The Art Of Piano: "Great Pianists Of The 20th Century"

"The Art of the Piano" is a feature-length, 106-minute documentary that presents in refreshingly straightforward fashion a portrait of 20th-century piano playing.

The format is simple: short segments on virtually all of the great pianists who have ever been captured on film, augmented by extracts from interviews, sometimes with the pianists themselves, or with later conductors and musicians of international stature, including specially filmed contributions from Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Evgeny Kissin, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, and Tamás Vásáry.

The narration by John Tusa offers an overview of piano music through the century, though the heart of the film is the great quantity of rare archive historic footage, with extracts from performances by Gould, Horowitz, Paderwski, Rachmaninoff, Richter, Rubinstein, and many others. The interviews are short, but offer considerable insight, while the film of so many revered pianists brought together is a literal eye-opener, especially for those who have previously only known these masters from LP and CD.

This is, like the companion program "The Art of Singing", as close to definitive as a single film can get, even going so far as to include footage from the "silent" era with sound from corresponding recordings. (Source: Gary S. Dalkin)

"Why Me?" (Documentary about Johnny Logan - 1992)

Documentary about Johnny Logan from 1992. His composition 'Why me?' just had won the Eurovision Songcontest and so this was his 3rd win.

Johnny Logan (13 May 1954), is an Australian-born Irish singer and composer. He is regarded as "Mister Eurovision", having participated in the Eurovision Song Contest many times since the 1970s, and, since 1992, has been the most successful artist in Eurovision history. Logan has won the international contest on three occasions representing Ireland, twice as a performer (1980 and 1987) and twice as a composer (1987 and 1992). He also composed the second placed entry in 1984.

Logan was born in Frankston near Melbourne, Australia. His father was an Irish tenor, Patrick O'Hagan, who performed three times for three different U.S. presidents at the White House, for John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. The family moved back to Ireland when Johnny was three years old. He learned the guitar and began composing his own songs by the age of thirteen. On leaving school he apprenticed as an electrician, while performing in folk and blues clubs. His earliest claim to fame was starring as Adam in the 1977 Irish musical "Adam and Eve". Having adopted the stage name "Johnny Logan" after the main character of the film Johnny Guitar, he released his first single in 1978 and took part in the National Song Contest in 1979.

The following year, Logan entered the Eurovision Song Contest again with the Shay Healy song "What's Another Year". Representing Ireland in the Netherlands, Logan won the Eurovision Song Contest on April 19. The song became a hit all over Europe and reached number one in the UK.

Owing to a mix-up, two follow up singles were released almost simultaneously; "Save Me" and "In London". With confusion by radio stations over which to play, both singles flopped. Another single released in late 1980, a cover of a recent Cliff Richard song, "Give A Little Bit More" was a more concerted effort and although it narrowly missed the chart, the momentum from Eurovision was now lost. Logan blames his lack of success in the UK on poor management and his inexperience. In early 1983, Logan attempted a comeback in the UK with the song "Becoming Electric" with a new sound and image and promotional push, but was unsuccessful and again in 1986 when he rebranded himself Logan with the song "Stab in the Back".

In 1987, he decided to make another attempt at Eurovision and with his self-penned song "Hold Me Now", he represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgium. The song won the contest and again, Logan had a major European hit with the song and reached number two in the UK (although it outsold "What's Another Year"). Keen to continue this success, Logan released a cover of the 10cc song "I'm Not In Love", produced by Paul Hardcastle as a follow-up, and an album. Both single and album made the UK charts but were not significant enough to sustain a continued chart career. The following year, Logan released his next single, "Heartland" which became a hit in the Irish charts and from then on, concentrated on his career in Ireland and Europe.

Having composed the Irish Eurovision Song Contest 1984 entry for Linda Martin, "Terminal 3" (which finished in second place), Logan repeated the collaboration in 1992 when he gave Martin another of his songs, "Why Me". The song became the Irish entry at the finals in Sweden. The song took the title and cemented Logan as the most successful artist in Eurovision history with three wins. Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor notes in his book The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History that Logan is the only lead singer to have sung two winning entries and one of only five authors/composers (all men) to have written/composed two winning songs. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Beatles: "The Beatles Songbook - Lennon & McCartney 66 to 70"

Composing the Beatles Songbook Lennon and McCartney 1966 to 1970 is an independent documentary film that reviews the partnership, music and impact of Lennon and McCartney as composers during this hugely creative period.


From the first bars of Eleanor Rigby to the closing Abbey Road song cycle, this film shows how they barely put a step wrong in making the most joyous music the world had ever witnessed.


Drawing on rare footage, classic performances and penetrating revelations from friends of the pair, Beatles academics and musicologists, we here discover the true story of how those classic songs were written.

Oasis: "Morning Glory - Classic Album Under Review"

Oasis "Morning Glory - A Classic Album Under Review" is a documentary film which revisits and reassesses this powerhouse of a record.


