This is Gary McFarland Documentary - Free Thru December 31, 2022

[Teasing the Korean]

The Vimeo link is here. Password is GaryMac.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks.

[mikeweil]

I bought the CD/DVD package as soon as it was issued. Well made documentary.  MacFarland was a amazing talent and never cared about categories. I wish there was an expanded reissue of the Profiles album, but I"m afraid those tapes are lost.

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, mikeweil said:

I bought the CD/DVD package as soon as it was issued. Well made documentary.  MacFarland was a amazing talent and never cared about categories. I wish there was an expanded reissue of the Profiles album, but I"m afraid those tapes are lost.

We screened the film locally when it was released, and I think I have someplace the DVD from the filmmaker.

I wish that they would remix Soft Samba Strings with a pitch-corrected piano.  It was apparently overdubbed later at a different studio, and either the piano tuning or the tape machine speeds did not mesh.  

[AllenLowe]

can't get to it; when I click the link it says "video is private."

 

[Teasing the Korean]

57 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

can't get to it; when I click the link it says "video is private."

You don't see an option to enter a password?

[mjazzg]

Enjoyed it, thanks for posting.

Password prompt appeared as I hit your link in first post

[felser]

Very well done documentary on a most enigmatic figure, thanks!

[Teasing the Korean]

This has prompted me to re-watch it.  I don't think I've seen it since it was released.

I love the 8mm home movies of Gary's wedding, with Gabor Szabo and Lalo Schifrin among the guests!

Edited December 20, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

I'm thinking that I saw this on either Netflix or Prime or Kanopy or some streaming service a few years ago? Is that possible? Or are there two Gary M. movies?

[Teasing the Korean]

16 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I'm thinking that I saw this on either Netflix or Prime or Kanopy or some streaming service a few years ago? Is that possible? Or are there two Gary M. movies?

You probably saw this one.  I can't imagine that would be two - especially with so little footage available.  It just hasn't been readily available over the years. 

By the way, here is Gary's 1966 Fresca commercial, in which he conducts.

This tune was later recycled for his album Does the Sun Really Shine on the Moon.

 

[Larry Kart]

3 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

You probably saw this one.  I can't imagine that would be two - especially with so little footage available.  It just hasn't been readily available over the years. 

By the way, here is Gary's 1966 Fresca commercial, in which he conducts.

This tune was later recycled for his album Does the Sun Really Shine on the Moon.

 

i'm sure it's just me, but I found the documentary to be profoundly creepy.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 minute ago, Larry Kart said:

i'm sure it's just me, but I found the documentary to be profoundly creepy.

In terms of the subject, or in terms of the film maker's approach?  Both?  Other?

[Larry Kart]

Just that it was eventually a more or less sad, even sick story. McFarland was living fairly close to the edge, seemingly without either knowing or caring much that this was so -- all that talk from various associates about what a super-relaxed, lovely, devil may care guy he was, etc. --  and then the edge rose up almost out of nowhere up in the form of a batshit hipster author and killed him. BTW, whatever happened to Hoffenberg as a result of what he did to McFarland? It's like Gary's life was a kind of semi-conscious Ponzi scheme, and he got taken for good. In the end, the devil did care. But all that, again, may be mostly me.

 

[Teasing the Korean]

47 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Just that it was eventually a more or less sad, even sick story. McFarland was living fairly close to the edge, seemingly without either knowing or caring much that this was so -- all that talk from various associates about what a super-relaxed, lovely, devil may care guy he was, etc. --  and then the edge rose up almost out of nowhere up in the form of a batshit hipster author and killed him. BTW, whatever happened to Hoffenberg as a result of what he did to McFarland? It's like Gary's life was a kind of semi-conscious Ponzi scheme, and he got taken for good. In the end, the devil did care. But all that, again, may be mostly me.

I have always felt that a specter of sadness or melancholy hovered over Gary McFarland.  I feel much the same way about Brian Wilson.  Even when they are doing "happy" songs, there is an undercurrent of melancholy.  I don't remember enough details from the McFarland documentary to have an overall biographical picture.  I do remember the sad circumstances of his death.  

[felser]

1 hour ago, Larry Kart said:

 BTW, whatever happened to Hoffenberg as a result of what he did to McFarland? 

