Nat King Cole knew more than we realised when he sang “Smile, what’s the use of crying, You’ll find that life is still worthwhile, If you just smile.”

That’s because science is increasingly finding that changing expressions can influence mood, although scientists still don’t fully understand why.  But they are beginning to suspect a neurological link between facial muscles and brain activity.

People asked to smile while watching a cartoon, for instance, report it is funnier than people who are not asked to smile.

Botox Lifts Depression

Now a series of studies seem to show that women who have Botox treatments are happier – and it has nothing to do with increased self confidence because they look better.

First (in 2006) a Botox-happy cosmetic surgeon reported a  small study which claimed that filling out depressed women’s frown lines so they couldn’t wrinkle their brows helped lift their depression.

The pilot study of 10 patients was the first to provide empirical support for what a number of clinicians say they have noticed anecdotally: People who get their furrowed brows eliminated with Botox (botulinum toxin A) often report an improvement in mood.

Washington dermatologist Eric Finzi’s study found that even patients who were not seeking cosmetic improvement showed a dramatic decrease in depression symptoms.

Not Just Self Confidence

And a follow up study reported in Time magazine suggests that Botox may lighten people’s moods by literally wiping the frowns off their faces.

The study, published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, followed 25 cosmetic-surgery patients, 12 of whom received injections of Botulinum Toxin A or similar neurotoxins, the others receiving fillers, peels or other cosmetic treatments for wrinkles.

Two weeks after the treatments patients filled out a questionnaire for depression and anxiety.

“The Botox patients scored much lower on measures of depression, anxiety and irritability,” explains Michael Lewis, a psychology professor at the University of Cardiff and lead author of the study. “Crucially, there was no significant difference in how much their treatment made them feel attractive from those who had other treatments, suggesting that [the mood boost] wasn’t just down to a boost in self-confidence.”

Face and Brain Link

At the time, Finzi explained the results of his 2006 study using the facial-feedback hypothesis — a feedback loop in which people frown back at a depressed person, further deepening that person’s sense of isolation. He suggested that if a depressed person can’t frown because of Botox treatment, then others won’t frown back at them, thereby breaking the loop.

Others have suggested facial muscles may alter the temperature of blood flowing in the brain. Relaxation techniques such as yoga and tai chi may help cool the brain and result in a more positive mood.

Whatever the mechanism, moods can clearly be influenced by expressions, not just the other way around, said Paul Ekman, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California at San Francisco, who has spent decades exploring the connection between emotions and expressions.

“If you make a facial expression voluntarily, you can change the autonomic and central nervous system to generate that emotion,” he said.

Meeting People Easier

But Ekman said the relationship between emotions and expressions is probably too complex to explain Finzi’s finding. It is unlikely, he said, that simply altering one’s expressions can relieve depression.

More plausible, Ekman said, is that changing expressions can help heighten or decrease emotional states. Or it is possible that by frowning less, patients in Finzi’s study seemed less forbidding to others, which helped to strengthen their social connections. In turn, that may have helped ease the depression, Ekman said.

But Lewis says he favors the theory that facial muscles influence brain activity directly and points to earlier research that suggests such a neurological link.

Fake It Till You Make It

For example, studies have shown that subjects find comedy routines significantly funnier when they hold a pen between their teeth the way a dog holds a bone, a pose that stimulates the muscles used for smiling. Similarly, subjects laugh less when holding a pen between their lips, a pose that mimics frowning.

Such studies are part of a growing trend in counseling and therapy that focuses on behavioral change — a new approach summed up by the Alcoholics Anonymous slogan “Fake it till you make it” — rather than the stern “talk therapy” of the Freudian era.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, for instance, teaches patients to alter the physiological feedback cycles of certain conditions by slowing their breathing during panic attacks or cutting the hangdog look during periods of depression.

But Lewis warns that his and Finzi’s studies both examined small sample groups, so it would be premature, he says, to consider Botox injections — at around $400 each — purely on the basis of their potential for mood enhancement.

Den kann ich immer wieder hören! Und ihr könnt euch die Zeit bis zum nächsten Rezpept vertreiben, wir haben Nutella-Kekse gebacken

‘All That Jazz”

que venha o jazz,
os sonhos,
as dores,
as mulheres,
as poesias,
as lembranças,
as ruas vazias
e violentas.
tenho atuado
em um filme
noir de segunda
categoria
durante anos.
Mas a trilha
sonora é
maravilhosa.
Nos becos
toca Miles Davis,
no meu quarto
toca Billie Holiday,
nos meus sonhos
mais loucos toca Duke.
Nos momentos mais
tristes toca
Nat King Cole,
me deito no
chão e assisto
as constelações,
aviões caindo,
gatos pulando
entre as antenas,
atravessando a noite
e as lembramças.

