http://brechtforum.org/ Giuseppi Logan will be playing tonight at Brecht Forum. For those who don't know I discovered him playing on a freezing cold winter day 2 years ago to an empty park. I posted a moving rendition of Begin the Beguine and before I knew it jazz fans and critics were contacting me from all over the world celebrating he was in fact alive. He was looking for a home, a place to compose music and play music.
I ran home and posted the amazing video footage and immediately found a British film maker's video footage of Giuseppi with a little boy Jaee holding hands in Tompkins -- same park almost 45 years before me!
Peter Gershon, publisher of Signal to Noise, wrote a stirring piece about Giuseppi Logan and acknowledged my work along with the British film maker; a powerful piece worth checking out.
Since my first YouTube and now there are over 20 tube in my YouTube documentary he has now cut a new CD, the first since his 2 well received ones by ESP in the 1960's. An angel posing as a human being who works for Salvation Army found him a small space in one the Salvation Army's houses that helps people struggling like Giuseppi which is beyond awesome and his little sliver of a living place filled with instruments donated to him by the Jazz Foundation and given to him by kind people fill his little room.
He is playing at the Stone August 15. I am hoping his son will be back to continue work on his documentary and that down the road a major motion picture will be made to tell Giuseppi Logan's story as well as honoring the tragic loss of GL's grandson, same name as his son Jaee's memory. Jaee was murdered by a cowardly act of gun violence, several shots to the back of his head at a barbecue He was an honor student and a football star and like his grandfather, and Dad Jaee he had the musical gift.\
Note: The film would honor jazz but also raise awareness and hopefully raise money for a foundation to help stop gun violence. Who knows maybe there will be a series of films....
The film like my YouTube documentary would underscore even in the latest chapters of your life you can find some kind of redemption.
You can see my first YouTube discovering Giuseppi Logan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTssjT9rAmQ and I did not know who he was. As an artist I had a powerful feeling for him -- playing to empty seats....admired his passion and drive at such an old age to get out and play in freezing cold weather.
A friend of his youngest child Jaee and only child from Guiseppi's 2nd marriage told Jaee there is this woman on YouTube filming your Dad! Jaee did not know his father was still alive and after losing his son he wanted to be reunited with his Dad.
I helped make that happened and captured them reunited for the first time in over 40 years so the little boy in the YouTube I found from so long ago in Tompkins is reunited once again with his Dad thanks to a YouTube miracle that I am honored to be part of!
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