DALLAS (AP) -- Johnnie Taylor, whose 1976 ``Disco Lady'' was a hit on the dance floor and in the pop charts, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 62.
Authorities said Taylor was stricken at his home in suburban Duncanville and died Wednesday at Charleton Methodist Medical Center.
The Crawfordsville, Ark., native was nicknamed the ``Philosopher of Soul'' by Memphis' Stax Records.
``I do love music because it's always loved me,'' Taylor told The Dallas Morning News in 1999. ``It gives me a certain kind of feeling.
``The material I choose isn't black music or white music,'' he said. ``It's just music -- real, honest music.''
Taylor was a protege of Sam Cooke and took over the Soul Stirrers after Cooke left gospel for rhythm and blues in the 1950s.
In the mid-1960s, he decided to settle in Dallas after playing a show in the city. He lived there more than 30 years.
In 1968, Taylor scored his first number one on the R&B charts with ``Who's Making Love,'' his first million-seller, followed by a steady run of other hits. When Stax went bankrupt in 1975, Taylor signed to Columbia Records and had his biggest commercial success with ``Disco Lady.''
-------
June 1, 2000
Bandleader Tito Puente Dies
Filed at 3:08 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- Tito Puente, the exuberant percussionist and bandleader who rose to stardom during the mambo craze of the 1950s and paved the way for Latin musicians from Carlos Santana to Marc Anthony, has died. He was 77.
Puente, who had undergone treatment recently for a heart ailment, died at a hospital Wednesday.
Decades before the current ``Latin explosion'' of Anthony, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, Puente -- a contemporary of the Desi Arnaz -- was driving audiences to the dance floor with his wide-eyed, energetic style and influential sound. He created his own jazz by blending Latin rhythm with the Big Band stylings of Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie.
In a six-decade career that began at age 13, the New York City native recorded more than 100 albums and won five Grammys. His most recent Grammy, best tropical Latin performance for ``Mambo Birdland,'' came in February.
``The excitement of the rhythms and the beat make people happy,'' he said in an Associated Press interview in 1997. ``We try to get our feelings to the people, so they enjoy it.''
Puente crossed over before anyone coined the expression, collaborating with jazz artists such as Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel Hampton. He wrote the song ``Oye Como Va'' years before it became an enormous rock hit for Santana.
He performed with various symphonies, and brought his band to the White House for Presidents Carter, Reagan and Bush.
Puente transcended music and entered pop culture. Bill Murray's character in ``Stripes'' hailed Puente's genius, as did TV's Lisa Simpson. Puente performed the theme song for ``The Cosby Show,'' and played himself in the 1992 movie ``Mambo Kings.''
In 1997, he received a National Medal of Arts from President Clinton.
``Tito was for me more than family,'' said Cuban-born singer Celia Cruz, a longtime friend and collaborator. ``Our world is in mourning because one of the souls of Latin music has died.''
Gloria Estefan, in a statement with husband Emilio, praised Puente as ``a pioneer in the music industry ... an inspiration for artists and music lovers alike.
``Tito said to us recently that his music was not only the story of who he was, but also the pride and the passion of a people rejoicing in who they are,'' the Estefans said. ``There are no better words with which to say goodbye.''
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. was born April 20, 1923, in Harlem, the oldest child of Puerto Rican parents -- a factory foreman and his wife. His mother called her son Ernestito -- Little Ernest -- then shortened the name to Tito.
Initially, Puente was a Fred Astaire-style dancer; a serious ankle injury in a bicycle accident focused his attention on music.
Puente quickly took to percussion, beating rhythms on boxes or the windowsill and playing his first semi-pro gig at 13 in a local club.
The high school dropout was soon playing the timbales -- a pair of single-headed drums mounted on stands and played with sticks -- with the Machito Orchestra, a group that had merged the Big Band sound with a Latin beat.
Puente persuaded the bandleader to move the timbales from the back of the band to the front, and from his new spot, Puente became the center of attention -- animated and constantly moving.
After a three-year stint in the Navy during World War II, Puente took courses at the Juilliard School of Music. He then worked with other bands until finally debuting his own, with the Tito Puente Orchestra, in 1948.
When the '50s mambo craze swept the states, Puente's fame soared and he became a regular headliner at the New York Palladium. He moved to Hollywood in the '60s, working with the biggest stars of jazz and Latin music, such as Cruz, Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaria, Cal Tjader, Woody Herman, George Shearing and Hampton.
Over the decades, the hard-working Puente became an international star, taking his band around the world. In 1992, his 100th album -- ``The Mambo King 100th LP'' -- was nominated for a Grammy.
Puente is survived by his wife, Margie, two sons and a daughter.
-------------
http://elvispelvis.com/texbeneke.htm
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Exotica List members: Thank you for the quick notice about Mr Puente.
Tomorrow on "Martinis with Mancini" my WJUL associate, Miguel Lopez, veteran DJ and host of one of our fine Spanish programs "Cafe Latino" will be dropping by between 7:30 and 8:00 EST. He will play some of Mr. Puente's records and Miguel, who has known Mr Puente for many years, will tell us a few stories.
For Internet listeners who may have trouble finding the RealAudio link:
At the WJUL webpage go to "Click here for info".
At the next page click "Try this instead"
and finally at the last page click the Sound VU meter....
( Why it is this complicated I have no idea......)
Hope you can listen in.
Domenic Ciccone
"Martinis with Mancini" WJUL 91.5FM FridayÆs 6-9AM EST
http://www.geocities.com/martinimancini/
http://wjul.cs.uml.edu/ (On Real Audio)
P.S.
You Get A Free Mini Dish Satellite System @ http://www.freeminidish.com/buzzlink
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Miguel told me it was always Puente's wish to play with the Puerto Rico Philarmonic. He's played with a symphony orchestra in LA but since his parents were born in Puerto Rico it was always his dream to go to Puerto Rico and play with their orchestra. He fell ill 1/2 way through the concert and had to be taken to the hospital.
Domenic
P.S.
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> Its Latin..that's why the Italians like it so much..Its in the
> soul of the
> Latin music and has just the right mellow groove, even when taken
> beyond the
> valley of the ultra beats..IMHO--JB
Well put Jimmy. Althought I don't exactly know what you mean by ultra beats..As a fellow Italiano I just have to chime in. Just the right beat. Like those Latin records done by Hollywood arrangers and musicians. Or Latino musicians "toning" down the music for American ears...
Domenic
Domenic Ciccone
"Martinis with Mancini" WJUL 91.5FM FridayÆs 6-9AM EST
http://www.geocities.com/martinimancini/
http://wjul.cs.uml.edu/ (On Real Audio)
P.S.
