AWARDS SHOW AND TRIBUTE CONCERT CELEBRATES RECORDING ACADEMY™ 2018 SPECIAL MERIT AWARDS RECIPIENTS
The Recording Academy™ has expanded its lineup for the “GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends®,” an awards ceremony and live tribute concert celebrating the 2018 Special Merit Awards honorees on Saturday, July 14, 2018, at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Added to the lineup are four-time GRAMMY® winner Yolanda Adams, who will perform and honor Tony Agnello and Richard Factor, GRAMMY winner Gustavo Dudamel who will present to John Williams; violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who will perform in tribute to Williams; and members of The Meters, including Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, Cyril Neville, Leo Nocentelli, and George Porter Jr. This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award honorees are Hal Blaine, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Louis Jordan, The Meters, Queen, and Tina Turner. Additional Special Merit Awards honorees to be celebrated include Bill Graham, Seymour Stein, and Williams, who are this year’s Trustees Award honorees, and Agnello and Factor, who are the Technical GRAMMY® Award recipients. Also being honored is Melissa Salguero, this year’s recipient of the Music Educator Award™. Tickets for the event are on sale now via Ticketmaster.
Led by the GRAMMY-nominated Greg Phillinganes as musical director, the tribute concert will feature rare performances by honorees and never-seen renditions by those they’ve inspired. Previously announced performers scheduled to appear are eight-time GRAMMY winner Herb Alpert, who will honor Blaine; past GRAMMY nominee Micky Dolenz, who will be honoring Diamond; GRAMMY winner Sammy Hagar, who will pay tribute to Graham; 13-time GRAMMY winner and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Harris; past GRAMMY nominee Ledisi, who will salute Jordan; and three-time GRAMMY winner Trisha Yearwood, who will pay tribute to Harris.
The Recording Academy will produce “GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends” in partnership with THIRTEEN Productions as part of the “Great Performances” series on PBS, set to air later this year. Previously held during GRAMMY Week, this is the third year the Recording Academy has celebrated the Special Merit Awards with a stand-alone TV event and musical tribute. In addition to the tribute concert, special celebrity guests will present recipients their award statues and guests will enjoy never-before-seen video packages celebrating each of the honorees’ contributions to the music industry and our cultural heritage.
A production of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET, “GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends” will be written by David Wild and directed for television by David Horn, with Mitch Owgang as producer, and David Horn and Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow as executive producers.
The Lifetime Achievement Award honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording, while the Trustees Award recognizes such contributions in areas other than performance. Both awards are determined by a vote of the Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by vote of the Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing® Advisory Council and Chapter Committees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.
As Marvel’s Black Panther wows moviegoers and shatters box office records with a fictional tale of cinematic proportions, the real and moving story of Black American Pioneer Reginald F. Lewis premieres on TV, inspiring a new generation of minority youths to dream big, and to keep going no matter what.
For Loida Nicolas Lewis, love never ends. When asked why the Filipino American widow of Reginald F. Lewis enthusiastically shares her husband’s story and legacy 25 years after his death, she simply remarked, “Because I love him. Since the time I proposed to him while we were seated together in the subway: ‘Darling, do you want a big wedding or a small wedding?’ and he replied, ‘A small wedding.’ Suddenly, he realized what just happened. He put his hand on his forehead and said, ‘I have a headache.”‘
This elicited joyful laughter from the audience who gathered at the Harvard Club of New York City for the launching of PIONEERS: Reginald F. Lewis and the Making of a Billion Dollar Empire last February 15, 2018. The documentary, produced by PBS WNET, chronicles the life and legacy of business pioneer, philanthropist and titan Reginald F. Lewis, the first billion dollar dealmaker in America. A Harvard Law School graduate, Lewis rose to prominence as a lawyer, civil rights activist, financier, and leader of the global food company TLC Beatrice International.
The event was attended by top finance and business executives, ambassadors and dignitaries, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. In addition to the premiere screening of the documentary, a short forum on “How to Become the Next Reginald F. Lewis” took place, with Titan Panelist members such as Robert F. Smith, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners; Raymond J. McGuire, Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking, Citigroup, Inc.; Dean C. Kehler, Trimaran Capital Partner (formerly Drexel Burnham Lambert); Cleveland A. Christophe, venture capitalist and former executive of the TLC Group; and Peter Offermann, former executive of Bankers Trust Company. The panel was moderated by award-winning Filipino American broadcast journalist Nina Pineda of Eyewitness News, WABC-TV. About 450 people, including RFL Scholars, RFL Ambassadors, and young entrepreneurs were in attendance.
