Music: Odetta

Just heard that great music legend Odetta passed away - by some coincidence Miriam Makeba also died not long ago,so now we have two great civil rights activists leaving us around same time.I heard about Odetta as main influence on Joan Baez,Bob Dylan and every other folkie under the sun but her music has no close connections with them - folkie troubadours were often just melancholic,while this woman had regal,majestic presence closer to Bessie Smith or Mahalia Jackson than anything else.Excellent,passionate contra-alto that sounds like she could blow audience away right from the stage,that's how I see her.She called herself music historian and that's excatly what she did,searching for forgotten songs and singing about religion,love,hope,slavery and such - she even recorded excellent album of blues songs from 1920s (which I love very much).She was active until the last moment and her recent albums are also fine,althoght world has moved away from 1960s folk and forgott her a little,with all the commercial fluff getting attention these days but she truly was a pioneer.

I salute you and love you,Odetta. 

Movie:"Cadillac records"

A whole uproar is happening now because of this movie that I have not seen yet,but I'm definitely very curious about.Several years ago I read excellent book "Spinning blues into gold" (or something like that) by Nadine Cohodas about "Chess records" so I'm not only familiar with Chess music but also with a story behind it. It appears that role of Etta James is played by pop starlet Beyonce and this now brings a backlash similar to that of Diana Ross playing Billie Holiday in early 1970s.

I completely understand people who love Etta James (I am big fan of her music myself) and would prefer to see accomplished actress instead but also it seems that Beyonce pop fluff brought her a lot of bad will and malice towards her - people dislike her for simply being Beyonce - and my opinion is that her fame can only bring audience to this movie and perhaps give some new interest to music of "Chess records" and Etta James herself.There are lots of kids who don't even know about this music so why not bringing big star into it if that means wide-spread popularity and hopefuly succes of the movie.From what I saw it looks that Beyonce gave her best & was very respectful towards music legend.Being excatly like character was never main priority in movie industry and people like Robert De Niro who would completely transform inside-out are super rare.It's all about impressions and hopefuly this will bring Etta closer to wide audience while she is still alive instead posthumously.