• DECONSTRUCTING DAD •

One of the things I like best about my Dad’s career and accomplishments is that it can they can be of interest to so many different what I call constituencies–and one of those constituencies is composed of jazz fans–and they are being served this weekend by the inclusion of the film at the Miami Jazz Film Festival–an annual event sponsored by jazz radio station WDNA in Miami.  The screening is Saturday October 2nd at 5 pm at the Tower Theater: 1508 SW 8 Street. As some readers of this post will know, Raymond Scott’s early music may have sounded like jazz but technically wasn’t because it didn’t include improvisation during performance.  What they might not know is that he did allow his musicians in his “Quintette” to improvise while the band was working up a piece, and once he heard something he liked he then wanted them to play it that way every time–so the music does often spring from improvised elements.  Additionally, later groups, particularly the CBS Raymond Scott Big Band from the mid 1940’s, were legit jazz bands, that CBS group, which included jazz greats like Ben Webster and Cozy Cole, did feature some improvisation–legend has it that Ben Webster made improvisation a key condition if he was going to join up, and he was such a big name that my Dad agreed, and he then had to allow other players to improv.  The film does include a sequence about that group, which also was truly groundbreaking and historical as the first integrated network radio band, something my father had to push through against real resistance from the CBS execs.  Of course all this is covered in more detail in the film, so if you’re in the Miami area hope you can make it over to the Tower theater at 5pm this Saturday!  I’d love to be there, but due to conflicting commitments it just wasn’t possible to make it happen.

Just found out yesterday that the film has been accepted for the Carmel Art & Film Festival in, yes, beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.  And the screening is set for Friday, October 8th.  (Word to the wise–I didn’t find out about it till yesterday because their earlier notification to me somehow ended up in my gmail spam folder, which hardly ever traps anything, so don’t forget to regularly check your spam)!  Anyhow I will be attending as it’s the first San Francisco regional screening, and not only does it shape up as a cool festival in a cool place, my 3 sons all live in the  Bay Area and at least two will be attending (in totally unrelated plug, my youngest son Jon won’t be able to attend because www.350.org, the environmental organization he co-founded is sponsoring a big 10/10/10 event and he’s working round the clock on that–check out the link above for more info).

Dario van Vree--Festival Director, Me and Lucy van Kleef who was a big help to me and other guests as International Co-ordinator

But getting back to cool festivals, my visit to the KLIK  Animation Festival in Amsterdam last week was just wonderful.  It’s a great event in a great city and run by a dedicated team of animators and animation enthusiasts, and I got to see a lot of terrific animation, and show the film to an audience that had a lot of animators in it.  I was a bit worried about how my documentary that covers the whole Raymond Scott story, of which the animation use of his music is only a part, would be received–but fortunately the reception was very enthusiastic and I got to meet a lot of new people and introduce a fair number of them to the story of Raymond Scott and his music–and of course introducing new audiences to my Dad’s music and accomplishments is one of the main reasons I’ve done my film!  So thanks again to Dario van Vree and his whole team of dedicated workers for a great time in Amsterdam.

I’m in the middle of one of my usual  crazy busy days, but wanted to take a moment to note that my father was born 102 years ago today.  And I guess in a way my film is an ongoing birthday gift to him (and I hope it will be a gift that keeps on giving).

Stay tuned  for more developments.  There are lots of things coming  up!

There are two upcoming festival showings, and the way the world so often works, they’re on the same dates.  Unfortunately of course I can’t be at both.  One is at the KLIK animation festival in Amsterdam, and that’s the one I’m attending.  The screening is Friday night, September 17th.  Here’s a link  http://www.klikamsterdam.nl/overview_page.php.  So if you’re based in Western Europe, especially of course Amsterdam, hope to see you there.

Here’s a link to the second:  2010 Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival. Temecula islocated in California, about 90 miles South and West of Los Angeles , and this is a very impressive event, with lot’s of media attention and film world people in attendance and I’m really regretting not being able to be there, but hope you can!

Great to see the title on a marquee,and that's me in front

In the best sense of the word, meaning the screening at the Don’t Knock The Rock Festival in L.A. on Thursday Aug 5th was totally sold out!  The Silent Movie Theatre where the event took place seats 180, a fair size theater, and they still had to turn some people away.  It was a tremendous evening, the audience response just

Every Picture Tells A Story....

wonderful, in fact the film (and me I guess) got a standing ovation, which was a first, and I’m sure I was blushing.  It just couldn’t have been a better evening, and thanks again to Allison and Tiffany Anders who program the festival, and to Hadrian Belove and Bret Berg of Cinefamily that run the theatre.