact of Dylan's artistry, and the artist's own taunting dismissal of a clueless sycophant are all absorbing. With the exception of the studio recording of "Subterranean Homesick Blues," the live performances (including five newly restored, complete audio tracks excised from the original film but included on the DVD version) are constrained by crude audio gear. Their urgency, however, is timeless, as is Pennebaker's film, a legitimate cornerstone for any serious rock video collection. --Sam Sutherland
Reviews for the Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back
List Price: $24.98Price: $22.49You Save: $2.49 (10%)Richard Rodgers - The Sweetest Sounds
Actors: Bob Dylan, Albert Grossman, Bob Neuwirth, Joan Baez, Alan Price
ASIN : B00005UM4B
Sales Rank : 76093
Director : Richard Rodgers
Studio : Wellspring
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780794201685
ISBN : 0794201687
UPC : 720917315324
Release Date : December 19, 2002
Publisher : Wellspring
Manufacturer : Wellspring
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Wellspring
Running Time : 117
Amazon.comHow did some of the most beautiful melodies of the 20th century come out of a man described as depressive, hypochondriacal, remote, and alcoholic? This stirring 2001 documentary cannot answer that question about Richard Rodgers, but it provides a near-perfect blend of biography, personal reminiscence, and music appreciation. The latter comes via experts sitting at their pianos: Richard Rodney Bennett, Barbara Carroll, Andrew Lloyd Webber. The composer himself gives a lucid explanation of his working method, as he demonstrates how the lyric of "It Might as Well Be Spring" inspired the melody. Interviewees include Rodgers's daughters, who provide suitably unsentimental memories of dad. At the heart of the story is Rodgers's brilliant collaborations with two great lyricists: mercurial Lorenz Hart, whose problems made Rodgers look non-neurotic, and steady Oscar Hammerstein II. Ample clips give the best evidence of all, from Frank Sinatra upper-cutting "The Lady Is a Tramp" to John Coltrane jazzily bending "My Favorite Things." --Robert Horton
Reviews for the Richard Rodgers - The Sweetest Sounds
New Price: $12.84Speaking in Strings
Actor: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
ASIN : B00005J75T
Sales Rank : 17736
Director : Paola di Florio
Studio : New Video Group
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780767034852
ISBN : 0767034856
UPC : 767685947937
Release Date : December 26, 2001
Publisher : New Video Group
Manufacturer : New Video Group
Label : New Video Group
Running Time : 75
DescriptionDescribed as "possessed, "frightening," and "brilliant," Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg has either enraged or enraptured critics while earning herself the nickname "the bad girl of the violin." Academy Award® nominee Speaking In Strings explores the controversial and fascinating life of this funny, fearless, irreverent, and world-renowned musician. A deeply private look at the woman behind all the accolades and controversy. DVD Features: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Biography; Docurama Previews; Interactive Menu; Scene Selection Amazon.comEmotional, raw, and revealing--those adjectives apply to the documentary Speaking in Strings and the person profiled, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, one of the world's most acclaimed violinists. The intense musician's professional journey, which began at Carnegie Hall when she was a teenager, was sidetracked when she accidentally cut off the tip of a finger and almost ended when she tried to commit suicide. Filmmaker Paola di Florio was a childhood friend, and this intimacy is reflected in frank oncamera interviews. ("Feeling more than anyone I know" can be phenomenal and "a damn curse," she says.) The concert footage is electrifying: Two weeks after the suicide attempt, a possessed Salerno-Sonnenberg once again plays Carnegie Hall. Her mother, friends, fellow musicians, and critics--who say she lets her emotions overpower the music--are heard from. The loudest voice, though, is the honest one of Salerno-Sonnenberg, consumed yet empowered by her talent. "It's amazing what you endure," she says, "when you must." --Valerie Nelson
Reviews for the Speaking in Strings
List Price: $14.98Price: $13.49You Save: $1.49 (10%)The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong
Actor: Louis Armstrong
ASIN : B00005B20K
Sales Rank : 75776
Studio : Winstar
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780794200671
ISBN : 0794200672
UPC : 720917312927
Release Date : December 26, 2001
Publisher : Winstar
Manufacturer : Winstar
Availability : Usually ships in 1 to 2 days
Label : Winstar
Running Time : 65
