Looking for something to do this weekend? GBH's arts and culture reporter James Bennett II has you covered with a sports documentary (that covers so much more than sports) and some live jazz.
“Bill Russell: Legend”
Now streaming on Netflix.
Bill Russell needs no introduction. He's a Boston Celtics legend, 11-time NBA champion, and civil rights icon. But 54 years after he retired from playing professionally, his career and life are very much worth a look
through the Netflix documentary “Bill Russell: Legend.”
“Watching this documentary, I got a sense of just the gravitas of who this guy was and what his commitments were,” Bennett said.
In one moment, Russell speaks at the 1966 make-up graduation for students who had been arrested rallying for civil rights in highly segregated Boston Public Schools.
“The discussions about sports and justice and civil rights, none of them are new, right?” Bennett said. “We think about Colin Kaepernick. We think about the women of the WNBA, as a league, taking a stance against brutality and racial violence. And Bill Russell was there. It's like, this ‘shut up and dribble’ mentality is something that athletes have been railing against for a while.”
The documentary’s structure is also worth taking note of, Bennett said.
“This seemed like it was a really challenging documentary to make,” he said. “I think with sports, there's such an inherent drama to the action. But, you know, Bill Russell, who's an 11-time champion — he was such a winner and he was so dominant with his teams on the court. And so a lot of the drama of like, will they make the big shot? Will they do it again? It's kind of gone, because we know.”
It's a big undertaking, Bennett said: Recognizing Russell’s accomplishments on the court, his values off the court, and his commitments to community. There are spots where the filmmakers could have made different choices, he said.
“But you have a monumental task with a monumental man,” Bennett said.
Jason Moran and the Harlem Hellfighters: James Reese Europe and the Absence of Ruin
Friday, Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. Tickets available here.
Jason Moran, a pianist, composer and multimedia artist, is paying tribute to composer James Reese Europe.
“Europe got his early start in 1900s in New York writing for Black Broadway musicals,” Bennett said. “He created this thing called The Clef Club, which was this multipurpose, functional society that acted like a booking agency and a clearinghouse and kind of like a union center for Black composers. He was a massive celebrity.”
Then he enlisted in the U.S. military during World War I.
“He wanted to kind of, as Moran said, demonstrate the bravery of him and his people,” Bennett said. “But his celebrity was so big that the Army was like, 'Here's a budget. Can you put together a band?' And he took that band to France.”
Moran described to Bennett how Europe and his band got off the boat in France and played a remixed version of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem.
“The audience is first confused,” Moran said, “and then realizes that this band is playing a remix of the anthem and loses their mind. And thus begins this infatuation with how Harlem sounds.”
Europe returned to the United States and continued performing and composing. Unfortunately, he was killed in 1919 during a performance in Boston. Europe, then 38, was stabbed by one of his drummers during intermission and died in a nearby hospital.
The concert’s setting at the Berklee Performance Center, is about a third of a mile away from the last concert Europe played, at Mechanics Hall, now 111 Huntington Ave.