In her speech, Loida Lewis thanked WNET President Neil Shapiro, and Executive Producer and Director Geraldine Moriba for featuring Mr. Lewis first in their new PIONEERS documentary series. Among others, she also thanked business tycoon Tarrus Richardson, who was inspired by Mr. Lewis’ story when he heard it at 14 years old, and gave the largest contribution to make the documentary possible.
The documentary aired last weekend on WLIW 21 and WNET 13, and will air this Sunday, February 24, 7:00pm on NJTV. Outside the US, it is now available for streaming online on www.thirteen.org/pioneers.
For more information, please visit www.ReginaldFLewis.com, or get updates from Facebook or Instagram via @RFLBillionDollarDeal.
QUICK FACTS About Reginald F. Lewis * 1969: Married Loida Nicolas Lewis, Filipino American immigration lawyer, civic leader and co-author of “How To Get a Green Card”, now on its 12th edition
* Co-founded the first African American Law Firm on Wall Street
* First person to be accepted at Harvard University Law School without applying
* Among the first 5 male African Americans to have a museum named in their honor
* 1987: Negotiated the first billion-dollar offshore leveraged buyout, the largest ever by an American company at that time, which acquired him 64 companies in 31 countries.
PIONEERS: Reginald F. Lewis and the Making of a Billion Dollar Empire will air on Saturday, February 24, 7:00pm on NJTV, and is NOW AVAILABLE for ONLINE STREAMING on www.THIRTEEN.org/pioneers.
Acclaimed Feature Documentary Film Debuts on DVD and Blu-ray on November 17; Companion Soundtrack Album to be Released on CD, 2-LP Vinyl, and Digital Audio
Independent Lens Presents ‘Chasing Trane’ Broadcast Premiere on November 6 on PBS; Indie Lens Pop-Up Free Screening Events in Several U.S. Cities Through November 5
The GRAMMY Museum® Opens New John Coltrane Exhibit on November 17; Other Special Events Around the World to be Announced
On November 17, respected filmmaker John Scheinfelds acclaimed feature documentary film, ‘Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary,’ will be released by UMe on DVD and Blu-ray with exclusive bonus features. On the same date, Verve/UMe will release the films vital audio companion ‘Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary Original Soundtrack’ on CD, 180-gram 2-LP vinyl, and digital audio. (PRNewsfoto/UMe)
On November 17, respected filmmaker John Scheinfeld’s acclaimed feature documentary film, Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary, will be released by UMe on DVD and Blu-ray with exclusive bonus features. On the same date, Verve/UMe will release the film’s vital audio companion — Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary Original Soundtrack — on CD, 180-gram 2-LP vinyl, and digital audio. Set against the social, political and cultural landscape of the time, Chasing Trane brings saxophone great John Coltrane to life, as a man and an artist. The film is the definitive look at the boundary-shattering musician and composer whose influence continues to resonate around the world.
Written and directed by John Scheinfeld [The U.S. vs. John Lennon; Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?)], Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary is a rich and compelling portrait of a remarkable artist that reveals the critical events, passions, experiences and challenges that shaped the life of John Coltrane and his revolutionary sounds. The captivating film is produced by Spencer Proffer, John Beug, Scott Pascucci, and Dave Harding, with the support of the Coltrane family and the record labels that collectively manage the Coltrane catalog. Chasing Trane‘s DVD and Blu-ray packages include a booklet with an essay by Scheinfeld and rare photos seen in the film. The soundtrack’s booklet also includes rare photos from the film and an essay by journalist and film participant Ashley Kahn.
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary features never-before-seen Coltrane family home movies, footage of Coltrane and his band in the studio (discovered in a California garage during production of the film), along with hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and rare television appearances from around the world. The smart, passionate, thought-provoking and uplifting film reveals the critical events, passions, experience, and challenges that shaped Coltrane’s life and his revolutionary sounds. It is a story of demons and darkness, of persistence and redemption. Above all, it is the incredible spiritual journey of a man who found himself and, in the process, created an extraordinary, iconic body of work that transcends all barriers of geography, race, religion and age.
