A new documentary film, Billy Taylor: American Hero, which was shown at the IAJE Conference in New York, is now available for viewing on Billy's website at billytaylorjazz.com.
Produced and directed by Bret Primack, the film includes interviews with Billy, Jon Faddis, Kim Taylor Thompson and Alan Bergman, as well as rare performance footage of Billy with Duke Ellington and Willie “the Lion" Smith on the David Frost Show, and, Billy's acting debut on the CBS Television Program, See It Now, in 1952, when he portrayed Jelly Roll Morton.
“Billy Taylor is unique," Primack believes, “not just for his accomplishments in Jazz, as a musician, composer, educator, broadcaster and spokesperson, but for his humanity. That's what this documentary is really about, an incredibly caring, creative man who has touched the lives of many people through his music, and by meeting them. Billy is the Dalai Lama of Jazz."
After writing a Jazz Times tribute to Billy Taylor that appeared at the time of his 75th birthday, Primack begun collaborating with Billy Taylor on several projects, including Jazz Central Station, GMN Jazz Plus, and mostly recently, on Taylor's website. “As fate would have it, I used to listen to Billy on WNEW back in the early 60s, when I was first getting into Jazz. His program was a wonderful introduction to the music, and he was an icon of cool. Thirty years later we began working together."
Primack is excited about using the Internet as a way to distribute the documentary and believes that “in the next few years, the web will replace television, offering literally millions of video options. The success of the Video iPod is proving to be the catalyst for a revolution in the way video is produced, marketed and distributed, just like MP3 files have done for music."
Instead of waiting to get the documentary on cable tv, or in film festivals and theatres, Primack has bypassed the usual distribution channels and jumped immediately to the web, where “anyone, anyplace can download and view the video, any time of day and night."
Produced and directed by Bret Primack, the film includes interviews with Billy, Jon Faddis, Kim Taylor Thompson and Alan Bergman, as well as rare performance footage of Billy with Duke Ellington and Willie “the Lion" Smith on the David Frost Show, and, Billy's acting debut on the CBS Television Program, See It Now, in 1952, when he portrayed Jelly Roll Morton.
“Billy Taylor is unique," Primack believes, “not just for his accomplishments in Jazz, as a musician, composer, educator, broadcaster and spokesperson, but for his humanity. That's what this documentary is really about, an incredibly caring, creative man who has touched the lives of many people through his music, and by meeting them. Billy is the Dalai Lama of Jazz." After writing a Jazz Times tribute to Billy Taylor that appeared at the time of his 75th birthday, Primack begun collaborating with Billy Taylor on several projects, including Jazz Central Station, GMN Jazz Plus, and mostly recently, on Taylor's website. “As fate would have it, I used to listen to Billy on WNEW back in the early 60s, when I was first getting into Jazz. His program was a wonderful introduction to the music, and he was an icon of cool. Thirty years later we began working together."
Primack is excited about using the Internet as a way to distribute the documentary and believes that “in the next few years, the web will replace television, offering literally millions of video options. The success of the Video iPod is proving to be the catalyst for a revolution in the way video is produced, marketed and distributed, just like MP3 files have done for music."
Instead of waiting to get the documentary on cable tv, or in film festivals and theatres, Primack has bypassed the usual distribution channels and jumped immediately to the web, where “anyone, anyplace can download and view the video, any time of day and night."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
