Latest News and Updates
A Tribute to the Life of Nancy Wilson - Programme, Harlem, New York, March 25, 2019
I wanted to share this with everyone for Jazz Appreciation Month. Nancy Wilson was Jazz. I had the opportunity to meet Nancy Wilson on a few occasions so it was wonderful to be able to attend, and be a part of this great Tribute to Nancy Wilson. The event was filled with celebrities that loved and celebrated her life and legacy. This link https://lisapacino.smugmug.com/Photography/A-Tribute-to-the-Life-of-Nancy-Wilson-Harlem-New-York-March/?fbclid=IwAR3jEsFMxsjW4iE_ctY30ZVjN-3KmIkNeNGwyZb7DKfmcgK2nOm2sYwlHIc is filled with Photos by Lisa Pacino.
Maurice Lynch
A Tribute to the Life of Nancy Wilson (February 20, 1937 – December 13, 2018), City College Center of the Arts, Harlem, New York. Afternoon of March 25, 2019; followed by a private invitation only reception. The celebration in honor of the incomparable Ms. Wilson featured speakers, performers and guest: Cicely Tyson, Melba Moore, Danny Glover, Leslie Uggams, Grahame Pratt, Yolanda Adams, Kenny Lattimore, Clifton Davis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Alyson Williams, Suzzanne Douglas, Nat Adderlry, Jr., Vanessa Rubin, Laurin Talese, Saxophonist Art Sherrod, Jr., Honorable Charles Rangel and wife Alma Rangel. Ms. Wilson’s Sisters Karen and Brenda Van, Ms. Wilson’s niece Pietra Craig, B. Michael, Johnnie Mae, Khephra Burns, Shelia Anderson of WBGO Jazz 88.3-Newark, Rev Elder Kevin E. Taylor, Maurice E. Jenkins, Jr., Andrew James, Audrey Smaltz, Debbie McIntrye, DIVA Jazz Trio, and many more; all produced by Edward Roebuck, Backstage Photography by Lisa Pacino…..
Maurice Lynch
Producer
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
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http://www.mauricelynchmusic.com/alysonwilliams/
https://lisapacino.smugmug.com/Photography/Celebrity-Photojournalist-Lisa/i-mNB6592/A
https://lisapacino.smugmug.com/Photography/A-Tribute-to-the-Life-of-Nancy-Wilson-Harlem-New-York-March/?fbclid=IwAR3jEsFMxsjW4iE_ctY30ZVjN-3KmIkNeNGwyZb7DKfmcgK2nOm2sYwlHIc
Pat Cleveland for Fashion Designer Naeem Khan, New York Fashion Week, Feb 2019
Maurice Lynch
Pat Cleveland’s Fashion Family Came Through
When the model was rushed to a Paris hospital last week for emergency cancer surgery, designers, photographers and other industry friends rallied to raise more than $100,000 for her treatment.
Though “The Devil Wears Prada” may have been unintentionally documentary, not every viper pit cliché about fashion and its affiliates holds true. The loopy, fragile and gifted individuals who populate that world also often operate as an extended family, albeit a loose-knit and occasionally dysfunctional one. Seldom is this more evident than when trouble befalls one of their own.
Such is the case with Pat Cleveland, 68, a superstar model celebrated for her catwalk swirls, her irrepressible spirit and her occasionally dotty New Age pronouncements. Not long after a stellar Marchappearance in a Tommy Hilfiger show during Paris Fashion Week, Ms. Cleveland returned to France from her home in southern New Jersey— she and her husband, the former model Paul Van Ravenstein, raise peacocks there — to film a L’Oréal ad with her daughter, Anna Cleveland, also a model, and was taken ill.
A doctor at Le Meurice hotel prescribed pain relievers for what were thought to be ordinary stomach complaints and suggested she check back with him in the morning. By then her condition had worsened, and she was advised to check herself into the American Hospital of Paris immediately.
“The doctor there said, ‘We just got you in time,’” Mr. Van Ravenstein said this week in a Skype call from the French capital, where Ms. Cleveland is recovering from emergency surgery for colon cancer. “She could have died.”
Because the model’s basic Medicare coverage did not encompass treatment outside the United States, Mr. Van Ravenstein said, the couple was abruptly confronted with staggering medical costs. “We’re normal people, and it’s not like we have huge funds,” he said. “I was talking to friends, and they said we should do a GoFundMe, that it’s absolutely normal these days.”
Establishing a page on the crowd funding platform on March 31, Mr. Van Ravenstein soon found himself overwhelmed by the generosity of Ms. Cleveland’s extended fashion family and the alacrity with which it rushed to her assistance. “The response has been incredible,” he said.
