Thomas Hoving, controversial former director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, died yesterday. Because of what Hoving did for art, his death was deemed worthy of a front-page story in today’s print edition of the New York Times (and of  a story this morning on NPR’s “Morning Edition”). In what might be seen as a contradiction, as I write this the Times now prominently displays of its Web page a story questioning whether recent expenditures on art exhibit space around the country–expenditures that should be blamed at least in part on Hoving’s work with the Met–”ever made sense.”

I’ll let others answer that question about some of the more extravagant spaces, but as to the question of whether art deserves prominence in our society today, I definitely vote “yes.” In January when my wife and I took a dozen students to New York, the Met was one of the highlights–not just for us, but for the students. Some students admitted they didn’t expect to enjoy the museum, going because their friends went (it wasn’t a required stop) but all of them ended up spending several hours there.

I just finished walking through the newest academic building on my campus, the art building, where I viewed three-dimensional pieces that had been created to reflect of students’ worldviews. The small exhibit was inspiring–particularly considering the multiple hours students had put into work that few would ever see. Tonight I’ll attend an event at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, celebrating the opening of a new exhibit titled “Jumpin’ with the Big Bands.” In a bit of showmanship that Hoving might have enjoyed, the opening features a swing band (6 Foot Swing, whose lead singer, Heather O’Brien, also happens to be a former student of mine).

At the MAC I’ll also visit an exhibit titled “Art and People: Spokane Art Center and the Great Depression,” about the public works projects that employed artists and inspired others during the Depression. FDR knew that art mattered, and not just for the wealthy elites such as Thomas Hoving, even in tough times. Maybe especially in tough times.

O festival Big Bands, acontecerá no próximo final de semana, com shows e palestras, no dia 23/10 , o evento ocorre na Boomerangue, e nos dias 24 e 25/10 continua na Praça Tereza Batista, através do edital Tô no Pelô.

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• Para felicidade dos apreciadores de boa música residentes ou de passagem pela capital baiana, muita coisa vai acontecer no próximos dias. Confere:

EMICIDA em Salvador, na primeira edição da GuettoStar, nesta sexta

- Um dia antes, na Quinta Dancehall Especial, Bnegão SoundSystem (RJ) e Ministereo Público, na Zauber, 21h. R$15 para os homens, R$10 para as mulheres.

- No domingo, dia 20, tem Retrofoguetes no Parque da Cidade, às 11h, de graça!

- Ainda no domingo, algumas horas depois:

Festival Virgem, em Camaçari

- Dia 24, mais Quinta Dancehall, dessa vez com o Ministereo Público lançando o CD, Sistema de Som Perambulante.

- Sexta feira, 25, é dia de Nancy e os Nunca Vistos, Arrigo Barnabé, Jards Macalé e Mariela Santiago, na Praça Tereza Batista Pelourinho.

- Dia 26 tem show de Céu (SP), na Concha Acústica e Coléra (SP) mais diversas bandas locais, na cidade de Simões Filho.

- Em setembro ainda tem o rapper GOG, de Brasília, e o grupo local, Opanijé, no Snkofa African Bar, Pelourinho. Data a confirmar.

- Outubro começa com esse aqui:

Shows do MC Gasper (GO), Otra Vidda e Versu2, 10 de outubro

- Segue com esse:

Lançamento do cd, Pacheco, da Jonas, com as bandas Zander (RJ) e Rótulo (SE)

- E, no dia seguinte, 17-10, tem Lumpen, Hoje Você Morre, Rancor e mais bandas, no Grind Hardcore Night, na Praça do Reggae, Pelourinho.

Ainda no dia 17-10 e ainda no Pelô, você sobe um pouco mais suas famosas ladeiras e, na Praça Tereza Batista, estará acontecendo as apresentações  dos três melhores nomes do rap baiano atual, na opinião do PONTE: Daganja, O Quadro e Versu2, além do recifense Buguinha Dub.

- Nos dias 23, 24 e 25 de outubro, acontece o aguardado Festival Big Bands, também na Tereza Batista. Nomes como Black Drawing Chalks (GO), Frank Jorge(RS) e Yun Fat estão na programação do festival, que ainda terá entrada gratuita.

- Em novembro ainda acontece a reunião de alguns dos melhores nomes do reggae contemporâneo, como S.O.J.A. (EUA), Ponto de Equilíbro (RJ), Edson Gomes e Mato Seco (SP), num mesmo festival.

Big band, vibe cute, sucesso twee em Glastonbury nesse verão – direto do País de Gales, they are Los Campesinos! and they will do whatever the fuck they want.

Facilmente comparado com o Architecture in Helsinki, acho o som da banda mais pop e mais até mais empolgante que o do quinteto australiano.

Uma pequena amostra ao vivo pode ser conferida aqui embaixo (e eu muito não resisto a um xilofone):

Keep up with los campesinos no site oficial da banda, no MySpace e no twitter.

Título:  StarDust.  The Bible of the Big Bands.

Autor: Richard Grudens

Editorial: Celebrity

Nunca pensé que un mal libro diera tanto juego.  Porque ya se habrán fijado que en ocasiones los títulos y contenidos de las obras traídas son meras excusas para temáticas diversas.  Puestos a mejorar este pésimo libro, vamos amenizar este blog con la mejor música de la época.

