First of all, here’s the clip.

It’s the song “Killin’ Jive” by the group Cats and the Fiddle. This clip is from a movie called “The Duke is Tops,” a so-called “race film” from 1938, back in the days when black people and white people couldn’t be in the same movies together unless the black people were bringing the white people drinks on little trays, taking their hats, and not saying much of anything. So understandably, the black people said phooey and made their own movies.

These kind of pictures had all-black casts and were intended for exclusively black audiences. Made outside the Hollywood studio system, the pictures were low-budget but not necessarily low-quality; they were actually among the first successful “independent” films, which is pretty cool if you think about it. Sadly, Wikipedia tells me that of the around 500 race movies made between 1915 and 1952, less than 100 are still in existence.

Some of these remaining pictures are a treasure trove for swing dancers and jazz historians, because they feature such amazing singers, dancers and musicians. “The Duke is Tops” was an early vehicle for Lena Horne, and as Fred Sanford always said, don’t mess with the Horne.

Despite its rather deteriorated condition, I love this movie, and the scene with the Cats and the Fiddle is great. Incidentally, the group was organized in 1937 and, with a few membership alterations, stayed together until 1950. In a dozen years of recording, they never made it to the charts. As you can see, their style was a bit unusual, being built around their tight four-part vocal harmony, while at the same time they were providing all their own instrumental accompaniment as well. Plus dance steps and some acrobatic hijinks with the upright bass. Pretty impressive! If you compare the Cats and the Fiddle to a group like their contemporaries the Mills Brothers, it is clear they were a little ahead of their time musically, having more of an R&B sound that the world had not yet caught up with. But they get the last laugh, because they’re still being danced to today!

The other song you’ve heard by them is Gang Busters.

Okay, that’s all the blathering for now. See you on the dance floor!

1926

From Oh,Kay!

George Gershwin, Composer

Ira Gershwin, Lyrics

Recordings:

Gertrude Lawrence                 

Ella Fitzgerald

Lena Horne

Sarah Vaughan

Barbara Streisand

Lea Salonga        

Amy Winehouse

Lady Gaga

Listening Challenge: 

This song is very popular, and has been recorded by many singers since its creation.  What has each singer done to make their interpretation original?  Do they stay true to the intent of the original composition?  How do the individual changes affect you as a listener? 

eurweb.com

Alicia Keys Optimistic About Lena Horne Biopic (Audio) | EURweb.

Look how the two women are alike!

Included with this crazy mix up are Nat King Cole, Led Belly, (did you know Led Belly did a Christmas song?) Sonny Boy Williamson, Julie London, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and a bonus track bringing some Hanukkah Lovin’ by Michelle Citrin.  

“Thank you all for listening and loving the blues with me through 2012.  More shows will post after Christmas, and the NEW BPCB season starts early 2013.  Please take the time to visit KMRE on line and donate to help keep community radio on the air.  Happy holiday all ya’ all!”  ~Boosie

• Play
• Pause
• Mute
• Unmute
• Max Volume

• Shuffle
• Shuffle Off
• Repeat
• Repeat Off

Update Required To Play MediaUpdate your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

1644 – A Dutch land grant is issued to Lucas Santomee, son of
Peter Santomee, one of the first 11 Africans brought to
Manhattan. Among the land granted to Santomee and the
original Africans is property in Brooklyn and Greenwich
Village.

1706 – A slave named Onesimus arrives in the home of Cotton
Mather. The slave’s experience and explanation of
African inoculation will result in Mather’s encouragement
of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston to inoculate for smallpox in
1721.

1864 – In one of the decisive battles of the Civil War, two
brigades of African American troops help crush one of the
South’s finest armies at the Battle of Nashville.
African American troops open the battle on the first day
and successfully engage the right flank of the rebel line.
On the second day Col. Charles R. Thompson’s African
American brigade makes a brilliant charge up Overton Hill.
The Thirteenth U.S. Colored Troops will sustain more
casualties than any other regiment involved in the battle.