With donations ranging from $5 to $10,000, the GoFundMe drive raised more than $100,000 in two days toward a projected goal of $150,000. Funds flowed in from family, friends, fans and a donor list that reads like a Who’s Who of fashion: the designers Anna Sui, Kim Jones, Marc Jacobs, Zac Posen, Thierry Mugler, Kimora Lee Simmons and Elsa Peretti; the models Carla Bruni, Helena Christensen, Marisa Berenson, Marpessa Hennink and Lineisy Montero; the photographers Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin, Roxanne Lowit and Steven Klein; the stylists Patti Wilson, Frans Ankone and Katie Grand; and the D.J.s Mia Moretti, Marjorie Gubelmann and Michel Gaubert.
Acknowledging that the industry is not renowned for its charity, Mr. Van Ravenstein said that when it came to his wife’s illness, “people said, ‘Look, this is our sister, our Pat. We have to help her.’ She has touched a lot of lives in her career.”
And it is true that in the five decades since a Vogue editor spotted an 18-year-old Ms. Cleveland on a subway platform, fascinated by her style, and recommended that she sign with Wilhelmina Models as one of the first African-American beauties to join a major agency, she has remained a constant and often jubilant presence in the industry, a favorite of artists, photographers and designers alike.
Antonio Lopez drew her. Karl Lagerfeld danced with her on the cafe tables of Paris. Halston considered her first among his so-called “Halstonettes.” The photographers Richard Avedon, Guy Bourdin and Steven Meisel all immortalized her on film.
“She is the all-timer superstar model,” André Leon Talley, the longtime Vogue eminence, once wrote of Cleveland, adding, with typical hyperbole, that in her heyday she was considered “the Josephine Baker of the international runways.”
Before her recent illness, that heyday could be said to have extended to the present since, in recent years, Ms. Cleveland experienced a substantial late-life comeback, finding herself cast for a many runway shows besides Mr. Hilfiger’s and hired to star in advertisements, including the one she was scheduled to shoot for L’Oréal before her emergency hospitalization.
“It was a total shock because we’re vegans, we don’t drink, we don’t smoke, we live in the country and feed our peacocks,” Mr. Van Ravenstein said, adding that Ms. Cleveland’s doctors are expected to release her from the hospital this week so that she can return to the United States for chemotherapy.
“She’s doing well, she’s strong and she’s going to beat this,” he said. “And already she’s thinking about using this as a platform to talk publicly about the uninsured girls in the business that don’t have the backup that she has.”
“Or course, she feels the passion and concern and heartfelt support she’s gotten is beautiful,” he added. “But she also knows that not everybody is so lucky.”
By Guy Trebay
for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/fashion/pat-cleveland-cancer-gofundme.html
https://www.gofundme.com/f/pat-cleveland-fund
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
Legendary Super-Model and Singer Pat Cleveland
While in Paris a week ago, Pat was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital where the doctors discovered colon cancer.
Pat has had surgery and will remain in Paris recovering until the doctors clear her for travel.
Thankfully, Pat’s daughter Anna has been there by Pat’s side throughout, taking great care of her Mother until her husband Paul arrives.
Paul has made arrangement here in America for her arrival and is headed to Paris this week and he hopes to have her back home soon so she can begin treatments and recovery here in the U.S.
Pat Cleveland is a dear soul, wonderful artist and has special place in my heart. Let’s wish her a speedy recovery. Medical Flight and Travel will be very expensive to bring Pat home.
Please visit the link below and please donate what you can.
https://www.gofundme.com/pat-cleveland-fund
Pat is a winner and a fighter. Many thanks for your love, support and prayers. We are looking forward to having Pat back to her old self again very soon!
Let’s keep Pat, Paul and her Family in our thoughts and Prayers
Maurice Lynch
Producer
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
Maurice Lynch Music- Salutes Harlem's Music Makers & Arbiters of Style
During this month as we acknowledge the broad influence of Black Americans throughout history. The Black American experience is particularly dynamic in that its stories owe just as much to region and era as they do to familial heritage and personal circumstance. Since the very beginning, so much has been chronicled through Music, Art & Style. Black History Month in Harlem is playlist and collection from many vantage points and vessels, many talents dispense thru their gifts over keys and strings some unfurled from stage and film while. others with style and grace. But they all celebrate the embodiment of Black History and for that I salute them on their journey and achievements
L to R - Ray Chew, Alyson Williams, Cicely Tyson, Nate Lucas Jr., King Solomon Hicks, Pat Cleveland, Melba Moore, Vinnie Knight, Dapper Dan and Vivian Sessoms.