Pues sí, el negocio de los libros está cambiando, en todos sus perfiles.  Este libro, sin ir más lejos, lo compré en la tienda virtual Amazon, que hacen un negocio muy real, y que les está permitiendo diversificar hasta el infinito. Porque, no me dirán que no tienen imaginación los que comenzaron vendiendo libros, y hoy venden nubes.  Sí, sí, nubes, tal cual.  Vean sino su EC2:  Amazon Elastic Cloud (nube elástica, literalmente), y su modelo de negocio basado en vender computadores “virtuales” allá arriba, en internet, para que cualquiera con necesidad de cálculo, pueda literalmente resolver un problema en las nubes.  Esto del Cloud computing tiene su miga.

Libros como éste son los idóneos para que los lectores se pasen a los libros electrónicos.  Porque a ver, si un libro está mal editado, te lo venden con fe de errata impresa en papel fotocopia, el diseño gráfico es una castaña, el texto tiene un interlineado difícilmente digerible, y la tipografía es un asco, ya me dirán para qué queremos el libro. ¿Que porqué lo compré?  Pues simplemente por su información, que siendo completa, obviamente no justifican la adquisición.  Pues eso, para manejar información, meramente, con exclusión absoluta del placer intrínseco y estético de leer un buen libro, efectivamente, mejor un lector electrónico.  Por cierto, que Amazon también vende el suyo: Kindle.  Habrá que echarle un ojo.

Hay otro tema editorial en el que Amazon creo no ha entrado aún:  La edición de libros libres.  Pero ese es otro tema, y por estos lares podríamos recomendar Bubok,  que por cierto ha otorgado su nuevo premio editorial a la novela LujoyGlamour.net, de mi amigo J.  No estaría bien con todos estos condicionantes dejarla fuera de la Biblioteca de Alejandría. Ya la compré, otro día les contaré.

Autobús

Pues volviendo al libro de la semana, les contaré.  Allá por los años 80, un abnegado profesor de biología -también existen algunos buenos profesores en secundaria- decidió llevarnos de viaje a la Universidad de Salamanca.  Aquella visita, que incluyó el microscopio electrónico de la facultad, y charla con algunos científicos, fue parte del despertar científico de algunos estudiantes. ¿Y  cuento de qué esto aquí?

Se imaginarán que a la vuelta del viaje, el profesor nos reunió a todos, los tres o cuatro cursos implicados, para comentar la experiencia y enseñarnos las fotografías.  En todas ellas, aparecía un sujeto compañero de estudios y de viajes, que cual niño de teta colgado de los brazos de su madre, seguía de cerca, sin separarse, a tan dedicado profesor, cual impertinente cobrador del frac, y poniendo una sonriente cara ante el objetivo cada vez que este se disparaba.  El profesor le amonestó posteriormente y pidió abono de todos los carretes y fotos reveladas. Y Esta anécdota viene al caso, porque el autor del libro, más que escribir un libro sobre un tema, ha escrito “su libro” sobre el asunto, preocupándose de mostrar siempre cuan dedicado ha estado durante los últimos años a entrevistar a todos los artista y hacerse fotos con ellos.  Con lo que si uno echa un vistazo rápido al libro, pensaría más bien que el libro retrata al autor, antes que a una época o un tipo concreto de música.  Una pena, mayor si cabe por el modo que las imágenes destrozan el texto, cortando líneas dónde sea necesario, cual máquina desbrozadora, y dejando renglones mutilados acá y allá.

Y ya puestos a sacar temas, vamos con algo más positivo sobre ciencia y música.  ¿Pensaba Vd. que la música y la ciencia son conceptos divorciados?  No hay tal.  Pongamos por caso al joven Galileo, de cuyo invento se celebran 400 años. Sirva al menos la música del libro, para hablar un día más de ciencia y tecnología.

Resultó allá por el siglo XVII, cuando el joven Galileo trataba de estudiar mediante planos inclinados el comportamiento de la ley gravitatoria, poniendo así en bandeja a Newton el avance posterior, que su bien afinado oído, y su rítmico sentido de la música, le permitió dilucidar lo que de otro modo, y en ausencia de un preciso reloj -todavía no inventado- hubiera sido imposible.  Conocía Galileo y medía con soltura, los diferentes compases, pulsos y medidas de las notas musicales.  Con un bien entrenado sentido del ritmo, capaz de distinguir la duración de semifusas y garrapateas, con divisiones de hasta 32 notas por segundo, ideó, digo,  Galileo, un experimento ingenioso.  Colocaba primero cuerdas atravesadas sobre un plano inclinado, y separadas por unas determinadas distancias, arbitrarias inicialmente.  Dejaba después rodar una bola y escuchaba el sonido producido a cada paso por la bola sobre las cuerdas.  Posteriormente movía las cuerdas, intentando que el tiempo transcurrido entre cada golpe de la bola sobre cuerdas consecutivas fuera idéntico.  De este modo y tras ajustes progresivos, consiguiendo distancias que hacían los intervalos de tiempo entre golpes idénticos, descubrió algo interesante.  Que las susodichas distancias entre cuerdas aumentaban progresivamente a lo largo del plano inclinado, en razón geométrica del tiempo transcurrido.  ¿Verdad que tiene sentido?