A music titan gets his cinematic due in Chasing Trane, a comprehensive, engrossing and, it’s tempting to say, worshipful account of the life of John Coltrane…” – Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
John Coltrane’s incredible story is told by the musicians who worked with him (Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Reggie Workman), musicians inspired by his fearless artistry and creative vision (Common, The Doors’ John Densmore, Wynton Marsalis, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Kamasi Washington), Coltrane’s children and biographers, and well-known admirers including President Bill Clinton and Dr. Cornel West. Although Coltrane did not participate in any television interviews and he recorded only a handful of radio interviews during his lifetime, he is an active and vibrant presence throughout the film, in his remarkable performance clips and in thoughts he expressed during print interviews. In Chasing Trane, the words of John Coltrane are spoken by Denzel Washington.
“In many of his roles Denzel radiates an exceptional quiet strength,” says the film’s director-writer John Scheinfeld. “Coltrane, many of his friends told me, embodied a similar strength. That’s why Denzel was my first choice to speak his words and I’m thrilled he made the time to participate in our film.”
After playing to critical and audience acclaim at its fall 2016 world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and at the Toronto International Film Festival, IDFA and DOC NYC, Chasing Trane‘s spring 2017 theatrical release was presented by Abramorama.
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary will make its television broadcast premiere on Independent Lens on Monday, November 6, 10:00-11:30 PM ET (check local listings) on PBS. During the month prior to the broadcast, Indie Lens Pop-Up, presented by ITVS, Independent Lens, and local partners across the country, will host free preview screenings and discussion events for the film in dozens of U.S. cities.
On Friday, November 17, the same day the ‘Chasing Trane‘ home video and companion soundtrack album will be released, the GRAMMY Museum at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles will open a sweeping new John Coltrane exhibit, titled Chasing Trane: Coltrane’s Musical Journey Transcended. The long-term exhibit, featuring rare performance footage and audio recordings from Coltrane’s Japanese tour in 1966, handwritten manuscripts, instruments, and more, will be a primary installation at the museum through September 2018.
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary and Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane DocumentaryOriginal Soundtrack are essential for anyone who appreciates the power of music to entertain, inspire, and transform. The producers of the film were, themselves, moved by this force, collectively stating, “We entered into this project with great respect for John Coltrane and his music. Our deep appreciation for both only increased during the production of the film, as we witnessed the profound impact that his music still has on so many people — a breadth of audience that defies any simple categorization.”
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary [DVD; Blu-ray] Feature film, plus 43 minutes of exclusive bonus features:
– Painting Trane, featuring Rudy Gutierrez and his paintings seen in the film and on the DVD and soundtrack album covers
– Brain on Coltrane, profiling pioneering brain researcher Dr. Charles Limb
– Obsessed by Coltrane, an extended cut of the film’s Japan sequence – Transformed by Coltrane, the life-changing power of Trane’s music on Vietnam veteran Douglas Taylor
– Kids for Coltrane, about the unique, Coltrane-centric New York City public school curriculum spearheaded by Christine Passarella
– A Conversation with Rudy Van Gelder, a rare visit with Trane’s most trusted recording engineer
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary Original Soundtrack [CD; 180g 2-LP Vinyl; Digital] 1. A Love Supreme Part 1 – Acknowledgement (7:43)
2. Russian Lullaby (5:33)
3. Trane’s Slo Blues (6:06)
4. Giant Steps (4:48)
5. My Favorite Things Pt. 1 single version (2:47)
6. My One and Only Love with Johnny Hartman (4:56)
7. Alabama (5:11)
8. After the Rain (4:10)
9. Moment’s Notice (9:10)
10. I Want to Talk About You (Live) (8:19)
11. Chasin’ The Trane (Live) (16:12)
About the Filmmaker John Scheinfeld (Writer/Director) is an Emmy®, Grammy®, and Writers Guild Award nominee and writer/director/producer of documentaries for theatrical and television distribution. His films have premiered at Telluride, Toronto, Venice and IDFA and include The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?), We Believe, and Dick Cavett’s Watergate. In addition, Scheinfeld has written pilot scripts for drama series for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and received his MFA from Northwestern University.
