JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Success Stories Forum A very cool PM...

Woah!!!! I just got this VERY cool PM over at a jazz community BB I frequent (yes - I frequent other music communities).... anyway, this is what he wrote - check THIS out -

"I just watched the Israeli film 'The Band's Visit'. One of the characters is a Chet Baker fan and at one point he says he has all of Baker's recordings 'from the Harry Babasin Octet to the last concert in 1988'.

I must admit that until then I hadn't realized that Chet's first recordings were with your dad.

Joe Medjuck"

How cool is that?!!??!!?! What a wonderful Christmas present! This demonstrates just how important my father's contributions were to the entire west coast jazz community.

One of the coolest things that Scott Willis, former musical director of KKJZ 88.1 FM radio, said about my dad in a letter he wrote on my behalf was, "He (Harry) played with and recorded new artists of that time, launching the careers of many now famous jazz musicians, as well as serving as their mentor and father figure throughout those years."

He did indeed, and Chet Baker was just one of many who got their starts because my dad gave them a chance...

Very cool! Your Dad must touched a lot of lives.

Thanks Bob!

To this day, I meet people who tell me not only was my dad a great musician, but he was also a great man...

I found the movie this gentleman told me about on Netflix and I'll rent it once it becomes available.

I very well may want to include this clip in the documentary... who knows...

Happy new year, BC!!!!!

WOW...Your dad really made an impact on others How wonderful that you are keeping his creative legacy alive!

Emily

What an honor! That almost brought tears to my eyes, and I don't even KNOW your dad! (Or you, lol!) Congratulations. A great legacy! Blessings to all of you-- Becky Wright

Thanks Emily!!! Thanks Becky!!!

Obviously, my father was not a rich man. The legacy that he had to pass along was one of artistic integrity and creativity and true instrumental virtuosity that hopefully will continue to inspire future generations of musicians to strive to innovate their art.

A very happy and prosperous new year to you and everyone...

Cheers!

Very cool PM. It's like your Dad is reaching out to you through others. Hope the documentary is coming along well. Happy New Year!

Thanks Jean!!! Happy new year!!!

As with any artistically worthy project, the only things holding me back are financial constraints. But, I have a very poignant tale to tell...

When I was growing up going to junior high school, what's now called middle school, I was in an advanced class of math nerds. Yes - I, Von from ONOFFON, was a math nerd. Anyway, there was a group of students that went all the way through six semesters with the same math teacher, Mr. Irving Burch. It created a bond with we students that has lasted for many years.

In more recent times, we've actually gotten together over at Mr. Burch's home in the valley and had a couple of informal reunions. Not a school reunion - just that class of maybe thirty of us. One of the students, Abby Polin, was instrumental in organizing these events, contacting people who are scattered all across the country now, coordinating the food, etc. Abby enlisted the help of her mother, Janet, though that wasn't very hard to do. Janet was a room mother all the way back in the sixties. Janet was wonderful to everyone but she took a real fascination to me and my plight to honor my father with the jazz museum and, more recently, the documentary. She held a monumental respect for my dad and what I was trying to do for his memory.

Sadly, Janet Polin passed away this year. It's not like all of us have remained terribly close but we have always held a special connection, and we lost a very special part of that connection. The reunions won't quite be the same without her.

A week or two ago, I received an email from Abby. Her family has decided that since Janet had held such a special regard for Harry and the jazz museum/documentary, they want to make a donation to the production of the film from Janet's trust, in her name, honoring her memory. How amazing is that? How great is it that I can help to honor the memory of Janet Polin while honoring the memory of Harry Babasin? It's all so humbling...

So, when you finally get the chance to actually see this film, you will know the story behind the dedication to Janet Polin in the thanks during the end credits...

I really see it as a sign from God that I am doing the right thing with my life and that I will eventually be able to fulfill my destiny...

Cheers!

A very nice and touching story, thanks Von.

Wow, Von. That is way cool. Hey, have you investigated the possibility of receiving a grant to continue the documentary. There would probably be some sort of restriction involving profit but the grant might be able to provide production expenses plus a stipend for living expenses. Also there are some retreat areas which provide living and work areas for a set time. I saw listings for them in the Songwriters book. Also you may want to look into the Redford's Sundance ranch thing. They have a festival for film makers and I am not sure but there may be some sort of financial support available. Anyway, good luck to you.

That's way cool. There are alot of unsung hero's out there that help alot of people along the way and somewhat stay under the radar and don't expect much in return. My dad was a football coach, and I meet men all the time who say "Your dad helped me go from being a boy to being a man". My dad passed in 1996 and a year later they named the stadium Jarrett Memorial Stadium in his honor. I'm stoked you're going to get a hold of the tape through Netflix...buy it and hold on to it...Happy New Year...Moker

Thanks Everett - appreciate the support... and Moker, very cool honor for your dad and your family. It's amazing to find out how many people our fathers helped along their ways.

