JAZZ NEWS: Celebrating Peace: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Cindy Blackman Santana & more | Hollywood Bowl

Celebrating Peace: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Cindy Blackman Santana & more | Hollywood Bowl

Don't miss this special musical evening under the stars featuring Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain, Marcus Miller and special guest Carlos Santana. Watch for the review of the show here at SCHLOCK THE MONKEY later this week.

FIRST COMPLETE NEW SONG FROM DYLAN STREAMED TODAY

Here goes folks...

Bob Dylan's highly anticipated and much promoted new CD, TEMPEST hits the streets on September 11 and today NPR debuted the first streamable complete song from the new release.

The lead track from the album, "Duquesne Whistle" was debuted today here on NPR'S ALL SONGS CONSIDERED. It's a swinging number that starts out sounding like an old, moldy recording of some drummerless '40s Western Swing or a train heard from around a bend and then suddenly it leaps out before the first verse into a the present tense of a full, smokin' roadhouse vibe -- slapping bruses on snare, chuggin' upright pulse and power chord electric guitars, shuffling jazzy rhythm guitar, loping pedal steel and what I presume are Dylan's own organ comping.

 photo by AP

The lyrics to the song were co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Since Garcia's passing in 1995, Hunter has been collaborating quite successfully with a wide range of talented writers (watch for my upcoming post on Robert Hunter) and has written with Dylan on and off since 1988 most notably co-writing most of the songs on Dylan's acclaimed 2009 album, Together Through Life.

"Duquesne Whistle" is a train song. Both Dylan and Hunter's individual songwriting catalogs and the roots of the American folk, blues, country and rock music that they share are filled with songs about trains.

Yes, Dylan's voice is craggy and croaky but no doubt as to what he is singing and how much fun he is having. With his crack road band behind him on most of the album alongside a couple of ringers including Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, this is another in Dylan's line of rootsy, quality efforts.

Full album review coming soon...

Here are the lyrics to DUQUESNE WHISTLE as heard on a first pass. Any corrections please let us know. We will add (c) information as soon as it is confirmed.

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gonna sweep my world away
I wanna stop at Carbondale and keep on going
That Duquesne train 'gon rock me night and day

   You say I'm a gambler, you say I'm a pimp
   But I ain't neither one 
   Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
   Sound like it's on a final run

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she never blowed before
Blue light blinking, red light glowing
Blowing like she's at my chamber door

    You smiling through the fence at me
    Just like you always smiled before
    Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
    Blowing like she ain't gon' blow no more

Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing?
Blowing like the sky's gonna blow apart
You're the only thing alive that keeps me going
You're like a time bomb in my heart

   I can hear a sweet voice steadily calling
   Must be the mother of our Lord
   Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
   Blowing like my woman's on board

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gon' blow my blues away
You old rascal, I know exactly where you're going
I'll lead you there myself at the break of day

    I wake up every morning with that woman in my bed
    Everybody telling me she's gone to my head
    Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
    Blowing like it's gon' kill me dead

Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing?
Blowing through another no good town
The lights on my lady's land are glowing
I wonder if they'll know me next time 'round

    I wonder if that old oak tree's still standing
    That old oak tree, the one we used to climb
    Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
    Blowing like she's blowing right on time






Listen to Duquesne Whistle here at NPR's ALL SONGS CONSIDERED

FESTIVAL NEWS - DOHENY DAYS - SEPT. 8-9

DOHENY DAYS TO ROCK THE BEACH...

SITTING IN THE DARK - THIS WEEK'S MOVIES

All movies this week were rented from Redbox...and yes beware of some plot give-aways below.

RAMPART ***

Woody wasn't bad at all. Decent acting throughout. Not nearly as good as the trailers looked but not horrid if you like crooked cop stories. I liked the portrayals of the characters for the most part but the story sort of jumped around with out a lot of flow. Great casting though and I liked the look of the film. Love movies made in L.A. It’s fun to see how they really capture the vibe of the area.

HAYWIRE **1/2
A starring vehicle for the young pioneering fighter in Women's MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), Gina Carano from director Steven Soderbergh. Many big name actors are also involved including Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender and Antonio Banderas. All but Douglas get there asses kicked by Carano. Other than the fight scenes there is not much of interest here. Carano is not yet an actor and the script was less compelling than Soderbergh's usual fare. Imdb's synopsis of the plot is short, sweet and about all you need: "A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission."