Let's cherish our Harlem Music Makers & Arbiters of Style.
Maurice Lynch
Producer
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
#mauricelynchmusic
#mauricelynchjazz
Celebrating Bill Cunningham – Facades Retrospective at Rosecliff
Bill Cunningham: Facades explores the legendary photographer’s project documenting the architectural riches and fashion history of New York City. In 1968, Bill Cunningham scoured New York’s thrift stores, auction houses, and street fairs for vintage clothing. He generated a photographic essay entitled “Facades.” The project paired models—in particular his muse, fellow photographer Editta Sherman—in period costumes with historic settings. By showcasing fashion in the context of architecture, Cunningham traced the evolution of aesthetics from colonialism to the rise of modernism in New York City.
Exhibition Highlights
Over eight years, Bill Cunningham collected more than 500 outfits and photographed more than 1,800 locations for the “Facades” project, jotting down historical commentary on the versos of each print. The selection of 80 images on view will evoke the exuberance of Cunningham and Sherman’s treasure hunt and their pride for the city they called home.
During the years that Cunningham worked on “Facades,” New York City was in a municipal financial crisis that wreaked havoc on daily existence, with crime, drugs, and garbage seemingly taking over the city. However, the 1970s were also an era of immense creativity, when artists and musicians experimented with new forms of expression. While Cunningham’s photographs offer an unsullied version of the tough cityscape during this chaotic time, his vision was part of a larger movement towards preserving the historic heritage and improving the quality of urban life.
More than 80 original and enlarged images from Cunningham’s whimsical and bold work will be on display to offer a unique perspective on both the city’s distant past and the larger cultural zeitgeist in late 1960s-70s New York City, an era when historic preservation and urban issues loomed large.
Most images in “Facades” feel timeless, such as “Gothic Bridge” (designed 1860), featuring Editta Sherman strolling through a windswept Central Park, framed by the wrought-iron curves of a classic bridge. However, at least one will offer a peek behind the scenes of the project. Cunningham and Sherman often traveled to locations by public transportation to avoid wrinkling the costumes, and “Editta Sherman on the Train to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden” (ca. 1972) captures the jarring juxtaposition of Sherman sitting primly in a graffiti-covered subway car.
About Bill Cunningham
Bill Cunningham (1929-2016) was a fashion photographer for the New York Times, known for his candid street photography. Cunningham moved to New York in 1948, initially working in advertising and soon striking out on his own to make hats under the name “William J.” After serving a tour in the U.S. Army, he returned to New York and began writing for the Chicago Tribune. While working at the Tribune and Women’s Wear Daily, he began taking photographs of fashion on the streets of New York. The Times first published a group of his impromptu pictures in December 1978, which soon became a regular series. In 2008 Cunningham was awarded the title chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. He is the subject of the award-winning documentary film “Bill Cunningham New York” (2010). Bill Cunningham and Editta Sherman were neighbors in the Carnegie Hall Studios, a legendary artists’ residence atop the concert hall, for 60 years.
The Preservation Society of Newport County
424 Bellevue Avenue,
Newport, RI 02840
For more information, visit
https://www.newportmansions.org/exhibitions/current-upcoming-exhibitions/bill-cunningham-facades.
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#MauriceLynch, #MauriceLynchMusic
#TonightJosephine,
#PatCleveland
Happy Holidays from Maurice Lynch Music
Please make sure you continue to visit my web site @ www.MauriceLynchMusic.com for news and updates, I have so many great things coming in 2019……..Maurice Lynch.
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
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https://www.facebook.com/mauricelynchmusic
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Alyson Williams - with Special Guest, Maurice Lynch & The Harlem Musical Revue with Spencer X.
Make time for joy this season at the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes presented by Chase. Get your tickets today. There is no better place than Radio City Music Hall to share joy, laughter, and lasting memories as you take in the legendary precision and grace of the Rockettes. The Christmas Spectacular is sure to become an unforgettable part of your Christmas tradition.
https://www.stubhub.com/christmas-spectacular-starring-the-radio-city-rockettes-tickets/performer/5506/
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
Wishing you Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays from Maurice Lynch Music
Warmest thoughts, Best Wishes and a very Happy New Year. Wishing you — Peace, Joy, and Hope. Maurice Lynch Music.
Maurice Lynch
Producer
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
#mauricelynchmusic
Maurice Lynch Music - Anna Cleveland & Lazaro Costa - Jean-Paul Gaultier - Folie Bergere in Paris
Anna is performing in the show and channels Josephine Baker. I’m so excited for her as she branches out from modeling and begins her career in dance and music. I look forward to working with Anna in the future on new music as The magic of “Tonight Josephine” continues.