With the use of archive footage, long forgotten videos and contributions from those around at the time, this program uncovers why the bands second album is arguably their most satisfying.


Features include live and studio performances of tracks from Morning Glory, reviewed by a panel of esteemed experts, band interviews, rarely seen photographs and archive footage.


Bonus feature When Oasis Met Blur, the full recording from the moment the Britpop heavyweights met at the same radio station in 1995.

Michael Jackson: "A Remarkable Life"

Michael Jackson A Remarkable Life goes behind his music to discover what it took for a boy with a passion for music to dominate pop charts the world over for more than 30 years and counting.


Packed with interviews, rare film footage and photographs, this documentary film takes you where the cameras never previously preyed to achieve a no holds barred look at this remarkable man.


The DVD contains rare Jackson footage, as well as comments from the producers, video directors, engineers and songwriters who have been instrumental in guiding his career from its earliest days, together with contributions from school friends of the Jacksons.

The Game: Thug Life Of Gangsta Rapper

Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known by his stage name The Game, is an American rapper. He rose to fame in 2005 with the success of his debut album, The Documentary, and his two Grammy nominations. Since then, he is considered to be a driving force in bringing back the West Coast hip hop scene into the mainstream and competing with many of his East Coast counterparts.


Aside from releasing two albums that debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, The Game has gained notoriety for involvement in feuds with other rappers. His music falls under the gangsta rap subgenre, a style of hip hop popularized in Compton, California.


He grew up in a primarily Crip gang neighborhood known as Santana Blocc, although he grew up to become a member of the Bloods. In an October 2006 interview with MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway, The Game described his family as "dysfunctional" and claimed that his father molested one of his sisters.


After graduating from Compton High School in 1999, Taylor claimed to have attended Washington State University on a basketball scholarship before being suspended in his first semester because of drug allegations.


However, the university's athletic department refutes these claims. It was then that he started fully embracing street life and turned towards selling drugs and gang banging. At the age of eighteen, he began to follow his older half brother, George Taylor III known as Big Fase 100, who was the leader of the Cedar Block Pirus.


Studying various influential rap albums, The Game developed a strategy to become a rapper himself and with help from Big Fase, they founded The Black Wall Street Records.

Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker

Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker(2005)
Director: Raymond Gayle
Writer: Raymond Gayle (written by)
Genre: Documentary - History - Music-
Runtime: 1:09:00


From ElectricPurgatory.Com


Electric Purgatory is a documentary that examines the struggles of black rock musicians and the industry's ambivalence towards them.


Director Raymond Gayle spent the better part of a year traveling around the United States interviewing many of Black Rock's elite including Fishbone, Vernon Reid, Adam Falcon, Jimi Hazel and Cody Chesnutt. Distinguished journalists such as Flip Barnes, Darrell McNeil, Charlie Braxton, and Greg Tate, share their opinions and insight on the dilemma facing these artists. The film will explore the origins of the Black Rock Coalition and its relevance in the music industry.


The project will also take a look at the stigma Black Rock musicians face in the Black community and more importantly how to bring the Black audiences back into the fold.


Electric Purgatory: the fate of the black rocker has screened all over the world at local Film Festival screenings as well as international film festivals such as the Singapore International Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival of New Zealand, the Festival du Film Panafricain in Cannes and the Turks and Caicos International Film Festival.

Documentary: "Cesaria Evora" (Subtitled in English)

Documentary about Cesaria Evora subtitled in English for the release of Cesaria's new album, "Nha Sentimento", on the 26th of November. Cesaria Evora began her career as a singer in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente more than forty-five years ago.


Aged just twenty, she was already singing of romantic disappointments and the remoteness of the Cape Verde islands, expressing a remarkable melancholy that is illustrated by recordings made at the time, reissued at the end of 2008 on “Radio Mindelo”. Entrenched in a saudade of universal appeal or settling quietly over her windswept islands, this Atlantic melancholy remains Cesaria Evora’s trademark.


Whether she sings coladeras (catchy songs perfect for the dance floor) or mornas (Cape-Verdean blues), her voice holds an inescapable fascination for the listener. Three years after “Rogamar”, the Cape-Verdean singer is back with “Nha Sentimento”, an album that combines gravity and lightness of tone.

Gorgoroth: The Norwegian Satanism

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We went to Norway to interview Gaahl, lead singer of the band Gorgoroth. Gaahl really believes in this whole ideology behind what he's doing; he's not just some rockstar fronting a band.


The thing with Black Metal is, in Norway, everybody is exactly the same. There's nothing to rebel against, because everybody's really well off. It's one of the richest countries in Europe. There is no lower class, it's like middle-class white kids everywhere, no one has anything to complain about.


And he's this sort of eccentric figure amidst this sea of contentment and sameness. The way I see it is, in America you have guys like 50 Cent who are supposed to be the "villain."


Kids like him cause they're parents hate him, and that's basically what Gaahl is. He's their musical villain so to speak. But there's a lot of different sides to the scene.