DescriptionWith archive footage, interviews, home movies and performances from television and movies, Danny Glover narrates this biography of the most recognizable and interesting figures in jazz and the history of the 20th century. Amazon.comYou would think there couldn't be anything else to say about Louis Armstrong after Ken Burns's Jazz, which elevated the trumpeter to the status of the 20th century's most important musical figure. But this hourlong program (produced in 1999, some two years before the Burns documentary began airing) equals and often surpasses Jazz by taking a less reverential, more personal approach. Not that Armstrong's monumental innovations and influence are neglected; inevitably, some of the same biographical and musical ground is covered, with several very familiar Jazz faces (like Wynton Marsalis and writer-critics Gary Giddins and Stanley Crouch) providing illumination. But we also get more clips from interviews with Armstrong himself (some from television shows hosted by the likes of David Frost, Jackie Gleason, and even Orson Welles) and those who knew him, like second wife Lil Hardin and longtime bassist Arvell Shaw, as well as some wonderful anecdotes (descriptions of Armstrong's first spouse, a razor-toting prostitute, who kept working after they married, and his audience with the Pope are priceless). Those and other elements show us a more intimate side of the great man than that afforded by Jazz's hagiography. But the most unusual aspect of The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong may be its interpolation of photographs and film not strictly related to Satchmo and his story. Unlike the stock footage used in most such documentaries, these shots (including views of Los Angeles, Paris, Miami, and other locales) tend toward the arty and abstract; some are in black and white, while others use infrared and other post-production effects. They are occasionally a little incongruous, but overall they provide the artful icing on this entertaining and informative cake. --Sam Graham
Reviews for the The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong
New Price: $55.25Leonard Bernstein - Reaching for the Note
Actors: Alexander Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, Nina Bernstein, John Corigliano, Jon Deak
ASIN : 6305154996
Sales Rank : 57439
Director : Susan Lacy
Studio : Winstar
Region Code : 0
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781572523760
ISBN : 6305154996
UPC : 720917301921
Release Date : December 24, 1998
Publisher : Winstar
Manufacturer : Winstar
Label : Winstar
Running Time : 117
Amazon.comOriginally aired on PBS's American Masters series, this evocative biography of the American composer, conductor, and de facto musical evangelist Leonard Bernstein offers a compelling balance of musical scholarship and personal insight. It's a fitting approach to the brilliant--and emotional--life and art of Bernstein, who elevated Broadway musical theater, demystified and democratized classical music for two generations of American children, and brought a true New Yorker's vigor and directness to his conducting. Writer-director Susan Lacy establishes the film's sympathetic tone in its opening shots of Bernstein's funeral cortege as it passed along Manhattan streets in 1990. Underscoring the footage is the elegiac second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, the final piece conducted by Bernstein at his final performance months earlier at Tanglewood. Scenes from that last concert (and a return to that slow, funereal march) are the inevitable conclusion of Lacy's film, which finds ample drama over the course of approximately two hours. Lacy traces the arc of Bernstein's career from his earliest triumphs as a young conductor through his Broadway successes (culminating in West Side Story), his historic network television outreach, the frustrations encountered over his "serious" compositions (often derided, ultimately vindicated), and his autumnal work abroad conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Bernstein's private demons--anguish over the tradeoff between a conductor's glory and a composer's productivity, the ridicule invited by his impassioned political activism, the conflict between his devotion to his family and his bisexuality, bouts of depression suffered in his later years--are addressed as well. Excellent archival footage and a literate script are enhanced by interviews with his brother and children; collaborators including Jerome Robbins, Isaac Stern, and Stephen Sondheim; and conductors including John Mauceri, Seiji Ozawa, and Michael Tilson Thomas. --Sam Sutherland
Reviews for the Leonard Bernstein - Reaching for the Note
New Price: $34.97Ella Fitzgerald - Something to Live For
Actors: Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Brown Jr., Norma Miller, Harry Edison, Tony Bennett
ASIN : B000034DDL
Sales Rank : 74602
Director : Charlotte Zwerin
Studio : Winstar
Region Code : 0
Format : Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781572527669
ISBN : 1572527668
UPC : 720917306223
Release Date : December 25, 2000
Publisher : Winstar
Manufacturer : Winstar
Label : Winstar
Running Time : 86
