Wednesday, December 31, 2008

RIP Freddie Hubbard



Freddie Hubbard, energetic jazz trumpeter, dies at 70
By Peter Keepnews
Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Freddie Hubbard, a jazz trumpeter who dazzled audiences and critics alike with his virtuosity, his melodicism and his infectious energy, died Monday in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 70.

The cause was complications of a heart attack he had Nov. 26, said his spokesman, Don Lucoff of DL Media.

Over a career that began in the late 1950s, Hubbard earned both critical praise and commercial success - although rarely for the same projects.

He attracted attention in the 1960s for his bravura work as a member of the Jazz Messengers, the valuable training ground for young musicians led by the veteran drummer Art Blakey, and on albums by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and many others. He also recorded several well-regarded albums as a leader. And although he was not an avant-gardist by temperament, he participated in three of the seminal recordings of the 1960s jazz avant-garde: Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz" (1960), Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch" (1964) and John Coltrane's "Ascension" (1965).

In the 1970s Hubbard, like many other jazz musicians of his generation, began courting a larger audience, with albums that featured electric instruments, rock and funk rhythms, string arrangements and repertory sprinkled with pop and R&B songs like Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" and the Stylistics' "Betcha by Golly, Wow." His audience did indeed grow, but his standing in the jazz world diminished.

By the start of the next decade he had largely abandoned his more commercial approach and returned to his jazz roots. But his career came to a virtual halt in 1992 when he damaged his lip, and although he resumed performing and recording after an extended hiatus, he was never again as powerful a player as he had been in his prime.

Frederick Dewayne Hubbard was born on April 7, 1938, in Indianapolis. His first instrument was the alto-brass mellophone, and in high school he studied French horn and tuba as well as trumpet.

After taking lessons with Max Woodbury, the first trumpeter of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music, he performed locally with, among others, the guitarist Wes Montgomery and his brothers.

Hubbard moved to New York in 1958 and almost immediately began working with groups led by the saxophonist Sonny Rollins, the drummer Philly Joe Jones and others. His profile rose in 1960 when he joined the roster of Blue Note, a leading jazz label; it rose further the next year when he was hired by Blakey, widely regarded as the music's premier talent scout.

Adding his own spin to a style informed by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, Hubbard played trumpet with an unusual mix of melodic inventiveness and technical razzle-dazzle. The critics took notice. Leonard Feather called him "one of the most skilled, original and forceful trumpeters of the '60s."

After leaving Blakey's band in 1964, Hubbard worked for a while with another drummer-bandleader, Max Roach, before forming his own group in 1966. Four years later he began recording for CTI, a record company that would soon become known for its aggressive efforts to market jazz musicians beyond the confines of the jazz audience.

Hubbard won a Grammy Award for the album "First Light" in 1972 and was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006.

He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Briggie Hubbard, and his son, Duane.

Hubbard was once known as the brashest of jazzmen, but his personality as well as his music mellowed in the wake of his lip problems. In a 1995 interview with Fred Shuster of Down Beat, Hubbard offered some sober advice to younger musicians: "Don't make the mistake I made of not taking care of myself. Please, keep your chops cool and don't overblow."

Monday, December 29, 2008

Kingston Trio - M. T. A.



The Kingston Trio and the Red Scare


The death of Nick Reynolds, one of the Kingston Trio, on October 1 at age 75, provoked fond memories of one era and painful reminders of another.

The fond memories are of the folk music revival that began in the late 1950s with the clean-cut, college-boy Kingston Trio and within a few years was closely linked to crusades for justice. The painful ones come from remembering that the period was accompanied by the cold war and the McCarthy era, when what you sang-- as much as what you said--could get you in trouble.

Reynolds, Bob Shane and Dave Guard formed the Kingston Trio in 1957, originally as calypso group. The next year, their first hit, a rendition of the traditional folk song "Tom Dooley," earned a gold record and a Grammy. Thirteen of the group's albums, which included such hit songs as "A Worried Man" and "Tijuana Jail," reached the Top Ten. In 1959 alone, they had four albums at the same time among the ten top-selling albums.

