A little tap will do you

I made this video in November of 2012 and set it aside. After the tragic events that took place in Boston, MA this month I decided to post it so it could bring some cheer back into our lives.

Enjoy the moment,

Leo
~~~
Music: Oscar Woods – Don’t Sell It Don’t Give It Away – In the Public Domain
Video and Film Clips:
Gregory Hines – Let the man dance
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson – Cafe Metropole, Deleted Scenes
Savion Glover – Live Performance, at ABC show
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson – Stormy Weather

Audio MIx & Special Effects: Leo Bar
Digital Art – Photography: Leo Bar

Tango Euro Klez

Music: Tango Bar & Kiev Swing by Garry B :: https://vimeo.com/garryb; listen to his music :: http://soundcloud.com/garry-b
~
– The migration of tango from Argentina and Uruguay to Western and Eastern Europe -
1900 – 1920 : Tangos were mainly sung and played by small instrumental bands (fundamentally trios and quartets), until “La Orquesta Tipica” arrives on the scene, with the incorporation of the bandoneo’n. In 1907, one of the very first genuine Argentine Tangueros to visit Paris (France) was composer Angel Villoldo, who wanted to do some recording. (At the time, Paris had the best recording facilities and techniques.) In 1918, writing lyrics for the tango became all the rage with singers such as the tragic Carlos Gardel and celebrated salon orchestras like Francisco Canaro‘s giving the music a new legitimacy and acceptance. Carlos Gardel is still revered today, many decades after his death.
~~
By 1912, dancers and musicians from Buenos Aires, traveled to Europe and the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London, Berlin, and other capitals. Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York in the USA, and Finland.
~
One of the most popular ballroom dances in Europe during the 1920′s and 30′s was unquestionably the tango. This explains why this music appeared later in ghettos and concentration camps. Following a boom in Western Europe, the tango reached the east by the late 1910′s. However, as opposed to countries like France and Germany, frequently visited by Argentine Orquestas Típicas, most Eastern European countries became acquainted with the tango only through records, the radio and journals. This indirect connection may explain the character that this music developed in such regions. With increasing popularity and a new stream of local tangos, the style’s re-embodiment gradually drifted away from the South American model. Poland, which had regained its independence after the Warsaw treaty of 1919, quickly became one of the capitals of European tango at a time when most of its musicians, both in the classical and the popular scenes, were Jewish.
~
Enjoy the show,
Leo

Tango a la Celeste

The connection between Tango – Football (soccer)- and the Uruguayan National Team. Twice World Cup Winners, and 15 times Americas Cup winner.
This piece is dedicated to my Vimeofriends:
Ben :: vimeo.com/benvideos - For his generosity and love of the sport of football (soccer in U.S.)
Michael M :: vimeo.com/michaelmoller - For his tenacity in learning the art of video making, and his extreme patience with editing.
~
Started to make this video in November of 2011, and finished it January of 2013. It went through 9 versions in its chaotic initial life. This has been the most difficult project to date. It involved film clips from 1930′s, 1950′s, 2010 and other sundry dates. All these formats, codecs, frame rates and scales were totally different and a real challenge to assemble them into a cohesive work. What you see is mostly untouched and in its original color/grain.
Music: Astor Piazzolla – Michelangelo 70

The connection between Tango – Football – and the Uruguayan National Team. Twice World Cup Winners, and 15 times Americas Cup winner.
This piece is dedicated to my Vimeofriends:
Ben :: vimeo.com/benvideos – For his generosity and love of the sport of football (soccer in U.S.)
Michael M :: vimeo.com/michaelmoller – For his tenacity in learning the art of video making, and his extreme patience with editing.
~
Started to make this video in November of 2011, and finished it January of 2013. It went through 9 versions in its chaotic initial life. This has been one of my most difficult projects to date. It involved film clips from 1930, 1950, 2010 and other sundry dates. All these formats and scales were totally different and a real challenge to make them into a cohesive work. What you see is mostly untouched and in its original color/grain.