Amazon.comThe neo-pop divas of the late 20th century may have turned up the glamour, and a few even introduced formidable technical prowess, epitomized by Mariah Carey's seemingly helium-induced falsetto (the bane of canine fans everywhere) or Celine Dion's breast-beating, stentorian climaxes. Yet only a few verses from an earlier, charter member of the first-name-only club provides instant perspective: when Ella opened her mouth, that perfectly pitched, luminous voice could leap octaves without breaking a sweat, its tonal purity and immaculate phrasing creating that illusion of "effortlessness" achieved only through true artistry. Writer-director Charlotte Zwerin performs similar sleight of hand with this beautifully composed documentary, originally produced for public television's American Masters series. Created nearly four years after Ella Fitzgerald's death, Zwerin's film uses the lush voice and superb repertoire of "the First Lady of Song" to provide continuity while assembling convincing, if composite, narrative quotes gleaned from various interviews. The latter are noteworthy given the singer's lifelong modesty and insistence on privacy. Archival footage of early performances, as well as later television appearances, capture Ella's pilgrimage from Depression-era New York, through her discovery at the Apollo Theater and subsequent emergence as a swing vocalist and on to her long career as a matchless pop and jazz stylist. Tony Bennett is a sympathetic narrator, while added affection and insight are provided through interviews with some of the myriad jazz titans that accompanied her. Yet, ultimately, it's Ella's music, generously featured throughout, that proves most eloquent. As one of her definitive Gershwin favorites put it, "'Swonderful." --Sam Sutherland
Reviews for the Ella Fitzgerald - Something to Live For
List Price: $29.95Price: $26.99You Save: $2.96 (10%)The Art of Jean-Pierre Rampal - Radio Canada Telecasts 1956-66
Actors: Jean-Pierre Rampal, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, Alexander Brott
ASIN : B000083C70
Sales Rank : 90892
Studio : Video Artists Int'l
Region Code : 0
Format : Black & White, Classical, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0089948422792
UPC : 089948422792
Number Of Discs : 1
Release Date : December 28, 2003
Publisher : Video Artists Int'l
Manufacturer : Video Artists Int'l
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Video Artists Int'l
Running Time : 117
Reviews for the The Art of Jean-Pierre Rampal - Radio Canada Telecasts 1956-66
List Price: $24.98Price: $22.49You Save: $2.49 (10%)Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso
Actor: Meryl Streep
ASIN : B00004Y7D1
Sales Rank : 65822
Director : Karen Thomas
Studio : Winstar
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781572529212
ISBN : 1572529210
UPC : 720917310626
Release Date : December 07, 2000
Publisher : Winstar
Manufacturer : Winstar
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Winstar
Running Time : 60
Amazon.comThis American Masters production celebrating Isaac Stern is more a profile of the man than the musician. Fans hoping to hear Stern performing will have to settle for the briefest snippets of fiddling: a bar or two from Mendelssohn, a fragment of Rimsky-Korsakov, a taste of Beethoven. Though each of these begins enticingly, they all quickly fade into the background, little more than aural wallpaper behind the comments and testimonials from such notables as Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Itzhak Perlman--as well as some less-expected commentators such as Gregory Peck and Jimmy Connors. But the portrait that all give of this marvelous octogenarian is almost as dazzling and multifaceted as hearing him play. After all, master violinist is only one of the hats Stern can wear with aplomb. There's also the flashy celebrity who provided the music for Hollywood films like Fiddler on the Roof and Humoresque and who could share the stage as easily with Jack Benny as Eugene Ormandy; the musical emissary who sought to bridge cold war divides with music, touring the Soviet Union and communist China as soon as he was allowed (as recorded in the 1980 documentary From Mao to Mozart); the beloved teacher, demanding but genuinely respectful toward young performers; even the hard-driving fundraiser who kept Carnegie Hall from being torn down. Through it all, Stern has carried himself with a no-nonsense humility, born of his profound love of humanity and devotion to his craft that is never less than inspiring. Footage (again, far from enough!) of Stern performing in Israel during the Gulf War, ignoring the whine of the air-raid sirens and the anxious surreality of an audience decked out in their gas masks, rapturous as he unfolds the serene music of Bach, raises the inspirational to the magnificent. --Bruce Reid
Reviews for the Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso
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