Purists often derided the Kingston Trio for watering down folk songs in order to make them commercially popular and for remaining on the political sidelines during the protest movements of the 1960s. But the group deserves credit for helping to launch the folk boom that brought recognition to older folkies and radicals like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and for paving the way for newcomers like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs, who were well-known for their progressive political views and topical songs. By the time these younger folk singers arrived on the scene, the political climate had changed enough to provide a wide audience for protest music.

Reynolds was candid about the difficult position that the Kingston Trio took to navigate their way through those interlocking eras. In an interview last year, he told us that the members of his group were "big fans of the Weavers," the folk group with Pete Seeger that had a number-one hit in 1950 with "Goodnight Irene" but were blacklisted for their left-wing sympathies and forced to break up in 1952.

Reynolds, who was friends with Weaver member Fred Hellerman, acknowledged that what happened to the Weavers caused the Kingston Trio to choose a different course.

"We decided that if we wanted to have our songs played on the airwaves, we'd better stay in the middle of the road politically," he explained. "We'd just got out of school. We didn't want to get blacklisted." Asked if the Weavers had warned the trio to avoid controversy, he replied: "They didn't have to."

Even after they'd made it big, the group never aligned itself with protest causes, said Reynolds, who described himself as a "very liberal Democrat." Onstage, "the most we ever did was give a plug for John Kennedy" during his 1960 campaign against Richard Nixon.

Reynolds recalled that despite their personal support for the civil rights movement, the Kingston Trio didn't performed songs like "We Shall Overcome" at their concerts.

Reynolds also admitted that the Kingston Trio even resorted to changing the lyrics of one of their biggest hits in order to avoid controversy. It happened when they recorded "M.T.A.," the ballad about a man named Charlie doomed to "ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston" for want of a nickel to pay the fare to get off. (Watch the YouTube video of the Trio performing the "M.T.A." song)

The lyrics to "M.T.A." had been written as a campaign song for Walter A. O'Brien Jr., the Progressive Party candidate for mayor of Boston in 1949. (The tune was taken from "The Ship That Never Returned" by Henry Clay Work, written in 1865, and later transformed into "The Wreck of the Old 97" by Vernon Dalhart in 1924, then "The Train that Never Returned" by the radical Almanac Singers in 1941.)

An admitted long shot, O'Brien recruited Bess Lomax Hawes, daughter of folk song collector John Lomax, and Jackie Steiner to write the song for him. Although the story told in the song is humorous, it was meant to dramatize O'Brien's call for a rollback of the subway fare increase in Boston and protest the recent bailout of the privately owned Boston Elevated Railway Company by the Massachusetts legislature through creation of the publicly owned Massachusetts Transit Authority (MTA). Hawes and Steiner ended the song with a verse that made sure Boston voters knew which of the mayoral candidate was on their side: "Vote for Walter A. O'Brien/and fight the fare increase/Get poor Charlie off that MTA!"

The song didn't help O'Brien much, since he finished dead last in the election. He continued to practice progressive politics until he was caught up in Massachusetts's own version of the Red Scare. After refusing to answer questions when called before the Massachusetts Committee on Communism, O'Brien and eighty-four others were branded "Communists or Communist sympathizers." They had their names, addresses and places of employment published in the newspapers. Unable to find work, O'Brien returned to his native Maine, gave up politics, became a school librarian and tried to stay out of the glare of the Red Scare headlines.

The song endured. In 1957, folk singer Will Holt recorded it for Coral Records and it seemed well on its way to becoming a hit. Radio stations played it, record stores sold it and Life magazine even planned a feature story on Holt and the song, including photographs of him at the various subway stops mentioned in the song. Suddenly, though, radio stations stopped playing the song, stores stopped selling the record, and Life abruptly pulled its story--after protesters objected to the song for including the name of Walter O'Brien, and thus "glorifying" a radical.

The Kingston Trio later learned the song from Holt, whom Reynolds recalled meeting through Bay Area folk music circles. They decided to record it, but knowing what had happened to Holt, they made a slight change in the lyrics--dropping the name of Walter O'Brien and replacing it with the name of a fictional character, "George O'Brien."

