THE JAZZ SINGER: 25th ANNIVERSARY

This October, celebrate the Silver Anniversary of one man, his song and a dream. Rich with tension and the bittersweet taste of success and separation, 1980’s THE JAZZ SINGER stands as a heart-wrenching journey through personal strife and upheaval. Music legend Neil Diamond, the incomparable Laurence Olivier and Lucie Arnaz star in the latest re-telling of the first ‘talkie’, originally released in 1927. Bonus features on the DVD include audio commentary by producer Jerry Leider, the movie’s theatrical trailer and stills as well as biographies on Diamond, Olivier and director Richard Fleischer. THE JAZZ SINGER will be available for the SRP of $19.98 on October 18, 2005.

THE JAZZ SINGER, a triple Golden Globe™ nominee for Best Actor (Diamond), Best Supporting Actress (Arnaz) and Best Original Song (Love on the Rocks), follows Yussel Rabinowitz, a talented cantor with dreams of stardom that eventually distance him from his close-knit family and faith. Yussel’s father (Olivier) and wife Rivka (Catlin Adams) disapprove of Yussel’s pursuit of a career in music, yet reluctantly let him follow promoter Molly Bell (Arnaz) to Los Angeles. After some disappointment, Bell is finally able to land a gig for Yussel that will showcase his talent and put him on the brink of realizing his dreams, just as his father and wife follow him out west to plead for his return to New York. The temptations of fame and Bell play against Yussel’s reclusive upbringing and familial commitment, making for very tense and emotionally challenging moments that test one man’s willingness to risk it all to follow a dream.

Multi-platinum recording artist Neil Diamond has his acting debut in this film, alongside screen legend Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights, Hamlet, Spartacus) and Lucie Arnaz (daughter of TV legends Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz). Of the 120 million worldwide album sales, THE JAZZ SINGER soundtrack is Diamond’s best-selling album and features popular hits such as “Love on the Rocks”, “Hello Again” and “America”. In 1982, the soundtrack earned a Grammy nomination and in 1991, the song “America” won the ASCAP award for Most Performed Feature Film Standards. Neil Diamond is currently on his 2005 World Tour, and will debut a new album this November.

Anchor Bay Entertainment is an established leader in the field of home entertainment. The company offers an expansive selection of award-winning, notable theatrical films including “Time Bandits” and “Halloween,” classic television programming such as “3rd Rock from the Sun,” “Three’s Company,” “Highlander” and much of the Stephen J. Cannell library, traditional children’s fare featuring the ever-popular Thomas & Friends collection and Mister Rogers Neighborhood, the impressive Manga anime line and chart-topping fitness titles including the "Crunch" and "For Dummies" series. Anchor Bay Entertainment is aggressively developing a wide range of original programs and concepts in addition to licensing existing brands and films.

Anchor Bay Entertainment is a subsidiary of IDT Entertainment. IDT Entertainment is a vertically integrated entertainment company that develops, produces, and distributes proprietary and licensed entertainment content. IDT Entertainment is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT, IDT.C), an international telecom, entertainment, and technology company.

Neil Diamond pushes aside insecurities, makes triumphant return

There's security in anonymity, as anonymous as someone can be whose job requires singing in arenas filled with thousands of people. That explains a little of Neil Diamond's wariness in response to the strong reviews he has received for ''12 Songs,'' his back-to-basics disc produced by musical guru Rick Rubin. He's happy, to be sure, but a little frightened. ''There's quite a bit of pressure off if you realize that not everybody is listening, just your fans are listening,'' he said. ''In this case, I realized that a lot of other people outside my fan base are listening. Critics are listening for the first time, and that makes it scary.'' Relax, Neil. Rolling Stone gave it four stars, Entertainment Weekly an A. People magazine's Chuck Arnold said, ''Let's just put it right out there: You will be blown away by the new Neil Diamond CD.'' If such praise seems as unlikely as Paris Hilton clutching an Academy Award, consider that it never would have happened if Diamond hadn't - finally - returned Rubin's phone calls. ''I've always loved his songwriting and I feel like he's one of the great American songwriters,'' said Rubin, the famed hard rock and hip-hop producer who also guided Johnny Cash's breathtaking final series of discs. ''I liked the fact that he never really fit into any category. He didn't fit anywhere - he was rock 'n' roll and not rock 'n' roll. He was a force unto himself.'' Rubin had been a fan of the old Diamond, of ''Solitary Man'' and ''Sweet Caroline.'' That singer had long since disappeared behind the sequins and material that made him a punch line for serious music fans. It wasn't until three years ago that Diamond, after being prodded by friends in the industry, agreed to a meeting. Rubin had first called a decade ago. ''I was doing what I wanted to do,'' Diamond explained. ''I was making the records I wanted to make where and when I wanted to do them. I wasn't looking aggressively for someone to come in and give me some new and fresh perspectives on my stuff. I was pretty happy with it and perfectly willing to continue as long as I could on that path.'' Their first meetings, at Rubin's house or studio, they were like two teenagers. They sat and listened to music together, talking about what they liked. Rubin played Diamond some of his old records, things he hadn't heard in years, and they talked about what it was like making them. ''His reputation preceded him,'' Diamond said. ''But man to man, I just liked him a lot.'' Diamond started writing songs, supervised by Rubin. ''He brought the chops right from the beginning,'' Rubin said. ''What I pushed for was for him to go beyond, in terms of continuing way beyond where he normally would.''

