David Bruce Murray

Former SG Singer Releases Jazz CD

Kimber Manning, formerly of the Southern Gospel quartet New Speer Revival, recently released her first mainstream jazz CD titled Eventually. The project includes a number of standards including "It Had To Be You," "Wonderful World," "Recipe For Love," "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," "Blue Skies," and "At Last."

Click HERE to view Manning's official website.

Click HERE to listen to song samples and buy the CD.

Click HERE for her MySpace page.

I listened to a few of the clips and thought Manning had a great classic jazz quality. She sounds more comfortable singing this style than she did singing with New Speer Revival, in my opinion.

IMAGE SOURCE: www.kimbermanning.com

Posted on May 04, 2006 - 10:25 PM | [0] Comments | Misc | Permalink

Quote Of The Day

For a long time, I placed a quote by the Cathedral Quartet's original tenor, Bobby Clark, below my signature whenever I posted to a message board. Clark's quote was "I know a pagan piano riff when I hear it," and it got a lot of laughs.

Today I ran across one that might even top that. Unfortunately, the person who made it was anonymous, so I can't give proper credit and the website where I saw the quote doesn't allow for direct links.

Here's the quote: "I'm no fan of gossip either, just wanted to know if anyone had heard anything."

Isn't that great?
Posted on Apr 20, 2006 - 10:22 PM | [0] Comments | Misc | Permalink

Movie Review: The Second Chance

RATING: 3 1/2 Stars

The Second Chance stars Michael W. Smith in his first feature film role. Steve Taylor is also taking his first turn (after many years of anticipation) as the director and co-writer of a major motion picture. Jeff Obafemi Carr is Smith's co-star in this movie. He's a newcomer as well.

Smith's character is Ethan Jenkins, a former rock star and drug addict who is now a prodigal returned home. As the movie opens, Jenkins is being groomed to replace his father as head of a mega-church called "The Rock." Carr plays Jake Sanders, a black preacher leading an inner city church whose property and leaders are financed as an outreach project of The Rock. Jenkins and Sanders are thrown together after the church's board members grow restless with both men for failing to toe the line.

I'm always worried about "Christian Movies." Much like some Christian music CDs, Christian movies tend to be overly hyped regardless of quality and mostly made by amateurs. There have been a few exceptions like The Apostle, The Passion Of Christ, and Luther, but the Christian marketplace has had more than it's share of dogs...partly because the money hasn't been there to make good quality films in the past, but moreso because these films lack compelling plots.

The Second Chance is a step in the right direction. There's background on the key characters and we see how they change in relation to each other over the course of the film. I liked the fact that the even the villain seemed to believe his own motivations were in the best interest of the kingdom of God. That was refreshing. I also thought it was great that we were left hanging on some issues of the story.

Was the acting that great? No, not particularly. Smith did better than I expected, but it's clear he isn't a seasoned actor. He does pretty good conveying emotions, but his biggest fault is that he tends to rush his lines. Carr is the better actor of the two, but you can also sense he's new at this. Taylor's directing is good overall, but the camera work is shaky at times (perhaps intentionally), sometimes zooming in way too close for no particular stylistic reason. In general, the look of the film wasn't all that compelling or consistent. Taylor got some moving performances out of the supporting cast, though. I think he has really excelled in this area.

Smith's score is fairly effective, but other musical cues felt uneven. For example, there's a church choir that can't sing on key or with any decent rhythm until Smith sits down at the piano, and suddenly they sound like Nashville's finest studio singers (probably because they are).

I believe The Second Chance succeeds where other Christian movies have failed due to the quality of Taylor's story. If a character initially seems to be there merely for comic relief or as a victim who needs saving, you may be surprised at how that character is used later in the movie. It's also a tribute to the writers that each character in the film has an interesting back story and evident flaws. Jenkins has his presumptions, for example, while Sanders is arrogant and sometimes given to swearing. In other words, the characters have been fleshed out with believeable and realistic motivations.

That being said, one aspect of the film that seems to fly in the face of the movie's message is one of the ways it is being promoted. If you take fifty people to see the film, you can win an appearance by Michael W. Smith at your own church...but you must prove you took fifty people and you aren't allowed to publicize that he's coming if you win. There's a big drawing at the movie's official website. Now in contrast, the "bad guy" in the film is the big church acting at the expense of the hurting people who need the individual, personal touch. In the real world of marketing by Provident Films, we ain't gonna send Michael W. Smith out to your church for free unless you pay to bring at least fifty people to see our film.

My cynicism aside, one fan described the film as a wake up call to the church rather than an evangelistic film. That's an accurate description, and I think that's another reason this movie succeeds. When you have a movie that focuses on extended expostions about becoming a Christian, you generally have a poor movie. Why? Because the film claims to be telling a story about this or that, but is in reality just an extended presentation of the plan of salvation with a bit of a story tacked on. Most Christian movies come across as having all the answers, but The Second Chance isn't presumptous. For all of the areas where it could have been improved, The Second Chance has successfully avoided that stigma, and for that I'm grateful.
Posted on Feb 23, 2006 - 12:57 AM | [0] Comments | Misc | Permalink

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