At Hotel Sorella Thursday night

Even with Houston's limited jazz scene, It's a Lovely Day for singer DianeLandry

New Orleans jazz is hard to find in Houston, but local musician Diane Landry will sing the blues until the end of September with guitarist Brennan Nace as part of a Thursday night series at the Hotel Sorella, where the two will perform in the hotel’s Bistro Bar.

Though jazz is hardly as popular as other genres in Houston, Landry discussed the city’s jazz scene with CultureMap and what it’s like to be a local musician in the fourth largest city in the U.S.

CultureMap: First, what can guests expect at your performance?

Diane Landry: I typically perform with a trio: a rhythm section, piano and drums, but this venue is a bit more intimate so I’m playing with guitarist Brennan Nace. It’s a two-hour set in the middle of cocktail hour (6-8 p.m.) and it’s in a very cool space. We do some tunes off of my new album,It’s A Lovely Day, like "Blue Moon," which is one of my favorites, as well as the title song "It’s A Lovely Day."

CM: Who is Diane Landry?

DL: I’m billed as a jazz singer but I sing it all. I don’t limit myself to just jazz, but years ago when I started singing with a jazz pianist, I got labeled as that. I prefer to label myself, rather, as just a singer because I like to sing everything. All of the guys I work with can play everything too, from rhythm and blues, to Hank Williams, rock and of course, jazz. We are extremely versatile. That’s how we like to think of ourselves, as versatile musicians.

CM: How is it being a jazz musician in Houston?

DL: In Houston, there is a niche for every genre, but the [live music scene] in Houston is different than in other cities. Houston does, however, have a rich music community in every genre. Houston musicians are a tight family, but a lot of us cross over to different genres.

The jazz scene in particular is very limited here because a lot of people don’t get jazz. It is probably the smallest niche audience in Houston. Partly because jazz is not properly being passed down to the younger generations. There are not many live venues here to support the small genre, as well.

CM: What’s next for you as a musician?

DL: I’m working on a duet project with Ezra Charles, and his rhythm and blues horn band. We’ve been in rehearses for months and are going to have our first performance at the Mucky Duck on Oct. 4. I also have another CD in the works that I’m just beginning to work on; writing some tunes and getting ready for that.

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Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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