The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Herbie Hancock to promote jazz as UN ambassador Posted: 23 Jul 2011 05:29 AM PDT PARIS, July 23 — Jazz musician Herbie Hancock was appointed a Unesco goodwill ambassador, pledging to use music to cross cultural boundaries and promote literacy and creativity among youth around the world. The pianist and composer, who has won 14 Grammy awards and seen many of his songs become standards during a career spanning five decades, threw his support behind a Unesco project to declare an international jazz day on April 30 each year.
The 71-year-old musician, who shot to fame in the 1960s playing with trumpeter Miles Davis, also hopes to use his celebrity to win inclusion for jazz on the list of intangible world cultural heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). The list aims to promote respect for cultural heritage and increase mutual respect for communities worldwide. Hancock said he would lobby US officials, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, for Washington to recognise the Unesco convention on intangible cultural heritage. Hancock, who was acclaimed as a child prodigy after he started playing piano in 1947, believes that music can bring a wider educational message to many young people, particularly in developing countries. "One idea that is interesting to me is jazz as a metaphor for targeting literacy. With jazz, you don't just pick up an instrument and start improvising: it's about discipline. Freedom with discipline is the ethos of jazz," he said. A devout Buddhist, Hancock's latest musical venture, the Grammy-winning "Imagine Project", featured musicians from around the world and he says he is considering another similar album. "The theme of that record was about a path to peace through global collaboration," he said, saying the interaction of musicians from different cultures had fired his creativity. "I was amazed at what they brought from their cultures, and I think they were surprised by what I brought from mine." With a tough schedule of live performance and commitments to other educational projects, such as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz — an international institution which he chairs devoted to the development of music education worldwide — the one thing not on Hancock's agenda is retirement. "For me there is no limit to what the possibilities are, and so I feel no need to even entertain the idea of retiring," said the composer of hits such as "Watermelon Man", "Chameleon" and "Cantaloupe Island". "There is so much that I haven't done. There are an infinite number of ways of looking at things." — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| Harry Potter films cross US$7b box-office mark Posted: 23 Jul 2011 02:21 AM PDT  Children dressed as Harry Potter watch a presentation at the launch of the Harry Potter exhibition in Sydney's Powerhouse Museum on July 19, 2011. — Reuters pic Although the total does not take into account inflation, and attendance figures have generally declined throughout the series according to some analyses, the franchise has been a major success for the Hollywood studio. Dan Fellman, Warner Bros Pictures president of Domestic Distribution, called the tally a "stunning achievement." Warner made all eight of the Harry Potter movies which are closely based on the seven novels by British author J.K. Rowling. The studio decided to split the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," into two movies, the second of which hit theatres on July 15. It is the first of the boy wizard stories to be available in 3-D. The end of the franchise raises questions about what might take its place at Warner and in Hollywood generally, although a senior Warner executive has said the studio would rely partly on its DC Comics unit to fill the void. Fellman said in a statement that Warner had also reached the US$1 billion box-office mark in North America for the 11th straight year. Warner Bros gave the following global box office grosses for the Harry Potter movies: • "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone" (2001) — US$974,755,371 • "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002) — US$878,979,634 • "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004) — US$796,688,549 • "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005) — US$896,911,078 • "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007) — US$939,885,929 • "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (2009) — US$934,416,487 • "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1" (2010) — US$955,417,476 • "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2" (2011) — US$640,200,000 (after first week of release). — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
"The idea is to have performances, but not just performances, to have discussions, to have dances to have perhaps even some fun games to do with the history of jazz that young people might be interested in," Hancock (picture) said in an interview before his appointment at a ceremony at Unesco headquarters late yesterday.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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