Jean - the sponsorship from the New York Foundation for the Arts doesn't fund me directly. It allows me to work under the umbrella of their non-profit status to raise the funds for the production.

If you can imagine, to date I have personally written proposals to more than 500 foundations that support arts and culture and received 250+ rejections. I've been told that my proposals are clear and concise - that my budget is well within reason for such a film - and yet I haven't found a single foundation that finds the project "a good fit". NEA no longer funds fiscal sponsorships and PBS has said they'd like to air it but will not fund it.

I'm talking everything from the Ford Foundation to Occidental Petroleum - the Getty, the Carnegie, the Guggenheim - the Recording Academy, the Gibson Foundation - you would be amazed at the files of letters I've written and the phone conversations I've had.

This is not to say I haven't received some amazing support - just not monetary.

The Grammy Foundation invited me to submit my father's name for a possible Lifetime Achievement Award, and AFFMA, who holds a film festival every year, wants to feature the film at one of their festivals and also give my dad a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award.

I'm now working with a film archivist named Mark Cantor who served as the archival consultant for a film called "A Great Day in Harlem", based on the famous 1958 photograph, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary of 1995. He not only worked with my father back in the sixties but has consented to be my archival consultant as well. I've spoken with William Claxton, one of the greatest jazz photographers from the west coast jazz movement and he has photos of my dad I will be licensing for use.

I've done a lot of soul searching lately - really questioning my true purpose in life - but I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing...

Onward...

Thanks again for all your support...

Here's another cool story...

Not too long ago, I was down at Drum City with Roy Harte's son, Rex, going through some of the old drum stuff his dad had collected over the decades the drum shop was in business. While we were down there, an old friend of theirs stopped by to check out a few things - drummer Jim Keltner. Now, I knew Jim Keltner's name from the credits of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen album that still sits lovingly in my record collection at home, but I had no idea how storied his career is. A short list of those he has played and recorded with are John Lennon, Manhattan Transfer, Delbert McClinton, the Traveling Wilburys, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, John Lee Hooker, Randy Newman, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Pink Floyd, James Taylor, Boz Scaggs, Linda Ronstadt, Ringo Starr, Indigo Girls, B.B. King, Rickie Lee Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Brian Wilson, Fiona Apple, Neil Diamond, the Bee Gees, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Rita Coolidge and Harry Chapin.

Pretty amazing credentials, if you ask me. What an honor for me to meet this amazing drummer.

But, the coolest part of the day came while I was in a back room, going through some tapes. I was calling out to Rex in another room about something I had found when Jim poked his head around the corner and said, "Hey, you sounded just like your dad just then".

Woah... I was TOTALLY blown away. Not only did this legendary rock 'n roll drummer know my father - but he knew him well enough to recognize his voice in mine...

It was at that moment I realized my father's continued influence on generation after generation of outstanding musicians and I hope that his documentary will help influence future generations to strive for artistic and creative excellence...

Cheers!

The story gets better and better.

Today, I'd like to talk specifics about the documentary project and the New York Foundation for the Arts fiscal sponsorship supporting it.

The NYFA sponsorship came about because they realized that the only thing keeping me from making this film is the financial ability to produce it. I obviously have everything I need for the content of the film, aside from actually filming the interviews with musicians, historians, and disc jockeys that will help to tell the story, but the film clips, photos, recordings, articles, reviews, advertisements, endorsements - my father's life scrapbook I own and it all needs to be scanned and transferred into a digital format so I can piece it all together.

Now, the real beauty of my contract with NYFA, as defined in writing, is I retain 100% of the copyright of the film and I own 100% of the distribution rights as well. Plus, they have no say in the artistic content of the film. They only serve as a non-profit conduit for the raising of the production budget. Also, there is no defined ceiling on how much funding can be raised through them, as long as it all pertains to the film and is documented in the budget.

Any and all money used in the direct production of the film is 100% recoupable expense taken out of the grants and contributions donated to the film through NYFA.

So, if I had the funds to start the production, I could recoup those expenses once funding comes through. To put this in perspective, my entire budget comes in at between $400,000-500,000, but I only need approximately $100,000 to purchase the equipment I need to compile everything I have and produce a work-in-progress reel to submit with my future proposals.

Now, I have found a dozen different foundations that specifically write what are known as "completion grants". Those are funds that are designated to complete the film, based on the project itself and the work-in-progress reel that accompanies it. For instance, a company called ITVS in San Francisco provides completion grants of $100,000-400,000 to projects they find compelling enough to support. And, with a team that includes an archival consultant who has worked on an Academy Award nominated jazz documentary and an advisor who has won an Emmy, a DGA, and Peabody Award for production and direction, I feel that it will garner the respect of the industry.