Photo by Alexis Rhone Fancher

he used to
sing ‘Mona Lisa’
to me
in the halls

he was an art teacher
a gentle, creative force
he liked sitting with us
playing

Cat Stevens records
with his

students

he was struck by
lightening

while flying

a kite

he died
young

but

still sent

his message

of freedom

through.

“Or is this the way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought
To your doorstep
They just lie there
And they die there
Are you warm are you real
Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely
Lovely
Work of art?

Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa”

Songwriters
Jay Livingston
Ray Evans

© 1950

L. K. Thayer

All Rights Reserved

© 2009

“The greatest thing
You’ll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return”

OK, so I know there might be a few songs missing that are considered classics, but these are my favorites:

1. The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole)
Plain & Simple – The Gold Standard of Holiday songs by the Gold Standard of vocalists.
2. White Christmas (Bing Crosby)
Bing’s Merry Christmas album with the Andrews Sisters is the best.
3. Merry Christmas Darling (The Carpenters)
A contemporary standard, of which there are few.
4. Christmastime is Here (Vince Guaraldi)
The music from Charlie Brown’s Christmas is classic and not just for kids. Scores of jazz musicians were influenced by Guaraldi, and this tune captures the mood and spirit perfectly.
5. Do You Hear What I Hear (Whitney Houston)
Despite the turmoil in her personal life, Whitney has perhaps the most incredible pipes of any pop singer of her era. Her version of the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl with the Marine Band backing her brings chills down the spine (and like these other pop start wannabees, she did it live).
6. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Andy Williams)
Not a huge fan of Williams in general, but I love his Holiday music. This is the most quintessential of his many Yuletide tunes.
7. You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch (Thurl Ravenscroft)
I learned something researching this one. I thought it was sung by Boris Karloff who narrated the cartoon. Turns out he was given credit by mistake.
8. Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy (Bing Crosby & David Bowie)
I remember watching this live on Bing’s Christmas special back in the 70’s as I recall. Seemed like an odd pairing at the time, but it turned out to be a wonderful collaboration.
9. Silent Night (Barbara Streisand)
Many versions to choose from, but I like this one. Barbara’s A Christmas Album ranks among the best.
10. Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (Steve Lawrence & Edie Gorme)
OK, so Saturday Night Live and others have taken their shots at Steve & Edie, but I’m telling you this version really swings.
11. O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree) (Vince Guaraldi)
Charlie Brown part 2.
12. William the Angel (Rob Mathes)
Better known in the music business as a producer and songwriter, Rob Mathes performed this song in his PBS concert Christmas is Coming: Rob Mathes & Friends with Vanessa Williams and Michael McDonald. An instant classic.
13. Some Children See Him (Sixpense None the Richer)
I remembered George Winston’s instrumental version from his December album, but the lyrics are so beautiful and I found this version that’s mostly acoustic guitar and vocals. Singer Leigh Nash has a childlike quality to her voice (You may remember the group’s hit single Kiss Me) that seems appropriate.
14. Winter Wonderland (Dean Martin)
Dean does the fun holiday with that twinkle in his eye and playful vocal quality that we love. There are two arrangements of this one, but there’s one I listened to as a kid that’s really great. Believe it or not, it came from a compilation album that Texaco gas stations used to give away will a fill-up back in the dark ages, as I tell my son.
15. Away in a Manger (Mahalia Jackson)
Really brings you back to the spirit of Christmas.
16. Mele Kelikimaka (Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters)
Fun tune and a nice departure from snow and fireplaces.
17. Feliz Navidad (Jose Feliciano)
Adds a nice international flavor to the list. This one also has stood the test of time.
18. Frosty the Snowman (Jimmy Durante)
From the television special – with Durante, like Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Dean Martin, there’s an audible smile in every note he sings.
19. Sleigh Ride (Johnny Mathis)
Again, many versions, but I like the way Mathis interpreted this one.
20. Oh Holy Night (Nat King Cole)
Another one that just sounds better by Nat.
21. Silver Bells (Bing Crosby & Carol Richards)
From the Bing Crosby album previously referenced.
22. I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (Dean Martin)
Great tune not as widely known or recognized as a holiday tune until Rod Stewart butchered it on his standards album.
23. Baby It’s Cold Outside (Blossom Dearie & Bob Dorough)
This song is a classic that has been recorded by hundreds of artists. This version is somewhat obscure – by two eclectic pianists/songwriters and jazz club performers also known for their work in the Schoolhouse Rock series.
24. The 12 Yats of Christmas (Benny Grunch & the Bunch)
This one is essentially for New Orleanians by the king of colloquial musical references, Benny Grunch.
25. Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me) (Elvis Presley)
This one rocks and it just makes me chuckle. It almost sounds like someone doing a bad Presley impersonation.