1896 – Julia Terry Hammonds receives a patent for the apparatus
for holding yarn skeins.

1934 – Maggie Lena Walker, the first woman to head a bank, joins
the ancestors at the age of 69.

1934 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Award is awarded to William Taylor
Burwell Williams, Tuskegee dean and agent of the Jeanes
and Slater funds, for his achievements as an educator.

1939 – Cynthia Ann “Cindy” Birdsong is born in Mount Holly
Township, New Jersey. She will become a singer with Patti
LaBelle and the Bluebells and Diana Ross and the Supremes.

1941 – Lena Horne records the torch classic for Victor Records,
that will become her signature song: “Stormy Weather.”

1943 – Thomas W. “Fats” Waller joins the ancestors, outside Kansas
City, Missouri at the age of 39, from pneumonia. The self-
taught piano player began recording as a teenager and
became one of a small group of African American pianists to
make piano rolls for the growing player piano industry.
Waller’s first solo recording in 1926 led to his own radio
show and three tours of France. Waller was known for such
popular songs as “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “I’m Gonna Sit Right
Down and Write Myself a Letter,” and “Honeysuckle Rose.”
He also wrote music for the stage and the movies, most
notably “Stormy Weather.”

1943 – The San Francisco Sun-Reporter is established. Its co-
founder, Thomas Fleming will be its editor and a working
journalist into his nineties.

1943 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to William H. Hastie
“for his distinguished career as a jurist and as an
uncompromising champion of equal justice.”

1950 – Ezzard Charles knocks out Nick Barone to retain his
heavyweight boxing title.

1954 – The Netherlands Antilles become a co-equal part of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands.

1961 – Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, psychologist and educator, is awarded
the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for pioneering studies that
influenced the Supreme Court decision on school
desegregation.

1961 – Police use tear gas and leashed dogs to stop a mass
demonstration by fifteen hundred African Americans in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana.

1980 – Dave Winfield signs a ten-year contract with the New York
Yankees, for somewhere between $1.3 and $1.5 million. He
will become the wealthiest player in the history of U.S.
team sports. The total package for the outfielder is said
to be worth over $22 million dollars.

1985 – Businessman J. Bruce Llewellyn and former basketball star
Julius Erving become owners of Philadelphia Coca-Cola
Bottling, the fourth-largest African American business in
the United States.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle archives and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

Sinatra would go on to become one of the most successful singers and actors of the twentieth century, with hits such as “New York, New York,” “My Way,” “Witchcraft,” and “That’s Life.” He would also star in dozens of films, including Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls, The Manchurian Candidate, and On the Town. Sinatra was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. He won 11 Grammy awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sinatra, nicknamed The Chairman of the Board and Ol’ Blue Eyes, released his first album in 1946. In 1953, Sinatra won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in From Here to Eternity. He was also nominated for an Oscar for his role in The Man with the Golden Arm. He founded his own record company, Reprise Records, in 1961.

“You gotta love livin’, baby, because dyin’ is a pain in the ass.” — Frank Sinatra

Sinatra was also famous for being part of The Rat Pack in the 1960s, along with Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. The group made the original Ocean’s 11 upon which the George Clooney/Brad Pitt version was based.

Ol’ Blue Eyes was as famous for his love life as he was for his singing and acting. He was married four times, most famously to actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow. He also had numerous affairs with Hollywood starlets. Lana Turner, Lena Horne, Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, and Lauren Bacall — among many, many others — were all linked to Sinatra at one time.

