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APRIL 24, 1997 AUGUSTA FOCUS
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JESSE’f GOINE
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“This much unchecked
honesty and anger
cuts to the core of too
many uncomfortable
realities.”
he murder of a young hip
hop artist becomes a poig
nant reminder of senseless
loss.
In his first film, Michael Smith
reminds us that America is a dan
gerous place for young black men.
His film breathes life into the head
lines and homicide statistics to re
veal an emotional story about death
and living with loss. Jesse’s Gone is
an incisive, excruciatingly tender
look at the frayed lives of the family
and friends of Jesse Rahim Hall, a
promising young rap artist from
East Oakland, Calif. whose voice
was muted by the bullet of an un
known assailant. The San Fran
cisco Bay Guardian praised this
hauntingly rhythmic film, saying
“Thismuchunchecked honesty and
anger cuts to the core of too many
uncomfortable realities.” cJesse’s
Gone will air nationally Tuesday,
June24,at 10:30 p.m.on PBS (check
local listings) as part of the P.O.V.
series, broadcast television’s only
continuing showcase for indepen
dent nonfiction film. Celebrating
its 10th anniversary season, P.O.V.
Augusta Symphony string quartet to
perform season finale marathon of Haydn
The Augusta Symphony String
Quartet will perform the complete
Opus 76 string quartets, composed
by Joseph Haydn, May 2 - 3. The
concert will take place at the Uni
tarian Universalist Church
(Walton Way Extension) at 7:30
p.m.
The String Quartet has estab
lished a tradition of performing
collected works of celebrated com
posers over consecutive evenings.
During the past two years, the
SUPER MARKETS
MICHAEL SMITH captures the stirring echoes of memory and
loss in his film about a murdered black recording artist. Photo
by Moussa Gordon _ S ol o
continues a decade of innovative,
independent and interactive pro
gramming Tuesdays June 3 - Au
gust 5.
“When I started this film four
yearsago, theleadingcause of death
for black men between the ages of
15and 25 wasmurder,” says Smith,
a 32-year-old black filmmaker. “I
decided to do a story about a drive
by shootingand how a family makes
sense of a young man’s death. The
central issue is how people live with
death, loss and love.” Smith began
work on Jesse’s Gone after seeing
an East Oakland mural painted in
Jesse’s memory by his friends.
“The film reflects the mural as a
memorial of one event, une indi
vidual, while telling a bigger story,
which is the complexity and heart
break of these times in which we
live,” said Smith. “Murals, like the
one here in Oakland, memorializ
ing love, pain, loss and these times
can be found across our country in
cities where the young die violent
deaths.”
In 1992, 22-year-old Jesse Rahim
Hall, an innovative young musician
on his way to being signed by a
record company, was shot to death
while sitting in a car outside his
house. One of the 8,000 American
black men murdered in an average
year, he may never have seen his
Quartet has presented a Beethoven
marathon (complete Opus 18 quar
tets)and a Mozart marathon(com
plete “Haydn” quartets) to atten
tive and enthusiastic Augusta au
diences. In the tradition of these
marathons, the Quartet will en
hance their performances with an
entertaining narrative, highlight
inghistorical and biographical ac
countsofHaydn and these six quar
tets. This two-night performance
is a rare opportunity to hear these
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killer. But they are linked by a
frightening reality: 90 percent of
these homicides are committed by
other black men. Jesse’s Gone per
sonalizes and universalizes these
homicide statistics, offering an elo
quent tribute to one young man
dearly loved by those who knew
him, and a poignant reminder of all
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AMONG the shattered lives left behind are Jesse Hall’s
parents, Mona (L) and Bobby Hall Sr.
theotheryoungblacklives abruptly
and senselessly ended by “a snap of
the clip and a pull on the trigger.”
Jesse’s Gone includes emotional
interviews with Jesse’s relatives,
friends and members of his rap
group, Hobo Junction, astheyshare
feelings of shock, anger and grief at
hissudden, tragicdeath—emotions
seldom heard on the evening news.
“It eats me up,” one friend, Lamar
exceptional compositionsinaback
to-back setting.
Haydn’s six quartets of Op. 76
were composed in 1796, after
Haydn’s second visit to England.
These quartets were composed dur
ing the composition of one of his
last great works, the oratorio The
Creation. The Op. 76 quartets re
flect Haydn’s experience in some
technical aspects of composing for
public performancesin large halls,
yet.they are not as extroverted and
art e music ¢ literature o theatre
Barnes, said bitterly of the violence. "
“That’s what a lot of people think
makes them men, when they can go:
up and smoke somebody.” Jesse’s'
father, Bobby Hall Sr., and grand-.
father, Napoleon Hall, speak can-'
didly about their thoughts of re-.
venge. “Right then, I wanted tofind.
out who killed him and go shoot:
him,” his grandfather admits. “My.
pastor told me that if I saw [the;
killer], God wouldn’t let me hurt,
him,” Bobby confesses, with tears’
in his eyes. “But even if God spoke;
to me, I think I'd hurt [the killer.]l:
don’t think it would be a good idea:
for me to see him. Not for me or for
my soul.” <
But guns and violence are a fact:
of life in East Oakland. Some, like
Jesse’s 20-year-old sister, Jamita,
areresigned tothedanger. “There’s
nothingyou can do if they get killed
in the street, because death is ev
erywhere,” she said. In the inner
city, birth and death too often come
back-to-back, a point illustrated by
the on-camera delivery of Jamita’s
second child, a niece that Jesse will
never see. At the center of all the
sadness, there’sajagged hole where
Jesse should be, an absence under
scored by Smith’s use of original
music by Hobo Junction and video
footage of Jesse laughing, rapping
and talking to his baby son.