 Love Songs (Digitally Remastered) by Nat King Cole

2009 (25 tracks, 1:12:57)

pop

Lindo capullo de alelí,

Si tu supieras mi dolor,

Correspondieras a mi amor,

Y calmaras mi sufrir.

Porque tu sabes que sin ti

La vida es nada para mi.

Tu bien lo sabes,

Capullito de alelí.

No hay en el mundo para mi

Otro capullo de alelí

Que yo le brinde mi pasión,

Y que le de mi corazón.

Tu solo eres la mujer

A quien he dado mi querer

Y te brindé, lindo alelí

Fidelidad hasta morir

Por eso yo te canto a ti

Lindo capullo de alelí.

Dame tu aroma seductor

Y un poquito de tu amor,

Porque tu sabes que sin ti

La vida es nada para mi.

Tu bien lo sabes,

Capullito de alelí.

10. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree  – Brenda Lee

9.  Blue Christmas  — Elvis Presley

8. The First Noel  — Nat King Cole

7. Holly Jolly Christmas –  Burl Ives

6.  Ave Maria — Celine Dion

The Dawgs of War: a Remembrance…  By Derek Johnson… Afterword by Rick Neuheisel

5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town  — Tony Bennett

4. Do you Hear what I Hear?  –  Whitney Houston

3. Feliz Navidad  -  José Feliciano

2.  White Christmas -  Bing Crosby

1. The Christmas Song – Frank Sinatra

Última música do filme japonês fofinho Swing girls, que acabei de assistir.

Aproveita o climinha e dá uma passadinha no blog da Mamá que tá cheio de coisas de Buenos Aires?! Tá ótimo, vale a pena! Tô dizendo! Tem videozinhos e tudo o mais!

Obrigado! Beijos! “Tô tão feliz que existe mim!”

Klokken er nå slaget 22:21, og jeg sitter å venter på toget hjem! I morgen er det duket for en kongepresentasjon og Ad Flu kommer tell å koke! Vi ska dra hele prosjektet i land, og overgå det meste!

Hvorfor så giret? Jo, når en begynner å bli overtrøtt, og kroppen er fattig på hvile og nødvendig næring er det en naturlig reaksjon. Safarikjeksen som Merethe glemte derimot begynner å tære godt på det sukkerfylte humøret, og med ”You are my sunshine” på øret, er jeg egentlig i bedre humør enn hva jeg trudde var mulig med tanke på at jeg er en av de som ska presentere i morgo.

Dette har vært to intense uker, og i løpet av den tiden har det blitt knyttet sterkere bånd mellom folket på byrået, blitt kjent med arbeidsmåter, og ikke minst personligheter, samt tatt utholdenheten ut til det maksimale.

Men nå er det på tide å rusle nedover, med Nat King Cole på øret. Spent på morgendagen!

Harry Connick, Jr
Your Songs
(Columbia/Sony BMG)

Det finns kritiker som menar att Harry Connick, Jr inte ska kallas jazzsångare. Det vet inte vad de skriver. Det kan till och med ifrågasättas om de har öron. Och hur stora kunskaper om jazzhistorien, särskilt jazzsången, kan de ha?

Ursäkta, men det behövde sägas.

Mångsysslaren Harry Connick, sångare (både R&B och jazz), pianist, låtskrivare och skådespelare, är fortfarande Frank Sinatras mest värdiga arvtagare.

På nya albumet ”Your songs” har Connick, liksom Sinatra ofta gjorde, hämtat materialet från andra artister men framför låtarna så att de blir allt annat än covers. Några av artisterna är Frank Sinatra själv, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Beatles och Elton John, några av heter ”All The Way”, ”Can´t Help Falling In Love With You”, ”Your Song”, ”Smile” och ”Mona Lisa”.