So, I would benefit greatly from a private investment of $100,000, that could be recouped from the contributions that will be eventually raised through NYFA. Although, I can't relinquish any percentage of the copyright as per my contract, I will still have points to offer from the airing and distribution rights once the film is complete.

I already have a dozen different festivals and organizations, including the Grammy Foundation, AFFMA, American Public Broadcasting and the Documentary Channel, that want to feature this film and I believe there will be international film festivals also interested. With my father's music being pressed in places like Spain, Japan, and the United States, articles about him in Belgium, Armenia, Russia, Canada, and the United States, and airplay literally around the world, there is international interest in my father's story.

While a single investor would provide the most immediate financial impact, a grassroots effort of many small investments would serve the same purpose. A thousand people donating $100 each would provide the initial investment I need to produce the film.

So, if you know of someone who might be interested in helping to bring this all to fruition, visit this page -

http://www.onoffon.com/nyfa.html

The New York Foundation for the Arts has been in existence since 1971 and is an extremely prestigious organization. At the top of their Hall of Fame sits Spike Lee. He sought assistance from NYFA to help him produce "She's Gotta Have It" and we all know where that led. They also supported a producer/director named Zana Briski and she won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary with her film, "Born Into Brothels".

One more thing to think about, in the almost two years that foundations have been pondering whether or not my project is worthy of funding, five wonderfully talented, creative musicians that played with my father and would have contributed greatly to this story have passed away. We keep losing these amazing American treasures every day...

Thank you for taking the time to read this....

A friend of mine, jazz historian and retired jazz professor, James Harrod, wrote to me the other day and told me about an article that just came out that he was going to send to me.

I just received my copy of the January/February, 2008, issue of CODA, a jazz journal from Canada, that has a wonderful article about the bebop pianist, Dodo Marmarosa, by Trevor Tolley. It has a nice paragraph that includes my father -

"More representative [of Dodo's 'adventurous' side] were the recordings Marmarosa made for Dial on December 3rd, 1947, supervised by Eddie Laguna of Sunset Records. Marmarosa, ever the perfectionist, recorded twenty-nine takes that day. Five tunes initially came out of this session: Bopmatism, Dodo's Dance, Trade Winds, Dary Departs, and Cosmo Street. Eleven takes in all have been issued. The supporting players on this session were Jackie Mills on drums and Harry Babasin playing the plucked jazz cello for the first time in recording history, though he also plays bass on Dary Departs. Bopmatism, whose quality is characterised by its title, is perhaps the most impressive track here with its immaculate and relaxed single note passages and beautifully controlled variation in pace. The lovely Trade Winds highlights impressive interplay between piano and cello."

Most importantly, here, I'd like to say that this is amazing to have this journalist point out the importance of this recording. It just shows my father's story is getting out there - piece by piece.

It seems to me that someone who continues to pop up in so many important places in jazz, and so many important times in jazz, and so many important discographies throughout jazz history, maybe he deserves to finally have his story told, and help give definition to the artform he loved and helped define, west coast jazz.

Of course he does....

Okay... this comes from the "I swear, you just can't make this kind of stuff up" file -

I called the jazz historian, Jim Harrod, on Friday to thank him for sending me the copy of CODA that had my dad's pioneer plucked jazz cello mentioned in the article by Canadian jazz journalist, Trevor Tolley, about Dodo Marmarosa. In the course of the conversation, I asked him about a group my father led, the Harry Babasin Orchestra. I have an article in an issue of the Capitol News, a publication published by Capitol Records to announce important musical happenings in the industry. This issue is the January, 1948 edition, Vol. 6, No. 1. It talks about the 'Hot' cello of Harry Babasin, leading an orchestra he put together, featuring Jimmy Giuffre, his old college pal.

I asked Jim if he might be aware of any recordings of this group in existence and he said that he wasn't.

On Saturday, I was surfing through eBay on my usual 'Harry Babasin' sweeps to see what's out there, and I saw an album from Italy called "Jimmy Giuffre, Rare and Unissued Recordings, 1948-61". It looks like one of those 'non-sanctioned' releases that just happen to have a montage of things Jimmy Giuffre played on.

Well, believe it or not, the first three tracks are the very group I mentioned, playing a live concert in Pasadena in January, 1948, the exact month of the article. Each player is listed by name on the tracks and is verified in the caption of the picture in the story from the Capitol News.

I just won the auction...

Now, what are the odds that the very day after I asked Jim about this particular group, I find a recording of them? I could have asked him five years ago...

That's as close to God as it gets...

Last weekend, I played with my cover band at our monthly gig in Orange County. A particular woman who regularly attends our performances came up to me at the break. She asked me if I'd ever heard of the movie, "The Band's Visit". That's the movie I posted about that mentions my father's "Harry Babasin Octet" in the dialogue, in reference to being the first recording Chet Baker played on in his storied career.