Reynolds did not deny why they did it. "We changed the name so we wouldn't get into political trouble," he recalled last year. "Everything in those days was controversial. This was the McCarthy era. Who knows who would come knocking on your door?"

With Reynolds singing the lead, "M.T.A." was released on the Kingston Trio's second album on June 1, 1959, and as a single a week later. The single made it to number fifteen on the Billboard chart that year, and the album reached number one on the pop charts. Life, which had dropped the story on Will Holt and his Walter O'Brien version of the song, ran a cover story featuring the Kingston Trio and their George O'Brien version. Later that year, group won a Grammy as best folk performers of the year.

Fifty years ago, Nick Reynolds and the Kingston Trio were folk music pioneers. Since then, "M.T.A." has become a part of American folklore, reprinted in myriad songbooks, a staple at summer camps and recorded by many different performers--but only after the name of the man for whom it was written was removed from the lyrics.

In the 1950s world of folk music, there were places that even pioneers feared to go.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

RIP Delaney Bramlett

Delaney Bramlett: 1939-2008
Sunday December 28, 2008
Sadly, there's another name to add to the list of those we've lost in 2008. Singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, Delaney Bramlett has died of complications from gall bladder surgery. He was 69.

With his then-wife, Bonnie, he performed as Delaney and Bonnie & Friends in the late '60s and early '70s. Those "friends" included, at various times, George Harrison, Duane and Gregg Allman, Dave Mason, Leon Russell and Eric Clapton. Clapton credits Bramlett with encouraging and mentoring him as a vocalist. Bramlett co-wrote wrote several of the songs on Clapton's first solo album.

After the breakup (professionally and personally) of Delaney and Bonnie, he continued writing songs and producing albums for artists like Elvin Bishop and Etta James. Among the best known songs Bramlett co-wrote are "Superstar" (with Leon Russell); "Let It Rain" (with Clapton); and "Never Ending Song Of Love" which was Delaney & Bonnie's highest charting single.

Bramlett's daughter (with Bonnie) Bekka is a successful backup singer who also did a stint as vocalist for Fleetwood Mac in the late '90s.

Bramlett's most recent solo album, A New Kind Of Blues, was released earlier this year.

RIP Page Cavanaugh



Jazz Pianist, Singer Page Cavanaugh Dies
December 26, 2008 - Jazz

By Associated Press

Jazz pianist and singer Page Cavanaugh, whose popular trio in the 1940s and 1950s played in motion pictures and on Frank Sinatra's radio show, has died at 86.

Cavanaugh died of kidney failure Dec. 19 at a nursing home in San Fernando Valley, said Phil Mallory, his bass player of 18 years.

The Page Cavanaugh Trio was one of Southern California's most popular nightclub acts from the 1940s to the 1990s, performing at Ciro's, the Trocadero, the Captain's Table, the Money Tree and the Balboa Bay Club.

The group played in the film "Romance on the High Seas" with Jack Carson and Doris Day. The trio showed up in movies such as "A Song Is Born," "Big City" and "Lullaby of Broadway."

Cavanaugh's trio also appeared with Frank Sinatra on his "Songs By Sinatra" radio show and played for NBC Radio's "The Jack Paar Show."

Their hits included "The Three Bears" and "She Had to Go and Lose It At the Astor."

Cavanaugh never married and had no surviving relatives.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Friday, July 25, 2008

Crazy Soviet Georgian Jazz

This is something else... Performed in 1969 by "Orera", it features famous Georgian movie star Vakhtang Kikabidze on drums - real fun starts at 53 seconds count.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Jo Stafford Dies at 90

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- Jo Stafford, who sang backup for Frank Sinatra and performed with Tommy Dorsey, died July 16 at her Century City, California, home, the New York Times reported. She was 90.

The biggest hit for Stafford, a singer in the Pied Pipers and then a soloist, was ``You Belong to Me'' in 1952, which sold 2 million copies, the newspaper said. Her death, caused by congestive heart failure, was confirmed by her son, Tim Weston, the newspaper said.