CD Review

If Neil Diamond were fairly judged by the long list of his songs that are deeply rooted in the DNA of American pop culture -- "Sweet Caroline," "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," "Solitary Man," among many others - the guy wouldn't have to contend with the persistent notion that he's a kitschy punch line.
But life is not fair, and there is "The Jazz Singer," after all. So it is nice to see Diamond back in the spotlight with a solid collection of new songs polished and produced by Rick Rubin, who famously resurrected Johnny Cash's career in the 1990s.
As anyone knows who has listened to Cash's "American Recordings" work, "polish" isn't the right word for what Rubin brings to the process. "Care" would be better because he demands the best.
That was obviously the case on "12 Songs," which brushes against Diamond's pop sensibility even as it pushes it gently in new directions.
The opening "Oh Mary" fits into the latter-day Cash template: It's a slow ballad that anchors Diamond and his acoustic guitar against a backdrop of grave piano tones.
It only hints at the surprising depth of the material that follows: "Hell Yeah" is a benedictory look back at a life well-lived that Diamond delivers with warmth and defiance.
"So if they ask you when I'm gone, 'Was it everything he wanted, when he had to travel on? Did he know he would be missed?' You can tell them this, 'Hell yeah, he did.' "
Rubin bolsters Diamond's belt-it-to-the-back-row crescendo with strings on that song. At other points, he finds the right tone with brushes on a snare drum, muted horns or splashes of slide guitar.
Diamond is accompanied by an ensemble of A-list hired guns including Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, keyboardist Billy Preston and guitarist Smokey Hormel of Blasters fame.
The best thing about "12 Songs" is how the ingredients complement Diamond's strengths. The understated ballads allow space for that distinctive gravelly baritone, which sounds genuinely invested in ballads such as "Evermore," a stately love song reminiscent of the gentle power of 'Solitary Man.'
Diamond's knack for melody is allowed to surface on "Save Me a Saturday Night," a three-chord ditty nestled into a cushion of acoustic guitars, organ and bells. It's a gem on an album with plenty of them.

Man behind Beastie Boys tries to make Neil Diamond cool

He is the man behind some of the biggest success stories in the music industry. Now Rick Rubin, who launched the Beastie Boys, worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Run DMC and revived the career of Johnny Cash has a new ambition - making Neil Diamond cool. The housewives' favourite, who shot to fame in the 1970s with hits including Sweet Caroline and Song Sung Blue is attempting to stage a comeback in Britain. Rubin has produced Diamond's new album "12 Songs", which has already been a commercial and critical hit in the US, where it went straight into the Billboard chart at number four, the first time the singer has seen one of his albums debut in the top ten. "12 Songs" is released in the UK in early 2006 and if Rubin's magic works it will introduce Diamond to a whole new audience. The 42-year-old from Long Island became involved with the early hip-hop scene in New York. Together with DJ Jazzy Jay, he set up the Def Jam record label in the early 1980s, which produced LL Cool J and Public Enemy. Rubin also produced the Beastie Boys and Run DMC, combining their hip-hop sound with elements of heavy rock. In 1988, he parted amicably from Def Jam and set up the Def American label in Los Angeles, which later became American Recordings, where he worked with rock acts including Slayer, Danzig and The Cult. In 1993, Rubin met Cash, whose singing career had taken a dive after Columbia Records dropped him six years earlier. The following year, the two released the first of four albums that were to restore Cash to fame and prove particularly popular with college radio stations. While working with many of the elder statesmen of rock including Mick Jagger, Tom Petty, AC/DC and Donovan, Rubin continued to produce new acts including System of A Down, whose debut album came out in 1998. Phil Alexander, editor-in-chief of Mojo magazine, believes there are two key reasons for the success of Rubin, who was described by MTV News as "simply the most important producer of the last 20 years". "Firstly, he's an incredible music fan. He understands an artist's catalogue and heritage. The second point is that he has a great set of ears. He lets the musician work with stuff then sits and listens back to it. He's using his ears rather than wasting time twiddling knobs."Despite his respect for Rubin, Alexander is not convinced that Diamond will play well with British music fans. "Unfortunately he has been tarnished by the housewives' favourite label. I think he's a great American song writer, but a lot of the time there's a sense of middle of the road, soft focus that loses some of the directness within his music," Alexander said. Radio producer and music journalist Paul Sexton thinks on the contrary that Rubin can engineer a successful comeback for Diamond. He said: "Rick Rubin seems to revel in the improbable. It's impressive enough to uncover three rough diamonds in the streets of Greenwich Village and create white hip-hop, as he basically did with the Beastie Boys."But the sheer sonic scope of what he's taken on as a producer is extraordinary, the word 'versatile' doesn't do him justice. By the time he got together with Cash, he was already known not just for his daring collaborations but as a real production guru in the old-fashioned sense, someone with ears that apparently work in any genre. The fact that he's simultaneously been working on records by Neil Diamond, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Dixie Chicks says it all. "The Diamond album gets back to the essence of what made him good in the first place, which is exactly what he did with Cash. He seems to know these artists better than they know themselves, and I can't see why Neil Diamond won't be one of next year's coolest names to drop."