Date: Friday, May 29th, 2015 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San FranciscoAdmission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Featuring:
The Wizard of Waukesha: A Film about Les Paul (Color, 1979)
An engaging documentary about the legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul. Utilizing decades worth of archival footage, entertaining interviews with the man himself as well as other notable musicians of the day like Mike Bloomfield, this fun and fascinating film covers Paul's early days in radio, Chicago Jazz clubs and big bands and his design of electric guitars, his invention of the eight-track recorder and his influence on the quintessential sounds of the 1960s and beyond. Paul himself gives great interview; he is down to earth and funny with half a century worth of stories of the music industry, from Jazz to Country to Rock n Roll. Watch his incredible guitar stylings from the 1930s through the 1970s and his collaborations with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Fred Waring, Chet Atkins, and his wife Mary Ford. Directed by Catherine Orentreich. This gorgeous print is making its Oddball debut!
Blind Gary Davis (B+W, 1964) Directed by Harold Becker (who went on to direct The Onion Field and Taps among other films). An inside look into the music and lifestyle of one of music’s lesser-known masters, this short documentary focuses on the great country blues artist and reverend, Blind Gary Davis. Davis first recorded in 1935 and greatly influenced the folk movement of the 1960s. He is featured singing and talking about his career amidst the poverty of his Harlem neighborhood. Intimate and revealing, the film’s rich black and white tones compliment the dark tones and lyrics of Davis’s music. It is a sensitive and moving portrait that succeeds in making both social and personal statements.
Me and Stella (Color, 1976)An incredible portrait of octogenarian Blues and Folk guitarist and songwriter Elizabeth Cotten and her beloved guitar Stella. Cotten taught herself how to play the guitar as a young girl, writing her first (and most well-known) song "Freight Train" at age 12 . Being left-handed with a family of right-handed brothers all sharing the same guitar, Elizabeth learned to play the guitar upside-down (a technique now referred to as "Cotten-picking"). She put down the guitar for 40 years until a chance encounter at a department store led to her employment in Mike Seeger's household, where she picked up the guitar again from scratch and began to record and tour the country on the Folk revival circuit in the 1960s.
Alvino Rey, His Guitar and His Orchestra (B+W, 1941)
Oakland native and electric guitar pioneer Alvino Rey performs The Whistler and His Dog (1941) with his swing orchestra. This novelty big band show-stopper features Rey's incredible pedal steel guitar (that he invented) and is replete with barks, woofs, whistles and growls from his sidemen!
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.