Music: Astor Piazzolla – Michelangelo 70
Enjoy the show,
Leo

Jazzy Jigsaw

Trams from the past come back restored as seen here, from several locations in California. I chose to show them under pieces of jigsaw puzzle because of how they were first banished due to the gas-powered automobile and now they're proven to be the most economic form of transportation in the state with the most drivers. Besides these old relics, trams and light rails are making a huge comeback in many cities around the world. The latest being in Jerusalem, Israel.

See :: http://www.lightrailnow.org/ also :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram_and_light-rail_transit_systems
Special thanks – Orange empire railway museum

This video production although simple in looks was very challenging to make. There are lots of filters and effects to make the imagery look softer and older than what it is. In addition, the custom-made jigsaw screens and blue screening animations took forever to synchronize with the music and keep it moving at a decent pace, but not too fast (to avoid skipping of frames) and zero in on the details of these elegant old trams.

Hope you enjoy some great jazz, and have a great weekend,
Leo

New York Faces 1950 – 60′s

This is one more chapter in the New York City vintage collection. It concentrates on capturing the faces and expressions of the average and not so average New Yorker. Several celebrities are caught in the act while posing for the camera. Also captured in their amazement are brand new immigrants from places around the globe.

The construction of this production started with the concept of pinning the Statue of Liberty as the centerpiece and “most recognized face” of NYC. From then on I used old films and a fair amount of Vivian Maier’s candid photographs that capture the human condition so well. Some images may be slightly distorted since they had to be reformatted to comply with the 16:9 wide format.

A look at some peculiar "faces" of New York in the 1950's decade.

This short piece contains street photographs taken by Vivian Maier, an American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, amateur photo-bug and nanny. The photographs were discovered in a thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side in 2007. She actually appears in one sequence, taking a self portrait against a mirror or window. Many of the scenes revolve around the Statue of Liberty, presenting very unusual angles and takes. There are also famous celebrities faces caught as they were doing "their thing".
Enjoy the ride,
Leo

Music: Cool – Dave Grusin Band
Leonard Bernstein, composer. Dave Grusin, arranger.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dave-grusin-presents-west/id17768891
Photographs: Vivian Maier, Leo Bar
Paintings – Poster: Gil Elvgren
Vintage Film: New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Archive.org (all in the public domain)

Rapid eye movement

In this video I attempted to resurrect memories from last Summer. The story goes that more than a memory it represents fragments of a dream as remembered once I was fully awake. As with all dreams, some parts are clearer than others, and some segments are practically forgotten, while other are recurring.
Say what you want, but this was my dream, and I intend to keep it that way

This video is using a transparent texture to represent the fuzzy and flawed dream/memory sequence.
All other credits are:

Music: Where sky meets sea – Kendra Springer :: jamendo.com/en/track/674460/where-sky-meets-sea :: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Texture used for mask :: flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/ :: flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/6687475371/in/set-72157625757841742 :: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Enjoy the journey – Z z z z z z

Leo

Tango a la Loca

Continuing with the series of tangos, this piece features Juan D’Arienzo and his Orchestra playing “Loca” from a 1970′s Argentinian TV program. Together with superb dancing and great photography by Graciela Pierre (see credits) this production came together smoothly. The challenge was to synchronize the music (re-sampled) with the video portions and the dance. After a few failures and out of sync renderings, it all came together. I’ve tried to construct this piece in the same style of the band beat leading the dancers and using the power of the 2-4 beat to accentuate and cut the scenes.
~
Juan D’Arienzo is known as “El Rey del Compás” (King of the Beat). Departing from other orchestras of the golden age, D’Arienzo returned to the 2-4 feel that characterized music of the old guard, but he used more modern arrangements and instrumentation. His popular group produced hundreds of recordings.