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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Joao Nogueira, a singer and composer whose lilting sambas were recorded by top Brazilian pop music singers, died Monday of a heart attack. He was 58.
Nogueira was a mainstay of Rio's bohemian samba and carnival scene for nearly four decades and was preparing to launch his 19th recording, his widow, Angela Maria Nogueira, said in a televised interview.
A founder of the carnival group Samba Club, Nogueira wrote songs that were performed by stars such as Elis Regina, Beth Carvalho and Elizeth Cardoso. Among his better known works were ``The Power of Creation,'' ``Supplication'' and ``Knot in the Wood.''
http://allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B206023
=======
Jazz Guitarist Joe Puma Dies At 72
June 1, 2000, 1:45 pm PT
Joe Puma
Joe Puma, a jazz guitarist who came out of the big bands of the 1950s to become a stylish solo artist, died in New York Wednesday (May 31) after a struggle with cancer. He was 72.
Puma's first solo recording was the 1954 Bethlehem Records album, Joe Puma Quintet, that featured fellow guitarist Barry Galbraith and vibraphonist Don Elliot. (Galbraith and Elliot would again accompany Puma on his 1961 Columbia album Like Tweet, the title track of which was used in the 1987 film Good Morning Vietnam.) His most recent album was It's a Blue World, which was released in 1999. Puma performed on about 50 albums by a wide variety of artists.
Puma played in combos ranging from those of traditionally-minded artists like Artie Shaw and Les Elgart, to progressives leaders like Jim Hall and Gary Burton, but he will also be well remembered for his work accompanying jazz singers. Puma skillfully backed such vocalists as Peggy Lee, Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Chris Connor, Mark Murphy, Morgana King, Helen Merrill, Carol Sloane, and others.
Joseph J. Puma was born in the Bronx, N.Y. on Aug. 13, 1927, into a musical family. His father was a luthier as well as guitarist, and his brothers and sisters played musical instruments. Inspired by Django Reinhardt, Puma taught himself to play guitar. He worked in the 1940s as an army aircraft mechanic and draftsman, but, by the end of the decade, he had chosen music as a career.
In the 1950s, Puma played with such bands as Sammy Kaye, Louis Bellson, and Shaw's Gramercy Five (in which Puma replaced Tal Farlow). Puma also worked with some of the foremost bop and post-bop artists of the day, including Lee Konitz, Herbie Mann, Dick Hyman and Joe Roland. In the early 1970s, Puma played in an acclaimed duo with guitarist Chuck Wayne, and continued through the following decades to play with such artists as Warren Vache, Al Cohn, and Jimmy Rainey. Puma also taught briefly at Housatonic College in Bridgeport, Conn.
-- Drew Wheeler
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Sybil Trent, 73, a Famous Voice From the Golden Age of Radio
Sybil Trent, a veteran of the golden age of radio and a star of the Saturday-morning children's radio show "Let's Pretend," died on Monday at her home in Manhattan. She was 73.
The cause was lymphoma, said her son Drew Nieporent, the restaurateur.
Ms. Trent's voice was first heard on "Let's Pretend" in 1935, not long after she made her Broadway debut alongside Jimmy Durante, Gloria Grafton and Donald Novis, and atop an elephant, in Billy Rose's "Jumbo," with songs by Rodgers and Hart, at the Hippodrome Theater.
Over two decades, until the final broadcast of "Let's Pretend" in 1954, she entertained young listeners with renditions of princesses and fairy godmothers and found fame in her startlingly realistic "baby cry."
A precocious child, Ms. Trent began her career at the age of 3 1/2, when she performed in a short film with Fatty Arbuckle. Soon, she was singing and dancing her way through more than 25 shorts with stars like Ruth Etting and Jack Haley as a member of the Warner Brothers stock company.
Feature films at RKO followed, including "The People's Enemy" (1935) with Melvyn Douglas and Lila Lee, and "Keep 'Em Rolling" (1934) with Walter Huston.
By the age of 6, Ms. Trent was the host of her own radio show on WHN, "Baby Sybil Elaine and Her Kiddie Revue," on which she would conjure imitations of Joe Penner and the Block and Sully comedy team before closing with a sweetly sung "Thank You for a Lovely Evening."
One of the 150 charter members of the American Federation of Radio Artists, Ms. Trent also took the lead on "We Love and Learn," "Stella Dallas," "Aunt Jenny" and "David Harum," and performed on shows like "The Martha Raye Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show"and Joe Franklin's "Memory Lane."
From 1973 to 1994, she was the casting director at the Young & Rubicam advertising agency in Manhattan.
Ms. Trent continued to do vocal work on commercials and in her spare time took reservations at her son's Manhattan restaurants.
"The woman on the phone has the most delicious voice: low, slightly husky, completely inviting," Ruth Reichl wrote in 1994 in The New York Times of Ms. Trent's mellifluous tones. "Just calling for a reservation makes you eager to eat at Montrachet."
In addition to her son Drew, she is survived by another son, Tracy, and four grandchildren, all of New Jersey.
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HONOLULU (AP) -- Ellery J. Chun, credited as the creator of the original Hawaiian aloha shirt that spawned an industry of colorful copycats, has died at age 91.
Chun died May 16 in Honolulu, his widow, Mildred, said Tuesday.
The Yale University graduate designed the distinctively colorful Hawaiian-theme shirt in 1931 and mass-produced it for sale at his family's store in downtown Honolulu.
In 1936, Chun registered the ``Aloha'' trade name.
The short-sleeved design was inspired by the checkered shirts worn by sugar plantation workers in the 1800s and the silk tops of schoolchildren sewn from leftover kimono material by their Japanese mothers.
The style caught on with surfers, Waikiki entertainers and Hollywood stars such as Montgomery Cliff, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Countless clothing manufacturers followed suit, often in gaudy fashion.
In the islands, the more tasteful versions have never gone out of style, and men often wear aloha shirts instead of suits and ties in the workplace and at formal occasions.
In 1991, the state Senate honored Chun for his contribution to Hawaii on the 60th anniversary of the shirt's creation.
Chun came up with the design to help his family generate business during the Depression, his wife said. The first few dozen patterns showed palm trees, hula dancers and pineapples.
``He was very creative,'' Ms. Chun said. ``I'm sure he had a good business instinct.''
Chun's store, King-Smith Clothiers, also sponsored a radio talent show in the late 1930s, broadcast from Waikiki Beach. It helped launch local musical careers, including that of popular isle singer Emma Veary.
Chun later closed the store and served as a vice president of American Security Bank. He retired in 1966 but continued to serve on the bank's board until 1980.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, a son and a sister.
