Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Earl Grant - The End
Earl Grant (January 20, 1931 - June 11, 1970) was an American easy listening pianist, Hammond organist, and vocalist popular in the 1950s and 60's
Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Grant was gifted with keyboard skills and a fine singing voice. Other instruments he was skilled at playing were trumpet, drums and Hammond organ. Grant attended four music schools, then became a music teacher, augmenting his income by performing in clubs during his army service, stationed in Texas. Before long, Grant signed with Decca Records in 1958 and his first single "The End" reached number 7 on the music charts. Ebb Tide, released in 1961, was his first album, which also rose to number 7 on the charts. He recorded five more singles that made the charts, including "Swingin' Gently" (from Ebb Tide), and six additional albums (mostly on the Decca Records label) through 1968. He also recorded the album Yes Sirree and the instrumental album Trade Winds, single-tracked on the Hammond organ and piano, featuring the love theme from the film El Cid and Chaplin's "Eternally". This album features some very realistic sounding "tropical bird calls" done on the organ. "The House of Bamboo" was a famous single cut.
Grant also made a few appearances in film and television, including Tender Is the Night (1962), Juke Box Rhythm (1959), and The Ed Sullivan Show (1961).
He died instantly in a car accident in Lordsburg, New Mexico, at the age of 39.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Barb Jungr - If Not For You
Barb Jungr (born 9 May 1954 in Rochdal) is an English singer-songwriter, composer and writer, of Czech and German parentage. She is perhaps best known as a chansonnier, or singer of chansons—in the sense of classic, lyric-driven French songs; in the broader sense of European songs in the cabaret style; and in the even broader sense of a diverse range of songs interpreted in this style.
A song-stylist incorporating jazz and blues, her approach often includes radical re-readings of known writers as well as original material. Jungr was awarded a Nightlife Award in 2008 for "Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist" and appears regularly in New York.
A song-stylist incorporating jazz and blues, her approach often includes radical re-readings of known writers as well as original material. Jungr was awarded a Nightlife Award in 2008 for "Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist" and appears regularly in New York.
Ben Allison & Man Size Safe - Four Folk Songs
en Allison (c. 1966) is an American jazz double bassist and composer born in New Haven, Connecticut.
His groups include Peace Pipe, the Ben Allison Quartet, Medicine Wheel, the Kush Trio, Man Size Safe, and the Herbie Nichols Project (which he co-leads with pianist Frank Kimbrough). At the age of 25 he formed the Jazz Composers Collective, a New York City nonprofit organization, serving as that organization's Artistic Director and as a Composer-in-Residence.
His recording Peace Pipe features the unusual addition of a kora player, Mamadou Diabaté.
Benny goodman Orchestra-Stardust
Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz musician and virtuoso clarinetist, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman".
Goodman was amongst the most technically proficient jazz clarinetists of all time. In fact, without Goodman there would not have been a swing era.
Goodman is also responsible for a significant step in racial integration in America. In the early 1930s, black and white jazz musicians could not play together in most clubs or concerts. In the Southern states, racial segregation was enforced by the Jim Crow laws. Benny Goodman broke with tradition by hiring Teddy Wilson to play with him and drummer Gene Krupa in the Benny Goodman Trio.
In 1936, he added Lionel Hampton on vibes to form the Benny Goodman Quartet; in 1939 he added pioneering jazz guitarist Charlie Christian to his band and small ensembles, who played with him until his untimely death.
How High The Moon - Betty Carter 1994
Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones, May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer who was renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style. Carmen McRae once claimed that "there's really only one jazz singer - only one: Betty Carter."
She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory. She won a talent contest and became a regular on the local club circuit, singing and playing piano. When she was 16, she sang with Charlie Parker, and she later performed with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.
Carter's career was eclipsed somewhat during the 1960s and 1970s, though a series of duets with Ray Charles in 1961, including the R&B-chart-topping "Baby, It's Cold Outside," brought her a measure of popular recognition.
In the last decade of her life, Carter finally began to receive wider acclaim and recognition. In 1988 she won a Grammy for her album Look What I Got! and was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton. Carter remained active in jazz until her death.
beverly kenney/for all we know (1958)
Beverly Kenney (January 29, 1932, Harrison, New Jersey - April 13, 1960, New York City) was an American jazz singer.
