2013 11/01-11/07

PHILIPPINE NEWS/PHILIPPINES TODAY/INSIDER COMMUNITY

And the winners are: (L-R) Roselle Devera of San Pablo City, 1st Runner-Up, Rizza-Belen Diaz of San Jose, Miss Philippines Eco-Tourism (USA) 2014, Krisha Marie Gonzalez of Sacramento, Miss Philippines Fire (USA) 2014, Samantha Rose Costales of San Jose, Miss Philippines Earth (USA) 2014 Grand Winner, Carmen Baena of Clayton, Miss Philippines Air (USA) 2014, Angelica Galindez, Miss Philippines Water (USA) 2014, Hannah Nicole Tolentino of Denver, CO, Miss Teen Philippines Earth (USA) 2014 and Stephennie Laxamana of South San Francisco, 2nd Runner Up (not pictured) during last Saturday night's Coronation Night held at the San Ramon Performing Arts Center in San Ramon, CA.

Star Records Contract Artsts - The Perkins Twins (Jesse & Christian) will perform at a USTA event this Thursday in San Francisco.

These young dancers are from the Samahang Filipino Performing Arts who delivered a show-stopping production number during last Saturday night's Miss Philippines Earth (USA) Beauty Pageant in San Ramon, CA. Director of Choreography is Sherwin Magallanes of San Jose, CA.

Congratulations to the Mingao Family for their newest addition - Baby Devin Mingao (L-R), Mike Mingao with Baby Devin, 3-year old son Jalen Mingao and Andrea Mingao

Happy birthday City and County of San Francisco's MELBA OCO (November 5) who is planning a grand weekend celebration with family and intimate friends on Saturday at a NorCal resort.

PERKINS TWINS TO PERFORM AT USTA EVENT

TO-BE SEEN IN THE CITY

(SAN FRANCISCO) – Fresh from their much-talked about Opening Number performance at the recently concluded MISS PHILIPPINES EARTH (USA) Beauty Pageant Coronation Night and Grand Finals held Saturday night at the San Ramon Performing Arts Center, visiting Star Records Contract Artists, The Perkins Twins (Jesse and Christian Perkins) originally of Menlo Park, CA will perform their maiden single “IKAW NA” at a high-profile U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) event scheduled on Thursday, November 7, 2013 6:30PM at The Galleria at San Francisco Design Center located at 101 Henry Adams Street, San Francisco, CA. Also expected to attend are former Mayors Willie Brown and David Dinkins, Dick Gould, Belva Davis, politicians and Bay Area Sports Celebrities as they honor Arthur Ashe Legacy and Community Tennis.

The USTA NorCal and the Northern California Tennis Foundation will present their Icon Award to Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe at their inaugural Beyond The Baseline event. This biennial event and award has been established in support of USTA NorCal’s recently launched initiative, Beyond The Baseline: Leading the way in bringing tennis & education* programs to grassroots communities.

Beyond The Baseline means providing opportunity, access and resources to disadvantaged youth from all communities to enable them to play tennis and excel in academics through organized community tennis and education programs. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Northern California Tennis Foundation.

During the evening, USTA NorCal will honor Ms. Moutoussamy-Ashe for devoting her life to the legacy of her husband, tennis legend Arthur Ashe. Arthur Ashe was a top ranked tennis player in the 1960s and 70s. Raised in the segregated South, he was the first African-American male tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament. He was much more than an athlete though. His commitment to social justice, health and humanitarian issues left a mark on the world as indelible as his tennis was on the court.

Since 2008 the Arthur Ashe Learning Center in New York has been showcasing young people's achievements in service, academics and citizenship. Arthur's legacy has resulted in nearly a quarter of a million at-risk youth across the U.S. being in USTA National Junior Tennis and Learning programs (NJTL's). 2013 marks the 20th anniversary of Arthur's passing.

The event includes personal tributes, an on stage interview with Ms. Moutoussamy-Ashe by Michael Cooke (President – USTA Northern California) and Belva Davis, and the recognition of selected individuals involved in Community Tennis who have selflessly contributed to societal improvements within and outside of the tennis world. The evening also features The “Signature Style of Tennis" Fashion Show, which includes fashions supplied by Azadeh Couture, Sports Basement and Lorna Jane Clothing, a raffle and entertainment provided by tennis enthusiasts and Philippine pop sensations the Perkins Twins. Ted Robinson will emcee the event.

To further the Beyond The Baseline initiative, USTA NorCal has also been active developing partnerships with corporate America. Earlier this year they hosted an event on the recreation field at Google headquarters (Mountain View, CA), bringing together Google employees, USTA volunteers and youth from surrounding underserved Bay Area communities in cooperation with East Palo Alto YMCA, East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutoring and College Track. This event was the first in a series of strategic engagement events for employees of Silicon Valley, to be followed by NetApp (Sunnyvale, CA) later in November, and continuing into 2014.

In addition, the USTA is currently sponsoring Breaking The Barriers: The American Tennis Association (ATA) and Black Tennis Pioneers, a touring exhibition that blends photos, newspaper accounts and video to create a lively, informative and thought provoking experience about the history of African Americans playing tennis. On view at the San Francisco Public Library through January 5, 2014

2014 also signals the launch of USTA Northern California’s H.I.T.S (Honesty, Inspiration, Teamwork and Sportsmanship), a junior tennis, academic enrichment and lifeskills program which will give USTA further reach into underserved communities to help at-risk kids develop strong core values on and off the tennis court. Studies indicated that youth who play tennis get better grades at school, have college aspirations, are better behaved and are more community minded and well rounded.