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Subject: (exotica) Cocktail Hour series and coasters
Date: 10 Jun 2000 10:35:50 -0700 (PDT)
Allegro has a new series called "Cocktail Hour". Mostly old time vocals with a little Mambo and Swing thrown in. Most of he series even has sound samples so you hear what you are getting. All older mono recordings. Take a close look most of the series are 2CD's.
http://www.allegro-music.com/cocktailhour/
While supplies last they are offering a "swanky 16-piece cocktail coaster set" for $3. The artwork for the series is pretty cool. Look forward to getting my coasters soon!
Domenic Ciccone
"Martinis with Mancini" WJUL 91.5FM FridayÆs 6-9AM EST
http://www.geocities.com/martinimancini/
http://wjul.cs.uml.edu/ (On Real Audio)
P.S.
You Can Get Free Email & Homepages @ http://www.buzzlink.com
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Adolph Hofner, the Western swing pioneer who popularized "Cotton-Eyed Joe," died early Friday at his West Side home.
He was 84.
"He had cancer of the left lung," said his wife, Susan. "At about 3, he woke me up and he said, 'Honey, I love you. I want to thank you for being so good and helping me through all of this.' Then he told me to call all the kids and tell them to come home. They all came over, and he went real peacefully."
Hofner was born in Moulton in 1916. His family moved to San Antonio in 1928. A singer and guitarist, Hofner came to musical prominence in the '30s with Jimmie Revard and his Oklahoma Playboys.
Hofner, who fused country, western, pop, jazz and Czech and Bohemian waltzes and polkas, went on to lead his own groups, including the long-running Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers, until he was sidelined by a stroke in 1993.
The Hofner bands featured a wide repertoire and top-flight musicians, including his brother Emil "Bash" Hofner, a trailblazing steel guitar player.
In the early '40s, Hofner recorded the hits "Maria Elena" and "Cotton-Eyed Joe."
Hofner and his band, which at the time included fiddler J.R. Chatwell, learned "Cotton-Eyed Joe" from a fiddler in Sabinal.
"Somebody requested it, and we didn't know it," Hofner said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News in February. "An old-timey fiddler was sitting there, and he showed us the song at intermission. That's one of the babies that made me. 'Maria Elena' really made me.
"At the time it was released you could turn on any radio station and hear 'Maria Elena.' I mean any radio station, whether they were playing pop or country or what have you."
" 'Maria Elena' was a monster hit," said country music legend Johnny Bush, the author of the song "Whiskey River" and one of many musicians influenced by Hofner's music. "Several people called him the hillbilly Bing Crosby. He was a pioneer of what we call Texas country music today. He incorporated western swing, hillbilly country, pop and the Bohemian songs.
"Adolph had the swingingest band around. He was doing the same thing Bob Wills and Milton Brown were doing at about the same time. He was as much of an innovator as they were. He will be missed."
In 1945, Hofner moved to California where his nine-piece band, the Texans, spent three years doing radio shows and rotating among Los Angeles-area nightclubs owned by promoter Foreman Phillips.
"I moved from Corpus Christi in about 1961 to work with Adolph," said bassist Junior Mitchan, who left Hofner's group to play with Bob Wills and now works regularly with Bubba Littrell.
"We played swing and all the German and Bohemian polkas and waltzes. Adolph had a real good memory. If you'd walk into a place we were playing, Adolph would remember your name and your wife's name, and he'd introduce you and play your favorite song."
Fiddler Cliff Bruner, a year older than Hofner, worked with Milton Brown's Musical Brownies and then fronted his own highly successful swing band the Texas Wanderers.
"Adolph is one of the legends," Bruner said. "He was one of the pioneers of country and western music. We were working at the same time, but there was no competition. We helped each other out. Musicians all over the world loved Adolph Hofner. We grieve along with millions of people at the loss of Adolph."
Hofner also influenced a younger generation of musicians.
"It's ironic. I read that Pearl Beer is staying in San Antonio, and, for years, Adolph Hofner was Pearl Beer," said Billy Mata, leader of the Texas Tradition band. "So a cornerstone of San Antonio history is staying while one left."
Mata was on his way to Nocona to sing with the Texas Playboys, a group dedicated to the music of Bob Wills.
"There'll be some sad guys on the bandstand tonight," Mata said.
Hofner is survived by his wife; daughters, Kathy Hofner Fielding and Oma Darlene Hofner Biggs; and son, Robert Price, all of San Antonio.
http://allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B30206
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I recently received the latest Collectors Choice catalogue and as usual there's innumerable things I'd like from it.
One thing that sounded intriguing was a series of cds by Don Shirley ... he combined classical and jazz piano techniques. It sounds nifty. Does anyone know anything about him and his music ... yea or nay?
Subject: (exotica) Roy Ayers' "Coffy"/Joseph's "Murder Inc"
Date: 13 Jun 2000 13:57:03 -0700
Regarding the "Coffy" soundtrack, I think that it's partly a big deal because of the movie's cult status, which tends to sort of elevate the album more than it might really deserve. I think it's a good record for a few songs but not as a complete record. Of course I find this a lot with many soundtracks. Another decent Ayers' album is "Red Black & Green" at a point where Ayers' jazz began to break down into his soul/funk sound. It's a bit smooth. I think it helps if you're into the jazzy/soul/funk sound too.
Also regarding the "Murder, Inc." Time album by Irving Joseph, it is high on my list of crime jazz, especially because it isn't from an actual soundtrack but was inspired by the action jazz trend. This makes every song stand out as its own piece. Worth the effort to get a good copy if you like that kind of music.
Mr. Unlucky
---
Mr. Unlucky presents Shoot To Kill, a weekly hour of action/crime/spy jazz and soundtrack music, on Supersphere.com, Thursdays, 11 a.m. (CST).
Subject: (exotica) [obit] William Killgallon,irma Bowker
Date: 13 Jun 2000 17:52:00 -0400
June 13, 2000
Man Who Dubbed Etch A Sketch Dies
Filed at 2:22 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
BRYAN, Ohio (AP) -- William Casley Killgallon, who helped come up with the name for the Etch A Sketch, has died. He was 87.
Killgallon suffered a stroke three weeks ago and a heart attack a few days later. He died Thursday near his home in Charlottesville, Va., said his son William Carpenter Killgallon.
Killgallon was a vice president at the Ohio Art Co. when it acquired the rights to the toy, which had been produced in England as the DoodleMaster Magic Screen.
Killgallon and another executive came up with the Etch A Sketch name.
Etch A Sketch -- which has two knobs that turn to make doodles and can be shaken to make the images disappear -- was an instant success in the early 1960s and billed as the hottest toy since the Hula-Hoop.
