The Temptations - Get Ready - The Definitive Performances 1965-1972 features for the first time on DVD, 16 classic full-length performances from American television appearances during Motown's golden era. This is the first official DVD anthology of classic archival television performances by one of the most successful singing groups of all time. Beginning with a stunning 1965 performance of "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and concluding with the epic "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," filmed in concert in September of 1972 (two weeks befor it debuted on the charts), this DVD includes a wealth of vintage performances with re-mastered sound and video.
Aldo Romano: "In 1959, the "Living Theater", co-directed by Judith Malina and Julian Beck, created the Jack Gelber play "The Connection". This is a play within a play; the producer Jim Dunn, and the writer Jaybird, want to show the unseen of the life of the addicts to hard drugs. They have one thing in common: the expectation of "the connection", we would say the dealer today, which should give them the powder. This is a camera in a slum rented by a crazy man, Leach. There's four or five clueless in need and a jazz quartet that plays waiting for their dealer "Cowboy".
The play, which will become a film directed by Shirley Clarke in 1961, will be performed in New York, London, Los Angeles, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, the Living Theater and a jazz quartet led by pianist Freddie Redd and Jackie McLean on alto sax…
The Shirelles were the first major female vocal group of the rock era, defining the so-called girl group sound with their soft, sweet harmonies and yearning innocence. Their music was a blend of pop/rock and R&B – especially doo wop and smooth uptown soul – that appealed to listeners across the board, before Motown ever became a crossover pop phenomenon.
It is a meaningful sign of the times that Astor Piazzolla is arguably one of the most frequently performed composers on the contemporary musical stage, even though he probably never aimed at writing “classical” music. True, one of the fundamental encounters of his life was with composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger, who mentored many of the most important avant-garde musicians of the second half of the twentieth century. And, under her guidance, Piazzolla did attempt to express his personality through the language of Western contemporary music. The results, of course, were very good, since nobody could question Piazzolla’s talent. Yet, when Piazzolla performed one of the tangos he had already written to his professor, she exclaimed: “Astor, all your classical pieces are well written, but the true Piazzolla sound is here, never leave it behind!”. And if the language of Piazzolla’s music does not correspond to that of the coeval European avantgardes, neither does it conform to the standards of the Argentinian tango tradition. It is precisely for his utter originality that Astor Piazzolla rightfully claimed and obtained a place in the pantheon of twentieth-century classical music. But it is also this originality that may puzzle those attempting to classify him within one of the established musical categories.
1951 was a breakthrough year for Hank Williams. He had a string of moderate country hits already under his belt, but the release that year of his version of an old jazz age novelty tune called "Lovesick Blues," originally recorded in 1922 by Elsie Clark and given a country arrangement in 1939 by Rex Griffin (the template for Williams' version), suddenly made him a big star. It also meant his touring schedule increased, but he still found time that year to slip into Nashville and prerecord shows for the Mother's Best Flour Company.