After moving to New York City, she recorded a demo in 1954 with Tony Tamburello. By the end of the year she had moved to Miami, where she landed a recurring engagement at the Black Magic Room. Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey heard her and took her on tour in the orchestra they co-led; she worked with them for several months before breaking off to move back to New York.
Upon her return, she worked in clubs with George Shearing, Don Elliott, and Kai Winding; After a short tour of the Midwest with Larry Sonn, she signed to Roost Records and released her first album in 1956. Her second release, Come Swing with Me, saw her working with Ralph Burns, and Jimmy Jones led an ensemble behind her for her third and final release for Roost in 1957. Moving to Decca Records, she released three further LPs between 1958 and 1960.
Kenney was a critically acclaimed musician, but she saw little widespread acceptance. On April 13, 1960, Kenney committed suicide. She was 28. Kenney has been more or less forgotten in the United States, but remains a cult figure in Japan.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Bernait de ventadorn Can vei la lauzeta mover
Bernart de Ventadorn (1130-1140 – 1190-1200), also known as Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn, was a prominent troubador of the classical age of troubadour poetry. He is remembered for his mastery as well as popularisation of the trobar leu style, and for his prolific cansos, which helped define the genre and establish the "classical" form of courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity.
According to the troubadour Uc de Saint Circ, Bernart was possibly the son of a baker at the castle of Ventadour (Ventadorn), in today's Corrèze. Yet another source, a satirical poem written by a younger contemporary, Peire d'Alvernha, indicates that he was the son of either a servant, a soldier, or a baker, and his mother was also either a servant or a baker. From evidence given in Bernart's early poem, Lo temps vai e ven e vire, he most likely learned the art of singing and writing from his protector, viscount Eble III of Ventadorn. He composed his first poems to his patron's wife, Marguerite de Turenne.
Forced to leave Ventadour after falling in love with Marguerite, he traveled to Montluçon and Toulouse, and eventually followed Eleanor of Aquitaine to England and the Plantagenet court; evidence for this association and these travels comes mainly from his poems themselves. Later Bernart returned to Toulouse, where he was employed by Raimon V, Count of Toulouse; later still he went to Dordogne, where he entered a monastery. Most likely he died there.
Bernart is unique among secular composers of the twelfth century in the amount of music which has survived: of his forty-five poems, eighteen have music intact, an unusual circumstance for a troubador composer (music of the trouvères has a higher survival rate, usually attributed to them surviving the Albigensian Crusade, which scattered the troubadours and destroyed many sources). His work probably dates between 1147 and 1180. Bernart is often credited with being the most important influence on the development of the trouvère tradition in northern France, since he was well known there, his melodies were widely circulated, and the early composers of trouvère music seem to have imitated him. Bernart's influence also extended to Latin literature. In 1215 the Bolognese professor Boncompagno wrote in his Antiqua rhetorica that "How much fame attaches to the name of Bernard de Ventadorn, and how gloriously he made cansos and sweetly invented melodies, the world of Provence very much recognises."[1]
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Little Darling by the Original Diamonds
Do you believe they recorded this song in 1957 ? Same original guys. AMAZING sound.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Stars and Stripes Forever - John Philip Sousa
"Stars and Stripes Forever" is a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa. By act of Congress, it is the National March of the United States of America.
In his autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa writes that he composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. He had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, then manager of the Sousa Band. Sousa was on a ferry in Europe at the time, and he composed the march in his head. He committed the notes to paper on arrival in America. Although he would conduct performances of it at virtually every concert until his death, only one recording, made in 1909, is known to survive today.
