Folks,
Picking up on the film theme from last week, here is a short video on how British jazz musician Jamie Cullum worked with Clint Eastwood to write the theme of Clint’s deeply moving film Gran Torino. https://youtu.be/01gOfBQ3Y78
It’s a great film, challenging, disturbing but ultimately uplifting, I loved it, despite sobbing my way through the last 20mins.
This version is cut with clips from the film… https://youtu.be/NoLc43YuuTw
Here is another ridiculously talented young American jazz musician, Esperanza Spalding. Super voice and plays a mean double bass, all in heels that would give most of us vertigo! This performance is one of many concerts held in the White House during Obama’s presidency. Barak invited many fine musicians across different genres to play at these events – in 2016 the building was temporarily renamed The Blue House, to mark International Jazz Day.
Finally for today, another beautiful setting of ‘Ubi Caritas et Amor’ (‘Where Charity is and love are, there God is’). This version is by Welsh composer Paul Mealor and was commissioned for the wedding of Wills and Kate at Westminster Abbey. I watched it live from a small hotel in Surrey where Team MMF was holding a 2 day conference. My colleague Sara’s son Ed Grint was singing and we cheered every time he appeared in shot – he has that super-low bass end that our ‘Invisible Bass’, Andy is familiar with! It was originally set to the lyrics of ‘Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal’ , a different setting of which WCC has performed in the past.