En fin, después de todo lo dicho, convendrán conmigo que no hay mal libro que por bien no venga.  Y sí, de Big Bands contiene 700 páginas de información -que incluye bastante sobre Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra… ya digo, contaminadas por el autor.  Espero que hayan disfrutado el la preciosa Canción grabada por la Banda de Duke Ellington, en una época difícil:  Jump for Joy.

I know yall remember the infamous Ink and Paint Club scene from Who Shot Roger Rabbit, when animated vixen Jessica Rabbit put’s on a steamy show for horny flesh and blood patrons including private investigator Eddie Valient. The song she performs is one the main reason I loved that movie as a kid, aside from the fact it blended animation maturely and effectively with film noir, creating a satisfying cinimatic experience for young and old alike.  I had severe case of song-stuck-in-the-head so I decided to post up the vid and call it a day. Not to be one dimensional with it I decided to do a little research and came across the original joint by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra.

Benny was born on the south side of Chi Town in 1909. Influenced by the stylings of New Orleans Jazz musicians around his way like Jimmy Noone and Johhny Dodds, he began music lessons during his adolescence and became quite the Jazz clarinetist. In 1935, now a seasoned band leader, Benny struck musical gold working with Fletcher Hamilton Henderson Jr. Fletcher was an african-american  musician, arranger, composer and leader of the most popular black big band in New York during the 20’s and early 30’s. With Fletcher’s arrangements Benny’s band took off, igniting the ’swing’ movement in North America hence the moniker ’king of swing’. It’s also cool to note that dude led one of the first intergrated bands during that time. Nice. Benny Goodman passed June 13, 1986 a mere 4 days before I was born. Thanks to Ms. Rabbit for the introduction, here’s looking at you Benny….. 

Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee- Why Don’t You Do Right

Jessica Rabbit (Amy Irving)- Why Don’t You Do Right

Benny Goodman and His Orchestra- Sing, Sing, Sing

Honorable mention: Also one of my favorite reincarnations of a jazz classic in a film, Cameron Diaz’s performance of Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You, followed by a dance sequence to the equally fresh Hey Pachuco by swing revival band Royal Crown Revue.  Gee baby was first recorded by famed Detroit jazz big band McKinney’s Cotton Picker’s in 1929, Nat King Cole’s remake became his 4rth US chart topper in 1944.

Nat King Cole Trio- Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You

Cameron Diaz (Tiukien)- Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You/Hey Pachuco- Royal Crown Revue

Yes, we’ll still on the topic of Jazz! Christy Smith was another performer at the Shades of Pink event that we held at 2902 Gallery back on the 11th of May. I was lucky to be able to photograph Christy recently. Christy is known to be a phenominally versatile bassist from California who is as comfortable on electric bass as he is on the upright, and as happy to be playing hard-nosed funk grooves. A graduate from Fullerton University, California, Christy spent several years touring with symphony orchestras and big bands appearing in all corners of the globe with artists such as Stevie Wonder and Sarah Vaughan before forming his own outfit playing jazz and R&B. He has also performed with Billy Higgins, Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Charlie Haden, Alphonse Mouzon, Eddie Harris and Harold Land among others. Since 1993 he has been based in Singapore where he has become a major institution of musical excellence and is in no small way responsible for the emergence of a new standard of jazz musician in our lovely city. He can be found almost any day of the week performing and recording with his band Chromazone, and often with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Ernie Watts, Eric Marienthal and Jeremy Monteiro. Do check out his website for more information.

TED LEWIS, “THE JAZZ KING”

Ted Lewis was the original party animal. His catchphrase “Is ev’rybody happy?” still rings on the lips of millions who never even heard of Lewis himself. He wore a dented old top hat when he performed, and himself a crazy old good time up on the stage, and as any veteran will tell you, that’s half the battle.

Of course, calling Lewis “the Jazz King” is a little like calling Pat Boone “the Grand Duke of Heavy Metal”. One can call oneself anything in show business, the more hyperbolic the better. But though you might fool your contemporaries, posterity, never.

Born Theodore Lewis Freidman, in Circleville, Ohio (1890), he started out singing and playing his clarinet in nicklodeons, medicine shows and carnivals. For years he played the small time and his own nightclubs and cabarets with the Ted Lewis Nut band. His debut at the Palace in 1919 was a wow, and he was to repeat it many times. Trademark Ted Lewis tunes include “When My Baby Smiles At Me”, and “Me and My Shadow.” For good measure, he would roll his hat down his arm and catch it. He had great succes through the twenties in revues such as Zeigfeld’s Midnight Frolic and the Greenwich Village Follies. In 1925, he had successful run at London’s Kit Kat Club with the Dolly Sisters. By the thirties, he was out of style, and he gradually faded into the woodwork, passing away in 1971.

To find out more about these variety artists and the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

BEN BERNIE, “THE OL’ MAESTRO”

As we have seen, personality was everything vaudeville. Pretty music aside, a major factor in the success of a band was a colorful and entertaining bandleader. Bernie and others we’ll meet frequently developed their own catchphrases, many of which outlived the fame of their originators. You may not have heard of Bernie, but you’ve certainly heard the phrase “yowsah, yowsah, yowsah.” That one was his.