Click on the link to hear one of Sinatra’s greatest songs:

Sinatra: One For My Baby

Let’s face it: the whole wave of “make your baby smarter” products didn’t really do much to move children forward, but it definitely improved the bottom line for some merchandisers.  That J jumped on that bandwagon thanks to school was terribly disappointing.  The teacher enthusiastically told me “look at that!  Your son is listening to Beethoven!  Where else would he get that chance????”  Once I recovered from wanting to assume the crash position, I -more outwardly composed than I felt on the inside- said “at home…he loves Mozart and hates Tchaikovsky; Mahler makes him cry, and Chopin is cathartic to him.  He also enjoys Brazilian music and Gregorian chants.  I’m assuming there isn’t a Baby Einstein that can trample on those for us.”

Call me a snob.  (No…seriously…go ahead.  Take your time.  I don’t mind.  I know I’m a snob.)  I don’t think dumbing things down or making them twinkly and sparkly helps make children more open to them, it simply makes them twinkly and sparkly.  Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak (in my humble opinion) didn’t “talk down” to kids…they simply talked to kids, and kids listened and understood.  Read Jabberwocky out loud to any kid and they’ll soon be mesmerized by its cadence, its language.  Try to do it with a cutesy voice…it doesn’t quite work.  Read Horton Hatches the Egg and give Mayzie a Southern drawl.  Kids LOVE that.  Play Pavarotti singing La Donna è Mobile from Rigoletto to a four year-old and you’ll soon see them trying to lip-sync and emoting, having the time of their lives.  I know Baby Beethoven has some merit, but…why not display a little faith in the kid and play the real thing?

At home, Baby Beethoven became the thing J listened to when he was sick, miserable and in a regressive phase.  No, I’m not imagining it…Baby Beethoven and his cohorts usually brought out things like not making it to the potty on time, wanting to suck our soda from the carpet, grunting and crying rather than pointing.  No sooner would J get sick and whiny than Baby Beethoven would come out of its hiding place and set the mood.

I say this because, for the past few days, J has been sitting downstairs and I’ve up here, on the third floor, listening to him through the baby monitor.  (Yes, my back is still giving me grief and, no, he doesn’t want to come upstairs.)  As I go about the slow business of doing my morning chores (peppered with ouch, ugh, yelp and eek here and there,) I have been followed around by the signs of doom.  You might call them “the Baby Einstein videos.”  Dada and TGG both cringed when they heard that, and I can’t blame them.  It’s not the videos themselves (heaven help me, no…I can’t blame this on the stay-at-home mom who came up with this idea.  I’m sure her heart was in the right place,) but rather what J associates with them: a classroom full of autistic kids who were subjected to Rosetta Stone as a learning tool when they could barely figure out what they were supposed to be doing with that, and then being rewarded with Baby Einstein while the aides took a much needed break.  A kid who at home had his pick of composers, bands, singers and instrumentalists cannot have related clink, whir, spin and bells with a reward.

At this moment I can hear my son listening to NPR and alternating with his iPod and CDs.  So far we have traversed the vast musical territory that encompasses Verdi’s Rigoletto, Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries,  Mumford and Sons, Lena Horne, Blossom Dearie, Vince Guaraldi, The Black Keys, and Bow Wow Wow.  In the middle of bouts of sneezing, a coruscation of joy arises.

I don’t tell you this purely as criticism of the so-called “child friendly” adaptations; I’m sure that these products have introduced many a child to classical music in the same way that toy pianos and xylophones made some us bang away happily thinking we were “making music” while our parents reached for the gin.  I simply would have preferred if, for a time, we had not been subjected to Baby Beethoven and Baby Mozart when Disney (Baby Einstein‘s parent company) did it so much better.  Fantasia is, to this day, a shining example of combining child-friendly with actual classical music played as it should be.  During the Forties, Disney produced a solid catalog of musical compilation movies that actually helped introduce many a kid (who either saw them in the theater or enjoyed them years later in The Wonderful World of Disney as vignettes) to different musical genres.  Both J and TGG are avid fans of music they first heard from these videos, and that experience has helped expand their musical tastes to encompass just about anything.  (I type this as Hendrix starts floating up the stairs and curling around the banisters…)

The music, in a nutshell, tells me that J is feeling better and that tomorrow will be an improvement on today just like we’ve moved forward from the state of demanding misery we experienced yesterday.  I am saying this because, among the pile of DVDs he carried down to the basement with him, J has Melody Time, Make Mine Music, The Three Caballeros (in which “Os Quindins de Yayá” always elicits inspired and spirited dancing), Fun and Fancy Free, and Saludos Amigos.  It’s bound to be a varied musical selection today, and unless Mahler trots out and brings us down, we should be fine.