A performer from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, Stafford started singing with her older sisters in a country- western group called the Stafford Sisters, then joined seven men as the Pied Pipers, the newspaper said. The octet was cut to a quartet and joined the Tommy Dorsey band, and became backup singers for Frank Sinatra, the newspaper said.

While recording with Capitol Records, Stafford toured with the U.S.O. in 1944 and 1945, earning her the ``G.I. Jo'' nickname from servicemen, the newspaper said. She is survived by her younger sister, a son and daughter, and four grandchildren, the Times said.








Thursday, July 17, 2008

Take Me Out to the Ballgame



The Story Behind "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"

In America, baseball is called the national pastime. Organized baseball was well into its glory years before other sports such as football, basketball, hockey and soccer were drawing much of an audience. Baseball has infected the American culture with its heroes, its jargon, and its cult of personality. It is only natural that one of America's most popular sing-along songs relates to the sport.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a simple tune that tells of a girl who wants her beau to take her to a baseball game instead of to another popular spot. The song turns 100 years old this year, and the United States Postal Service has commemorated the event with a beautiful new stamp.

The song is instantly recognizable to most of those in the U.S. In fact, the song is frequently credited as the third most popular sing-along song in America, after the national anthem and Happy Birthday.

United States, 2008
Incredibly, the author of the song, Jack Norworth, had never been to a baseball game when he wrote the song. He was riding on the subway in New York, when he saw a sign advertising "Ballgame Today - Polo Grounds". The Polo Grounds was the name of the stadium used most notably by the New York (later San Francisco) Giants baseball team.

During the 30-minute subway ride, Norworth, an accomplished songwriter, dashed off the words to the song. Soon thereafter, he took the lyrics to composer Albert Von Tilzer who created the popular tune, which later that year, became a #1 hit.

Around 1910, the song began to be played during baseball games, even though there was a certain irony to singing about being taken to a ballgame, while at a ballgame. Over time it became an anthem to the national sport.

Norworth supplemented his original song of 1908 with new lyrics in 1927. Few people know that there is a story to the song, and most only know the chorus. For those unfamiliar with the song, here are the lyrics to the chorus:

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowds;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.



When the 50th anniversary of the song rolled around in 1958, Major League Baseball presented Mr. Norworth with a lifetime pass to get into any ballpark. It's a shame they waited so long; Norworth died the following year. It is likely that he rarely used his pass, as it took 32 years after the song was written before he had seen his first Major League baseball game.

In 1976, Chicago White Sox announcer Harry Caray unwittingly altered the course of baseball history when he started singing the song during the 7th-inning stretch, an extended break in the action during the middle of the 7th inning of a ball game. Caray would often sing to himself or others in the broadcast booth while it was being played by the stadium's organist. Someone turned on his microphone, unknown to him, and his singing was broadcast to the fans in the stadium. The fans loved it and soon thereafter began to sing with him; singing along to the chorus became a Chicago tradition. Later, when Caray moved to the broadcasting duties of the crosstown Chicago Cubs, whose games were broadcast nationally by superstation WGN, the sing-along started becoming a national occurrence. Soon, fans from every stadium were singing along to the song during the 7th inning stretch.

Today, July 16, 2008, the United States Postal Service issues a 42-cent stamp commemorating this popular song. Drawn in the style of baseball trading cards popular during the song's early days, the stamp design captures a nostalgic essence of the song. It interweaves period typography and even shows the first 6 notes of the song on a music staff.

You can order this beautiful stamp, while supplies last, at http://shop.usps.com







The Story Behind 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game'
In America, baseball is called the national pastime. Organized baseball was well into its glory years before other sports such as football, basketball, hockey and soccer were drawing much of an audience. It is only natural that one of ...
Posted by Gerard at July 17, 2008 3:16 AM
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
The words to song you hear (or maybe sing) at every baseball game, Take Me Out to the Ball Game were written 100 years ago by Jack Norworth, who had never been to a ball game! In fact, it was 32 years after he wrote the lyrics that ...

