Obituary

In a year where entertainment fans have lost so many legendary artists, one more icon has passed away just before we ring in the new year. Unlike most of this year's late legends, this artist was not a household name, although his work had a major impact on some of the most revered films of all time. Artist Tyrus Wong, whose work helped shape the unique look for Bambi and many other films, passed away yesterday at the age of 106. … [Read more...] about Tyrus Wong, Artist Behind Disney’s Bambi, Passes Away at 106

Kirby played several roles in the long-running Peter Falk series Columbo, most notably his run as the show’s Sgt. Kramer. From 1986 to 1991, Kirby recurred on L.A. Law as D.A. Bruce Rogoff, and in the early 1980s he was cast as Officer Schmidt in the San Francisco-based crime drama Shannon. … [Read more...] about Bruce Kirby Dies: ‘Columbo’, ‘L.A. Law’ Actor Was 95

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield.  David Mansfield was just 19 years old when he joined the Rolling Thunder Revue in the fall of 1975 as a fiddle player and pedal-steel guitarist, so young that Bob Dylan credited him as “The Son” in his road movie Renaldo and Clara, and Martin Scorsese billed him as “The Innocent” in his 2019 Rolling Thunder film. But Mansfield made contacts on that tour that would benefit him for the next five decades, helping land him jobs with Johnny Cash, Bruce Hornsby, Lucinda Williams, and Sting along with work … [Read more...] about David Mansfield on His Years With Bob Dylan, Bruce Hornsby, Johnny Cash, and Sting

Fully aware that this would be Jimi’s best starting image, his first LP and singles were heavy on Presence, light on his (ultimately) strongest facet. It was through live performances and the later recordings that the rock and roll audience was to discover his greatly more astounding side: he was perhaps the master virtuoso of electric guitar. It was Jimi Hendrix, more than any other guitarist, who brought the full range of sound from all the reaches of serious electronic music – a wider palette of sound than any other performing instrumentalist in the history of music ever had at his fingertips – plus the fullest tradition of black music – from Charley Patton and Louis Armstrong all the way to John Coltrane and Sun Ra – to rock and roll. Nobody could doubt that Jimi Hendrix was a rock and roll musician, yet, to jazz musicians and jazz fans, he was also a jazz performer. When Jimi Hendrix took a solo, it had everything in it. … [Read more...] about Jimi Hendrix: An Appreciation

There is brief but evocative footage of the Mar Del Plata of his 1950s youth, a mention of his Jewish ancestry, even if he felt he didn’t “belong in the community,” and the lure that Visconti’s films provided in seducing him into the world of cinema. He also had a view of himself as an anarchist, which eventually led him to train his cameras on the outcasts who populated Pixote, the stunning portrait of a Brazilian street urchin that put him on the map in 1980, and then on the gay prisoner character of Kiss Of The Spider Woman, a great success for which lead actor William Hurt won a Best Actor Oscar. The man was individualistic, true to himself and never “went Hollywood.” Miscasting of the leading roles was probably most to blame for the failure of the ambitious At Play In The Fields Of the Lord. … [Read more...] about Int’l Critics Line: Todd McCarthy On Brazil’s Oscar Entry ‘Babenco: Tell Me When I Die’