The Mooche - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra

I don't know what it is about The Mooche, but whenever I hear it, I just go crazy!!

Orpheus; Can't Find the Time to Tell You

Many moons ago, I sang this ineffably lovely song over and over in my mind to no fewer than 114 teen-aged lovelies, none one of whom heard a word of it from my lips. That's what happens when you can't carry a note from Do to Re. Fortunately, Worcester's very own, Bruce Arnold and Orpheus could.

Sammy Davis, Jr. and his many special talents

He always seemed a man out of time; his schtick puerile and cloying and he lived long enough to become a caricature, but Sammy Davis Jr. was also an artist of immense talent and importance - and, when he canned the corn and the shuck and jive, he was one of the great singers and dancers of his or any other era. 
What we will never know is what pain and humiliation he endured through the years as he tried - and succeeded - in ingratiating himself with a "crossover" audience.

Politics and social studies aside, here's a reminder of why Michael Jackson studied Sammy so carefully.

Robert Mitchum invents Nascar racing

With the advent of another Indianapolis 500, I am at a complete loss to understand the allure of the single most tedious pseudo sport this side of curling: NASCAR racing.

Stevie Winwood always sang like a Man!

Even when he was just a little boy of 17, Stevie Winwood always sang like a man.

Gimme Some Lovin' Live on German Television - 1967

I'm a Man - 1966

Otis and Eric Burdon share a Shake in the Land of 1000 Dances

Otis Redding and Eric Burdon share a Shake in the Land of 1000 Dances before they both remember who the real star of the show was and Eric retreats to the shadows to study the Master. 

Remember the Alamo!

The Siege of the Alamo began 179 years ago this week. It lasted for 13 days (February 23- March 6, 1836) before the Mexican forces of Santa Ana, numbering more than 3,000 overran the 189 man garrison, breached the walls and killed them one and all. 

I first learned the story through Walt Disney, Fess Parker and John Wayne and I don't care how romanticized or fictionalized those or any other versions may have been. I don't care if in real life, Davy Crockett tried to surrender or if Jim Bowie was too drunk to get off his cot and fight. I'll even forgive the fact that Laurence Harvey, (an English guy!) played Colonel Travis in the movie. It's an inspiring story of courage - and it's got a great theme song. 

Take it away, Marty Robbins!

Ok, You too, Donovan, even if you don't sound like no cowpoke I ever he'erdof. 

James Joyce's Ulysses - The End

If you are among the millions who started reading Ulysses, James Joyce's opus magnum, but are not among the dozens who actually finished the dang thing, here is your chance. 

Take five minutes to listen to and follow the text below of the final 50 lines of Molly Bloom's closing soliloquy read by award winning Irish actress, Angeline Ball.  Thank me later.

  

Charlie Chaplin on Cocaine

It's time for a respite from the din of modern times by revisiting Charlie Chaplin escaping from prison while under the influence of nose powder in his Modern Times.  

Don't be afraid; it's only Henry Threadgill

Henry Threadgill is one of the greatest composers to have emerged from the jazz avant garde. His music  is cerebral, sophisticated, complex - and a whole lotta toe tappin' fun. 

Nat King Cole belongs on every musical Mount Rushmore

Nat Cole was a seminal figure in the development of American popular music. He was a magnificent jazz pianist whose best work is considered by many to have been done within his original trio format, but he was directed away from the keyboard to showcase his warm, caressing baritone in pop settings. In November, 1956, he became the first African American to host his own television show. It was cancelled in December, 1957 for lack of sponsorship. Nat's response was, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark".  He continued to record, albeit in far more middle of the road settings, maintaining his popularity until his death in 1965 at age 46 from lung cancer. He paved the way for many crossover artists that followed (e.g., Sam Cooke, Harry Belafonte, Ray Charles, et. al.), but his talents were rarely equaled and never surpassed. 