Nothing. My understanding is this:  Apparently the police declined to investigate it, according to Gen Lees.  Hoffenberg's story is that he accidentally left the bottles at the bar when he left.  Lees says Hoffenberg spiked McFarland's and David Burnett's drinks with it.   McFarland was a tragic figure on a lot of levels, which does make his story creepy, though fascinating.

[mikeweil]

34 minutes ago, felser said:

McFarland was a tragic figure on a lot of levels, which does make his story creepy, though fascinating.

That's the way I see it.

[sgcim]

7 hours ago, JSngry said:

I'm thinking that I saw this on either Netflix or Prime or Kanopy or some streaming service a few years ago? Is that possible? Or are there two Gary M. movies?

No way that you saw this on a streaming service, or I would've found it. I've been looking for this doc for a long time, and TTK has come through in a big way

Let's all raise our glasses to the mysterious TTK for finding a doc I've been looking for for 16 years!

By chance, my brother happened to be visiting, and we both freaked out that the doc both of us had been looking for was available on Vimeo.

I've read about the filmmaker, and he's not a musician or even a jazz fan. He's just a hipster dude that dug GMac's music of the late 60s, and was so fascinated by it, that he started researching GMac.

I don't know if I discussed it here, but I attended the world premiere of the Judee Sill doc. "Lost Angel", and I helped the filmmaker out with some research (my name is displayed in big letters on the screen during the end credits!), and I met the filmmaker for the first time. He was not a young hipster type like St. Claire, but an experienced filmmaker and actor, who knew HOW to make a balanced doc. That could account for the awkwardness in the Gary Mac doc; simply inexperience.

This was sure a trip down memory lane for me, as I worked with a lot of the musicians interviewed and mentioned in the doc, and the thing that literally scared the hell out of me was the shot of Jimmy Raney at Jim and Andy's. He looked like some type of hillbilly, bizarro world Jimmy Raney, who could've been a country singer or something (he was from Kentucky)!

Mason Hoffenberg has some essay online in which he claims that he killed a well-known jazz musician. He's died a while ago, so there's no point in further investigation...

[Bill Nelson]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:26 AM, Teasing the Korean said:

We screened the film locally when it was released, and I think I have someplace the DVD from the filmmaker.

I wish that they would remix Soft Samba Strings with a pitch-corrected piano.  It was apparently overdubbed later at a different studio, and either the piano tuning or the tape machine speeds did not mesh.  

'Soft Samba Strings' is a thorough cock-up.  The piano pitch indeed leans sharp and the strings (recorded in England at 50 cycles, versus the U.S. standard 60 cycles) run a touch slower, off-pitch, and after the beat.  (Jack Parnell conducted strings and voices.)

Conceptually, 'SSS' was to be McFarland's easy listening, semi-classical album of Light Music'.  Instead, it's a botched project which Creed Taylor sub-contracted to its detriment.  Yet, one might call it a 'beautiful mess'.

[felser]

1 hour ago, Bill Nelson said:

Yet, one might call it a 'beautiful mess'.

Yeah, those do exist:

[AllenLowe]

On 12/19/2022 at 2:39 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

You don't see an option to enter a password?

got it thanks

[Teasing the Korean]

21 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

got it thanks

👍

[Chuck Nessa]

5 hours ago, sgcim said:

Mason Hoffenberg has some essay online in which he claims that he killed a well-known jazz musician. He's died a while ago, so there's no point in further investigation...

Any idea where we can find this?

 

[soulpope]

9 hours ago, felser said:

Nothing. My understanding is this:  Apparently the police declined to investigate it, according to Gen Lees.  Hoffenberg's story is that he accidentally left the bottles at the bar when he left.  Lees says Hoffenberg spiked McFarland's and David Burnett's drinks with it.   McFarland was a tragic figure on a lot of levels, which does make his story creepy, though fascinating.

Mysterious ....

[Daniel A]

14 hours ago, felser said:

 McFarland was a tragic figure on a lot of levels, which does make his story creepy, though fascinating.

I agree with what has been said about the ever-present streak of melancholy, and I also think he had the potential to achieve much more. I watched the documentary many years ago and cannot recall details, but what does this mean; "tragic figure on a lot of levels"? What is it that was tragic besides his death and maybe to some extent unfulfilled promise?

Edited December 21, 2022 by Daniel A