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Primack, Brecker, Astaire And Lord Buckley

February 9, 2007 By Doug Ramsey

The tireless Bret Primack has made the leap from mere blogging into video blogging. His first posting has a sixteen-minute mini-documentary about the late Michael Brecker. It includes Brecker discussing his playing, and an organized jam session with Michael, David Liebman, Joe Lovano and the incendiary rhythm section of Phil Markowitz, Rufus Reid and Billy Hart.
At the bottom of Primack’s page are links to several of his favorite YouTube videos, so I have him to thank for chewing up a substantial chunk of a morning I should have spent writing. No hard feelings, though, because I saw and heard Fred Astaire singing with Oscar Levant (I’m not making that up) and Lord Buckley as a guest on Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life. Younger Rifftides readers may think I’m suggesting a trip to fogeyville, but they are likely to discover that true hipness has no age. To find out for yourself, go here.
Be aware that YouTube has a second part of Astaire’s guest spot on the Levant show in which he does a brilliantly underplayed impression of Samuel Goldwyn.

02/9/07 12:01 AM | filed under: main |

Comments

Andrew Shields says:

February 9, 2007 at 1:50 pm

I saw that band at Willisau in 2005, but unfortunately without Brecker. Liebman, Lovano, Reid, and Hart were as brilliant as I expected them to be; the eye-opener was Markowitz, whom I had never heard before. Thanks for the reminder about a great concert. (Brecker was scheduled for the show, but absent because of his illness.)
Erica says:

February 10, 2007 at 7:52 am

Now THAT sounds like good stuff.
Astaire, Levant, Lord Buckley…man, I think I found the blog of my dreams.

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