Nature Boy

Caravan

When I Fall in Love

Nat and Ella breaking barriers by touching (!) on national television

Count Basie Orchestra - Air Mail Special

Count Basie with Don Byas on tenor and Jimmy (Mr. 5x5) on his feet)

Judy Garland Strikes Up The Count Basie Band for The Sweetest Sounds You Will Ever Hear

Judy Garland Strikes Up The Count Basie Band for The Sweetest Sounds You'll Ever Hear - 1963

Ray Charles and the Raylettes feel the sunshine - 1963

Ray Charles and only a very few chosen others, could take the most insipid drivel and make it matter.
In this concert performance from 1963, Ray, his Orchestra feat. David "Fathead" Newman and the Raylettes w/Margie Hendricks turn You are My Sunshine into something special.

Are you telling me that 50 years ago, John Glenn orbited the earth? No way!!

If it hadn't been for the scary music, I would have sworn that it was all a hoax!

An appreciation to Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom (who gave his life for NASA), Scott Carpenter, (second orbital mission), 

 Scott Carpenter,Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton

Care for some Blind Faith?

For those interested in time traveling, bring along your Blind Faith and take a trip to 1969 with 

Winwood, Clapton, Baker and Grech

Lucille Ball loved Elizabeth Taylor's Ring

Comedy sparks flew aplenty when Lucille Ball met the plumber of her dreams, Richard Burton, and his lovely wife, Elizabeth Taylor's ring.  (Legend is that the Burton pair despised their hostess but apparently, it was nothing that a few acting chops couldn't disguise).  

Bob Hope and Jack Benny join the Beach Boys - 1965

I don't care if his nephew is one of the best power forwards in the NBA. Mike Love was, is and always will be a dink. Brian Wilson and Jack Benny, on the other hand, really had it going on.

Fleetwood Mac was once a real rock and blues band

Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green - Black Magic Woman - at The Boston Tea Party 1970

Fleetwood Mac play

Little Willie John's "Need Your Love So Bad"

Romney to Detroit: Let 'em go bankrupt!

Memo to Mitt: Another in a continuing series of advice and comment upon Mittsy's campaign, offered in the fervent hope that he successfully wades through the frothy mix of santorum that now stands between him and the nomination so that I can relish the spectacle of this bloodless twit trying to master that strange foreign language, "Regular American Joe". 

Oh, Mitt! If I were running in the Michigan primary and had opposed President Obama's government bailout of of the automotive industry in 2009, with an argument appearing under the headline: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt", 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html ,

and then learned that GM was reporting profits of $7.6 Billion (as in Billion) in 2011, I would shut up about my business credentials and remind everyone that I grew up in Michigan, too. 

Of course, if I did, I would use a photograph that was taken in Michigan instead of atop a helipad at the 1964 New York World's Fair.  And I wouldn't be driving a car that was made in Canada. Either this guy is a bad businessman, which, given his loot, ain't likely, or he's one real bad politician. 

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/16/426988/mitt-romney-michigan-ad-helipad/?mobile=nc

Either way, I think we've got the picture by now, Mitt. You're just one of those guys who can't give it to us straight but if you get the chance, you're gonna give it to us good.

Of all the many stars in the firmament, Marilyn Monroe was the brightest.

Of all the many brilliant stars in the firmament, Marilyn Monroe's shined the brightest. 

Before Johnny Cash sings Nick Cave's (NOT Charles Bukowsk's) “Mercy Seat”, a correction

No explanation necessary. This is just great stuff.

As it turns out, an explanation is necessary. 

In response to this post, I received the following anonymous response:

Another marriage of the sacred and profane in service of commerce.

There is something crass, cynical and vulgar about using great actors reciting epic poetry to pitch banks (in this case, The Union Bank of Switzerland). 

In this 1988 attempt to appeal to a wealthier clientele, the use of insipid elevator music to underscore the narration is needlessly trivializing, but after all, this was John Gielgud, who may not have invented English stage recitation, but certainly perfected it.

Here, he recites a selection from Lord Alfred Tennyson's Ulysses. 