Born Bernard Anzelvitz in 1891, he set out to be a serious musician. He debuted as a concert violinist at Carnegie Hall at age 14. Apparently that didn’t go anywhere, for in 1910, he teamed up with accordionist Charles Klass to from the vaudeville act “the Fiddle-Up-Boys”. In 1915 he formed a more succesful partnership with Phil Baker. Baker played the accordion and gradually added more and more jokes until it was essentially a comedy act. They parted ways in 1923, with Baker going to even greater fame on stage, screen and radio.

Bernie was more interested in music then laughs. In ’23, he formed Ben Bernie and All the Lads, which had a standing gig at the Roosevelt Hotel for the next six years. In the early 30s, the band toured vaudeville with Maurice Chevalier. For a long time, Oscar Levant was Bernie’s piano player. Bernie’s radio show was a fixture on CBS from 1931 until he passed away in 1943.

Bernie is responsible for Jack Benny’s stage name. In 1921, the comedian (whose real name was Benjamin Kubelsky) began calling himself Ben K. Benny. He soon receieved a “cease and desist” letter from Bernie’s lawyers – too similar. His music may have been sleepy and gentle, but in show business you played hardball. Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah.

To find out more about these variety artists and the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

While we were in Sicily (ambrosial, even though it rained more than it should have, by my lights) I checked my email and YouTube comments whenever I could.  It pleased me to see that people had asked for two more sterling performances from John Wriggle’s March 25 concert in tribute to the under-recognized arranger / composer Chappie Willet.

Happy to oblige!

Here’s GRANDFATHER’S CLOCK (an arrangement done for the then quite new Gene Krupa Orchestra), on which James Zollar plays that old-fashioned melody line with such panache:

And another nearly ancient piece of Orientalism, PERSIAN RUG, as arranged for the Red Norvo band — with Jon Singer doing himself proud on the xylophone:

For more details about the band (Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, augmented for the occasion) and the concert, please look back at the previous post, where you’ll find most of the music I captured during the first half of the evening.

Last Wednesday, at the Elebash Recital Hall in the headquarters of the City University of New York, a marvelous evening unfolded before us.  Free, mind you.

Musicologist John Wriggle, someone whose jazz credentials are impeccable, was presenting a live big band tribute to the little-heralded arranger-composer Chappie Willet, who wrote for every Swing Era orchestra you can imagine: Ellington, Lunceford, Calloway, Goodman, Armstrong, Teddy Hill, Norvo, Krupa, as well as for stage shows and musical acts.  Willet never got to be as famous as many of the other arrangers of the period, but his work has its own identity.  For one, his charts are full of “modern” touches: advanced harmonies share the spotlight with devices that go back to ragtime and marching bands.  And his arrangements and compositions always swing.  What better proof might we have than his being hired by Louis Armstrong in 1936 to write for Louis’ orchestra?

The evening wasn’t a lecture illustrated by records from the era.  Wriggle knows that this music has to be performed live and he enlisted an augmented version of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks to represent the entire era, which they did nobly.

The Nighthawks, for this one night only, included Jon-Erik Kellso, Randy Reinhart, James Zollar, trumpet; Jim Fryer, Vincent Gardiner, trombone; Jay Brandford, Dan Block, Mark Lopeman, Andy Stein, reeds; Peter Yarin, piano; Ken Salvo, banjo/guitar, Vince, bass; Rob Garcia, drums; Daryl Sherman, Marion Cowings, vocals.  Here is a selection of the music that was performed — with style, abandon, and exactness — in the concert’s first half.  Unfortunately, the microphone setup didn’t do the singers justice, so I’ve kept to instrumentals here.  You should have been there!

Here’s the 1931 CHANT OF THE WEED (and you can guess what weed it was), arranged and composed by Don Redman, whose work inspired the young Willet:

BLUE RHYTHM FANTASY was the title of the program as well as this this 1936 chart — composed and arranged by Willet and Teddy Hill for Hill’s band.  Catch the whole-tone licks:

A stomping UPTOWN RHAPSODY will change your ideas of what “rhapsodic” means: another 1936 chart for Teddy Hill:

More stomping!  PRELUDE TO A STOMP, from 1937, was recorded by the Mills Blue Rhythm Band and played by Louis Armstrong (on his ground-breaking Fleischmann’s Yeast radio program)

JUNGLE MADNESS may seem a heavy-handed title in 2009, but it suited the Mills Blue Rhythm Band splendidly in 1937:

Another chart played by Louis on the radio — an energetic I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW — had Jon-Erik Kellso reaching for the stars (and getting there):

RHYTHM JAM, from the same period, has the distinction of being one of the first (it not the first?) band chart on what musicians call “rhythm changes,” using “I Got Rhythm” as their harmonic structure:

Finally, here’s an ancient college anthem, WASHINGTON AND LEE SWING, indebted to TIGER RAG, also broadcast by Louis in that same year:

There’s more to come — in the second half, Willet’s arrangements and compositions featured by Gene Krupa, Red Norvo, and Cab Calloway.  Although I haven’t identified soloists in the Nighthawks, everyone soloed beautifully — all the more impressively considering that many of them had seen these charts only once before.  They are an extraordinary ensemble of jazz professionals: when you’re through admiring their work in these clips, it would do you good to see them at Sofia’s on a Monday night (it’s the downstairs club in the Hotel Edison).