Stars and Stripes Forever follows the standard American march form. Its trio is the most famous part of the march. Most bands adopt the Sousa Band practice of having one or three (never two)piccolo players play the famous obbligato in the first repeat of the trio.[citation needed] In the second repeat (marked "Grandioso"), the low brass joins the piccolo players with a prominent countermelody. The official version, as played by the United States Marine Band, is performed in the key of E flat.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Natalie Merchant - "Wonder" Live 1995
Doctors have come from distant cities
Just to see me
Stand over my bed
Disbelieving what they're seeing
They say I must be one of the wonders
Of god's own creation
And as far as they can see they can offer
No explanation
Newspapers ask intimate questions
Want confessions
They reach into my head
To steal the glory of my story
They say I must be one of the wonders
Of god's own creation
And as far as they can see they can offer
No explanation
O, I believe
Fate smiled and destiny
Laughed as she came to my cradle
Know this child will be able
Laughed as my body she lifted
Know this child will be gifted
With love, with patience and with faith
She'll make her way
People see me
I'm a challenge to your balance
I'm over your heads
How I confound you and astound you
To know I must be one of the wonders
Of god's own creation
And as far as you can see you can offer me
No explanation
O, I believe
Fate smiled and destiny
Laughed as she came to my cradle
Know this child will be able
Laughed as she came to my mother
Know this child will not suffer
Laughed as my body she lifted
Know this child will be gifted
With love, with patience and with faith
She'll make her way
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Enya - China Roses
Who can tell me if we have heaven,
who can say the way it should be;
Moonlight holly, the Sappho Comet,
Angel’s tears below a tree.
You talk of the break of morning
as you view the new aurora,
Cloud in crimson, the key of heaven,
one love carved in acajou.
One told me of China Roses,
One a Thousand nights and one night,
Earth’s last picture, the end of evening:
hue of indigo and blue.
A new moon leads me to
woods of dreams and I follow.
A new world waits for me;
my dream, my way.
I know that if I have heaven
there is nothing to desire.
Rain and river, a world of wonder
may be paradise to me.
I see the sun.
I see the stars.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Loreena McKennitt- The Highwayman
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
And the highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding,
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle; his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark innyard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by the moonlight,
Watch for me by the moonlight,
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way.
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.
He did not come at the dawning; he did not come at noon,
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching,
Marching, marching
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through the casement,
The road that he would ride.
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say
"Look for me by the moonlight
Watch for me by the moonlight
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way!"
She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years!
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it!
The trigger at least was hers!
Tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs were ringing clear
Tlot-tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming!
She stood up straight and still!
Tlot in the frosty silence! Tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment! She drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death.
He turned; he spurred to the west; he did not know she stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it; his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were the spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding,
Riding, riding,
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
RIP Blossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie (April 28, 1926 – February 7, 2009 ) was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and known for her "distinctive, girlish voice".
Dearie was born Marguerite Blossom Dearie in East Durham, New York.[4] As a child, she studied Western classical piano but switched to jazz in her teens. After high school, Dearie moved to New York City to pursue a music career. There, she began singing in groups such as the Blue Flames (with the Woody Herman Orchestra) and the Blue Reys (with Alvino Rey's band) before launching a solo career.
In 1952, she moved to Paris and formed a vocal group, the Blue Stars. In 1954, the group had a hit in France with a French-language version of "Lullaby of Birdland". The Blue Stars would later evolve into the Swingle Singers. While in Paris, she met her future husband, the Belgian flautist and saxophonist Bobby Jaspar. On her first solo album, released two years later, she plays the piano but does not sing.
One of her most famous songs from that period is "The Riviera", which was written and composed by Cy Coleman and Joseph McCarthy Jr. in 1956.
[edit] Late 1950s and 1960s
After returning from France, Dearie made her first six American albums as a solo singer and pianist for Verve Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly in a small trio or quartet setting. Dave Garroway, host of The Today show and an early fan of Dearie, featured her several times, increasing her exposure with the popular audience. In 1962, she recorded a song for a radio commercial of Hires Root Beer. As it proved very popular, the LP Blossom Dearie Sings Rootin' Songs was released as a premium item that could be ordered for one dollar and a proof of purchase.
In 1964, she recorded her best-known album, which was released on Capitol/EMI Records, titled May I Come In? It was recorded, atypically for her, with an orchestra. During this same period, Dearie performed frequently in New York supper clubs and honed her own distinctive style. In 1966, she made her first appearance at Ronnie Scott's club in London and quickly became a popular act. She went on to record four albums in Britain in the 1960s released on the Fontana label.