This article also appears online at www.BradfordAdkins.com, www.ScenesInTheCity.com, www.PinoyEntertainment.us, www.PhilippineNews.com, www.FilAmInsider.co,www.PhilippinesTodayUS.com and http://sites.google.com/site/adkinsmmcevents/Home/ with readership in 160 countries now (& still counting!) according to the latest Google Analytics report.

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http://www.thegirlsintheband.com

“A real crowdpleaser...The pic may prompt a rewrite of jazz history.”

-Robert Koehler, Variety

“A fascinating, moving, and wonderfully tuneful documentary...A real treat for music-lovers.”

-Mark Adams, Screen Daily

Synopsis

They wiggled, they jiggled, they wore low cut gowns and short shorts, they kow-towed to the club owners and smiled at the customers…and they did it all, just to play the music they loved. THE GIRLS IN THE BAND tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30′s to the present day. These incredibly talented women endured sexism, racism and diminished opportunities for decades, yet continued to persevere, inspire and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them. Today a new breed of gifted young women are taking their rightful place in the world of jazz, which can no longer deny their talents.

Filmmaker's Comments

It started with a phone call from a friend telling me that she’d met a woman who had been a big-band musician in the forties. As a kid I spent my summers in Ocean Park, and as you walked the magical pier at night you could hear the music drifting from the glamorous dance halls nearby. That started my great love for big band music and by the time I was in my twenties I had seen or heard probably every major band that ever played the West Coast. Never once did I see a woman play an instrument in any of those big bands. True, there were a few all-female bands, but to me they were mainly “novelty acts." Real, honest, female big band musicians? My curiosity was piqued and out of that came a desire to find out if there was anything worth exploring. Much to my surprise a lot of interesting information began to surface. There were many women musicians who had devoted their lives to jazz and swing bandmusic. Not only in the past, but all the way through the 20th century and up to the present day.

Armed with a dynamo executive producer, Mike Greene and a couple of generous grants from Hugh Hefner and Herb Alpert, THE GIRLS IN THE BANDstarted taking shape. We hope that the great joy we all had in learning about these amazing women, will be shared by the viewers and that the film will bring these artists the admiration and respect they so rightly deserve. This film is my tribute to their courage and musical artistry, which has never been properly celebrated. It’s also an homage to my younger self who has never stopped loving jazz, music, and the golden sound of a trumpet. Our greatest satisfaction will come if this film can inspire a new crop of young female jazz musicians to stand on the shoulders of those early pioneers and to reach for the stars.

Judy Chaikin - Director/Producer

Judy Chaikin is a graduate of AFI's Directing Workshop for Women and is best known for writing, producing and directing the Emmy nominated PBS documentary, LEGACY OF THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST. In 2004 she received her second Emmy nomination for the documentary BUILDING ON A DREAM and directed and co-wrote the short romantic-comedy film, COTILLION ‘65, which has appeared in 40 film festivals winning Best Short, Best Comedy, Best Director and Audience Choice Awards. Ms. Chaikin was a Supervising Producer/Segment Director on the ABC series, FBI: THE UNTOLD STORIES, a Co-Producer of the CBS Movie Of The Week, STOLEN INNOCENCE, the Writer/Director of the bilingual PBS documentary, LOS PASTORES and was named Best New Music Video Director by Billboard Magazine in 1991. In 1996 Ms. Chaikin won the Blue Ribbon at the American Educational Film and TV Festival for the docu-drama, SOJOURNER TRUTH: AIN’T I A WOMAN, featuring Julie Harris. Her other directing work includes the MTV underground hit by Kommunity FK “Something Inside Me Has Died,” the Nickelodeon series “On The Television,” the Broadway production of “Yenta Unplugged” and the Odyssey Theater production of Martin Sherman’s “Rose.”

Musicians from the Film, Available for Interviews:

Roz Cron, 88 – Saxophone

From the young age of 16, gifted saxophone player Roz Cron was being wooed by big bands. Her first all-female big band job was with The Ada Leonard Orchestra, and she quickly moved on to the all-black International Sweethearts of Rhythm, considered by many as one of the top big bands in the country, male or female. As the only white girl in the band, Roz learned first-hand about the evils of Jim Crow and the dangers of racial mixing in the South, and she was often harassed, and once jailed by Southern small town sheriffs, for “associating with negroes.” She toured Europe with the Sweethearts during the war and stayed with the band until 1945. She then settled in Los Angeles to raise a family and continued playing in local dance bands and orchestras.

Clora Bryant, 86 – Trumpet/Flugelhorn

Clora was invited to join the Sweethearts at age 17, after playing only one gig with them. But her father thought the band too “worldly” for his young daughter. Instead, she stayed in California and her big break came when she was hired to play with the Ada Leonard Orchestra on a weekly television show. Sadly, she was let go after only one show because of audience complaints about a black woman on the bandstand. After that, she toured successfully with her “Tribute to Louis Armstrong” which had long runs in Canada and Las Vegas, and in the 1960s she was featured on "The Ed Sullivan Show." She became a close friend and protégé of Dizzy Gillespie, and played with Charlie Parker and in Gerald Wilson’s big band. In the 1980s, she became the first American woman trumpeter to tour the USSR in a cultural exchange program.

Playing at Laemmle's Pasadena Playhouse 7 , Nov. 15-21st

DVD screeners and Vimeo links available upon request.

For screeners or more information, please contactEmily@inclusivepr.com or call 323.460.4111.

*Filmmaker Judy Chaikin and 2 Veteran Musicians From Film Available for Interviews*