TRUST ***

Fourteen-year-old Annie (Liana Liberato) is contacted by another teen online and they become friends in spite of the fact that she keep catching him lying about things, including his age. When tehy finally arrange to meet in person her "boyfriend" (Chris Henry Coffey) is in his mid-30s not a 20-year-old college student as he had claimed. Her parents (Clive Owen and Catherine Keener) are torn apart by Annie's continued devotion to this man. Well-acted and disturbing. Unfotunately, Keener didn't have a lot to do in the film. Too bad for she is alwas wonderful in anything she does. Directed by David Schwimmer.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER ***1/2

Rachel Weisz plays a true life American police officer who works as a observer and peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. She becomes involved in exposing a multi-national cover-up campaign of corruption, violence, and human trafficking. Weisz was pregnant when first approached about this film and passed, but later when the project was offered again she accepted and did a great job in the part. See her in theaters now in the BOURNE LEGACY. 



BAD ASS **1/2

Danny Trejo is just great as always and truly IS a Bad Ass. What I found out in the bonus footage that I didn’t know is that he was a champion boxer in the California Penal System before he was an actor. A-ha. The script was horrible though the fight scenes were very well-done. This low budget film even used old bus chase footage from RED HEAT to end in the story in the same way as that old Schwarzeneggar film did. Even most of the director/writer Craig Moss’s bonus commentary was boring, weak and shed very little light on what the film was trying to achieve. There were some fun moments and homage’s to other films which were nice distractions from the stilted script. The kid actor who played “Frank Vega”’s foul-mouthed young next door neighbor was fun. Now the thing I liked most other than the action and Danny’s decent job was the use of downtown L.A. and the hood. A very L.A. looking movie. The opening credits montage is pure barrio. Having the Mayor (Ron Perlman in a very small role) and Panther (Charles S. Dutton is wonderfully strong as the heavy) taking a meeting from Elysian Park up by the Police Academy overlooking Dodger Stadium is a great shot.

MACHINE GUN PREACHER ***1/2 Gerard Butler in this story of a violent, low-rent Pennsylvania hood who gets out of jail, sees his ex-junkie/stripper wide has found God, gets in trouble again and changes his ways and finds Jesus. Which leads him to have a vision of starting a church and then building an orphanage in war torn Sudan. This is based on a true story of Sam Childers who goes to the Sudan and takes justice into his own hand doing what ever he can to help the orphans including shooting up the bad guys. Well-done but a flop in the theaters. Cost an estimated $30 MILLION and only did $1.1 million internationally in it’s first 11 months on screens. I almost passed this by because of the title. When I mentioned it to friends, every one of them said unprompted, "Horrible title. Not something that appeals to me." Actions fans don't want preachy and religious types don't want shoot-'em-ups, it seems. Of course, when it comes down to it action movies are full of moralistic pontificating and religions are at war all the time. I thought it might be too preachy but they painted this guy as someone who would do anything for justice. Butler was good. Very intense. Footage over the end credits with the real-life Childers is interesting.

HICK **** starred Chloe Grace Moretz who played Isabelle in HUGO as a young girl brought up by white trash in Nebraska (Juliette Lewis is her oblivious mom) who runs off with a slimy white guy (Eddie Redmayne) then is picked up by his ex, a hot slutty wild one (Blake Lively who was even better here than in SAVAGES). In her travels the 13 year old is shown first hand the violent, sleazy, abusive side of life. Quite a traumatic misadventure. Done with light humor amidst the sleaze and violence. Moretz is superb as is the whole cast in this actor’s film. Redbox reviews HATED this movie but it seems people are complaining about things like subject matter when if they had read the description of the film they might have steered clear. It was a very well cast and written film and a cautionary tale. I see a lot of irresponsibly parented kids in the town where I live and parents should watch this with their young teens. There is indeed a very tough world out there and this film addresses these issues directly, with taste and humor and a sense of realism that rings true if you have ever been around situations like the ones shown. The use of select music by Bob Dylan is wonderfully done. SOONER OR LATER’s line “I didn’t really know how young you were…” is perfectly placed and the wonderful theme music is Dylan’s instrumental “Suze” which appeared as “Suze (The Cough Song)” on bootleg recordings for years before being officially release on Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961-1991

WRECKED ***

Like The Edge and 127 Hours, this is a survival story. Man against nature and his own human nature comes to task. Adrien Brody is trapped in his wrecked car in the middle of nowhere. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. His hallucinations distract him but his survival instinct takes over but this film is more about Brody’s emotional state, his guilt and desires manifested as his confusion and fear overwhelm him and his scattered memories begin to flow over him. What is real and what is not seem to be the real questions here. Oddly, this film seems to have played in only one theater for one week. A physically and emotionally riveting performance by Brody based on a very simple premise. Interesting that the movie was filmed ins chronological order and that writer Christopher Dodd wrote it very spontaneously and sees it as a metaphor for getting a movie finished. Again, it seems as if so many of the people bitching about this film didn’t really seem to watch it very carefully. People seem to a) have very little imagination or b) ability to take anything as something other than literally. Why they’d bother even taking the time to comment on it online or even watch it is beyond me.