Come, my friends,

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though

We are not now that strength which in the old days

Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,

One equal-temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Ulysses (excerpt)

Alfred Lord Tennyson

PS The Tag line to this commercial was, "Union Bank of Switzerland. Here today. Here tomorrow". Now, if that ain't anti-poetry, it will do until something uglier comes along. And look-y, look-y. Here it comes now. 

Update: I understood when an international bank used famous actors to recite classic poetry over insipid music followed by tasteless, anti-poetic tag lines (e.g., "Union Bank of Switzerland. Here today. Here tomorrow.") as an attempt to attract wealthy and presumably highly cultured investors. 

But wedding professional wrestling - or whatever the hell is being sold here - to a spectral voice reciting Dylan Thomas' poetry over primordial swamp music as rapid fire scenes of hormonal goons contemplating the physical mayhem each is about to wreak on the other assaults the senses. 

This is truly a marriage of the sacred and profane. 

I trust Mr. Thomas' estate has been properly compensated. 

2.16.12

Stump Green Stein for America. She Blends So Well With Tea

UPDATE: WAIT A MINUTE! It's 4 days to the election, Nader's off the ballot, towed away to the junkyard, sidelined like some broken down car too old and in the way to keep the pace. Now, who am I going to vote for? Back to the quickie On the Issues.Org quiz. Let's see ... I vote to the left ... I vote to the left ... I vote one step toward the middle for balance and I vote to the left ...AHA! I have my candidate!

Van Morrison performs Wavelength - 1980

Hey Zorro, I think I get it now!

Hey, Zorro, I don't get it. You gave up the thunder and the moon, the horse as black as the night, the mask that fooled everybody and a sword that could slice through a fat guy's underwear to get Lost in Space with Lassie's mom? Then, you come back to Earth just to slice the underwear off a movie actress who couldn't keep a job selling lousy cell phones? 

Oh wait! I'm not 7 anymore ... I think I get it now. It's about career choices, right?

The Kinks always got the joke

The Kinks always got the joke and they always cracked me up.

I hope Spencer Davis got to keep the royalty checks

Stevie Winwood was 16 when he began recording these songs. When I was 16, I was trying to find my way out of the sandbox.

Gimme Some Lovin' 

I'm a Man

Keep on Running

Traffic Jams through the years

In hindsight, this was only a pit stop for the great Steve Winwood, but before they crashed, Traffic was one of the more dramatic, whimsical, sophisticated and, dare we say it, trippy bands of their day. Too bad it was such a short ride.

Sarah Vaughan flies Over the Rainbow, straight to the moon and finds it all Misty

Over the Rainbow

Fly Me to the Moon

Misty

Batman drops the Bomb

The planet scratches its' noggin trying to understand how Adam West never received an Academy Award for pulling off this performance with a straight face.

As if you needed more, follow the link to a photo gallery of super villains who tested the Bat's mettle. You will be surprised at the depth and range of "evil" lurking within the heart of Hollywood. 

Bruce Springsteen goes Up On The Roof - 1975

Big Al Anderson and the Wildweeds - The Legend Lives On

If you were raised in the Great Northeast in the days before disco cool, you know the true fathers of Rock and Roll were Big Al Anderson and the Wildweeds.

Every great band needs a cover band. For the Wildweeds, it was the Allman Brothers

Every great band needs a great cover band. For the Wildweeds, it was the brothers Allman.

Going Postal in West Africa means whistling while you work

Society Note: Kevin Youkilis and Tom Brady's sister?

Huh? Kevin Youkilis is engaged to marry Tom Brady's sister? Let's try that one again. Kevin Youkilis is engaged to marry Tom Brady's sister. Well, let's assume for the purposes of this discussion, and from the available photographic evidence, that Tom Brady's sister bears at least a familial resemblance to brother Tom. Ok, let's try it one more time: Kevin Youkilis is engaged to marry Tom Brady's sister. There! There is now officially hope for every sweat hog and dirt dog the world over!

Winter Trees by William Carlos Williams

Winter Trees 
by William Carlos Williams

Thelonious Monk played by his own rules

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), played by his own rules. His music had its' own internal logic; complex and knotty, yet child like in its' simplicity. 