I både ballader och lite snabbare låtar balanserar Connicks perfekt mellan populär- och jazzsång. Melodi och rytm gungar mot varann, och hör hur han synkoperar, drar på tonerna och orden så att det börjar svänga som – just jazz.

Kolla förresten extra när du köpa albumet att du fått tag på den europeiska utgivningen där det extra bonusspåret – Harry Connick sjunger duett med Carla Bruni i ”And I Love Her” – finns med. Ingen jazzsångerska men underskattad, hon också.

(Ystads Allehanda 2009)

Amongst various lagoons, canyon wildernesses on the pacific shores, various places like Modjeska Canyon and others, long haired naked sun worshippers, wandered in the naturelands, singing songs, eating fruits, fasting, praying, doing yoga, playing guitars in huts and befriending American Indians, all in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, before the SF rennaisance carnival and all its merry troubadours shone into the Haight and elsewhere.
Nature boys they were called and of various stock they were, of English, Jewish, of German and of other. Meditating and doing yoga, eating pure foods, sunbathing an waterbathing and connecting with the wilderness they were a different breed to the settled gold trailsters and cattle ranchers, they were America’s sadhus, babajis, yogis and sants. And they had inherited things which went back further, things of the German spirit and nature far from the Hitler-Nazi perversions.
We can understand this curious brand of nature mysticism in the works of Thoreau, of Emerson, but moreover we can see them also trickling in the background of Herman Hesse, in the founder of Naturopathy and its various historical clinics, some in California. Going even further back we can see the Rosicrucian and Paracelsian fords and pastures and their glimpses of places further east, in North Africa, in Morrocco, Spain and Damascus, Syria and India.
Oriental Nature Boy Mystics housed the river of traditions arcane and forgotton and a spirit of freedom.
And not all nature boys were celebate and single, as some took their girlfriends along as well.

Laguna Beach, a place in the ambit of the nature boy wilderness wanderings, took in curious surfers who had given up the car gangs of beachrealm, and took to surfboard, yoga and pure foods not to mention psychedelic alchemistry. But before this period, Laguna Beach also housed bohemian types, artists and was a faved retreat renowned for its natural beauty and somewhere amongst these were esoetric interests in a mysterious group named the Order of Loving Service who harked back to an important inspiration, a Baba Premananda Bharati, who in the first decade of the 1900s established various Krishna congregtions centered on an ashram in Los Angeles caled the Krishna Home. Many of California’s esoterically inclined came across it, one such being a Maud Lalita Johnson, a famed esoteric writer in her own way. Another called Elsa Barker famed for her many esoteric novels had contact with the first wave of Krishna Chaitanya devotion. Premananda Bharati belonged to the Krisna traditions of Chaitanya, the blessed madman and holy fool and incarnation of Krishna who bathed Bengal in waves of ecstatic love of Godhead. This Krishna baba had an influence of Gandhi and Tolstoy, but the two world wars meant that this period of the oriental in American esoteric latter day Rosicrucian traditions such as New Thought, Golden Dawn, Theosophical society and others were forgotton, remembered by only a few. But all that is known is that the Order of Loving Service published a book dedicated to Baba Premananda Bharati in Laguna Beach and that it was associated with the Royal Order of Tibet founded by George Adamski who was the pioneer of UFO abductee narratives. They were also inspired by the wriings of Lalita Johnson and it was her book with the dedication to Premananda that they published in Laguna Beach called Square. It was later in 1969 that another Krishna temple of a different lineage appeared in Laguna Beach, that of the Krishna tradition represented by a famed guru named Bhaktivedanta Swami which is more commonly known. Certain folk in this new Krishna temple in Laguna had links to another group named the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, whom we shall look at another time.