Yeah…J’s feeling better on this Baby Beethoven-free morning.  And, quite frankly and in spite of my aching back, so am I!

]]> http://goodbadmusicradio.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/itsa-me-michael-o/ Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:11:02 +0000 michaelbetts2 http://goodbadmusicradio.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/itsa-me-michael-o/ http://news92fm.com/296146/mary-wilson-honors-lena-horne-as-an-american-icon-legend/ Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:00:39 +0000 lgriffith http://news92fm.com/296146/mary-wilson-honors-lena-horne-as-an-american-icon-legend/ http://nicolealleninterests.com/2012/11/06/trend-alert-the-most-searched-bangs-on-the-net/ Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:35:46 +0000 Nicole Allen http://nicolealleninterests.com/2012/11/06/trend-alert-the-most-searched-bangs-on-the-net/ http://liberatedmusedotorg.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/you-can-help-in-her-words-return-in-2013/ Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:50:49 +0000 KhadijahOnline http://liberatedmusedotorg.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/you-can-help-in-her-words-return-in-2013/

Nia Simmons as LENA HORNE in the 2012 run of “In Her Words”

Imagine growing up during a time when lynching wasn’t illegal– and neither was segregation for that matter– and McCarthyism was rampant. Now, imagine creating– amidst that environment– art that transcended race, bled through inequality and uplifted a nation. In the musical theatrical presentation, “In Her Words”, we meet five transformative African-American creatives– Nina Simone, Lucille Clifton, Zora Neale Hurston, Billie Holiday and Lena Horne– who rose above the binds of racial injustice and fed the souls of millions with their art and their message.

Liberated Muse Arts Group debuted “In Her Words” in 2012 to more than 200 audience members at sites within the DC Public Library System and the United States Peace Corps headquarters. In 2013 we have been invited to present the show again but this time we need your help.

What We Need & What You Get

Support Our Campaign by clicking HERE

Thanks in advance for your support!

The selection of recordings is pretty standard: recordings of recent alternative chart-toppers (ex: Mumford and Sons‘s I Will Wait, Imagine Dragons’ It’s Time) mixed in with a few classics like Nirvana’s Come As You Are from the MTV Unplugged concert. But occasionally there will be a song that sounds eerily familiar but I can’t put my finger on it, when I realize they’re playing a cover.

When done well, covers are artistic revelations, uncovering new meaning from an already established piece of work. Case studies great covers include The Fugees’ cover of Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly, Whitney Houston covering Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, and Lena Horne’s quintessential cover of Ethel Water’s Stormy Weather.  However, for the artist, doing a memorable cover requires walking a thin line. Hold too closely to the original, and one becomes a cheap imitator. Stray too far and one loses the spirit of the material.

So towards the end of the hour, Everlong had just finished and transitioned to this slow, morose arpeggio. Immediately I thought Johnny Cash, but it’s too slow for Ain’t No Grave. Hmmm…

“She was more like a beauty queen…”

Huh. OK, that’s Chris Cornell, but this doesn’t sound like anything from Soundgarden or Audioslave.

“…from a movie screen…”

Now I’ve DEFINITELY heard this song before…

“…said don’t mind but what do you mean…”

Wait… am I hearing this right?!?

“…I am the one…”

Wow! This is friggin’ ballsy.