About Me

Tony Servies
Greenback, Tennessee, United States
I am a Sr. Systems Analyst with over 20 years experience in analysis, design, and development of computer applications. I work for a large regional clothing company headquartered in Knoxville, TN. My family consists of a loving wife of 25 years, a 12-year-old daughter, a lovable beagle, and a calico cat. We live in a rural area of East Tennessee called Greenback. We are faithful members of Friendsville 1st Baptist Church, where I am honored to serve as a deacon. When not doing family stuff, work, or church, you might find me nosing around my stamp collection. Like most people I started collecting stamps as a child, but put it aside as I grew into my teens. I have since picked the hobby back up as an adult and find it a relaxing, yet challenging, way to unwind from the stresses of the day. It is the one hobby, of a myriad number of hobbies that I have started, in which I keep going. Stamp collecting truly helps me to de-focus on the stress of the day.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Sarah Brightman Who wants to live Forever

God Bless America By Kate Smith

Whistle a Happy Tune/ King and I

Deborah Kerr in the King and I. Musical

When you wish upon a star-disney moments

The Statler Brothers - Flowers on the Wall



"Flowers on the Wall" is a song made famous by country music group The Statler Brothers. Written by the group's original tenor, Lew DeWitt, the song peaked in popularity in January 1966, spending four weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart. The song gained exposure amongst a new generation after it was used by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction.

Lyrics ..

keep hearin' you're concerned about my happiness
But all that thought you're givin' me is conscience I guess
If I was walkin' in your shoes, I wouldn't worry none
While you 'n' your friends are worried about me I'm havin' lots of fun

Countin' flowers on the wall
That don't bother me at all
Playin' solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo
Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do

Last night I dressed in tails, pretended I was on the town
As long as I can dream it's hard to slow this swinger down
So please don't give a thought to me, I'm really doin' fine
You can always find me here, I'm havin' quite a time

Countin' flowers on the wall
That don't bother me at all
Playin' solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo
Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do

It's good to see you, I must go, I know I look a fright
Anyway my eyes are not accustomed to this light
And my shoes are not accustomed to this hard concrete
So I must go back to my room and make my day complete

Countin' flowers on the wall
That don't bother me at all
Playin' solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo
Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do

Don't tell me I've nothin' to do

The Pajama Game - Hernando's Hideaway

Carol Haney (Gladys Hotchkiss) and John Raitt (Sid Sorokin) on the Pajama Game (1957)

Beautiful beautiful Copenhagen

From the movie Hans Christian Andersen

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Monday, June 16, 2008

Tim Janis:"Beautiful America"

The Beatles A quiz

How well do you know Mozart? A quiz

Friday, June 13, 2008

Les Paul turns 93

Musical pioneer and namesake of Gibson’s most iconic guitar, Les Paul was born 93 years ago, on June 9, 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Any player who knows his guitar history is already aware that Gibson’s Les Paul guitar was pioneered, developed with the assistance of, and endorsed by Les Paul, a famous jazz-pop artist and musical and electronic genius.

Paul wanted a guitar that better served the needs of jazz guitarists, one that would offer more sustain and feedback resistance than the hollowbody archtops that were the norm at the time, and would also be more versatile sonically. In the early ‘50s, he and Gibson worked together to develop the cutting-edge guitar of his dreams. What resulted was the Les Paul, and with its unrivaled tonal capabilities it soon landed in the hands of top guitarists from every genre. Though Les Paul may be best known for developing the electric guitar as we know it, the sum of all of his contributions is immeasurable.
The great Les Paul still plays every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Rock and Roll: The Early Days

A 1984 documentary chronicling the history of Rock and Roll from its origins up to the early 1960's. Includes performances by Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, The Treniers, Big Joe Turner, and others.

Roy Orbison: Johnny Cash Show 1969, Crying

Monday, June 2, 2008

soldier boy -the shirelles-

Jerry Butler For your precious love

Rosie N the Originals - Angel Baby

RIP Bo Diddley



Pioneering rock guitarist and singer Bo Diddley died today of heart
failure, age 79.
Rock pioneer Bo Diddley dies at age 79

By RON WORD – 1 hour ago

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

Diddley appreciated the honors he received, "but it didn't put no figures in my checkbook."

"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," he quipped.

The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview.

"I don't know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single, "Bo Diddley," introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits." The B side, "I'm a Man," with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.