In 1949 D’Arienzo said: “From my point of view, tango is, above all, rhythm, nerve, strength and character. Early tango, that of the old stream (guardia vieja), had all that, and we must try not to ever lose it. Because we forgot that, Argentine tango entered into a crisis some years ago. Putting aside modesty, I did all was possible to make it reappear. Furthermore, I tried to rescue for tango music its masculine strength, which it had been losing through successive circumstances. In that way in my interpretations I stamped the rhythm, the nerve, the strength and the character which distinguished it in the music world and which it had been losing for the above reasons. Luckily, that crisis was temporary, and today tango has been re-established, our tango, with the vitality of its best times. My major pride is to have contributed to that renaissance of our popular music.”

D’Arienzo, at the end of his career, dug-in his own style; of course, without knowing it and without even thinking of it. People saw him making faces in front of the musicians and the singers; they saw him with fondness, there was something of nostalgia and something of mockery. Of course, the orchestra beat was leading the dancers’ feet. And the dancers’ feet still follow the beat when D’Arienzo´s records are played back and his figure keeps on raising a great fondness.
(Some excerpts from TodoTango.com; Wikipedia.com)

I hope you enjoy my interpretation of the “King of the Beat” and his band playing “Loca”.
Leo

New York Faces 1940 – ’50s

Fascinated by the candid photographs taken by Vivian Maier during the ’50s that were discovered in Chicago lately, I decided to make a go on a new (oldie) NYC video. As with other of my New York City oldies, I used public domain footage from Archive.org featuring the Third Avenue Elevated, torn down in the mid 50′s.

The initial concept was to make it be a ride through the city from Lower East Side to the end of the elevated railway in the Bronx, while showing people and their ethnic backgrounds as we moved on. A concept is great, but in reality it was hard to pull it off, since I lacked certain type of photographs to “paint” the story. Regardless, I thought that in the end, it represented accurately the time and space of those neighborhoods and their people. (Your comments are welcome)

Because jazz in my opinion is the music that best suits NYC in the 50′s I used “Hey Now” performed by Red Garland released on “Red Garland Revisited!” (Prestige Records, 1957).
Red Garland – Piano; Paul Chambers – Bass; Art Taylor – Drums; Kenny Burrell – Guitar.

Mixing small format film with all format stills and some digital paintings of mine was a real challenge in the making of this production. After many missteps and redoes, I finally found the combination to make it work best. (Note to myself – Do not try this type of mix and match formats too often, it takes gobs of time to assemble, render properly and sync)

Enjoy the railway ride as we travel through the neighborhoods of NYC,

Leo

Tango to Return – Vuelvo al Sur

After a long pause, I decided to make a few more tango videos. The strength of this music and the sensuality of the dancers is a double attraction to the senses. Intense feelings and disappointments are typically expressed in the words of this composition.
It’s all about returning to the same places after a long exile – due to the events in the 1970′s – Vuelvo al Sur – I return to the South. So, this theme encouraged me to return and make another production.

Music: Vuelvo al Sur by Astor Piazzolla, played by Gotan Project (which I remixed and edited to fit into a timeline.)
I used scenes of tango dancers and still photographs heavily softened-diffused, added noise and vignette to express memories of times gone bye. If you like tango I hope you enjoy this interpretation.

Leo

New York City back in the 1950′s

Decided to continue with the NYC oldies series. The images on this piece are from the late 40′s and mid to late 1950′s.

Archive.org is where I found the majority of the films and photographs. A wonderful site where one can get lost and rummage as if it were your neighbor’s attic. Little gems of history appear shyly before ones eyes at all times. What an amazing trove of unique treasures!

I chose the music – New York, New York – (for obvious reasons) and the singer – Liza Minelli – because of her intensity and passion when she sang it live in Paris, France.

Enjoy the journey back to the past…

Leo

P.S. working on a follow up video that concentrates on NYC people and its food in the 50′s, stay tuned!