Ohio Art has sold more than 100 million Etch A Sketches, which are still made in Bryan.
Killgallon became president of Ohio Art in 1966. He retired in 1978 after his family bought the company.
He is survived by another son, Martin Killgallon, and daughters Ruth Gilbert and Katherine Michelsen.
----
Irma Bowker
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. (AP) -- Irma Bowker, a member of the Radio City Music Hall's original Rockettes, died last week. She was 89.
Bowker was a member of the original precision dancing troupe that later became known as the Rockettes. First known as the Russell Markert Dancers, they later were called the Roxyettes when they danced at Manhattan's Roxy Theater.
They made their Radio City debut when the famous theater opened in December 1932.
At a Rockettes reunion in 1986, Bowker said was paid $45 a week for five shows a day, seven days a week.
----
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> Okay, this seems to be the tiki year - even Kmart has a decent Hawaiian shirt with tikis on it. It's blue/orange with the Hawaiian islands and leis swirling around.
And Target (or "Tarzhay" to you urban sophisticates) carries a nice line of loungey rayon shirts and even silk tiki boxer shorts...not in my size, unfortunately. I've
bought two black shirts with emblazoned with classic umbrella drinks. They've been big hits at work and on the patio. They make my teal-blue vintage Hawaiian shirt with
the embroidered bamboo seem positively tasteful by comparison.
I've also been told that Old Navy carries some tiki apparel, but all I can find online is a tshirt.
--
Matt Marchese
mjmarch@charter.net
http://reality.sgi.com/mattm_americas/
"Lucky Fruit, the dried corpse is horrible!" -Peacock King
had a strikingly austere and minimal style or look -- they dressed like
German businessmen from the 1920's for christsakes...
Twenties Modernism/Minimalism was obviously a very big influence on Kraftwerk and their three best-known albums (Trans Europe Express, Man Machine and Computer World). The cover of Man Machine is a homage to El Lissitsky ~~ a kind of geometrical, Modern style in the Constructivist vein. The photos of them as robots on the inner sleeve of Computerworld is very reminsicent of a 20's photograph by Cartier-Breson of showroom dummies in a Parisian shop window, and the 'I am a robot' idea which appears in Computer World and Man Machine can be traced to a Russian play, "Rossums Universal Robots'. The photos of them on Trans Europe Express in their Twenties style suits look very much like the Hollywood glamour photos by Hurrell.
An aside: thanks for the tips on Don Shirley. I think I'll pass him up for now.
> The photos of them on Trans Europe Express in their Twenties style suits look very much like the Hollywood glamour photos by Hurrell.
Here is the story that Florian told me: They knew this photographer in Dusseldorf, an old man who had a small corner-shop somewhere, nobody famous, but he knew how to take portraits the old-fashioned way, including positive retouch. Very reasonable too. That clean surface was what they wanted. I don't know where they got the idea to take up constructivist art from the 20s. After all the 20s/early 30s were the last age when German culture was still "innocent" in its own right. After that came the Nazi years and after that came the time of American colonization. So if you looked back into the past trying to find some original German culture to relate to you had to go back to the 20s somehow. And Kraftwerk definitely didn't
want to be part of rock culture. On one hand because it was something from "outside" that you could only relate to by imitating it - there were extremely forbidding examples for that in the German rock scene. Plus they hated the music. They thought that rock music is for "Prolls" (from Prolet = jerk, jock, primitive low-class person). And since they were hanging out with photo models and jet set people like the Krupps they didn't relate much to hippie culture anymore, so I guess they thought it's really funny, to have short hair and clean cuts. A business man was the anti-thesis to the hippie. It was their way to express a humorous punk attitude.
Mo
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Has anyone actually heard this Mister Coconut or The Samplers? Is one better than the other? Are they the same kind of music?
Just today I was browsing in a local record shop and wanted to listen to these two Cds but the people in the store said it wasn't possible, so... I'm still curious.
They are all put out by this label called Rather Interesting taht have a lot of very enigmatic records with titles but no liste artists. What I had heard about this label was the complete opposite of what someone said here before. I heard that it was run by a guy from Chile who lives in Germany.
Anyway, the covers are really groovy (especially in the Mister Coconut and Los samplers records).
Cheers,
Manuel
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Has anyone actually heard this Mister Coconut or The Samplers? Is one better than the other? Are they the same kind of music?
Just today I was browsing in a local record shop and wanted to listen to these two Cds but the people in the store said it wasn't possible, so... I'm still curious.
They are all put out by this label called Rather Interesting taht have a lot of very enigmatic records with titles but no liste artists. What I had heard about this label was the complete opposite of what someone said here before. I heard that it was run by a guy from Chile who lives in Germany.
Anyway, the covers are really groovy (especially in the Mister Coconut and Los samplers records).
Cheers,
Manuel
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I don't find Trans Am similar to Kraftwerk at all. In Trans Am you have those guitars soloing all the time. In these really elaborate, masturbatory, barroque ways.
And the guitar solo is possibly one of the symptoms of rock and roll decadence that Kraftwerk reacted against.
If you are interested in similar things (VERY similar, I must add) being done now you should look for 'Special Skool' a compilation of releases from the Invicta Hi-Fi label. Particularly Kraftwerkesque is 'He took her to a movie' by a band called Ladytron (formed by the owner of the label and hyped by the NME as the coolest band in the world). Also 'Dusseldorf Airport fur immer' by Funsize Lions, and a bunch of others in that same CD. Just read in their website (http://www.invictahifi.co.uk) that they've done a deal with Emperor Norton to distribute some of their releases in the U.S. At least Ladytron.
I have a question to make. Since at the time I wasn't into this kind of early electro pop, are there any groups contemporary to Kraftwerk doing similar things? Early Saint Etienne is really too sugary for my taste.
Cheers,
Manuel
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> I have a question to make. Since at the time I wasn't into this kind of early electro pop, are there any groups contemporary to Kraftwerk doing similar things?
The most similar one that I know is by nobody less than Giorgio Moroder, who in 1974 did his album "Einzelganger", which reminds me very much of Kraftwerk's Autobahn of the same year. I have mentioned this record so often in this list that I'm in danger of qualifying as a Moroder fan one day, but that would go too far. But I don't think Neu! or Harmonia or any of these bands were so close to this sound in 1974 as Moroder and Kraftwerk are here.
Mo
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Subject: (exotica) [obit] Nancy Marchand (was: I didn't know this)
Date: 20 Jun 2000 11:49:22 -0400
Brian Phillips <hagar@mindspring.net> wrote:
> Also, Nancy Marchand of "Lou Grant" and "The Sopranos" died, but I won't
believe it until I hear from Lou Smith, of course.