Don’t touch that dial!  (Or should it be “Don’t erase that bookmark” or “Don’t move that mouse”?  Suggestions invited!)

En la vida encuentras un exceso de información impresionante sobre cualquier tema:  muchos libros, muchos comics, muchas películas, obras de teatro, pintores, escultores, corrientes filosóficas y/o culturales ( ay guey!), y claro, música. Es difícil seguir todos estos temas, conocerlos tanto como quisieras, más si te apasiona uno o varios tópicos en particular, es también muy difícil seguirle la pista a todo aquello que alguna vez encuentras y claro, olvidas apuntar en algún post it o nota del celular. Así que te vuelves selectivo, no hay tiempo que perder, no mucho.

Emir Kusturika y la No smoking orchestra merecen, a mi parecer, el tiempo que te tome encontrar su música, escucharla, ver las películas dirigidas por el primero y documentales rodados sobre la vida en el camino de los segundos.

Sobrevivientes de la tradición gitana de Yugoslavia, con influencias en su música de la árabe, la española, la italiana, el funk, el punk, el jazz, las big bands y hasta algo de electrónica. Seguidores del movimiento conocido como nuevo primitivismo, creadores de un sonido llamado Unza Unza. Esta banda es algo así como la Buenavista Social Club de los paises bajos (las comparaciones siempre son odiosas pero ¿ que yo no?) y es que estos músicos, de improvisados no tienen nada, muchos son importantes dentro de muchos géneros y hasta otras ramas del arte cómo el cine.

La banda se formó después de que otra banda de punk llamada “Zabranjeno Pusenje” o “prohibido fumar” en español, se desintegrara, luego de que el vocalista  Dr. Nelle fue enviado de Yugoslavia a Belgrado por la persecusión musulmana a causa de los contenidos sarcásticos religiosos dentro de la lírica de la banda. Ahí es donde se forma la agrupación actual de la banda, contando entre sus filas a Kusturica y a su hijo, quien por cierto, es entre otras cosas el compositor de la primer ópera punk del mundo y mucho antes que Green Day.

Esta banda se presentará el lunes 30 de este mes en el vive cuervo salón, y la verdad es que es una suerte que dentro de su gira consideraran a México, que vengan con los Kusturica, pero como siempre el pedo es el precio, jajaja; como sea, pienso ir y si a alguno de ustedes le interesara, aquí dejo para descargar algunas canciones de esta bandota.

Emir Kusturika & The No Smoking Orchestra – Unza Unza Time

Emir Kusturika & The No Smoking Orchestra – Daddy, Don’t Ever Die On A Friday

Emir Kusturika & The No Smoking Orchestra – Was Romeo Really a Jerk
lechugo

Even though it is an ancient cliche, we are known by the company we keep, and so I think that the late Jesse King must have been someone remarkable.

I know nothing about her except what I’ve been told — that she was located in Richmond, Virginia.  But photographs from her estate just recently turned up on Ebay (sorry, the bidding is over, so you missed your chance to squander the grocery money on these unique artifacts).  Not just snapshots of the cabin at Schroon Lake or of the kids cavorting — but Thirties studio photographs of some of the world’s most remarkable musicians — AUTOGRAPHED to Jesse.

Here they are in roughly alphabetical order:

A very slender and dapper Henry “Red” Allen in a very hip suit with what looks like the world’s longest trumpet.  The pose isn’t exactly, “Look, Ma, no hands!” but it comes close.  “I can hit those high notes with one hand tied behind my back,” it suggests.”

Water damage or not, this is still Mr. Strong.  And he threatens to burst out of this tiny picture (really an eight-by-ten).

Edward Kennedy Ellington, sharp as a tack and a long way from “Soda Fountain Rag.”

“A fellow named Handy, with a band you should hear.”

Who remembers Edgar Hayes?  I certainly do.

This one was signed “Johnnie,” which initially mystified the seller.  But WE know who these fellows are: how about the Ellington reed section pre-Ben Webster, in a photograph I had never seen before.  (Barney Bigard, Otto Hardwicke, Hodges, and Harry Carney.)    Postscript: I wanted this one for my wall and was outbid, which is fine.

Here’s Claude Hopkins and his alter ego, both dressed for success.

Harlan Lattimore, a sweet singer who worked and recorded with many classic big bands.  Perhaps his portrait is the largest here because of that nifty cap.

Don Redman, so influential and so under-acknowledged.

Luis Russell was not a thrilling pianist.  I doubt he would have lasted long among the striders uptown.  But his bands were very fine: his 1929-30 group can still melt your earbuds.

And something quite astonishing — a portrait of Chick Webb!  Helen Oakley Dance told the story of asking Chick to autograph a photo and his saying, shyly, “Oh, my secretary will sign it for you.  She has such beautiful handwriting.”  Finally, Helen prevailed on Chick to sign his name himself.  The photograph here is too small to see if it is “authentic” by the standards of autograph collectors, but it’s close enough for me.

Does anyone recognize this trumpeter?

