Tag Archives: 1941

RIP Michael Apted (1941 – 2021)

Michael Apted is a British director famous for a body of diverse films.

Up

I give you Up (1964 – today).

The Up Series is a series of documentary films that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old.

So far the documentary has had eight episodes spanning 49 years (one episode every seven years).

The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child’s social class predetermines their future.

RIP Stanley Cowell (1941 – 2020)

Stanley Cowell (1941 – 2020) was an American jazz pianist and co-founder of Strata-East Records.

Strata-East Records first gained notoriety outside the world of jazz after the British label Soul Jazz Records put out three anthologies of their recordings in the 1994-1997 period.

I give you “Travelin’ Man” (1974) in its first version.

Has anyone besides me noticed the likeness to “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes?

“Travelin’ Man” (1976)

RIP Bunny Lee (1941 – 2020)

Bunny Lee was a Jamaican record producer and one of the major forces in the Jamaican music industry, producing hits throughout his long career.

“Wet Dream”

His song “Wet Dream”, interpreted by Max Romeo, became popular in 1968 despite being banned on the BBC; and Eric Donaldson’s “Cherry Oh Baby” would be covered by the Rolling Stones.

“My Conversation”

Lee also produced the perennial riddim “My Conversation”.

‘If Deejay Was Your Trade’ (1994)

The compilation ‘If Deejay Was Your Trade’ (1994), which was the debut release of the reggae compilation label Blood and Fire, consists of a selection of his productions from the period 1974-1977.

The documentary ‘I Am The Gorgon – Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee and the Roots of Reggae’ is in full on YouTube.

RIP André Stordeur (1941 – 2020)

André Stordeur was a Belgian musician.

To be honest, I’d never heard of Stordeur.

He did the soundtrack to Office Baroque (1977) but that’s not on YouTube.

Sub Rosa compilation of the work of Stordeur

There is, however, a fine selection of his recordings by Sub Rosa Records on YouTube.

Once again it is clear that electronic popular music (Telex) and electronic art music (Stordeur) are miles apart. That there is no overlap in audience nor in historiography between the likes of art music electronic music practitioners such as Stordeur and counterparts such as Telex who work in the popular idiom.

RIP Adolfo Natalini (1941 – 2020)

Adolfo Natalini was an Italian architect, known for his involvement in the radical architecture collective Superstudio.

Here is the short film Supersurface: an Alternative Model for Life on the Earth (1972), Superstudio’s contribution to the MoMA exhibition: Italy. The New Domestic Landscape.

At the same time as reporting Natalini’s death, we need to report the death of co-founder Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (1941 – 2019) who apparently died over the summer. 

RIP Claudine ‘bond girl’ Auger (1941 – 2019)

Scene from Yo Yo (1965)

Claudine Auger was a French actress. I do not think she is related to Brian Auger.

Auger will be remembered as a ‘bond girl’ but in my universe, she is the mother in Exploits of a Young Don Juan (1986), Isolina in Yo Yo (1965), the “thief!” shouter in Terrain Vague (1960) and Renata in Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971).

Sometimes, the death of someone serves as a jumping board to something only tangentially related to the deceased. This is the case with the Yo Yo film fragment with its mime aesthetic in which Auger plays Isolina.

Nevertheless, please enjoy despite its tangentiality.