Smith shot the sceneswith Jesse’s
mother, Mona, last. “We were work
ingin very close quarters and it was
averypowerful interview,” the film
makerrecalls. “I’d been workingon
the film for two years by then, and
I though I was desensitized, but
when she started crying, I started
crying. Their son is gone. He was
their prince. Now they’re living with
ghosts.” In some of the film’s most
moving footage, Monasitsinadimly
lit room, surrounded by shadows
and memories, clutching a T-shirt
Jesse decorated and gave to her
before he died. Mustering all of her
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strength, she sadly recalls the last
time she spoke to her son, as he was
on his way out the door on the night
he was killed. “My bedroom door
was closing real slow and he said,
‘Mama, I loveyou.’ And I said, Tlove
you, baby’ and I didn’t realize when
he closed that door, it was like he was
closing his life away forever.”
Jesse’s Gone is a co-presentation
ofthe National Black Programming
Consortium (NBPC.)
symphonic in style as his Op. 74
quartets, which were composed for
London audiences. They are for
mally innovative and communi
cateintrospective and candid emo
tions, ideas and inside and not-so
inside jokes. The Op. 76 quartets
are auniqueblend ofthe parlor and
concert hall styles.
Tickets may be purchased at the
door the night of the concert or by
calling 826-4705. Prices range from
slofor adults and $5 for students.
New CD features Toni
Morrison, Andre Previn
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From Ordinary Things features Toni Morrison, Andre
Previn, Ellen Kusman, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and soprano
Sylvia McNair join composer and
pianist Andre Previn in the Sony
Classical recording From Ordinary
Things (SK 62004), a collection of
new works Previn has written spe
cifically for them, including a new
group of songs set to texts by Nobel
laureate Toni Morrison with a cello
obbligato written especially for Ma.
Therecording wasreleased Febru
ary 25.
One of the world’s leading con
ductors and a composer who has
written for Hollywood and Broad
way as well as the concert hall,
Previn has enjoyed along and cor
dialrelationship with both Ma and
McNair in concerts, recitals and
recordings. From Ordinary Things
is the first time all three artists
have appeared together on a re
cording.
Previn’s 1993 sonata for cello
and piano was commissioned by
Ma, and the two artists played the
world premiere in a recital at the
Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.
Written the following year, the four
songs with texts by Toni Morrison—
“ Mercy,” “Stones,” “Shelter” and
“The Lacemaker”—grew out of two
impulses. Previn wanted to write
a song cycle for McNair, and he
wanted to work again with
Morrison’s poetry, after setting it
to music for Kathleen Battlein the
orchestral song cycle “Honey and
Rue.” Ma had once suggested that
Previninclude a cello obbligato for
his songs, and the composer in
cluded such a cello part in the four
songs.
Two Remembrances (1995) was
written for McNair, set for soprano,
alto flute and piano to a pair of
German poems translated into
English—“A Love Song” by Else
Lasker-Schulerand “Lyric”by Frau
Ava. Sandra Church of the New
York Philharmonicis the alto flute
Season’s last big-band
concert to be held April 26
The Augusta Jazz Project’s Big-
Band, under the direction of Dr.
Rudy Volkmann, will present the
last of the season’s big-band con
certs at the Imperial Theatre at 8
p.m. The theme for this concert is
a salute to the music of Glenn
Miller, but in addition, the band
will perform a wide variety of works
in styles ranging from Dixieland to
Beßop, from ballads to swing, from
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soloist. Previn wrote the other
work—a vocalise for soprano, cello
and piano—especially for this re
cording. The first version of the
vocalise displeased him when he
began rehearsing it with Ma and
McNair. The day before they were
to record it, he wrote the com
pletely new version heard onFrom
Ordinary Things.
Previn’s music was first heard in
Hollywood films, though he began
moving toward a careerin classical
music as a young man, studying
composition with Joseph Achron
and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedescoarfd
conducting with Pierre Monteux.
He won four Academy Awards as
composer and musical director in
the early part of his career, but
most of his writing since the 1960 s
has been for the concert hall. His
worksincludea pianoconcertocom
missioned and recorded by Vladimir
Ashkenazy; a song cycle for Dame
Janet Baker; a musical dramaen
titled Every Good Boy Deserves
Favour, written in collaboration
with playwright Tom Stoppard; a
violin sonata for Young Uck Kim;
and a piano/woodwind trio com
missioned by the St. Luke’s Cham
ber Orchestra. Previnis currently
at work on an operatic adaptation
of Tennessee Williams’A Streetcar
Named Desire, with a libretto by
Philip Littell, to have its world
premiere at the San Francisco
Operain September 1998. :
Asconductor, Andre Previn has
collaborated previously with cellist
Yo-Yo Ma on the Sony Classical
recording of the Elgar and Walton
celloconcertos (MK 39541). Sylvia
McNair canalso be heard as one of
the soloists on Sony Classical’s re
cording of Mendelssohn’s inciden
tal music forA Midsummer Night's
Dream (SK 62826), with Claudio
Abbado conducting the Berlin Phil
harmonic. :
Basie to Corea. In addition, there
will be a number of original tunes
and arrangements in preparation
ofthe band’s CD recording session
this summer. Lakeside High
School’s jazzband will be the inter
mission feature. Tickets are avail
able through the Imperial Theatre
Box Office at 722-8341; prices are
sls reserved seating, $lO generdl
admission and $5 student prices,_