Nat King Cole did a song dedicated to a certain nature boy named eden ahbez  or ahbe in which he describes this  nature boy as being wise. This track of Nat King Cole’s was also covered by John Coltrane, the great jazz musician who himself was inspired by metaphysical stuff descended from the latter day Rosicrucianism as well as oriental mysticism. Another nature boy named Gypsy Boots was friends with various musicians of the sixtiees of which the major music tribes of SF and was respected by Jerry Garcia. Kerouac wrote about him, Frank Zappa was friends with him and he appears on the stages between band sets of certain of the major bands at the Monterey Pop Festival and Newport Festival. He inspired Sky Saxon of The Seeds, Arthur Lee of Love and Randy California of Spirit to become vegetarian, he was admired by Mama Cass as well as Garcia’s wife, who was once Ken Kesey’s girl, named Mountain Girl, a name with a nod to the nature mystic in and of itself. He appears with Zappa in his film Mondo Hollywood in 1968. Gypsy Boots was an American of Russian Jewish descent, born in San Fransisco in 1916, he was taught directly by Maximillian Singer another nature mystic in 1935 learning yoga and fasting and special diets from him after a period of travelling and living in nature. After a while, he was living with many of the prominent nature boy mystics of the time around Tahquitz Canyon and selling crafts in Palm Springs, the very place the Brotherhood of Eternal Love had an epiphany, according to certain historical annals which we shall look at later. He eventually after a period of living as mystical wild man and learning lots, was married in 1953 to a Lois Bloemker, and settled into living near Griffith Park in LA and had three sons. He opened a ‘Health Hut’ in Hollywood where he taught his wisdom of living close to nature.

Maximillian Singer, Gypsy Boot’s mentor was from Augsberg who spent many years travelling and living as a nature mystic in and around Europe, thus the mystical life and water curing, sun bathing, breathing, nutrition and the like was practised assiduously by him. He came to California in 1935 and whilst here inspired many Euro-American born nature mystics. In the Brotherhood of Eternal Love linked loose knit community of Topanga Canyon, he was revered almost as a guru figure, and later on he appeared at the various festivals, be-ins and concerts of the period.

Some that were associated with these brothers of nature were called to the akashic realm, that same part wherein which PBRs Rosicrucians dwelled, that place between the portals of Eulis a place where others dwelled and visisted from time to time, others such as Beatfreak not to mention certain folk of the Order of Loving Service.

Bu sefer de epik bir başlık oldu. Fakat durum budur. Kalemleri artık yalnızca bir şeyler karalamak için kullanıyoruz. Neyse ki, beni el yazısına teşvik eden şahane bir yardımcım var!

Yardımcım bir Lamy dolmakalem. Yıllar önce Banu Berlin’deki Bauhaus Müzesi’nden almış ve bana armağan etmişti. İlk günlerde kullanmaya kıyamadım. Sonra her fırsatta kullanır oldum.

Dolmakalemleri eskiden beri severim. Çocukken şu pompalı dolmakalemlere şaşar kalırdım: Ucunu mürekkebe batırır, içindeki hazneyi sıkıp mürekkebi fokurdatmasını, ardından hazneyi bırakıp mürekkebi içine çekmesini izlerdim. Kartuşlu modellerle tanışmam sonra oldu. O günlerde, artık yaşım ilerlemişti ve dolmakalemleri “havalı” bulmaya başlamıştım. Banu bana bu Lamy dolmakalemi armağan ettiğinden beridir şaşkınlığı, havayı bir kenara bıraktım. Dolmakalemlere, özellikle benimkine bayılıyorum. Kapağını açarken tatlı bir “plop!” sesi duyuluyor; sanki Nat King Cole şarkı söylüyor. Kalemin öyle iyi ayarlanmış bir geometrisi var ki, parmaklarınızın arasına oturuveriyor ve her seferinde ucu en doğru açıyı tutturuyor. Yazmaya başladığınızda kalem, kâğıda mürekkebi tam olması gerektiği kadar aktarıyor; ne eksik, ne fazla. Mürekkep hiçbir yere bulaşmıyor, kâğıtta koca lekeler yapmıyor. Bir de, kalemin ucu kâğıda sürtündükçe çıkan o ses var! Eğer o sesi dinlerseniz, ruh halinize uygun bir şarkı mırıldandığını duyabilirsiniz. Çok ciddiyim! Dolmakalemimin ucu bir pikap iğnesi, kâğıt bir plak sanki… Mutlu bir yazı, Louis Armstrong’un sesiyle “What a Wonderful World”; tutkulu bir yazı, Ella Fitzgerald’ın sesiyle “Fever”; iddialı bir yazı, Aretha Franklin’in sesiyle “Think”; hüzünlü bir yazı, BB King’in sesiyle “The Thrill Is Gone”… O kadar lezzetli ki!

Lamy dolmakalemler Türkiye’de yıllardır satılıyor. Kartuşlarını bulmak da hiç sorun değil; bütün büyük kırtasiyelerde renk çeşitleriyle mevcut.

