I bought the Criterion Collection Bluray Zatiochi box set, it is great. I am going to write a piece on it soon, maybe even rate them! In the meantime here is the star of the Zatoichi films, Shintaro Katsu singing Unchain My Heart. He loved to sing, when his brother, Tomisaburo Wakayama, star of LOne Wolf and Cub, sang a song for a Lone Wolf film, Shintaro got angry and told the filmmakers to take it out. I guess he didn’t want his brother straying onto his musical turf. They did not remove the song and you can hear it in the film still. Anyway here is the great Shintaro Katsu singing. Enjoy.
If you like Rap music, Hip-Hop, remixes then you should know it all started with King Tubby, a Jamaican electrical engineer/Artist. Working in a small studio he built in his mother’s house he changed music all over the world by creating Dub Plates, remixes of songs mainly without the vocals and using echo, EQ and reverb in a new unique manner. What a genius! Certain artists not only create great works, they also create whole new Genres of Art. I’m thinking of people like Fritz Lang, Mario Bava and King Tubby. Here is a documentary about him. Check it out, mon.
A Young Thelonious Monk playing at the legendary Minton’s, where BeBop was born. Dizzy Gillespie ripped off his look.
Here is a cool documentary on the great composer/musician Thelonious Monk. I always liked Monk but it was after working with Bob Downey that I really became a Super Monk Fan. Because Bob loved Monk, as a young guy in Grennwich Village he was in aqwe of the great Maestro. He saw him walking doen the street one time and was so im pressed by his bearing, his coolness, his genius. He told me he even got a job as a waiter at the 5 Spot, where Monk had a long residency and worked up the nerve to say hello to Monk one evening in the kitchen. To which Monk reponded, “Where’s the fucking orange juice!” I edited a film for Bob called Hugo Pool and we got Danilo Perez, a great Pasnamanian pianist to record a Monk influenced score for it. Anyway I coulsd go on and on about Monk but here watch this doc for yourself and dig the man in action.
