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Four-time Tony Award-winner Zoe Caldwell (“Slapstick Tragedy,” “Medea,” “Master Class”) died this week at 86. In her memory, we present this video clip of her discussing the rigid class system in England, and how she playfully disrupted expectations at a party with a lighthearted song and dance. This exclusive interview outtake is taken from American Masters – Paul Robeson: Here I Stand (1999).
Reed was always at the forefront of American avant-garde music, beginning with creation of the Velvet Underground in 1965. Gritty and realistic, the brutal honesty in Reed’s lyrics and sound made him a cultural icon of the disenfranchised throughout the ’60s and ’70s. From punk rock to grunge, he has had an unparalleled influence on the American music scene.
Bebop, a style of jazz developed in the 1940's, changed American music but wasn't taken seriously for much of Charlie Parker's life. This mid-century popcorn television commercial shows how the public's perception of bebop was riddled with stereotypes.
Charlie Parker's nickname "Yardbird" came to be while he was on the way to a gig with some fellow musicians and involved a bird in a yard that had an unfortunate fate.