Eğer yazarken sadece klavye kullanıyorsanız, kendinize bir iyilik yapın ve hemen güzel bir dolmakalem edinin.

- Yıldıray

BULUŞMA NOKTASI

We’re still having fun FUN-raising!  Get used to it.  We’re doing it until the 15th.  Tonight, though we don’t have anyone in the studio with us,

Amalia Goros and I will be featuring the music of Tereza.  The big song from this disk is “Fly me to the Moon”.  Written by Bart Howard in 1954 the song was first recorded by Kaye Ballard then covered by many other great artists including Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Julie London, Patti Page, Doris Day.  In 1969 (forgive me–a pun this good just can’t be ignored) it reached dizzying heights when astronaut Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 played the Frank Sinatra version as he walked on the moon.  On July 20th of this year the 40th anniversary of the moon walk was celebrated at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and to commemorate this historic event Diana Krall serenaded the three Apollo 11 astronauts with her version of the song.

In May 2003 Tereza released her version of this classic on the aptly titled Double cd: Fly Me To The Moon.  It was catapulted into the public arena when Cutty Sark picked it for their TV ad campaign that year.

The disk we’re offering at the $100.00 pledge level has this and many other great songs by Tereza in both Greek and English.  Though she grew up in New York her roots are Greek.

Click here to check out her video for “Akouse Me”.

So, while they last, call (718.204.8900) and pledge $100.00.  Not only will you get this great disk you will also be supporting HPR (Hellenic Public Radio).

1. NATURE GIRL:

Descárgatela aquí: 1. Nature girl

Ray Charles aveva la voce più particolare della musica popolare. Faceva queste cose basate sull’improvvisazione, una risatina o un «Huh-hey!», ed era come se qualcosa lo avesse colpito mentre stava suonando, e lui dovesse per forza reagire in qualche modo. Era inebriato da quello che faceva. E la sua gioia era contagiosa.
Ma c’era qualcos’altro, che non ho realizzato finché non abbiamo cantato insieme negli anni Ottanta la mia canzone “Baby Grand.” Quando canta, non solo lo fa con l’anima. Trasmette la sua anima. Si sente qualcosa di profondo all’interno dell’uomo. Credevo che mi avrebbe fatto sentire come il piccolo sfigato di Levittown, New York. Invece no. Mi ha reso più fiero. È stato come un evento evangelico. Lui era il reverendo e io la comunità di fedeli. Ero tutto eccitato.
Ray aveva iniziato volendo essere Nat “King” Cole. Quando Nat scendeva di tono in una canzone, come “Mona Lisa”, c’era una sorta di ringhio che suonava sexy. Ray lo ha trasportato su un altro livello. Ha preso il ringhio e lo ha trasformato in canto. Ha preso i guaiti, gli urli, i brontolii e i gemiti, e li ha resi musica.
Inoltre, era un pianista. Il piano è uno strumento a percussione. Ci metti il tuo corpo. Ray aveva moltissimi movimenti particolari del corpo, dei quali non sapevo nulla finché non l’ho visto. Prima di vederlo, sentivo quei movimenti quando cantava. Sentivo la sua spalla alzarsi un pochino sulla sinistra, il modo in cui si sollevava sullo sgabello. Poi ho capito che era la voce che stavo ascoltando che stava anche suonando quel piano.
Il primo Ray Charles che ho sentito era Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Aveva avuto dei successi prima di quella, cose R&B come “What’d I Say”. Ma qui c’è un uomo nero che ti regala la musica più bianca possibile nel modo più bianco possibile, mentre stava esplodendo l’inferno con il movimento per i diritti civili. Quando cantava “You Don’t Know Me” pensavo: «Non sta solo cantando le parole. Sta dicendo: “Tu non mi conosci. Vieni a conoscermi”».
Poteva essere molto allusivo con una canzone. La sua versione di “America the Beautiful” del 1972 è una registrazione iconica. C’era così tanto sentimento in quella esibizione. Era il suo modo di dire: «Questo è anche il mio paese. Vi abbiamo dato la musica popolare. Questa era nostra, prima di diventare vostra».
Ma Ray ha sintetizzato il blues in un linguaggio a cui tutti possono rapportarsi. Non si può ascoltare Ray Charles e non dire: «Questo è un uomo che ha sentito profondamente, che ha vissuto questa musica». Lui ti mostra la propria umanità. La spontaneità è evidente. Un altro potrebbe dire: «Quello è uno sbaglio, non possiamo lasciarlo». Invece, Ray ce lo lasciava. E lo sbaglio diventava l’aggancio.

di Billy Joel

Sometimes when you look behind something that’s been in front of you for years you find out things you would have never imagined otherwise.  Such is the case with the song, Nature Boy.