The company that issued his early songs was Chess-Checkers records, the storied Chicago-based labels that also recorded Chuck Berry and other stars.

Howard Kramer, assistant curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said in 2006 that Diddley's Chess recordings "stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th century."

Diddley's other major songs included, "Say Man," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Shave and a Haircut," "Uncle John," "Who Do You Love?" and "The Mule."

Diddley's influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp rhythm for his song "Not Fade Away."

The Rolling Stones' bluesy remake of that Holly song gave them their first chart single in the United States, in 1964. The following year, another British band, the Yardbirds, had a Top 20 hit in the U.S. with their version of "I'm a Man."

Diddley was also one of the pioneers of the electric guitar, adding reverb and tremelo effects. He even rigged some of his guitars himself.

"He treats it like it was a drum, very rhythmic," E. Michael Harrington, professor of music theory and composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., said in 2006.

Many other artists, including the Who, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello copied aspects of Diddley's style.

Growing up, Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn't entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations.

"I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it," he said. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

Despite his success, Diddley claimed he only received a small portion of the money he made during his career. Partly as a result, he continued to tour and record music until his stroke. Between tours, he made his home near Gainesville in north Florida.

"Seventy ain't nothing but a damn number," he told The Associated Press in 1999. "I'm writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain't quit yet."

Diddley, like other artists of his generations, was paid a flat fee for his recordings and said he received no royalty payments on record sales. He also said he was never paid for many of his performances.

"I am owed. I've never got paid," he said. "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun."

In the early 1950s, Diddley said, disc jockeys called his type of music, "Jungle Music." It was Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed who is credited with inventing the term "rock 'n' roll."

Diddley said Freed was talking about him, when he introduced him, saying, "Here is a man with an original sound, who is going to rock and roll you right out of your seat."

Diddley won attention from a new generation in 1989 when he took part in the "Bo Knows" ad campaign for Nike, built around football and baseball star Bo Jackson. Commenting on Jackson's guitar skills, Diddley turned to the camera and said, "He don't know Diddley."

"I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked," Diddley said. "I got into a lot of new front rooms on the tube."

Born as Ellas Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Miss., Diddley was later adopted by his mother's cousin and took on the name Ellis McDaniel, which his wife always called him.

When he was 5, his family moved to Chicago, where he learned the violin at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He learned guitar at 10 and entertained passers-by on street corners.

By his early teens, Diddley was playing Chicago's Maxwell Street.

"I came out of school and made something out of myself. I am known all over the globe, all over the world. There are guys who have done a lot of things that don't have the same impact that I had," he said.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Climax Blues Band - I Love You

Time For A Cool Change - Little River Band

Charles Tolliver

Madonna - Like A Prayer

White Flag – Dido

Chet Baker Old Devil Moon

Marillion - Kayleigh

The Rolling Stones - Paint it black

Wayne Jackson - The Storm



Biography

Bill Shankly the legendary football trainer of Liverpool FC in the 60s and early 70s once famously said…..”Football's not a matter of life and death ... it's more important than that.” He was mistaken of course. If he’d substituted music for football he’d have been much more accurate.

Aged 15, in an average rainy Manchester suburb, Wayne Jackson informed his sports teacher he would no longer be participating in the school football team and in future would be spending his time in other more productive ways. Typically, this would be attempting to play an electric guitar at deafening volumes through an old WEM amplifier belonging to his oldest brother.

Sadly it all sounded rather uninspiring until one day the very same brother returned home from work with a tape delay echo effect machine. Immediately after plugging it in and wiring it up, Wayne was able to replicate the more ambitious sounds of his favourite bands U2, The Chameleons and Joy Division. From this point on, it was obvious where his passions lay. Manchester City Football Club would have to look elsewhere. Over the course of the following years, the echo machine remained on. It became part of the fabric of his guitar sound.

Switch scenes to the Hansa studios in Berlin, 20 years later, and Wayne can still be found playing his electric guitar at deafening volumes through an old Vox amplifier this time, but the old tape delay is still there. Not the original one of course. This was lost along the way, swapped in a misguided attempt at progress in the early 80s for a plastic digital effect from Japan. Everybody makes mistakes. But this time he’s laying down guitar tracks for his first solo album with the renown Swedish producer and mixer Michael Ilbert (The Cardigans, The Hives, Supergrass, The Hellacopters).