June 20, 2000
Nancy Marchand, 71, Player of Imperious Roles, Dies
By MEL GUSSOW
June 20, 2000
Nancy Marchand, the distinguished character actress who excelled at playing wise and imperious authority figures -- newspaper publishers, queens, grande dames and a madam -- and who achieved perhaps her greatest fame as the domineering mother of a mob boss in the television series "The Sopranos," died on Sunday at her home in Stratford, Conn., one day short of her 72nd birthday. She also had a home in Manhattan.
Her daughter Katie Sparer Bowe said that no specific cause of death was given, but for several years the actress had been suffering from cancer and chronic pulmonary disease.
A wide diversity of playwrights -- among them Chekhov, Shaw and Shakespeare as well as Jean Genet, Paul Osborn and A. R. Gurney -- was within Ms. Marchand's range. She once described her physical presence as "a strange combination of being very imposing and down-to-earth," an accurate assessment of the seemingly contradictory image she projected.
That description could be applied to the overburdened wife she played in the 1980 Broadway revival of Osborn's "Morning's at Seven," the patrician publisher on the long-running "Lou Grant" television series and her portrayal of Livia Soprano, the monster mother of them all, a woman bred into the Mafia who without a blink of hesitation sets up her son Tony to be assassinated because he has moved her to a nursing home.
Except for her indomitability, Livia was in direct contrast to all the "tasteful ladies" Ms. Marchand played in her busy career. At 70, after more than 50 years of acting, she discovered a new popularity, and it was for playing a wildly unsympathetic character. Livia Soprano was a role that she compared to that of Caligula's mother in "I Claudius," a woman who also happened to be named Livia.
Throughout her career, Ms. Marchand gave her roles an unexpected edge. Even when her characters were at their most officious, they retained a measure of charm, and her more affectionate characters could also be sardonic. She was an expert at both light and more serious comedy, moving effortlessly from the outrageous antics in the movie spoof "The Naked Gun," to Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest."
In plays like "Morning's at Seven," she warmed an audience's collective heart, but she never wore her own heart on her sleeve, avoiding the cul de sac of sentimentality. Instead she was wily in performance, turning in an instant from comedy to poignance.
Often she acted onstage with her husband, Paul Sparer -- in everything from "A Phoenix Too Frequent" by Christopher Fry to Edward Albee's "Delicate Balance" to Mr. Gurney's "Love Letters." Mr. Sparer also had his own rewarding career in plays that included Elie Wiesel's "Zalmen, or the Madness of God" and "The Burnt Flowerbed" by Ugo Betti. Individually and together they were ultimate theatrical professionals.
Mr. Sparer died in November. In addition to her daughter Katie, an actress who lives in Stratford, Ms. Marchand is survived by a son, David of Madison, Wis.; another daughter, Rachel Sparer Bersier, an opera singer of Manhattan; and seven grandchildren.
Offstage, Ms. Marchand was the reverse of so many of her strong-willed characters, a woman with a natural sense of insecurity, someone who felt uneasy in social situations. "I'm always very uncomfortable with people." she once explained in an interview in The New York Times. "It's something that I get upset with myself for, but that's the way I am. But I love people. And when I'm on the stage, I can embrace people and still feel safe. There are a lot of different facets to my personality that I don't use all the time in my house, or in everyday life, that I can experience and share when I'm on a stage."
Her roles, she said, were more a question of chance than choice. But whatever she was called on to do, even if it meant being as malevolent as Livia Soprano, she did it with enthusiasm. As always, she was captivated by her profession. Looking back on her career, she said, "Acting was something I had to do."
Nancy Marchand was born in Buffalo on June 19, 1928. After studying theater at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, she made her first professional appearance onstage in 1946 in "The Late George Apley" in Ogunquit, Me. It was while acting in Shakespeare and Shaw at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Mass., that she met -- and then married -- Mr. Sparer. When they moved to New York, she appeared on live television, playing Jo in a dramatization of "Little Women," and then playing the female lead opposite Rod Steiger in the original television version of Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty."
In 1957 she made her Broadway debut in "Miss Isobel," and two years later won an Obie award for her role as Madame Irma in the Off Broadway premiere of "The Balcony" by Genet. For several years she played leading Shakespearean roles with the American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Conn. As an original member of the A.P.A. theater company (formally the Association of Producing Artists), she was Lady Sneerwell in "The School for Scandal," Arkadina in "The Seagull," Dona Ana in "Man and Superman" and other classic characters.
Continuing her devotion to repertory theater, she joined the theater at Lincoln Center to act in plays by Schiller (Queen Elizabeth in "Mary Stuart"), Gorky and Sean O'Casey ("The Plough and the Stars" with Jack MacGowran).
Ms. Marchand worked with equal ease on Broadway, off Broadway and in regional theater, as well as in movies and on television. In the 1980's she played the title role in Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," Bessie Berger in Clifford Odets's "Awake and Sing" at Circle in the Square, Klytemnestra in Ezra Pound's "Elektra" and the august mother in "The Cocktail Hour" by Mr. Gurney.
In the following decade, she moved on to Jon Robin Baitz's "End of the Day" at Playwrights Horizons, and, in 1993, acted in a double header of Peter Shaffer plays, "Black Comedy" and "White Liars," at the Roundabout Theater Company. That same year she also played the wicked stepmother in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" at the New York City Opera.
Her movie appearances included "The Hospital"; two films with the team of Merchant Ivory, "The Bostonians" and "Jefferson in Paris"; and the remake of "Sabrina," in which she played Harrison Ford's mother. When she played Mrs. Pynchon, the publisher of The Los Angeles Tribune on "Lou Grant," the role became a keystone of her career; for it she won four Emmy awards. Some years later on television's "Spearfield's Daughter," she switched cities and became the publisher of The New York Courier.
When Ms. Marchand played Livia Soprano on "The Sopranos," television viewers wondered how her son Tony, played by James Gandolfini, and his wife (Edie Falco) could put up with her malice and her prejudices. The answer, of course, was that there was nothing much they could do against this self-dramatizing force of nature.
At the end of the show's first season, Tony was about to smother his mother with a pillow, but a stroke got there first and she was left gasping for breath in a hospital bed. David Chase, the creator of the Home Box Office series, said yesterday that he always planned to bring Livia back for a second year. He added that he was impressed by Ms. Marchand's courage as she continued to perform despite her illness.
When that season ended, Ms. Marchand said she was looking forward to the second round: "Who knows what lurks in the mind of Livia?" Viewers soon found out: more of the same.
During the last show of the second season, there was a sudden twist in the narrative. Tony gave his mother airline tickets so that she and his aunt could fly to Arizona. Before she could get on the plane, Livia was stopped by men from airport security. The tickets were stolen property. Frantically, she telephoned her son.