Despite many years of neglect and even derision, he was amply recorded and, as he moved into the twilight,  justifiably celebrated as one of the most original and celebrated composers and pianists in jazz history.  2.10.12

These videos were recorded with his working group during a European tour in 1959.  

'Round Midnight

Just a Gigolo/Bolivar Blues

Don't Blame Me

I Mean You (1959) 

Now this should be our National Anthem featuring The Grateful Dead and Los Lobos

Now, this should be our national anthem. After all, this land was made for you and me and besides, Woody Guthrie wrote better songs than Francis Scott Key. 

The John Coltrane Quartet - Naima

“The main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.” - John Coltrane

Naima performed by The John Coltrane Quartet with McCoy Tyner (p), Elvin Jones (d),Jimmy Garrison (b)

Miles Davis, John Coltrane and friends say, "So What?

"The Sounds of Miles Davis" was a marvelous and unique television broadcast from 1959, featuring the Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane and an Orchestra conducted by Gil Evans. 

Bruce Springsteen performs Spirit in the Night - 1973

In 1973, on his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, Bruce Springsteen unleashed Spirit in the Night, his first great song of celebration.  More than 40 years later, the spirit is still there.

Mama Africa mattered.

Miriam Makeba (1932-2008), a/k/a as Mama Africa, was a South African singer, civil rights activist, expatriate, and cultural icon. Her work, as a solo performer, and with Hugh Masakela, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone and Paul Simon, among many others, was gloriously unique and was responsible as anyone for popularizing African music around the globe. 

Miriam Makeba's life in short story and song.

Pata, Pata (1967)

Capetown Jazz Festival (2006)

T.S. Eliot reads his Four Quartets

"And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one." 

T.S. Eliot  - Little Giddings

From a Freed Slave to His Former Master

In August of 1865, Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdon Anderson, requesting that he return to work on the former master's farm. Mr. Anderson, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was supporting his family, He responded to the entreaty by way of the letter seen below.  It's a heart rending letter with a grand payoff.

*

H.L. Mencken on the meaning of life

In July 1931, author and philosopher Will Durant wrote to a number of notable figures and asked, essentially, "What is the meaning of life?" His letter concluded:  

“Spare me a moment to tell me what meaning life has for you, what keeps you going, what help—if any—religion gives you, what are the sources of your inspiration and your energy, what is the goal or motive-force of your toil, where you find your consolations and your happiness, where, in the last resort, your treasure lies. Write briefly if you must; write at length and at leisure if you possibly can; for every word from you will be precious to me.”

The recipient of one such letter, the great newsman and essayist, H.L. Mencken, responded as follows:

Dear Durant:

You ask me, in brief, what satisfaction I get out of life, and why I go on working. I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. There is in every living creature an obscure but powerful impulse to active functioning. Life demands to be lived. Inaction, save as a measure of recuperation between bursts of activity, is painful and dangerous to the healthy organism—in fact, it is almost impossible. Only the dying can be really idle.

The precise form of an individual’s activity is determined, of course, by the equipment with which he came into the world. In other words, it is determined by his heredity. I do not lay eggs, as a hen does, because I was born without any equipment for it. For the same reason I do not get myself elected to Congress, or play the violoncello, or teach metaphysics in a college, or work in a steel mill. What I do is simply what lies easiest to my hand. It happens that I was born with an intense and insatiable interest in ideas, and thus like to play with them. It happens also that I was born with rather more than the average facility for putting them into words. In consequence, I am a writer and editor, which is to say, a dealer in them and concoctor of them.

There is very little conscious volition in all this. What I do was ordained by the inscrutable fates, not chosen by me. In my boyhood, yielding to a powerful but still subordinate interest in exact facts, I wanted to be a chemist, and at the same time my poor father tried to make me a business man. At other times, like any other realtively poor man, I have longed to make a lot of money by some easy swindle. But I became a writer all the same, and shall remain one until the end of the chapter, just as a cow goes on giving milk all her life, even though what appears to be her self-interest urges her to give gin.