This photo (inscribed to his honey) is signed “Fitz,” which is quite mysterious — although if I had a world-class magnifying glass, there is a slim chance that All might be Revealed.  Which one is Fitz?

Then there are “The Three Dukes,” clearly to the manor born.

One photograph eluded me — of the bandleader Baron Lee — but the others suggest what riches are in trunks and attics.  But who was Jesse King?

And a larger question.  I understand the collacting urge, to have the rarities for oneself.  But I also wonder if these delicious photographs shouldn’t have ended up in a museum where everyone could see them.  Perhaps they will someday, but the waywardness of people’s heirs and the fragility of paper make this unlikely.  And perhaps it is right not to put too much emphasis on mere objects, even if they have been touched by Red Allen or Johnny Hodges.

But what if Ebay is our new museum, and these objects have stopped being accessible once they are bought?  I would find that troubling.  “Art for sale!  Get your red-hot art!  Peanuts, popcorn, relics!”  Well, at least we have gotten an opportunity to see these photographs.  That is more than I would have expected.

I found this amazing clip of Frank Sinatra singing “Fly Me to the Moon” from the special “Sinatra – A Man and His Music” from 1965.  Mr. Sinatra looks so slick and the sets are amazing!  I love that he has two big bands supporting him!

I opened the January 26, 2009, issue of The New Yorker to the advertisement that sits contentedly between pages 32 and 33.  It describes, in brief, events taking place throughout February at Symphony Space in their month-long “1939 Project: American Arts At A Turning Point.”  The full schedule is available at www.symphonyspace.org/1939. On this page, one can see programs devoted to 1939 cinema, popular and classical music, fiction, “American culture in context,” “the pulse of 1939,” and more.  Kirk Nurock, Marion Cowings, Eisa Davis, Sara Laimon, Robin Aleman, Dawn Clement, Jody Sandhaus and others will play and sing.  Famous names — E.L. Doctorow, Robert Dallek, Dick Cavett, and Leon Botstein — will speak, moderate, and direct.  And there’s more.

But I have to say that before I saw this advertisement, I had heard intriguing rumblings about these programs: the names of Ellington and Basie had been invoked as artists central to the culture of 1939.

But no Ellington or Basie did I see on this program.  I looked closer, and found something . . . .

“JITTERBUG DANCE JAM

FEB 7 AT 7 PM    FREE

Kick up your heels to the sounds of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, and other big band favorites at this community dance-along on the stage of the Peter Sharp Theatre.”

Forgive me if I seem ungrateful.  I know that pop music of the Swing Era was transmitted for free — recordings and live broadcasts — on radio coast-to-coast in 1939, so I suppose this evening is someone’s idea of “Juke Box Saturday Night.”  But to me it seems cheap and inadequate.  The absence of live 1939-tinged jazz on such a program is annoying, to put it politely. I mean no disrespect to the singers and musicians Symphony Space has already hired and advertised; I am sure that they will sing and play with abandon and ambition.  But . . . .

Were the project directors at Symphony Space unaware that 1939 was a watershed year in live jazz?  Charlie Christian joined the Benny Goodman band; Jimmy Blanton joined Ellington; Lester Young was electrifying listeners in the Basie reed section.  Eddie Condon was creating jam sessions at the Friday Club; Alistair Cooke was announcing other sessions for the BBC; a young Charlie Parker was finding his wings; Dizzy Gillespie was already surprising musicians; Art Tatum already had intimidated everyone; Coleman Hawkins returned from Europe and recorded “Body and Soul”; Louis Armstrong was at one of his many artistic peaks.  An underfed singer from Jersey named Sinatra made his first recordings.  I could go on, but you get the idea.

I know, of course, that such projects are broad in scope and often narrow in budget.  But I have seen jazz concerts put on by the Sidney Bechet Society at this very Symphony Space, so I would guess that such an event was within the realm of possibility. And, to loosely paraphrase Allen Ginsberg’s HOWL, “I saw the best musicians of my generation playing for the tip jar, playing fifty-dollar gigs all over town.” I’m no impresario, but if you gave me a five-hundred dollar budget, I could put on the finest impromptu 1939 jam session you’d ever seen or heard.  (No music stands, by the way.)  I could think of twenty-five imensely talented and under-utilized instrumentalists and singers, each of whom could embody the creative pulse of 1939 in sixteen bars.  But they’re not on the program.

Did the famous names on the program eat up all the funds?  Did the producers decide that it was important to have live classical music and live singers, but assume that jazz could be taken care of by someone with a well-filled iPod?  I don’t know.

Once again, live jazz has the door shut in its face.  And, ironically, jazz of this era is often dismissed as “no longer representative of American culture,” the outdated music of white-haired folks deep in nostalgia.  Surely some place could have been found for it during a month-long project.

How very disappointing.

I vaguely remember listening to the rather large radio that occupied our living room – and attention – prior to the advent of television. Not unlike my bride and I, my parents had their favorite shows and they’d make sure they were home with the radio warmed up when those shows hit the airwaves.

Fibber McGee and Molly, December Bride, Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and the Bickersons were among the more lighthearted shows. The Green Hornet, The Shadow, and The Inner Sanctum were some of the more dramatic and action-packed programs.

From time to time I’d still be up when the big band musical shows came on. Those shows were typically broadcast live from a ballroom in some hotel.