Nature Boy, as recorded by the great Nat King Cole,  has long been one of  my favorite songs.  It has a wonderful haunting melody and tells the story of a “strange enchanted boy” and his search to find love.  It always has had a sort of mystical feel to me, a real oddity in the world of popular music in 1948 when Nat King Cole recorded and had a huge hit with it, staying at #1 on the charts for eight weeks.

I was going to just have a short post and put up a YouTube video of Cole’s version but in doing so I saw the name of the songwriter, eden ahbez, and was intrigued.  Doing a little research I came across some photos of him such as the one above, from the late 40’s sitting with Cowboy Jack Patton ( who wrote Ghost Riders in the Sky) and a spaniel.  I’ll let you figure out who is who in the photo.  ahbez’s long hair and attire seemed really out of place for me in thinking of 1948 so I read on.

eden ahbez was a real one of a kind character in the world of music and in general.  You could probably guess that from the name which he adopted and wrote only in lower case letters.   Born in 1908, he is regarded as the first hippie by many, a long-haired and bearded wanderer who crisscrossed the country on foot, wearing robes and sandals, maintained a vegetarian lifestyle and slept out under the stars.  In fact, when Nature Boy hit the charts he and his wife were living under the first L on the Hollywood sign, which stoked a bit of a media frenzy around ahbez.  He worked in and frequented a vegetarian restaurant (that’s where he met Cowboy Jack Patton, another interesting character) in 1940’s Los Angeles whose German owners preached the gospel of natural and raw foods.  Their followers became known as the Nature Boys.

Not really what I was expecting from a pop songwriter in 1940’s LA. ahbez died in 1995 from injuries sustained in an auto accident.  He was 87.  His was a truly unique life, just waiting for a biographer to tell the story, and reading the little I discovered makes me find the song even more interesting.  Hope you’ll do the same now that you know a bit more about eden ahbez…

As a new print of the film generally regarded as the greatest ever made is released, here’s my guide to the Orson Welles masterwork.

A-Z of Citizen Kane

A is for the American Film Institute which, in 2007, voted Citizen Kane the Greatest Movie of All Time – as it had also done in 1998.

B is for Boy Wonder, the nickname given to stage and radio star Orson Welles even before he made Citizen Kane (1941).

C is for ceilings. One of the innovations of Citizen Kane was the way in which the domineering title character was always shot from below, so that his power was always underlined (weaker characters were shot from above) – the result was that the ceilings of rooms were seen for the first time in the movies; in fact this was the first time the sets had had to have ceilings..

D is for debuts. Citizen Kane would have been a phenomenal achievement no matter who had made it but the fact that it was Welles’s debut as a movie director (and actor and producer) is astounding. He had to learn even the basics of filmmaking while he preparing Kane. Despite this – or perhaps because of his lack of technical experience and willingness to experiment – Welles subverted the rules of filmmaking and created a new vocabulary in the language of cinema.

E is for the end. Citizen Kane opens with the end of Kane’s story – his death – and then goes back to his humble beginnings.

F is for flashbacks. The story of Kane’s life is told through a series of flashbacks triggered by a newspaper reporter’s interviews with the tycoon’s former colleagues, ex-wife and friends.

G is for Gregg Toland, the cinematographer hired by Welles because of his flamboyance and unconventional style. One of Kane’s many innovations was “depth of field”, the method Toland devised of composing shots so that the screen was loaded with information and the figures and objects at the front of the screen were in focus at the same time as those at the back.

H is for Hearst, William Randolph – the American press baron who inspired the character and story of Citizen Kane. The film was essentially a thinly veiled biopic, which showed how power corrupted and how great egos are born – and grow out of control. Before the film was released, Hearst offered RKO Studios $800,000 (the cost of the film) to destroy the negative.

I is for innovation. Citizen Kane is packed full of new techniques, from the pioneering use of overlapping dialogue (which Welles brought from radio) to the ahead-of-its-time make-up which allowed the young star to convincingly age by 50 years during the course of the film.