I am far luckier than most men, for I have been able since boyhood to make a good living doing precisely what I have wanted to do—what I would have done for nothing, and very gladly, if there had been no reward for it. Not many men, I believe, are so fortunate. Millions of them have to make their livings at tasks which really do not interest them. As for me, I have had an extraordinarily pleasant life, despite the fact that I have had the usual share of woes. For in the midst of these woes I still enjoyed the immense satisfaction which goes with free activity. I have done, in the main, exactly what I wanted to do. Its possible effects on other people have interested me very little. I have not written and published to please other people, but to satisfy myself, just as a cow gives milk, not to profit the dairyman, but to satisfy herself. I like to think that most of my ideas have been sound ones, but I really don’t care. The world may take them or leave them. I have had my fun hatching them.

Next to agreeable work as a means of attaining happiness I put what Huxley called the domestic affections—the day to day intercourse with family and friends. My home has seen bitter sorrow, but it has never seen any serious disputes, and it has never seen poverty. I was completely happy with my mother and sister, and I am completely happy with my wife. Most of the men I commonly associate with are friends of very old standing. I have known some of them for more than thirty years. I seldom see anyone, intimately, whom I have known for less than ten years. These friends delight me. I turn to them when work is done with unfailing eagerness. We have the same general tastes, and see the world much alike. Most of them are interestd in music, as I am. It has given me more pleasure in this life than any external thing. I love it more every year.

As for religion, I am quite devoid of it. Never in my adult life have I experienced anything that could be plausibly called a religious impulse. My father and grandfather were agnostics before me, and though I was sent to Sunday-school as a boy and exposed to the Christian theology I was never taught to believe it. My father thought that I should learn what it was, but it apparently never occurred to him that I would accept it. He was a good psychologist. What I got in Sunday-school—beside a wide acquaintance with Christian hymnology—was simply a firm conviction that the Christian faith was full of palpable absurdities, and the Christian God preposterous. Since that time I have read a great deal in theology—perhaps much more than the average clergyman—but I have never discovered any reason to change my mind.

The act of worship, as carried on by Christians, seems to me to be debasing rather than ennobling. It involves grovelling before a Being who, if He really exists, deserves to be denounced instead of respected. I see little evidence in this world of the so-called goodness of God. On the contrary, it seems to me that, on the strength of His daily acts, He must be set down a most cruel, stupid and villainous fellow. I can say this with a clear conscience, for He has treated me very well—in fact, with vast politeness. But I can’t help thinking of his barbaric torture of most of the rest of humanity. I simply can’t imagine revering the God of war and politics, theology and cancer.

I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it. The belief in it issues from the puerile egos of inferior men. In its Christian form it is little more than a device for getting revenge upon those who are having a better time on this earth. What the meaning of human life may be I don’t know: I incline to suspect that it has none. All I know about it is that, to me at least, it is very amusing while it lasts. Even its troubles, indeed, can be amusing. Moreover, they tend to foster the human qualities that I admire most—courage and its analogues. The noblest man, I think, is that one who fights God, and triumphs over Him. I have had little of this to do. When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness. No show, however good, could conceivably be good for ever.

Sincerely yours,

H. L. Mencken

Teaching life skills

Teaching life skills 

Bobby Hebb takes another swing at Sunny - and makes it count

Bobby Hebb's Sunny has reportedly been broadcast more than 7 million times. I haven't checked the math, but 'tis said that if all the radio plays were linked consecutively, this wonderful song would play for 34 years. That sounds like a great idea to me.  Here is one more richly deserved replay: Bobby Hebb on guitar, accompanied by the great jazz bassist, Ron Carter, performing Bobby's composition, Sunny. 

For further proof that this is one of those songs that just can't be screwed up, have a peek and choose a listen below.

Ella and Tom Jones Just a-settin' and a-rockin' Sunny

Tom; "Is this tempo all right for you?"

Ella's thought bubble:  "You just keep rockin', Sunny boy, while I swing you by your chest hair straight back to Vegas".

Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones Blame It on the Sun

Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones Blame It On the Sun