Because filming on the third season of "Sopranos" was not scheduled to begin until Aug. 1, that scene represents Ms. Marchand's final performance: about to be arrested and furious at Tony for putting her in that predicament. Mr. Chase would not discuss forthcoming events in the series, but if the actress had lived, undoubtedly the mother and son battle would have continued and Livia Soprano would have had the last word.
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"What is the worst behavior that you have seen at a garage sale?"
~~>There's a local fellow who is the garage saler's nightmare. He's the fellow who camps in front of a house at three a.m. in order to be first in line the next day. He's been known to arrive just as the sale is starting and dash to the front of the line like thw White Rabbit in Alice In Wonderland ... "I'm late, I'm late..." My boss is the only one who calls him on this (I think people are just too shocked at rude behaviour to be able to say anything). I've met him twice and he's really obnoxious ... typically the type who couldn't care less, too.
One of the strangest things I've encountered was when I was on a mission to check out some Playboy magazines from the 1950s thru 1980s and the fellow insisted on cooking a ham for me. Well, that and another Playboy mission where the woman kept telling me about her dentures. In detail.
Wow you guys are harsh on Tangerine Dream. Though not exactly in their defense I have to admit a fondness for Edgar Froese's first few solo albums, namely "Aqua" and "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale". True there's a lot of noodling but the albums are still pretty dynamic with lots of effects and drones, before both Froese and the band got too...I guess I'd say New Agey, for lack of a better term. Actually I even picked up a T.D. album the other day from the early '80s, not expecting anything good, and it was mostly trivial except for a few songs that were beatless and droning. Still I would have been pretty disappointed had I not paid $2 for it.
All this talk of Kraftwerk-like bands reminded me of 7, with an album called "7", that came out years back on the relatively bland Hynoptic label. The album is cold, simple, sterile, slow, and somewhat trance-inducing, but it my German friends all liked it, so I think that counts toward some sort of credibility. I mean I liked it too.
Also I got a copy of the Senor Coconut "El Baile Aleman" album, and I think it's pretty impressive. I love Latin music, and Atom Heart, so I'm biased here, but I'd have to say it tops both the Balanescu Quartet album and Terre Thaemlitz album of Kraftwerk covers both for novelty, originality, and its well thought-out quality. I don't know, though, what sort of fans I would recommend it to.
Mr. Unlucky
---
Mr. Unlucky presents Shoot To Kill, a weekly hour of action/crime/spy jazz and soundtrack music, on Supersphere.com, Thursdays, 11 a.m. (CST).
Subject: (exotica) Re: Kraftwerk and the future of music
Date: 22 Jun 2000 05:03:42 -0700
Hi, I'm new to this list but reading this topic I just couldn't keep my lurking mode anymore.
I thought the whole discussion about 'analog' instruments vs. sequencers was something of the past. It reminded me of what happened in the mid 19th century when photography came along and all the painters and portrait makers of Paris made a strike demanding that photography shouldn't be considered an art as painting.
I think the same rhetoric underlies the assumption that acoustic instruments, that you need to master in a long time, have more 'soul' than electronic instruments, which you can play without too much prior knowledge.
But see what happened to the debate between photography vs. painting. I don't think now anyone is going to say that a bad painting is better than a good photograph. As no one is going to say that a bad photograph is better than a good painting. The quality of a work of art has nothing to do with the medium chosen by the artist.
I think this discussion of essentialisms is quite unproductive at the end of the day, because for any general truth you try to establish, there are several exceptions. And I think precisely this list is about those exceptions. Isn't it?
Anyway. For less speculative stuff, I've been listening to a french singer-songwriter called Katerine (that's his last name). His first record is called Les marriages chinois (The chinese marriages) and I've been unable to take it off my Cd player for a couple of weeks. Reminds me of some of the really simple Mano Negra songs with only a keyboard and a very primitive electronic rhythm behind. And then some mellodic singing. In a way it also reminds me of The Magnetic Fields, only that Katerine's music is more playful.
Cheers,
Manuel
"We're a long way from 'Wuthering Heights', to say the
least. The novel form is not conceived for depicting
indifference or nothingness; a flatter, more terse and
dreary discourse would need to be invented"
Whatever, Michel Houellebecq.
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Subject: Re (exotica) Katerine. Was: Kraftwerk and the future of music
Date: 22 Jun 2000 10:39:37 -0700 (PDT)
mkg@calle22.com wrote:
>
> Anyway. For less speculative stuff, I've been listening to a
> french singer-songwriter called Katerine (that's his last name).
Katerine is come up recently on the list and is it not great?
Manuel you are talking about the 1st album. The 2nd is very different? What little I've heard on internet radio it sounds like dance remix stuff and is very very well done.
Domenic Ciccone
"Martinis with Mancini" WJUL 91.5FM FridayÆs 6-9AM EST
http://www.geocities.com/martinimancini/
http://wjul.cs.uml.edu/ (On Real Audio)
P.S.
You Can Get Free Email & Homepages @ http://www.buzzlink.com
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"What's the worst behavior you've seen at a garage sale?"
I would highly reccomend the great garage sale scene from the seminal punk film "Suburbia" as a lesson in how not to behave. Gave me some good vicarious thrills when I was 18 though.
SEATTLE (AP) -- Alan Hovhaness, a prolific composer who melded Western and Asian musical styles, died Wednesday. He was 89 and had suffered from a severe stomach ailment for the last three years.
Hovhaness wrote more than 400 pieces, including at least nine operas, two ballets, more than 60 symphonies, and more than 100 chamber pieces.
His works include ``Lousadzak'' (1944), for piano and orchestra; ``Wind Drum'' (1962), a music-dance drama; ``And God Created the Great Whales'' (1970); and ``The Way of Jesus'' (1974), a folk mass.
His early compositions were thoroughly Western. But the influences of Eastern musical styles became more evident after he attended Bohuslav Martinu's master class in composition in 1942 at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.
Hovhaness was the first Western composer asked to write music for an orchestra comprised entirely of Indian instruments. He served for six months as composer-in-residence at the University of Hawaii and became a composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony in 1966.
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Alan Hovhaness, an original and extraordinarily prolific American composer who embraced melody in an atonal age and drew heavily on music of the East, died on Wednesday. He was 89.
Hovhaness died at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. He had suffered from a severe stomach ailment for the last three years, Gerard Schwarz, music director of the Seattle Symphony, told The Associated Press.
Over the course of nearly half a century, Hovhaness wrote more than 60 symphonies, an assortment of chamber music, dozens of compositions for solo piano and hundreds of songs and choral works. The composer John Cage once called Hovhaness a "music tree who, as an orange or lemon tree produces fruit, produces music."
"I like to compose," Hovhaness told The New York Times in 1986. "I think orchestrally, and hear music in my head much of the time. I spend at least an hour a day actively working, and in my free time I do counterpoint exercises to keep my mind active. I can compose with other music playing in the room, through anything. I can block everything out."
This fecundity was only one of the reasons that Hovhaness was considered something of an anomaly among his peers. He was more interested in the music of India, Korea, Japan and Armenia than that of France, Italy, Austria and Germany. He preferred the music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras to that of the Classical and Romantic periods. And he objected to atonality on the grounds that it was "against nature."
"There is a center in everything that exists," he explained. "The planets have the sun; the moon, the Earth. The reason I like Oriental music is that everything has a firm center. All music with a center is tonal. Music without a center is fine for a minute or two, but it soon sounds all the same. I've used all techniques, including the 12-tone technique, but I believe melody is the spring of music.
"The human voice was the first instrument, and I believe that all the different instruments are voices as well. So I want to give them melodies to sing. I think melodically, and without melody I don't have much interest in music."
Richard Kostelanetz wrote of Hovhaness in a 1978 article for the Times, "Essentially he is a consummate melodist who uses the modal scales and instrumental textures of Eastern music within a framework of Western counterpoint and structure.
"Though tonal music as such is scarcely unfamiliar, he has nonetheless created a musical style that is instantly recognizable, largely because of its synthesis of Oriental and Occidental characteristics. Among American tonal composers, only Aaron Copland has created so much uniquely identifiable music."
Some critics found Hovhaness rather too prolific. In 1964, reviewing the composer's Symphony No. 3 for the Times, Harold C. Schonberg said the work was "all very pretty, and 10 of its 15 minutes would have been ample." Oliver Daniel, in a 1958 article for the Saturday Review, complained of Hovhaness' "reiteration of small figures that, despite minute variations, can sound intriguing at first hearing but on a recording can become meaningless on numerous replaying."
"The repetition factor in Hovhaness is not climactic but rather mazelike and hypnotic, often ending as abruptly as a design on ribbon would be when cut at random by a pair of scissors," Daniel continued. "It is quantitative, like music by the inch, foot or yard -- or, more properly, music by the minute."
Still, few listeners would dismiss Hovhaness as a mere craftsman.
"Although most of Hovhaness' major compositions are instrumental, almost every work is religious in nature," the composer and critic Arnold Rosner wrote in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. "This does not, however, inhibit stylistic and psychological variety: tranquillity, fear, ecstasy, mystery and epic chaos find expression in divergent and ever-changing techniques."
Hovhaness' mystical bent was apparent also in the titles he chose -- his most popular works were the "St. Vartan" Symphony, a tone poem called "Mysterious Mountain" and a Magnificat.
"I believe there is something good in all religions but that all of them are incomplete," he said in 1986. "I like the ancient philosophies of India -- the Bhagavad-Gita, for example -- and the Armenian Church, which is more mystical than most of those in the West. But I can't put my religious experience into words. Maybe a Bacon or a Shakespeare could, but I don't have that gift."
Hovhaness was born Alan Vaness Chakmakjian in Somerville, Mass., on March 8, 1911. His father, an immigrant from Turkey, was a chemistry professor at Tufts Medical School; his mother was of Scottish ancestry. He adopted the name Hovhaness, in honor of a grandfather, when he was in his early 20s.
He learned to read music when he was 7 and immediately began to write his own pieces. By the age of 13, he had written two operas, "Bluebeard" and "Daniel," as well as many smaller pieces. He studied piano with Heinrich Gebhard, and then attended the New England Conservatory of Music, studying composition with Frederick Converse. His early works are strongly influenced by Renaissance music.
Hovhaness worked with Bohuslav Martinu at Tanglewood in 1942, and the following year began the serious study of Armenian music, after which his work became more contrapuntally complex and rhythmically vital. In later years, he added various experimental and international procedures to his work -- including, on one memorable occasion, the sound of recorded whale song in "And God Created Great Whales" -- and an interest in Far Eastern music would come to predominate.
From 1948 to 1951, he was on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory of Music. He lived in New York throughout the 1950s, and moved to Seattle in 1962. In 1954, he wrote the score for the Clifford Odets play "Flowering Peach." He also provided the soundtrack for several documentary films, including "Assignment India" and "Assignment South-East Asia."
Hovhaness was a tall, gaunt man, personable but shy. He lived quietly in Seattle, where his standard procedure was to work through the night. "After feeling drowsy in the early evening, I get more and more creative as the night goes on," he said in 1978. "By dawn, I'm wildly creative; it gets stronger all the time. I don't know how to compose slowly. I correct and revise later, but composing goes in a sweep. Sometimes I just get the beginning idea, but more often the entire score complete with orchestration comes into my head at once."
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I'm afraid i don't know much about Katerine, like bio or personal tidbits or anything like that.
His first record is Les mariages chinois (1992), then he made Une education anglaise (94?), then Mes mauvais frequentations (96?) and last year he released two cds Les creatures and L'homme a trois mains.
One of his songs is the opening track in the Bungalow compilation Atomium 3003 ('Je vous emmerde') and he seems to move around quite a bit. And that track is IMO the best one in the CD. The lyrics are really funny (about a guy trying to impress a girl, telling her that he's a poet, and the girl being very fed up, the title can be translated as something like 'you annoy me')
From what I've heard his first two records are quite lo-fi-ish. Recorded with an eight track, they feature singing from Katerine's girlfriend and sister. And he also contributes but not that often. The third one has more of him singing as do the latest two.
Of the latest two Les creatures is quite well produced, with horn arrangements and glossy chorus in some of the songs. But then has some really noisy experimental tracks too, with tape experiments and mumbled phrases.
L'homme a trois mains is only Katerine singing with a guitar. In one of the songs I think I heard a sample of a Residents song, but I'm not sure. And has some bossa-novish guitar in there.
I also know that he sometimes writes songs for Kahimi Kairie and (as Alexander pointed out a while ago) has written and produced the latest Anna Karina album and also a group called Les soueurs Winchister.
That's all I know. If someone can expand, that would be great (or 'lovely' as some say).
Cheers,
Manuel
"We're a long way from 'Wuthering Heights', to say the
least. The novel form is not conceived for depicting
indifference or nothingness; a flatter, more terse and
dreary discourse would need to be invented"
Whatever, Michel Houellebecq.
