Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Flip the Frog In: Lester Leaps In


The Latest Installment from VISION Philms
Photography, Concept, and Production by Carlton Mackey



So I buy a CD from a yard sale a week ago –a compilation of music by Gilberto Gil (a Brazilian Jazz artist on the Verve Label). I go to the Verve website and playing in the background is music from a more contemporary artist they are trying to promote. I’m feeeeeling it. I instantly write a poem to it that is later titled, Now That’s What I Call Jazz.

The poem and the music together are so visual –a smoke filled room, gin and whiskey, a scene from my favorite era. I’m reminded of some photos I took a year ago. A philm idea begins to brew.

I search my iTunes library for something good. Charlie Parker’s Autumn in New York resonates with me. “Lester Leaps In” Leaps out at me. I check the Creative Commons for some inspiration. Flip the Frog emerges.

Actually he hops into picture.

Gilberto Gil, Jazz Poem, year old photo shoot, Lester Leaps In, 1929 cartoon of a frog…that leap analogy is falling into my lap, Count Basie live at Newport version of a Charlie Parker classic, a cup of coffee and four “hot now” donuts later…

…my latest philm

Lester Leaps In



No comments: