Jazz@ - Episode 1 - Get The Blessing / Ayanna Witter-Johnson / director, John Mills ; Jim Barr, Pete Judge, Jake McMurchie, Clive Dreamer, Ayanna Witter Johnson.

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2020.

[Place of distribution not identified] : Espresso Media Ltd., 2020.

1 streaming video file (27 min) : sound, color

Access is available to the Yale community.

Title from video title screen (viewed April 20, 2023).

Access restricted by licensing agreement.

"Live music in its purest form is what the Jazz@ series offers, where guest musicians find themselves without a stage, surrounded by a small audience. The sound mix is ​​that of the moment, without alterations. We really feel like we are at a concert, with magnificent images that accompany us as closely as possible to this intimate experience. In this first episode, the jazz-rock band Get The Blessing interacts with singer-cellist Ayanna Witter Johnson. If the first plays electrified effects and sounds, the second, alone with her cello, reveals herself in her simplest form. The English quartet, formed in 1999 in Bristol, is indeed influenced by the trip-hop sound of the local scene, in particular Portishead with whom drummer Clive Deamer and bassist Jim Barr have collaborated. To this rhythm section are added only a trumpet and a saxophone, in homage to the first quartet without piano of Ornette Coleman, which inspired the group's name with its title ""The Blessing"". Their furious compositions alternate with the sweet songs and soulful vocals of English artist Ayanna Witter Johnson, the only non-American artist to have won the famous Amateur's Night competition at the Apollo Theater, which counts among its previous winners Ella Fitzgerald and Jimi Hendrix. With her strong classical and jazz background, she explores all the possibilities of the cello to create haunting acoustic soul, particularly suited to the Jazz@ format. Its association with the fusion universe of Get The Blessing gives it all the more depth, and vice versa! Etienne Geremia".

Qwest TV.

Images / Online / Video & Film

English

June 05, 2023

Concert films.