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Monterey Jazz Festival: The Men Behind the Music

Aired September 20, 2002 - 13:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let me introduce to some of my new friends here, Miles. I'm surrounding by legends. Jazz Dave Brubek is here with you at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which is going to kick off in a few hours, and movie legend Clint Eastwood.
Gentlemen, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

Let's be really clear, Clint, you are here as a fan, as a jazz fan, and as huge fan of Dave Brubek.

CLINT EASTWOOD, ACTOR/JAZZ MUSICIAN: Well, I have been following Dave Brubek since the Burma Lounge on Lakeshore Avenue in the mid '40s, but I was here in 1958, which was the first year of the festival. And Dave was there then. So I have been kind of a groupie for a lot of years.

KAGAN: Who knew Clint Eastwood could be a groupie? A good groupie to have, don't you think?

DAVE BRUBECK, JAZZ MUSICIAN: You know, he plays piano. He is making me nervous.

KAGAN: Think he could give you a few pointers, maybe?

BRUBECK: I know.

KAGAN: And you're a fan of Clint as a filmmaker, not just a filmmaker, but of jazz movies and documentaries.

BRUBECK: Yes, yes, especially "Bird," and "Play Misty." That struck a cord.

KAGAN: Clint, you included the festival here in "Play Misty For Me," didn't you?

EASTWOOD: I did. In 1970, I was filming here on the Monterey Peninsula, so I went to Jimmy Lyons and said, I just wanted to film in the festival. So we came out here, we staged scenes right in there, and we sort of guerrilla warfare, we shot them when nobody knew what was going on, so everybody was up dancing, and swinging around, mostly in the blues festival on Saturday. But then we had Cannonball Adelie (ph), one of my favorite alto sax players of all time, he was playing, so we picked him off in the evening.

KAGAN: As we mentioned, this is the 45th anniversary of this festival, the longest running jazz festival in the world. This is a significant year as well, because it's the 40th anniversary of the performance of "The Real Ambassadors," which is your composition, a tribute to Louis Armstrong and looking at the issue of immigration, looking it right in the face and sing and writing about it.

BRUBECK: Yes, the excitement that I had because Louis and his band, Carmen McGray (ph), Lambert Henry (ph), and Ross were all going to be here because Jimmy Lyons fooled me. I said, we would never get everybody there to do "The Real Ambassadors," so he jumped ahead of me and hired everybody that was in the cast and said, you got to come. They're all working here separately, but we want to put "The Real Ambassadors" on as a special event.

KAGAN: And it was a magical, magical performance. There is going to be a tribute to that this weekend. You don't have to wait for that. We're going have a little piece of this "Summer Song."

Let me stop talking. Let's hear your beautiful music.

BRUBECK: I will tell you. Louis sang this so well, and the day that Louis died, the classical station in New York played "Summer Song," and they never played jazz, but he wrote on the manuscript "Mrs. Brubek and very Happy Satchamo Louis Armstrong."

KAGAN: Lets's hear a little bit right now. Byron Strapling (ph) singing for us today with Dave Brubeck.

(MUSIC)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 20, 2002 - 13:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let me introduce to some of my new friends here, Miles. I'm surrounding by legends. Jazz Dave Brubek is here with you at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which is going to kick off in a few hours, and movie legend Clint Eastwood.
Gentlemen, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

Let's be really clear, Clint, you are here as a fan, as a jazz fan, and as huge fan of Dave Brubek.

CLINT EASTWOOD, ACTOR/JAZZ MUSICIAN: Well, I have been following Dave Brubek since the Burma Lounge on Lakeshore Avenue in the mid '40s, but I was here in 1958, which was the first year of the festival. And Dave was there then. So I have been kind of a groupie for a lot of years.

KAGAN: Who knew Clint Eastwood could be a groupie? A good groupie to have, don't you think?

DAVE BRUBECK, JAZZ MUSICIAN: You know, he plays piano. He is making me nervous.

KAGAN: Think he could give you a few pointers, maybe?

BRUBECK: I know.

KAGAN: And you're a fan of Clint as a filmmaker, not just a filmmaker, but of jazz movies and documentaries.

BRUBECK: Yes, yes, especially "Bird," and "Play Misty." That struck a cord.

KAGAN: Clint, you included the festival here in "Play Misty For Me," didn't you?

EASTWOOD: I did. In 1970, I was filming here on the Monterey Peninsula, so I went to Jimmy Lyons and said, I just wanted to film in the festival. So we came out here, we staged scenes right in there, and we sort of guerrilla warfare, we shot them when nobody knew what was going on, so everybody was up dancing, and swinging around, mostly in the blues festival on Saturday. But then we had Cannonball Adelie (ph), one of my favorite alto sax players of all time, he was playing, so we picked him off in the evening.

KAGAN: As we mentioned, this is the 45th anniversary of this festival, the longest running jazz festival in the world. This is a significant year as well, because it's the 40th anniversary of the performance of "The Real Ambassadors," which is your composition, a tribute to Louis Armstrong and looking at the issue of immigration, looking it right in the face and sing and writing about it.

BRUBECK: Yes, the excitement that I had because Louis and his band, Carmen McGray (ph), Lambert Henry (ph), and Ross were all going to be here because Jimmy Lyons fooled me. I said, we would never get everybody there to do "The Real Ambassadors," so he jumped ahead of me and hired everybody that was in the cast and said, you got to come. They're all working here separately, but we want to put "The Real Ambassadors" on as a special event.

KAGAN: And it was a magical, magical performance. There is going to be a tribute to that this weekend. You don't have to wait for that. We're going have a little piece of this "Summer Song."

Let me stop talking. Let's hear your beautiful music.

BRUBECK: I will tell you. Louis sang this so well, and the day that Louis died, the classical station in New York played "Summer Song," and they never played jazz, but he wrote on the manuscript "Mrs. Brubek and very Happy Satchamo Louis Armstrong."

KAGAN: Lets's hear a little bit right now. Byron Strapling (ph) singing for us today with Dave Brubeck.

(MUSIC)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com