The intervening years were not uninteresting. Wayne’s brother again reappeared as a catalyst when he left his day job and became a live sound engineer. Over the next 15 years he would work for a whole host of seminal groups; New Order, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Electronic, The The, Primal Scream, Oasis and The Chemical Brothers. Wayne was often invited along to shows as a teenager and was able to see things from the shadows of backstage.

Wayne left Manchester to study at the University of Wales aged 18 and never stopped moving. He graduated with a degree in English Literature and formed a band called the Dostoyevskys. They signed to Go!Discs in London and began touring extensively in the UK and Germany. They crossed paths with fellow Mancunians Oasis and supported them at the height of their fame on two legs of their European tour.

Eventually Wayne decided the band no longer fitted his needs and he split the group to focus on his more personal solo material.

He fell in love with a girl from Berlin, packed his possessions and crossed the channel heading for the old German capitol.

His new Berlin life offered fewer distractions. It was a kind of spiritual exile. He wrote songs prolifically, day after day sitting in the small Berlin apartment he shared with his girlfriend. He started to train kickboxing and several years later entered into the German championships achieving a semi-final spot.

Along the way he co-produced, co-wrote songs and played his echo guitar on the solo album of German punk legend and friend Bela B. He also joined Bela on tour as part of the Los Helmstedt band. The Echo Award nominated album peaked at number 2 in the German charts and achieved wide critical acclaim. They headlined at Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park and the MTV Campus Invasion.

He also played a similar role for another member of the flourishing Bela B. family, Lula. Her delicious album entitled “Lost In Reverie” will be released this year too.

Switch scenes again. It’s December 2004 and it’s the birthday party of world famous Trance DJ Paul Van Dyk. Wayne’s manager hands Paul a demo featuring a few of Wayne’s songs. Paul was so inspired by the voice, he immediately wrote a track for Wayne to sing. The layout was sent and over Christmas Wayne furiously added lyrics, a vocal melody and guitar harmonies and the track Glorious was born. Paul then asked him to do a similar job on a second track called The Other Side which. This appeared on Paul’s Politics Of Dancing 2 album and was released as a single world wide. Wayne also sang live with Paul at a number of live shows culminating in a performance in Central Park, New York in front of a sell out crowd of over 10,000 people. Glorious will now finally see the light of day as Wayne’s first single.

Record deal offers came and went with the seasons, but none of the situations seemed right. Pavarotti once said “Compare music to drinks. Some is like a strong brandy. Some is like a fine wine. The music you're playing sounds like Diet Coke.” Sadly the labels chasing Wayne seemed to be more interested in no name cola.

For a brief period it looked like Wayne might relocate to the US, after whisperings of typically fabulous record deals, but unsurprisingly he returned to his second home Berlin and signed to the fledging label BPX 1992 headed by the iconic figure of Fitz Braum. It was no coincidence it was also the home of Bela B. and Lula. For the first time since leaving Manchester it felt like he had found a new family.

Wayne’s new album has fittingly enough been recorded in Berlin. It features a guest appearance on violin from Goldfrapp’s Davide Rossi who has also recently added his flavours to the new Coldplay album. Apart from the drums which were played by Swedish maestro Christer Jansson, the rest of the instruments were played entirely by Wayne himself. Producer Michael Ilbert also managed to organize the first live recording in the Meistersaal in Hansa studios, the room where Bowie’s Heroes, U2’s Achtung Baby, and many other important songs were recorded. It was the first session there for 17 years. The studio was closed and stripped soon after U2 left in 1990.

