TV and Movies

[qbetzforreal]

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@SoX wrote:

@Oznell 

We (you and I) are on the same wave length ... I don't "get" why NPR went with Miss Teeny Bopper to do the narrative here ... what the heck does she know about Ella except through ... maybe ... something passed down from her parents, which I doubt.  

I could see a younger musician ... say, Wynton Marsalis, or his brother Brandon doing the background.

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The teeny Bopper you speak of has high musical credentials:

Suraya Mohamed Producer, NPR Music

Suraya Mohamed is a three-time Peabody Award-winning producer, sound designer and editor. She currently serves as the project manager for Jazz Night in America and is a contributing producer on the Alt Latino podcast. She also produces NPR's holiday specials package, including Tinsel Tales, Hanukkah Lights, Toast Of The Nation, Pink Martini's Joy To The World: A Holiday Spectacular and most recently Hamilton: A Story Of US. You'll also find her work on the Tiny Desk series as either a producer or engineer.

A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music's with degrees in Viola Performance and Recording Arts and Sciences,

I too love the music of Ella.

[JaneMarple]

My Mom loved Ella and shared her music and stories throughout my childhood. My Mom was born and raised in NYC and when she was a teenager skipped school to see Miss Ella at the Apollo Theatre.

[golding76]

Jane,

Be still, my heart.  

I cannot imagine the thrill of your mother's experience.

The closest I come -- and the music was of an entirely different sort -- was seeing Ray Charles and James Brown on two different occasions at Washington, D.C.'s, Howard Theatre in the early 1960s.

I had never, ever experienced such excitement and audience involvement/participation before.  Of course, that sort of interchange influenced some White artists who brought it into their performance.  These days, we sing back to the aged Frankie Valli or Bruce Springsteen because of this audience involvement done decades ago. 

[SoX]

@qbetzforreal 

Thanks for the background info on Suraya ... I've heard her on some of the Tiny Desks series.  Her credentials are formidable as well.

I'd much rather have had a musician who played  in the era of Ella (no, they're not all dead) or plays the same kind of genre, narrate what it must have been liked to witness such a phenomenon ... but that's just me.  It's NPR's production ... I'm just glad they produced it.

[SoX]

@golding76  @JaneMarple 

I had the pleasure of seeing the First Lady of Jazz on three separate ocassions ... wow, was I lucky.   

My DH, who is even more of a jazz lover than I, took me to see her on our first date.  And after we were married, we planned two of our trips around where she was performing ... magical times.

I remember where we were when I first heard of her death ... visiting my FIL in Missouri on a bright sunny Saturday, when the news came over the radio.  I was just heartbroken.  June 15, 1996.