That’s another thing that has changed dramatically during my lifetime. There were a number of well known bands that were contracted to play at specific hotels for years at a time. Other famous bands toured the country, but they didn’t put on concerts at theaters and arenas the way today’s artists do. They appeared at hotel ballrooms.

While today’s concerts might find some couples dancing in the aisles, most attendees are content to sit (or stand) and listen to their favorite singers and bands. But back in the day… you’d better be wearing your dancing shoes, and some fancy duds, when you went to listen to Tommy Dorsey or Paul Whiteman. The ballrooms had large dance floors and they were well used.

In hindsight, some of those musical radio shows could be fodder for satire. That’s exactly what Guy Marks thought a few decades ago when he recorded his famous “Loving You has made me Bananas.”

And now, without further ado, Jim’s Journeys is proud to present the world famous impersonator, Mr. Guy Marks…

I think listening to Guy Marks has made me bananas.

I found these great photographs of some of my favorite old big bands.

The Count Basie Orchestra (Image: www.euclidsfifth.com)

Count Basie Orchestra poster from 1939 (Image: AllPosters)

The Tommy Dorsey Band with Buddy Rich on skins - 1941 (Image: www.tuxjunction.com)

Glenn Miller with his orchestra

Glenn Miller Orchestra poster from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore (Image:AllPosters)

The Benny Goodman Ochestra with Gene Krupa on skins (Image:www.drummerworld.com)

Mr. Gene Krupa of the Benny Goodman Orchestra (Image:www.drummerworld.com)

The Gene Krupa Band (Image:www.drummerworld.com)

The Duke Ellington Orchestra with Mr. Ellington on keys - 1962 (Image www.steinonvine.com)

The Duke Ellington Orchestra - 1937

The National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians

The National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT) is the largest non-profit international educational association dedicated to the advancement of the craft of band instrument repair.   

Founded in 1976 as a small grassroots organization of 45 members with a common goal of technical integrity and professionalism. Each member placed ten dollars into a hat and NAPBIRT was born. NAPBIRT has since blossomed into an open friendly international organization of over 1300 members located in over 20 countries. In 2000 the organization opened its NAPBIRT Technical Training Center (NTTC) in Normal, Illinois. This facility is specifically designed and constructed for the purpose of continuing education. Training sessions range from one day to one week and are intended for members interested in career development or specialized training in a particular field of endeavor.

TECH LOCATOR- Peter Pollard

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    Cheshire, WA15 9EL

 

 

The mission of NAPBIRT is to promote the highest possible standards of musical instrument repair service by providing members with a central agency for the exchange of information and continued education through the administration of programs that benefit its membership.

Helen Lewis & Her All Girl Jazz Syncopators

Like most professions in Pakistan, music is a career that is mostly male-dominated. That is one reason why Pakistan’s first all-girl music group has created a bit of sensation. Although they may need a bit of fine tuning, the excitement they have created just by being an all-female band was enough to cause quite a buzz. Zeb & Haniya’s music has been well-received by many music critics so far. Here’s more about their group from BBC News:

“But the most startling fact about these girls, for Pakistanis and the world at large, is their origin.

Both Zeb and Haniya are ethnic Pashtuns, and their families hail from the town of Kohat in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.

That region has, of late, become synonymous with the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

“We’ve never lived there, but we do keep going back for family functions and get-togethers,” Haniya explains.

How accurately the militants represent the cultural identity of the Pushtuns is one of the mostly hotly debated topics in the region.

Zeb and Haniya are a living and vivid example of how much more there is to the Pushtun sensibility than the images of gun-toting renegades.

But that is all by default – the girls say they are here to be recognised for the quality of their music, not their background.

So far they seem to have struck all the right chords as the praise keeps on coming from the media.

“It all started five years ago when we were in college in the US and starting writing songs,” Zeb explains.

The girls were then undergraduate students at Smith and Wesleyan college.

“I started experimenting with different instruments and sounds,” Haniya recalls.

“Zeb had been taking singing classes for a while and we got together to record some songs.”

That might have been that, Haniya says, if not for the decision to upload the songs on to the internet.

“When we got back to Pakistan, we found out that some of the local FM radio stations had actually been playing them.”

Since 2001, Pakistan has seen a boom in local radio channels which broadcast both local and international talent.”(End of Excerpt) Read the rest here:(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7786423.stm

While Zeb & Haniya were students here in the U.S., the American culture inspired them to start making music. In fact, the article states that ”their music blends western and eastern influences seamlessly.” I hope that Zeb & Haniya can inspire more Pakistani women to increase their prescence in music & other fields. Just like I’m sure Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators  were an inspiration to other American female musicians.They were the first all-female music band that emerged during the roaring 20’s. Here’s an excerpt from  Wikipedia with more on them & other all-girl bands:

“In the Jazz Age of the 1920s, “all-girl” bands such as “Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators” were briefly popular. (In 1925, Lee DeForest filmed Lewis and her band in his short-lived Phonofilm process, in a film now in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress.^[4]) Blanche Calloway, sister of Cab Calloway, led a male band, Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys, from 1932 to 1939, and Ina Ray Hutton led an all-girl band, the Mellodears, from 1934 to 1939. Author and professor Sherrie Tucker published a book detailing the times and trials of All-Girl Swing bands of the 1940s, titled “Swing Shift”, in 2000. (Duke University Press)

Groups composed solely of women began to flourish with the advent of rock and roll. Among the earliest all-female rock bands to be signed to a record label were Goldie and the Gingerbreads, to Atlantic Records in 1964 and Fanny in 1969 when Mo Ostin signed them to Warner Bros. Records.”(End of Excerpt) Read the rest here:(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-female_band

           The Trick Is To Stay Fresh

I heard a band four decades old.