[edit] 1970s and later
In 1974, Dearie established her own label, Daffodil Records, which allowed her to have full control of the recording and distribution of her albums. Dearie has also appeared on television throughout her career, most notably giving her voice to the children's educational series Schoolhouse Rock!. Some of her pieces in this series were written by her good friend Bob Dorough, the jazz singer and composer. Her voice can be heard on "Mother Necessity", "Figure Eight" and "Unpack Your Adjectives".
Her distinctive voice and songs have been featured on the soundtracks of several films, including Kissing Jessica Stein, My Life Without Me, The Squid and the Whale and The Adventures of Felix. She has also recorded with various musicians, including Bob Dorough and Lyle Lovett.
Dearie continued to perform in clubs until 2007. One of the last remaining supper-club performers, she performed regular engagements in London and New York City over many years.
Dearie died on February 7, 2009, at her apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City.
Dearie was born Marguerite Blossom Dearie in East Durham, New York.[4] As a child, she studied Western classical piano but switched to jazz in her teens. After high school, Dearie moved to New York City to pursue a music career. There, she began singing in groups such as the Blue Flames (with the Woody Herman Orchestra) and the Blue Reys (with Alvino Rey's band) before launching a solo career.
In 1952, she moved to Paris and formed a vocal group, the Blue Stars. In 1954, the group had a hit in France with a French-language version of "Lullaby of Birdland". The Blue Stars would later evolve into the Swingle Singers. While in Paris, she met her future husband, the Belgian flautist and saxophonist Bobby Jaspar. On her first solo album, released two years later, she plays the piano but does not sing.
One of her most famous songs from that period is "The Riviera", which was written and composed by Cy Coleman and Joseph McCarthy Jr. in 1956.
[edit] Late 1950s and 1960s
After returning from France, Dearie made her first six American albums as a solo singer and pianist for Verve Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly in a small trio or quartet setting. Dave Garroway, host of The Today show and an early fan of Dearie, featured her several times, increasing her exposure with the popular audience. In 1962, she recorded a song for a radio commercial of Hires Root Beer. As it proved very popular, the LP Blossom Dearie Sings Rootin' Songs was released as a premium item that could be ordered for one dollar and a proof of purchase.
In 1964, she recorded her best-known album, which was released on Capitol/EMI Records, titled May I Come In? It was recorded, atypically for her, with an orchestra. During this same period, Dearie performed frequently in New York supper clubs and honed her own distinctive style. In 1966, she made her first appearance at Ronnie Scott's club in London and quickly became a popular act. She went on to record four albums in Britain in the 1960s released on the Fontana label.
[edit] 1970s and later
In 1974, Dearie established her own label, Daffodil Records, which allowed her to have full control of the recording and distribution of her albums. Dearie has also appeared on television throughout her career, most notably giving her voice to the children's educational series Schoolhouse Rock!. Some of her pieces in this series were written by her good friend Bob Dorough, the jazz singer and composer. Her voice can be heard on "Mother Necessity", "Figure Eight" and "Unpack Your Adjectives".
Her distinctive voice and songs have been featured on the soundtracks of several films, including Kissing Jessica Stein, My Life Without Me, The Squid and the Whale and The Adventures of Felix. She has also recorded with various musicians, including Bob Dorough and Lyle Lovett.
Dearie continued to perform in clubs until 2007. One of the last remaining supper-club performers, she performed regular engagements in London and New York City over many years.
Dearie died on February 7, 2009, at her apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Solid Potato Salad - The Ross Sisters (1944)
Never underestimate a woman who can get both legs behind her head and wrap her feet around her face. (HINT: Watch past the first 45 seconds or so. Whoah!)
Solid Potato Salad? No, it's not what you get when you leave the deli container out of the fridge too long. It's a 1940s term for...something (I have no idea what. ) In this classic footage from the movie "Broadway Rhythm" (1944), the Ross sisters, Aggie, Maggie and Elmira, sing and move in ways that don't look humanly possible. Yoga anyone? Movie buffs will recognize the tune as one of the background instrumentals from "The Godfather."
It starts out looking like another kitschy 40's tune, but give it a minute. Things get wild! Now if I can just figure out what apples have to do with potato salad..
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