![]() ![]() ![]() “My learning in music started with my mother and father,” he said during a 2012 interview with jazz bassist Jonah Jonathan. Spike Lee confirmed his father’s death via Instagram, sharing a series of black-and-white portraits taken by younger brother David Charles Lee.īill Lee composed scores for several of Spike Lee’s early films, including “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986), “School Daze” (1988), “Do The Right Thing” (1989) and “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990).īorn William James Edwards Lee III in Snow Hill, Ala., on July 23, 1928, Bill Lee was the son of two musicians. If you can make a living doing what you love, then you’ve already won.Bill Lee, a jazz bassist who played with Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Aretha Franklin and Duke Ellington, who was also the father of filmmaker Spike Lee, died at his Brooklyn home Wednesday morning. There’s going to be highs and lows and you just have to understand that if this is what you’re doing and it is what you love, then you’re blessed because the majority of the people on this earth go to their grave hating their job and not ever getting to do what they love – don’t be one of them. “You’ve got to not be discouraged and understand that it’s a marathon not a sprint,” he says. They have to.”Īs for knockbacks? His advice is simple – don’t let them consume you. We just have to keep at it because ultimately everybody needs to tell their own story. Nothing can happen overnight, it’s gradual. But we are getting more opportunities for men and women of colour. “As a person of colour, you still have to work extra hard. “This world hasn’t changed so much,” he admits. With that being said, Lee, more than most, is aware of the challenges faced as a black creative in Hollywood – it did after all take him 33 years and four nominations before he finally got his hands on an Oscar. You can no longer say ‘I need all this money’ to create something, you don’t. Some young filmmakers are making feature films on their cellphones. “I’m not saying it’s easy but it is a lot easier. “There’s much greater opportunity to be a filmmaker today because everybody has all these different platforms to create content,” he explains. Today, he has yet another strong message, this time for young filmmakers of colour who dream of his success. Earlier this year, the 62-year-old visionary won his first Oscar, taking home the Best Adapted Screenplay award for the most recent Spike Lee joint, Blackkklansman – a politically charged, humorous true story of a black police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.Īs with everything he does, Lee dedicated his Oscar to his people, using his speech as an opportunity to recite significant moments in African American history in honour of Black History Month. To mark the occasion, Lee threw one of his famous block parties in his hometown – ‘Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn’ as he calls it – inviting over 20,000 people, including the cast and crew, to the same neighbourhood the film was shot in 1989. For over three decades, Lee has been pushing boundaries with provocative yet necessary narratives of the African American experience through his catalogue of both indie and feature films – a prime example being the monumental Do The Right Thing, which celebrated its 30 year anniversary on June 30. Of course, this isn’t the only history making moment in the filmmaker’s career. After the game, they had me on television wearing it and then it blew the fuck up.”įrom that moment onwards, New Era began creating an array of different colours for each team – including their latest 2019 collaboration with Lee, which launched last Friday. “At first they said they couldn’t make any other colour, but then the late owner of the New York Yankees team gave them the okay. “Nobody had ever asked for a different colour hat before that,” says Lee, explaining how he set a new precedent for the brand by becoming the first person to wear a non-navy (the team’s official colour) Yankees hat. ![]() And most definitely why New Era CEO Christopher Koch granted Lee’s wish for a red New York Yankees cap – an extremely unorthodox request at the time – to match his red jacket for the 1996 World Series baseball games. Perhaps that’s why he is hailed as a change-maker in both film and streetwear fashion. The director, who strikes a firm presence in every room he graces – whether you’re familiar with his accolades or not – epitomises originality in his craft, his persona and his style. Pioneering filmmaker, provocateur and die-hard Yankees fan are just a few things that come to mind when describing Spike Lee. ![]()
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