The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony held last Sunday will be televised on CBS December 29. In the meantime, the White House has released a clip of President Obama’s informal talk at the reception before the event. It runs about 18 minutes, with the camera on the President the whole time. The following video, nicely edited and produced, incorporates a shortened version of his remarks and interaction with the honorees, Dave Brubeck, Mel Brooks, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro and Bruce Springsteen. I thought you would find it interesting.
(When the video ends, it goes to black and hangs there, evidently forever. That’s how the White House provided it. If you click on your “reload” symbol in the address bar at the top of your screen, it goes back to normal.)
Thanks much for sharing this video.I found it quite affecting. And in honor of Brooks, I thought Rifftides readers would get a kick out of this:
As Mark Stryker said, this is a very affecting video. I don’t agree much with Mr. Obama’s politics, but his words on behalf of the arts were eloquent. Dave Brubeck just turned 89 — what a role model he still is. They all have musical angles, with Mel Brooks as songwriter and Basie champion (in Blazing Saddles), while Robert DeNiro played a jazz saxophonist, ably ghosted by Georgie Auld’s solo work in NY, NY.