Obviously, I knew of the film but it was so cool to have someone recognize his name and be excited about hearing it - especially in such a respected context.

Incidentally, while I don't own it yet, I have found a couple of CDs that have a recording of that very group.

A real gem for the documentary...

Congrats Von! Very cool.. can't wait to see what happens with your projects. I love documentaries anyway, and this one will be especially cool!

Brian

Doris Duke Foundation has a fund for the performing arts.

Thanks for the support, Brian! I plan to invite you to the premiere!

Thank you too, Gary - believe it or not, I have not one but two rejections from Doris Duke's Foundation.

What makes that particularly weird to me is, my dad told me he used to play many all night parties and jam sessions up at Doris Duke's lavish estate back in those days.

I even called and talked directly to the grants administrator but to no avail. I would have thought that since the story actually included Doris Duke herself, they might have a special place for it.

Silly me...

That's okay - this is literally on the verge of funding. I'm in negotiation right now that could at least let me start cutting the film. There's so much I have to scan into a digital format - film clips, photos, articles, album covers, advertisements, endorsements, reviews... you wouldn't believe how much content I have.

I have to add I am so inspired by Herbie Hancock winning the Album of the Year Grammy AND "Falling Slowly", winning the Best Song Oscar!!!!!!! The first jazz album to win the Album of the Year in 43 years, only the second in their 50 year history. A $100,000 indie film shot in three weeks on two Handi-cams with an indie singer/songwriter duo taking the honors.... Truly inspirational!!!!!

I recently received an email from Ted Gioia, author of a book called "West Coast Jazz" and owner of the new website, jazz.com. It indirectly involves my father but, once again, illustrates the impact of my father on jazz -

"Von,

I thought you might find this interesting. I will be running an article on Charlie Parker on the www.jazz.com website in a couple of months, and I commissioned artist Suzanne Cerny to do a portrait of Bird for this article. She included an image of your father in the background.

I hope all is well with you.

Best regards,

Ted"

The work is an artist rendition of the picture I've posted here with Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, and Harry Babasin, playing live at the Tiffany Club in 1952. When Mr. Parker arrived in L.A., he performed at a club in Inglewood called the Tradewinds, where my father hosted regular jam sessions. Charlie Parker and Chet Baker actually met for the first time at this particular session and the resulting recording is only the second of young Mr. Baker's illustrious career. His first, BTW, was also with my father at the Tradewinds earlier that same year, the one mentioned in "The Band's Visit"...

More later...

Von, I can't see where the illustration is. Is it on the jazz website?

Jean -

No, it's not up yet. He said he's doing the article in a couple of months.

However, I got confirmation that a small article about dad and the film is in the March issue of Jazziz Magazine, that should hit the newsstands any day now.

It was written by a journalist in Ventura named Charles Levin.

They told me they would run this 250 word article with pic, but once the film is complete, they would consider a full blown feature.

This is a very fortuitous time for me to have this article published...

More later...

The other day, I gave Charles Levin a call. He's the writer who wrote the piece about my dad and the documentary for the March issue of Jazziz Magazine (still waiting for it to hit the stands). He wasn't home so I left a message thanking him for writing the article.

Yesterday, I received this email from Mr. Levin -

"Von,
Got your message and also wanted to pass along this message: See "The Band's Visit." It's a foreign film about an Egyptian police department band's trip to Israel. You must see it for at least one line in the movie. I don't want to give it away. You will be touched.
cl"

I hated to tell him that I not only knew about the movie already but someone had given me the exact quote as well.

He was, however, correct about how touched I am. About the movie, yes, that's very cool.

But, what REALLY touches me is that people who I barely know are seeing this movie and contacting me to tell me about it! I'm absolutely beside myself. It's so wonderful that people are making the connection to just how amazing and important my father's contributions to jazz are...

It's awe inspiring and humbling... it's so cool for my kids who never met their grandfather... it's so cool for my mother who still loves my dad with all her heart almost twenty years after his death...

Thanks again, Charles Levin.

It's all so incredible...

Makes it tough to be cynical about the "biz" when you read stuff like this. I'm happy for you, mate.
Cheers,
Steve R.

PS. Keltner? It might be quicker to list the people he hasn't played drums for!

Thanks Steve... I appreciate your kind words...

Actually, I still have a long way to go. But, the support I've received from all over the world has been truly amazing.

This is a story of a time in music history that should never be lost or forgotten.

I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen...

Cheers to you!

Von

Today would have been Harry Babasin's 87th birthday!

So, hold your glasses high and say a toast to a great father, wonderful husband, all-around good guy, and one amazingly talented musician.

Cheers!

Will do!