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Just got a CD called Big banned and blue, that is supposed to be 'the original underground sound of forties clubland'. I was expecting something like Las Vegas Grind, really trashy instrumentals or some repetitive vocals and nothing else. What it is is some very traditional jazz arangements with VERY explicit lyrics.
It has a funny song, called Air for a Dinosaur, about (guess what?) dinosaur farts. But the music is so generic that it leaves me generally cold.
Has anyone heard this before. Any ideas where it comes from? The Cd was released in 1998 by something called One Step Music. And has some notes by a 'Durwood Douche'.
Cheers,
Manuel
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> Just got a CD called Big banned and blue, that is supposed to be 'the original underground sound of forties clubland'.
>
> Has anyone heard this before. Any ideas where it comes from? The Cd was released in 1998 by something called One Step Music. And has some notes by a 'Durwood Douche'.
If you look at the smallprint on the backside of the CD you'll find: Avanti Entertainment..., Roadrunner Records..., courtesy of The All Blacks B.V. plus a web address: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com .
I propose you go there to find out more.
I like the photos in that booklet; they show 40s girls in summer skirts performing strange practices somewhere between gym, torture and mattress acrobatics. The music leaves me cold though. I'm neither turned on nor offended by terms like "christmas blowjob". What's so special about blowing up a balloon?
The music on this CD is obviously newly recorded. The songs however seem to be old, but there are no composer credits. But I know there were songs in 40s jazz with those "explicit" lyrics. If you want a taste of the original music of that type check out http://www.gruenekraft.de . It's a book publisher who focuses on
subjects that anybody else wouldn't even touch with pliers, and who also put out a CD series called FlashBack on a label called Transmitter with the subjects High & Low, drug songs (TDC4), Geil & Sexy, copulation songs (TDC5), Crazy & Funny, novelty songs (TDC6), Gospel & Prayers, spiritual music (TDC7) and Blue &
Lonely, schmaltz music (TDC8). I guess TDC5 is what you're looking for. I have Crazy & Funny and High & Low, both are pretty amazing. I mean, singing about smoking pot in the 40s as if it was the most natural thing in the world... which it in fact was, of course!
Mo
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>So why bother with a lot of different lists? Or maybe
> there should be one
> list to *discuss* music and other lists to exchange playlists,
> find missing
> records, report yard sale finds, trade tapes/CDs etc.
Mo,
I like the fact that this list covers a lot of material and this is what makes it great. Recent posts about Tipsy and Katerine. They were very informative. And hope to hear about the record finds. That's an easy way for discussions to get started. As for trades, I'm sure a lot of musical pollination is going on behind the scenes.
I found a "Lounge Lizard" mailing list connected to the Lounge Web Ring. Haven't received any EMAIL from that list yet. Have to check to see if I confirmed correctly. But it would seem that this list can handle that subject too.
Domenic Ciccone
"Martinis with Mancini" WJUL 91.5FM FridayÆs 6-9AM EST
http://www.geocities.com/martinimancini/
http://wjul.cs.uml.edu/ (On Real Audio)
P.S.
You Can Get Free Email & Homepages @ http://www.buzzlink.com
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Bill Colleran, Director of Films and TV, Dies at 77
Bill Colleran, a film and television director whose work ranged from documentaries to musical variety shows, died on June 1 in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 77.
The cause was a stroke, his family said.
Born William Arthur Colleran in Edgerton, Wis., he began his career in the story department at 20th Century Fox, then served in the Navy during World War II. In the late 1940's he became an assistant to the director Louis de Rochemont and worked on the films "13 Rue Madeleine" and "Boomerang." He also worked with de Rochemont on "Lost Boundaries," a 1949 film about racism, and on the documentary "Windjammer" (1958), a wide-screen chronicle of the 17,000-mile cruise of a Norwegian training vessel. Mr. Colleran directed the 1964 filming of "Hamlet," a Broadway production staged by John Gielgud.
In the early 1950's Mr. Colleran became the associate director of the weekly television variety show "Your Hit Parade," staging and directing musical numbers on the show. He also directed television specials featuring stars like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds, and was executive producer of "The Judy Garland Show."
Mr. Colleran's marriage to the actress Lee Remick ended in divorce. He is survived by a daughter, Kate; a son, Matthew; two sisters; and two grandchildren.
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Colleran,+Bill
Director - filmography
"Dean Martin Show, The" (1965) TV Series
... aka "Dean Martin Comedy Hour, The" (1973) (new title)
"Honey West" (1965) TV Series
Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich (1958)
Producer - filmography
"Judy Garland Show, The" (1963) TV Series (1964)
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Jerome Richardson, 79, a Flutist and Saxophonist in Demand
By BEN RATLIFF,NYTimes
http://allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B7419
Jerome Richardson, a saxophonist and flutist who was one of the most recorded musicians in the history of jazz and an original member of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, died on Friday at a hospital in Englewood, N.J.
He was 79 and lived in Secaucus, N.J.
Mr. Richardson was born in Oakland, Calif.
He played saxophone from the age of 8 and made his professional debut at 14 with the Lionel Hampton band.
At the time, he was one of the rare jazz musicians who had academic training, having studied music at San Francisco State College.
He worked briefly with the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra before serving in the Navy as a member of Marshall Royal's jazz dance-band unit.
He rejoined the Hampton band in the late 1940's and recorded "Kingfish," on which he played what may be the first recorded modern-jazz flute solo.
After moving to New York in 1954, Mr. Richardson -- an excellent sight-reader as well as a versatile musician and a decent singer -- soon found himself in demand for studio-session work, playing jazz, rhythm-and-blues and rock 'n' roll. He began to work with Quincy Jones, whom he had met when they were both playing with the Hampton band a decade earlier. In 1959 he traveled to Europe with Mr. Jones for the premiere of the Harold Arlen blues opera, "Free and Easy," and in later years they regularly worked together on jazz and pop projects. By the end of his career, Mr. Richardson had appeared on over 4,000 recordings with artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis.
In 1965 he was a founding member of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, a band whose Ellingtonian harmonies, humor and new instrumental palette -- it was notable for its two soprano saxophonists -- set the template for a great deal of post-Count Basie big-band writing. For five years he played alto, soprano saxophone and flute in the band and then in the early 70's moved to Los Angeles, which had become the new center of session-musician work.
By the end of the 80's, Mr. Richardson was back in New York, contracting musicians and playing in the bands of a number of Broadway musicals -- "Black and Blue," "Jelly's Last Jam" and "Play On." In recent years he appeared with Art Farmer and Slide Hampton, and was a member of the singer Teri Thornton's sextet.
He is survived by his wife, Rowena; two daughters, Kim, of Montclair, N.J. and Denise Wilson of Berkeley, Calif., and two grandchildren.
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