Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Cinema Cycle - Shirley Horn: Here's To Life



CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)


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DATE: 10/01/2014


TITLE: Shirley Horn: Here’s To Life


FORMAT: LaserDisc


TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 59 minutes


DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 13 miles


TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 535.5


SYNOPSIS: Shirley Horn and her peers reflect on her life and her music.


CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: The life of an artist, subtle and moving.


PROS AND CONS: I know that among the 1700+ laserdiscs I own, there are some real stinkers as well as some undiscovered treasures.  This film is one of the latter.


Until viewing this, I had no idea who Shirley Horn was.  I kept getting her confused with either Lena Horne or Shirley Bassie.  Shirley Horn was a jazz pianist / vocalist in the genre of Billie Holliday and Carmen McRae and judging from this intimate look at her life, she was very, very good at what she did.


With media saturation from artists like Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Pharrell Williams it is easy to forget that there is music and art outside the popular mainstream that we don’t get much exposure to.  Shirley came out of the jazz clubs of New York City with peers that included Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Quincy Jones.  She played intimate piano music, either as a soloist or with a jazz trio that was soulful and intimate in the extreme.


After viewing this retrospective of her life, I am going to have to check out the Village Vanguard if I ever get a chance to pass through New York City.


To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.


This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.  [not available for this title]

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.


The summary of the project and a glimpse of what is coming up next can be found on my public LaserDisc spreadsheet.

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