The show will be running from October 1- December 29, 2018”
Vogue Article - Behind The Scenes Of Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show
Jean Paul Gaultier hasn't been a fixture at Paris Fashion Week for a few years – but he's making his mark on the city again with a riotous theatre show at the legendary Folies Bergère. Vogue meets the designer as preparations for his unconventional spectacle take shape.
Jean Paul Gaultier is a designer faced with the rare problem of having produced work so well known that it is often referenced or plagiarized unintentionally. From his torso-shaped perfume flasks to the corsets with cone-shaped cups, his trademarks have now entered a global visual language – a postmodern repertoire of sorts.
When asked about these accidental homages, he smiles. "Well, it's a compliment isn't it?" he says, as he welcomes Vogue into his headquarters in the heart of multicultural Strasbourg–Saint-Denis. His reaction perfectly sums up his vision: grounded, aware, yet lighthearted. A philosophy that is still at the core of everything he touches – including the preview he is about to give us of the costumes for his upcoming Fashion Freak Show – a raucous, autobiographical spectacle falling somewhere between a revue and a fashion show, opening to the public on 2 October at the legendary Folies Bergère. As we enter the industrial space, a shrill voice fills the room. "Jean Paul! Am I just a hanger to you?" The voice belongs to none other than runway model Anna Cleveland (daughter of the iconic Pat Cleveland), one of the members of his typically diverse cast. Theatrically, she emerges from behind a folding screen, clad in an electric-blue sequin evening dress with a trail so long, it comes with its own matching hanger, designed to be carried as part of the look. The pair burst out laughing. This is Gaultier in a nutshell: an unserious design, seriously well cut. "I've never been into solemn, church-like fashion, and I'm not going to start now… I want my shows to be met not with a tear of emotion, but a giggle or a smile."
It was 42 years ago that he sent a deep, unsettling rumble through the fashion world by crafting couture garments out of straw and bringing punk attitude to French chic – not to mention all the men in skirts and unabashed references to bondage. It was a provocation that shocked, but never seeked to upset, earning him his nickname as fashion's enfant terrible. "I always liked so-called freaks, people who stood out and were in fact just as beautiful – mixed aesthetics, harmonious clashes, and the idea of a bad boy seducing a duchess," he said, summing up a utopian vision that he brought not only to runways but also to music (such as Madonna's Blond Ambition tour) and films (he designed the costumes for Luc Besson's The Fifth Element). All of which he is carrying on to yet another stage: the Folies Bergère, the famous cabaret venue where Josephine Baker and Charlie Chaplin once starred alongside no end of titillating entertainers. Performing here has been a lifelong dream for Gaultier, and his own show promises to be every bit as unconventional as the venue's storied reputation.
The show unfolds as a retrospective of the designer's bygone decades: personal recollections, pop memories, love and friendships, articulated through re-envisioned, emblematic elements of his work. Childhood epiphanies and traumas feature too. His teddy bear – Gaultier’s first muse – will make an appearance (in a guise yet to be revealed): as a young boy, he once operated on the fluffy toy to add the conical breasts that would later come to enjoy icon status on Madonna's corsets. His old school teacher is also represented, in the form of classroom doodles of costumes that were seized and pinned to Gaultier's back to teach him a lesson (having the opposite effect on his classmates).
Next in line: his wild youth in the 1970s at Le Palace and his discovery of punk chic in London; but also the late Francis Menuge, his boyfriend and business partner, who was instrumental in giving Gaultier the confidence and strategic advice necessary to launch his line (he died of AIDS in the 1990s). They all tell the tale of an epoch as much as they do his personal story.
And the narrative is carried out by the garments themselves. "Clothes have the power to trigger memories as much as real questions; they are central to this project." Reworked to be stage-friendly, comfortable and ultra-theatrical, his signatures – "les boudins" (rolls of fabric) used to accentuate the hips, shoulders and other parts of the body; sailor costumes; S&M touches; and of course gender-bending menswear – will all be there, louder than ever.
"I've always liked the idea that, like in people, there could be a second life or reading on things, a sudden beauty," he says of his use of cans turned into bracelets, or dresses cut out of bin bags, all for a very pop-art vision, "like a child who hasn't yet been conditioned by social judgement, and sees no difference in things."
This boundless vision has marked his entire career: he repeatedly shocked highbrow Paris by devoting equal levels of excitement to working with Hermès as with Diet Coke; or by choosing unexpected women to walk for his shows, from Björk to French reality-TV star Nabilla Benattia.