The songs unashamedly hark back to the kind of sounds Wayne was listening to all those years ago in Manchester. It’s time. The circle is complete.

beach boys - good vibrations

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

James Ingram & Michael mcdonald - Yah Mo B There


Heavenly father watching us all
We take from each other and give nothing at all
Well it's a dog-gone shame
But never too late for change
So if your luck runs low
Just reach out and call his name, his name

[Chorus:]
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Whenever you call

Never be lonely lost in the night
Just run from the darkness
Looking for the light
'cause it's a long hard road
That leads to a brighter day (hey)
Don't let your heart grow cold
Just reach out and call his name, his name

[Chorus]

You can count on it brother
'cause we're all just finding our way
Travelling through time
People got to keep pushing on
No matter how many dreams slip away
Yah will be there

Well it's a dog-gone shame
But never too late for change
So when your luck runs low
Just reach out and call his name, his name

Kenny G - Song Bird

Benny Goodman Quartet - Moonglow

Boogaloo Down Broadway-Fantastic Johnny C-1967

Otis Redding - That's how strong my love is

Swan Lake



100 acrobats and dancers of the "Great Chinese State Circus" can be exciting show in a circus as art.

Herbie Hancock - Spank A Lee

Pure Prairie League: Let Me Love You

Pure Prairie League - Amie

BLUE MORNING, BLUE DAY - FOREIGNER

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Alanis Morissette " You Learn "

Foreigner - Cold As Ice

Huey Lewis & The News - If This Is It

Huey Lewis & The News - If This Is It

breathe - hands to heaven



As I watch you move, across the moonlit room
There's so much tenderness in your loving
Tomorrow I must leave, the dawn knows no reprieve
God give me strength when I am leaving

Chorus:
So raise your hands to heaven and pray
That we'll be back together someday
Tonight, I need your sweet caress
Hold me in the darkness
Tonight, you calm my restlessness
You relieve my sadness

As we move to embrace, tears run down your face
I whisper words of love, so softly
I can't believe this pain, it's driving me insane
Without your touch, life will be lonely

Repeat Chorus

Morning has come,
I must pack my bags and say goodbye,
Goodbye

billy idol - white wedding

Saturday, May 17, 2008

The Swingle Singers - The Flight of the Bumble Bee

Tchaikovsky-Swingle Singers: 1812 Overture:

he Paladins - Keep on lovin me baby

Junior Wells - Trouble no more- Lonesome Pine 1987

Katie Webster - Pussycat Moan

Big Walter 'Shakey' Horton - Shakey's Blues (1965)

Roy Buchanan - Sweet Dreams

Charlie Musselwhite "Gone Too Long"

Gatemouth Brown - Pressure Cooker

Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around and Fell in Love

Little Charlie & The Nightcats - Hurry Up and Wait

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Superstition

Lucky Peterson - Truly A Friend

Double-eyed Whammy - Tinsley Ellis

Big Chief - Professor Longhair

Albert Collins: Black Cat Bone

Hound Dog Taylor "Wild About You Baby"

Switchfoot "Awakening"

Augustana - Sunday Best


When she's sleeping on the sofa,
When she's laying in her Sunday best,
when she's turning over Friday,
I could swear I'm sleeping less and less...
and the ocean's getting warmer,
and California's on her mind,
Los Angeles is tired, but we always seem to feel alright,

but I won't...
no I won't...

Cause she's already out the door,
she's already out of here
she's already gone away...already gone away...

When I'm coming over Sunday
and I think about you all the time,
I wonder what you're doin
I wonder why you never cry,
When Boston's always raining,
And we never ever seemed alive,
I sung about you once now, I guess I might as well

But I won't...(don't look back [x2])
No I won't... (don't look back [x2])
No I won't... (don't look back [x2])

Cause I'm already out the door,
I'm already out of here
I've already gone away...already gone away...

Well I'm already out the door,
I'm already out of here
I've already gone away...already gone away...

Don't look back, don't look back [x3]

Sunday, May 11, 2008

OLIVER - JEAN

Oliver - Good Morning Starshine



Good morning starshine
The earth says "Hello"
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glup gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy la la la lo lo
Sabba Sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla nooby abba nabba
Early morning singing song

Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glup gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy la la la lo lo
Sabba Sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla nooby abba nabba
Early morning singing song
Singing a song, humming a song
Singing a song, loving a song
Laughing a song
Sing the song, sing the song
Song the sing
Song, song, song, sing
Sing, sing, sing, song