When I got home, I found I was really late to this party, like five years late. In 2007, Chris Cornell recorded one of the greatest covers in history, tackling one of the most iconic songs in pop: Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. Its brilliance was embedded in Chris’s unapologetic determination to make Billie Jean his own masterpiece, not recreate Michael Jackson’s. Earlier this year, Chris would create yet another brilliant cover, his own take on I Will Always Love You, in honor of the late Whitney Houston.

Chris was following a common adage of most self-help books: be yourself. Don’t try to be anyone else because you can’t compete with the real deal. But there’s only one you, and you have a special, unique perspective that no one in the world has, so just be the best “you” you can be. Simple.

It’s around this time when I set the book down, admire myself for the $14.95 + tax + shipping well spent, and proceed to ruin the experience by doing something really dumb; I start thinking. That’s when the big gorilla of a question enters the room:

What the hell does that mean?

Don’t I embody the entire spectrum of human experience? If so, isn’t being angry, detached, apathetic, and generally angsty just as valid an embodiment of myself as being joyful, energetic, and happy? What if “I” am not a good person? Am I not being “myself” when I practice self-restraint and allow the teenagers who egged my car to get off scot-free? Why does being “myself” require me to be relaxed? What if “I” am just a stressed person? Who’s to judge that my fears aren’t part of who “I” am?

I can’t say I’ve found any definitive answers to those questions that have perplexed me since my teenage years, but I have my own personal theories to addressing them. Yes, all emotions, including those society would consider destructive, encompass who we are. In fact, those destructive emotions like anger and detachment can serve to protect us when surrounded by threats. However, survival is not advancement, and the advancement of the human race, and thus our own personal success, is predicated upon our ability to cooperate and share information, so behaviors that facilitate such interactions better serve our personal advancement. These behaviors are the actual foundations of being our “true self.”

So here’s a non-scientific, non-definitive list of clues that you may be acting like your “true self”:

1) You are more concerned about others than their perception of you.

Cooperation compels us to focus our attention to our environment so we can properly process, communicate, and affect our environment. Focusing on ourselves means ignoring what is around us, making communication difficult, and cooperation impossible. Even our biology is geared toward perceiving outwardly; after all, aren’t our bodies engineered to see what’s around us more easily than to see ourselves?

2) You become more aware of the possibilities to build, and less concerned about protecting what you already own.

Building is an external action, requiring that one interacts with the environment. Such interaction encourages the attention from others, some of whom may find it in their own interest to assist your creation. While preservation is important, if you spend more energy protecting than building, then you’re effectively limiting your opportunities to interact with others, thus cutting the opportunities to cooperate.

3) You find you’re surrounded by more allies than adversaries.

If you are experiencing clues #1 & #2, then chances are you’ve found a solid group of allies. Allies allow you to spend more of your energies building and cooperating and less on protections since you don’t need to be as concerned about personal attacks. So if you believe you are surrounded by few allies and more adversaries trying to pull you down, while it may be necessary to leave such an unhealthy environment, consider too it may just be your own perception, and your perceived adversaries have actually been potential allies all along.

(PS: If anyone has any more clues to how to “be yourself,” please share them in the comments. We can use your wisdom.)

So how do these clues apply to Chris Cornell’s Billie Jean?

1) Chris’s performance is completely dedicated to communicating the story of Billie Jean to his audience, with absolutely no concern about his own self-image, how he shapes up to Michael Jackson, or any other distractions that don’t concern Billie Jean.

2) In Billie Jean, Chris saw an opportunity to build upon a story, knowing full well he didn’t need to worry about protecting his image, his previous work, or Michael Jackson’s. Without those burdens, Chris could bring his full creative strength to his endeavor.

3) Chris saw his audience as allies, not critics, allowing him to perform with a compelling vulnerability lesser artists couldn’t reach. Less protections lets Chris communicate more, which makes the performance that much more powerful.

So in essence, being yourself means not thinking about yourself. That’s MY strong advice.

And practice safe “dance on the floor in the round.”