And the same can be said of his cast today, which comes in an array of shapes, sizes and skills: model Anna Cleveland; arthouse-cinema diva Rossy de Palma; Demi Mondaine, a singer Gaultier spotted on The Voice – not forgetting a coterie of strippers and contortionists.
Behind the scenes, Gaultier has been working hand in hand with director Tonie Marshall and Grammy-winning composer Nile Rodgers to produce true, indulgent entertainment. "That's what people want. I remember once being stopped, in the mid-Nineties, by a stranger in the street, who complimented me on one of my shows he had seen on TV. 'The décor! The lights! Amazing!' he said, and I thought: 'Aha, people just want to see a good show.'"
And, like pop art, his show also raises questions about the society around it: the press premiere is due to take place in the midst of Paris Fashion Week, a schedule Gaultier's been absent from since closing down his ready-to-wear line in 2014. Could this be a message for the industry to slow down? This is certainly what Cleveland has done: despite being a permanent Fashion Week fixture in the past, she has refused all offers of work in order to fully dedicate herself to her role in the ensuing six months. "This is an extremely touching sign of friendship, which is rare," adds the couturier.
As for Cleveland, her role – as Josephine Baker – is especially poignant: "my great-aunt was in fact Josephine's Sunday-school teacher, and taught her to leave and try to make it as a performer... she always inspired me," she said, adding that she grew up with posters of the artist in her room. Today, "Jean-Paul is pushing for a kind of beauty that uplifts you and expands your horizon". A message about the power of visibility that the whole crew seem to agree on: "We are continuing what he [has] always strived for: turning differences into beauty and celebrating the individual," says Raphael Cioffi, a comedy writer known for his viral sketches on French TV, who wrote the performance's script. The show, a hybrid of genders and genres, "is true to original, irreverent fashion: creative, sincere and beyond anything, fun".
Thanks
Maurice Lynch
Producer
Contributing Links Below:
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/jean-paul-gaultier-fashion-freak-show?fbclid=IwAR2IGiE_EJz0BBAAuIDlVyGSR3jYSi3E5TT9K7vfGBTm4x2Hhk952C3q6cM
http://jpgfashionfreakshow.com/?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=59&v=9MAbIwVeNeU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcTiWt0EExg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4S3wjOKS-U
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/index.html
#mauricelynchmusic
Maurice Lynch Music-World Premiere-The Times of Bill Cunningham at The New York Film Festival-2018
The documentary showcases the life of New York legend, street photographer Bill Cunningham.
The Iconic New York Times Photographer, who created Street Style Photography as a Fine Arts Genre, circa 70s! There are 3 million photos in his Estates Foundation.
The film includes a rarely seen 1994 interview with Mr. Cunningham talking about his now iconic NY Times photographs. The film takes the viewer on an exciting and joyous journey into the world of one of the world’s most legendary street photographers. Like Editor Carol Dietz would say “I shall always get dressed for Bill”. Fashion Royalty came out to celebrate his legacy with a night of Fashion, Film and Music.
My song “Tonight Josephine” sang by Legendary Super-Model, Singer and Socialite Ms. Pat Cleveland was the films theme song. I was so grateful that “Tonight Josephine" was so well received and that I was able to be a part of this historical documentary.
The film will be shown at select theaters and will be available on Netflix. I posted links below with film review’s and photographs.
Thanks
Maurice Lynch
Producer
https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/entertainment/%27the-life-and-times-of-bill-cunningham%27-premiere%2C-new-york-film-festival-2018-10-11
https://wwd.com/eye/parties/never-before-seen-bill-cunningham-film-reveals-real-side-of-the-photographer-1202877588/
https://wwd.com/eye/parties/gallery/the-times-of-bill-cunningham-world-premiere-1202877623/#!3/the-times-of-bill-cunningham-world-premiere-5
https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/the-times-of-bill-cunningham-review-1202978349/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/times-of-bill-cunningham-nyff-2018-1150696
https://society6.com/times-of-bill-cunningham
https://thefilmstage.com/reviews/nyff-review-in-the-times-of-bill-cunningham-a-legendary-photographers-work-speaks-for-itself/
https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals-and-awards/nyff-2018-the-times-of-bill-cunningham-cold-war-detour
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/tonightjosephine-patcleveland/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tonight-josephine/id1122370887?i=1122371081
http://mauricelynchmusic.com/
#TheTimesofBillCunningham, #PatCleveland, #TonightJosephine, #MauriceLynch, #MauriceLynchMusic
