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Later today, the Cannes Film Festival will reverberate with the sound of one of America’s great jazz singers.

An exclusive screening of Sloane: A Jazz Singer will take place this afternoon at the Riviera 1, the primary screening venue of the Marché du Film. The documentary directed by Michael Lippert explores the vocal artistry of Carol Sloane, who recorded more than two dozen albums in a career that began in the early 1960s.

Sloane: A Jazz Singer was named Best Documentary at the Santa Fe Film Festival and the Rhode Island International Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2024 Palm Springs Film Festival, and the 2023 Cinequest, DocEdge, and Heartland film festivals.

‘Sloane: A Jazz Singer’

“Sloane: A Jazz Singer follows legendary vocalist Carol Sloane as she prepares for one last live recording in New York at the age of 82 while reflecting on a remarkable but largely unknown career...

In this episode, Ben and Daniel talk to cabaret superstar and musical theater actress Marilyn Maye about her 1967 album 'Step To The Rear.' They also discuss Jerry Herman, 'Mame, 'Hello, Dolly', Mel Torm, Rosemary Clooney, Barbara Cook, Tommy Tune, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Billy Stritch, Tedd Firth, Provincetown, The Anchor Inn, Palm Springs, Feinstein's54 Below, Birdland, and The Art House. Marilyn tells stories from her career as a singer and recording artist, and shares her expertise on how to build a show and sing to an audience. Marilyn has released seven albums and thirty-four singles, and performs all over the country to rooms full of adoring fans. Marilyn also holds the record for the most frequent singer on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she appeared a total of seventy-six times.

On October 4th, the North Mississippi Allstars will release their new album Up and Rolling. It’s a fresh batch of 12 songs from Luther Dickinson and Cody Dickinson, the guitar and percussion siblings from Independence, Mississippi, and also includes a number of guest appearances. Mavis Staples and Cedric Burnside both show up, along with Jason Isbell and Duane Betts, who guest on the song “Mean Old World,” which was once cut by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman. Premiering today on Rolling Stone, the Dickinsons’ rendition of “Mean Old World” becomes...

“If you bury me in a grave, don’t ever come visit — because you won’t find me there. You’ll find me in the books that I’ve read, the music I’ve listened to, and the art I’ve created,” Salim Akil tells his family. The creator of “Black Lightning” who was previously known for “The Game” and “Being Mary Jane,” surrounds himself with works that inspire him to create both at the Akil Prods.’ office that he shares with his wife, executive producer Mara Brock Akil, as well as his home office. Up next for the creative duo is “Love Is___” for Own, which is based on their own relationship.

African Influence

Akil has a few pieces by Peter Beard, whose art he is drawn to because of its “raw nature.” One is of an elephant in Africa that makes Akil feel “closer to the Earth, closer...

Merle Oberon films: From empress to duchess in 'Hotel.' Merle Oberon films: From starring to supporting roles Turner Classic Movies' Merle Oberon month comes to an end tonight, March 25, '16, with six movies: Désirée, Hotel, Deep in My Heart, Affectionately Yours, Berlin Express, and Night Song. Oberon's presence alone would have sufficed to make them all worth a look, but they have other qualities to recommend them as well. 'Désirée': First supporting role in two decades Directed by Henry Koster, best remembered for his Deanna Durbin musicals and the 1947 fantasy comedy The Bishop's Wife, Désirée (1954) is a sumptuous production that, thanks to its big-name cast, became a major box office hit upon its release. Marlon Brando is laughably miscast as Napoleon Bonaparte, while Jean Simmons plays the title role, the Corsican Conqueror's one-time fiancée Désirée Clary (later Queen of Sweden and Norway). In a supporting role – her...

We all from time to time enjoy a comfortable stay when vacationing anywhere in the world. So why should movie characters not appreciate a great place to stay as well? Interestingly, big screen hotels and motels almost play an important part as an extra movie character in addition to serving as a backdrop to the proceedings.

In Enjoy Your Stay: The Top 10 Movies About Hotels/Motels let’s look at some special selections where hotels and motels in film are featured and play a primary role in plot and theme. Cinematic room service has never been so accommodating.

The Enjoy Your Stay: The Top 10 Movies About Hotels/Motels selections are (in alphabetical order):

1.) The Best Exotic Manigold Hotel (2011)

Director John Madden’s The Best Exotic Manigold Hotel juggles various topical matters at hand: the aging process, deception in advertising, exotic travel and cultural clashing. Madden assembles a notable cast...

The Twelve Days of Christmas Classics starts today! Over the next two weeks, EW will put the best versions of the most-covered Christmas songs up to a daily vote to compile the ultimate holiday playlist. If your favorite singer isn’t in the list below, you better not pout: Each artist will only appear once throughout the next 12 days. Listen to our top six, vote for your favorite, and let us know why you made your pick in the comments below.

Update: The poll is closed below, but vote for your favorite version of “O Holy Night” now!

To kick...

One of the great jazz pianists and bandleaders, he wrote Lullaby of Birdland

The pianist George Shearing, who has died aged 91 of heart failure, was the first postwar British jazz musician to move permanently to the Us and build a solid career there, effectively clearing the way for a host of other players to follow the same path. This was in 1947, at a time when Shearing and his countrymen, prevented by a Musicians' Union embargo from hearing the best American musicians in person, tended to regard these stars as supermen, wearing out their recordings, yet never imagining that it might be possible to perform alongside them in New York. However, Shearing put such negative thoughts aside and took the decision to emigrate.

His success was speedy and spectacular. By 1949, he had hit on the formula that brought him worldwide fame and colossal record sales, forming his quintet, later a sextet,...

Jazz singer, actor and civil rights activist strongly influenced by Billie Holiday

If Abbey Lincoln was overwhelmed by the responsibility of being proclaimed "the last of the jazz singers", she never let it show. As her great contemporaries and principal influences among the classic female jazz vocalists fell away – with Billie Holiday the first to go, in 1959, and Betty Carter the last, in 1998 – Lincoln steadfastly maintained her dignified, almost solemn, focus; her tart, deftly timed Holiday-like inflections, and her commitment to songs that dug deeper into life's meanings than the usual lost-love exhalations.

And, like Ella Fitzgerald, who all her life took to a stage as if she were surprised to find anyone had come to see her, Lincoln became the opposite of a celebrated jazz diva. In some of her London performances during the 1990s, she would sit quietly beside the piano, tugging at her clothes, like someone who...

Award-winning singer Kevin Dozier, who was named ?Male Performer of the Year' at the 2003 San Francisco Cabaret Competition, will debut his new CD "Love-wise" at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle, 1972 Broadway at 66th Street, on Wednesday, February 18th at 6 Pm as part of the ?Any Wednesday' Series of free concerts. Kevin made his highly anticipated NYC cabaret debut last June with Musical director/arranger Christopher Marlowe at the piano and played an equally successful return engagement in October. During his 10 years in San Francisco, he headlined at San Francisco's Plush Room, performed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, Lush Lounge, and in various benefit concerts including 2 editions of Steve Murray's Viva Variety. He has appeared with such entertainers as Bobby McFerrin, Carmen McRae and Barry Manilow.