Tango Euro Klez

Music: Tango Bar & Kiev Swing by Garry B :: https://vimeo.com/garryb; listen to his music :: http://soundcloud.com/garry-b
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– 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.
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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.
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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.
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Enjoy the show,
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)

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

New Jazz City

New York Kind of Mood

This is another video in the sequence of old New York. I love to read, see and share about how this city evolved, from the early stages amalgamation to its glory days.
In this rendering I tried to insert as much comedy and farce as I could, without degrading the historical content. The video is not in chronological or any other order. It was assembled for artistic purposes to create the right atmosphere and tell a story of building, strife, progress, lunacy and fun.
Hope you enjoy the show,
Leo

Elements Used in this Production
Photographs: were sourced from Library of Congress and NY Public Library collections. I then proceeded to clean, size, scale and correct them for lighting, contrast. Most came from smoked glass positives and therefore are unique and fragile.
Film clips: Edison Inc., American Mutoscope and Biograph Company and Harold C. Lloyd Sr. movies.
Music: Reunion Cumbre by Astor Piazzolla with Gerry Mulligan

New York’s People

This is the sixth installment in the “Old” New York series. I tried to concentrate on its people and how they lived, played, interacted and protested. Not much has changed over the years… If one looks at the facial expressions of over 100 years and the ones’ from today, there isn’t much change at all…

The digital imnages were scaled, retouched, recovered & enhanced to make for a pleasurable viewing experience. Many (the majority) of these photos were stored as original glass or antique negatives medium. Later they were digitized and published by The Library of Congress. The stills had been taped, indexed, handwritten strange numbers??, locations, approximate dates and type of event.

From these images, together with some long and painful editing of very old film by the Edison Company I attempted to construct this small vignette.

Because of the sentimental value and pace, I decided to use music by Gidon Kremer, inspired by Astor Piazzolla as an homage. It just seemed to “fit” tight.

I hope you all enjoy this gem from the past,
Leo

Lake Placid – 1932 Olympic Winter Games

It just felt right to evoque some simpler times, when people had fun, high hopes and experiencing the beginning of a recovery from the great depression.

Hope you enjoy watching it, Leo

Background and History:

The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4th and closed on February 15th.

The Games were opened by New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States later the same year.

Irving Jaffee won the 5,000 m (3.1 mi.) and the 10,000 m (6.2 mi.) speedskating gold medals, beating previous champion and world record holder Ivar Ballangrud in the 10,000 m by 4.5 m (5 yards).

The USA won the medal tally with a total of 12 medals (6 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze). This was the only time the U.S. had won the medal tally in a Winter Olympics event until Vancouver in 2010. Seventeen countries participated.

At the tender age of only 16, William “Billy” Fiske III (1911 – 1940) steered the five-man U.S. bobsledding team to gold at the 1928 St. Moritz Games, becoming the youngest gold medallist in the sport. Four years later at the 1932 Games, he led a four-man team, considered to be one of the most eccentric team ever assembled in Olympic history, to another golden triumph. Fiske was invited to the 1936 Winter Games to be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, but declined due to his disagreement with German politics. However, Fiske’s heroism was not immortalized on the sporting field. In 1940, He became the first American pilot to die in World War II, when he fought for Britain’s Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain

Old New York

Old New York

New York City — visited at the end of the 19th century, from 1890′s to 1930′s.
This production is the third in a series about New York City; a fascinating and unique world metropolis. It’s my adopted city since I arrived to the States. These memories (some imaginary, some real) are forever etched in my brain and inspired me to expose this human amalgamation from different angles, timelines, spaces and interests.

Enjoy,
Leo

~ Not For Commercial Use ~
Creative Commons – Attribution – Non commercial – No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
HTTP://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
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Elements used in this production:

Music: Blue in Green by Miles Davis Photography: Public Domain
Paintings: Oil Paintings by Janet Ternoff
Additional Art: Leo Bar
Film Clips: American Mutoscope & Biography Company
1903 footage by C.E. Price

Pix In Motion
Leo Bar
Creative Imagining

Street Art – New York

As I was surfing the net sometimes in Novemeber ’09 and looking at NY scenes it struck me right between the eyes! The paintings were so vivid, capturing the escence of some old neighborhoods in New York. They were all oil paintings by Janet Ternoff. I got in touch with the artist, described what I had in mind producing and got a positive reaction. The rest was easy (so to speak  . This piece came together after much editing, and recutting (6 different recuts). The challlenge was to keep it striking, dramatic, without losing the dynamics. I chose to include images of street musicians since the majority of the paintings were about steets/buildings but devoid of people. So, staying with the concept of art, what better way to depict people doing their thing… Elements used in this production: ~ Music: Miles by Myron Walden http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4953 ~ Paintings: Janet Ternoff Janet Ternoff is a self-taught artist living and working in New York. She creates realist-style cityscapes paintings in oil. Most of her works are New York City scenes. You may see more of this artist’s works at http://janetternoff.blogspot.com/ ~ Street Musicians Photographs: Jens De Groot @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jensjeppe/ Enjoy! Pix In Motion Leo Bar Creative Imagining

New York City – A Different Apple

• This project was a lot of fun, discovery and amazement to produce. I started working on the concept in mid-October. Had to set up some collaborations with photographers, do the research, gather my thoughts, lay out a story line, then go fetch images and scour my archives for older images which may be still relevant. The idea was to show NYC in a different light, from different angles and using striking images with accentuated colors.

As it progressed, the piece looked better and better and I was really encouraged by the support of some of the photographers,  especially Trey Ratcliff who opened up its treasure chest of beautiful HDRs to me.

This video contains photos from other boroughs of NY

vimeo 8263380  

Included in this work are the following elements:

• Music – Prelude in E minor by Gerry Mulligan, a great jazz saxophonist.
• Photographs(exclusive HDRs) - Trey Ratcliff  :: HTTP://www.StuckInCustoms.com
• Additional HDR and other Photographs – John Brody, NYCArthur, NYLuke, Phillip Ritz  all of them can be found at www.Flickr.com .
• Aerial Photographs – with special animation I created to simulate shots taken from a moving plane.

I hope you enjoy watching this video :: http://www.vimeo.com/8263380

Pix In Motion by Leo Bar