“Good God, I thought, what a good band!”

How do they do it? Forty years?

What do they think night after night

When each man steps up to the stand –

Night after night his horn in hand,

Old licks, clichés

Takes his solos even on the days

His wife is sick?

And still they’re slick and stick it out

Night after night, year after year,

Internal tensions always there.

It must be like a factory job,

To entertain the drinking mob.

Or maybe not.

Maybe jobs have been a ball,

A chance to leave four walls,

Create, maintain a freshness,

Make some music on the spot,

Feelings tapped, without pretence;

Spontaneous, and proud of what

The dents he’s chalked up on his horn

All signify.

Perhaps, instead of blasé scorn

He manages to like the crowd –

The drunks, the dancers raw and loud.

Maybe the leader has charisma -

Makes each guy feel that he’s good;

Shows respect for solos

Drummer, sax or trumpet blows;

Drumming, blasting, bellowing.

By hook or crook, the trick’s eternal:

Keep the kernel of renewal growing,

Tapped and showing;

Ever crowing.

The trick is to stay fresh.

©The Trick Is To Stay Fresh 94.11.30

Vaguely About Music;

Arlene Corwin

Hoje faz 35 anos que o mundo perdeu o grande Gene Krupa.

Quem?

Eugene Bertram Krupa foi um dos maiores bateristas que já andou neste planeta. Os entusiastas do jazz com certeza conhecem este cidadão. Começou a tocar durante a década de 1920 nas chamadas Big Bands e alguns anos depois já era cobiçado por diversos artistas e bandas na capital mundial do jazz, Chicago.

Reza a lenda, que certo dia, Krupa, em uma gravação, montou um kit de bateria e o técnico do estúdio ficou completamente sem reação. Os bateristas da época apenas marcavam o ritmo com, no máximo, alguns pratos e uma caixa. Quando o técnico viu aquele mar de pratos e um bumbo com um pedal, ele ficou embasbacado e disse que aquilo nunca ia dar certo e que o som ia ficar uma bosta. Krupa pediu uma chance de mostrar o que ele podia fazer com aquilo. Adivinha o que aconteceu?

O estilo de tocar de Krupa virou sucesso imediato e em pouco tempo, após tocar com Benny Goodman, ele já possuia sua própria banda.

Várias técnicas da bateria foram criadas por este cidadão e hoje ele é considerado um dos primeiros métodos da história da bateria, não seria nada exagerado traçar um paralelo dele com o Jimi Hendrix. Ele popularizou a utilização do pedal, dos címbalos e de várias levadas de jazz. O cara era completamente a frente de seu tempo.

Para corroborar a minha tese de que todo rockstar de verdade tem que ter sido preso uma vez na vida, Gene foi preso por porte de maconha em 1943. Completamente a frente do seu tempo!

Gene Krupa morreu em 1973 por complicações da leucemia que o aflingia.

Dê uma olhada nele em ação:

A segunda música é ESPETACULAR!

Legado:

Buddy Rich

John Bonham

Keith Moon

Neil Peart

(bem lembrado pelo Rubens) Terry Bozzio

Chad Wakerman e Terry Bozzio

Mike Portnoy

[Wikipedia]

  After one of the band’s numbers, leader George Corridino, told the dancers, “It’s a pleasure playing for you tonight. I am not sure the Cavaliers have ever played for the Mr. and Mrs. Club before.”

The Cavaliers playing for the 2008 Mr. and Mrs. Club Luau Dance

  I assured him that it had.  When I first joined the dance club more than 30 years ago, the Cavaliers was playing for it.  Always liking the sound of a big band, I was pleased when the 17-piece Cavaliers played. The club did stop using it a long time ago because of the price tag for a group that large.  The club went to combos exclusively. That didn’t leave George out because he played for a lot of combos and ended up with his own.

  Well, the club went back to that big band recently, hiring it to play for the annual Luau Dance. And they were really good. I always liked the full sound of a live big band and enjoyed very much dancing to it.

Mr. and Mrs. Club 2008 Luau Dance

  Though the Mr. and Mrs. Club is private, limited to married couples, it does invite the general public to its annual New Years Eve Dance. All it takes to get in is the price of a ticket.  A lot of people come to enjoy the traditional New Year’s Eve Dance with all of the trappings, champagne, noise makers, funny hats, balloons that drop at midnight as the live band plays Auld Lang Seine, and a full breakfast served after the dance is over.

  A lot of younger couples come to that one, and it is fun to watch the college-age kids dance. They really get good. TV Shows like “So You Think You Can be a Dancer” and “Dancing with the Stars” have turned on a lot of young people to ballroom dancing again. That’s a good sign because it means the style will stay in style into the future.