Green is a nine-time Grammy winner and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with more than 40 albums to his name. With the recent release of his chart-topping CD Lay It Down and receipt of the BET Lifetime Achievement Award (2008), Green is in the national spotlight once more.
Green was a soul singer with a million-dollar career when he awoke one day in a hotel room praising God. Full of this new spirit, he became a gospel singer and a Pentecostal preacher. Award-winning filmmaker Robert Mugge (New Orleans Music in Exile, Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus) examines Greens life and music in intimate interviews, passionate performances ("Lets Stay Together," “Free at Last," “Amazing Grace"), and a sermon both spoken and sung a fiery crescendo of conviction, inspiration, and joy. Filmed in the recording studio, in concert at Bolling Air Force base, and at Greens church in Memphis, Tenn., powered by his energy, honesty, and smile, this is an indelible portrait of an artist who takes you higher.
Special Features: 90-minute audio interview with Al Green, reflections by director Robert Mugge, concert excerpts, extended song, extended audio excerpt of church service, and original theatrical trailer.
Acorn Media also announces the January 27 DVD release of Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus, an acclaimed documentary about jazz great and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Sonny Rollins. Blending background, profile, and performance, it offers much more than a concert film.
To fans of American music and especially of jazz, Sonny Rollins is a giant. In 1986, acclaimed music filmmaker Robert Mugge captured the artist in performance and in repose, speaking candidly about his life, creative process, spirituality, and music. Filmed in New York City, Tokyo, and a rock quarry in upstate New York, this historic documentary features scenes from a concert at Opus 40 and a world premiere concert with a Japanese symphony orchestra.
Rollins has won two Grammys and the Lifetime Achievement Award as well as being a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the nations highest honor in jazz. Rollins is still going strong; he opened the 2008 Chicago Jazz Festival before a crowd of 13,000 and earned rave reviews.
Acorn Media also announces the January 27 release of The Beiderbecke Affair, created by Alan Plater, one of Britains most prolific and entertaining writers. This lighthearted six-episode series centers on a pair of wisecracking schoolteachers turned amateur detectives.
When Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam, New Tricks, The End of the Affair) buys a set of jazz records that go missing, he and his girlfriend, Jill Swinburne (Barbara Flynn, Cracker), decide to track them down. Soon they are drawn into a mystery that includes black market goods in a church basement, secret meetings in a parking lot, and corruption at the highest levels.
Several colorful characters enliven their adventures: Big Al and Little Norm, an overzealous police officer, an elderly snoop with a dog named Jason, and a town planner with a drawer full of incriminating files. Co-stars include Colin Blakely, Terence Rigby, and Dominic Jephcott (The Scarlet Pimpernel).
Set in Yorkshire, this quirky British mystery glides along on witty banter, a sly sense of fun, and a soundtrack by award-winning musician Frank Ricotti, which is inspired by the music of 1920s jazz great Bix Beiderbecke.
The Beiderbecke Affair broadcast on PBS in the 1990s along with its sequels, The Beiderbecke Tapes and The Beiderbecke Connection.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