J is for Judy Holliday. The scenes in which Susan Alexander is being bullied by Kane into being an opera singer are similar to those in the 1950 movie Born Yesterday, in which a gangster tries to turn his moll into a refined lady. By coincidence, Judy Holliday, that movie’s Oscar-winning star, was tested for the part of Susan in Citizen Kane.

K is for “King” Cole. The great pianist (and singer) Nat “King” Cole can be heard playing in the scene at the El Rancho nightclub where Susan is working.

L is for legacy. Citizen Kane stands as an astonishingly fresh piece of work nearly 70 years after it was made, and it has inspired countless filmmakers, among them Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Brian De Palma and Steven Spielberg who pays homage to it in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

M is for Mercury Theatre, the stage company that Welles founded with John Houseman in New York in 1937. Known for its bold, original productions, Mercury Theatre branched out into radio drama – most famously its vivid 1938 dramatisation of HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds, which, although broadcast as a Hallowe’en prank, caused a nationwide panic as thousands of Americans believed they were listening to news coverage of a real-life alien invasion.

N is for Neverland. Michael Jackson’s vast estate – a sort of mini-kingdom – is the closest modern-day equivalent to Kane’s Xanadu, where he stored and showed off “the loot of the world” – the art work, architecture and animals he collected from across the globe. The gothic Xanadu was inspired by Hearst’s gargantuan castle San Simeon which was stuffed with antiques and art and had its own zoo.

O is for Only One Oscar. Yup, The Greatest Film of All Time won only one Academy Award – for the screenplay written by Welles and Herman J Mankiewicz. In 2003, Welles’s statuette was about to be sold in an auction at Christie’s in New York (by Welles’s youngest daughter) but was voluntarily withdrawn so that the Academy could buy it back for $1, a deal which all Oscar winners have to agree to. It had been expected to fetch over $300,000.

P is for Parsons. Louella O Parsons was the Hearst newspaper group’s Hollywood gossip columnist who could make or break careers. When she heard that Welles’s film was really about her boss, she demanded to be shown it – and blew a gasket. It was her report to Hearst which triggered his pre-emptive strike of banning advertisements for the film from his papers, a move which led some cinema chains to cancel their bookings.

Q is for the QT. Several key scenes in Citizen Kane were filmed on the quiet, behind closed doors, so that studio executives couldn’t interfere with the production. The projection room scene, plus the interviews, were passed off as tests but Welles fully intended to use them in the movie – and he did.

R is for “rosebud”, the last word uttered by Kane as he dies in the opening scenes of the film. It is the quest to discover what “rosebud” was that drives the whole film as a reporter is assigned the job of getting to the bottom of the mystery by interviewing as many of Kane’s friends and associates as necessary.

S is for score. Bernard Herrmann’s evocative score – his first feature film score – contributed much to the sinister atmosphere of the film. He went on to compose the music for such diverse classics as The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947) and Taxi Driver (1976).

T is for twenty-four, the age Welles was when he was making “the greatest film ever made”.

U is for unorthodox. A particularly unusual technique was devised by editor Robert Wise (later the director of The Sound of Music) to make the newsreel footage at the start of the film look authentic and grainy: he ran the film through cheesecloth filled with sand.

V is for vendetta. Hearst’s papers conducted a smear campaign against Welles in revenge for Citizen Kane; one rumour which circulated was that Welles was a communist.

W is for “will-they-won’t-they?”. The release of the film very nearly didn’t happen as RKO’s board buckled under pressure not just from Hearst but also from other studio heads, who felt the controversy would damage the industry. Finally, three months after its original scheduled release date, it opened in New York – the result of Welles pointing out to the studio that his contract gave him the right to sue if the film wasn’t shown within a certain period of time.

X is for x-tras. These included Alan Ladd (who would become a leading man the following year) as the pipe-smoking reporter at the end of the film.

Y is for years. The story of Citizen Kane spans an epic 65 years, from his childhood when he was sent to live in the care of the family lawyer, to his death as an isolated old man. For 50 of those years, Kane was played by Orson Welles.

Z is for the Ziegfeld Follies, the show in which William Randolph Hearst’s much-younger mistress, Marion Davies, was appearing when they first met. Hearst’s relationship with Davies differed from that of Kane and Susan Alexander in the movie in a few ways: although Hearst undoubtedly got Davies into movies, she was actually an accomplished comedienne, whereas her fictional alter ego was a pretty lousy opera singer. And while Susan marries and divorces Kane, Davies, whose movie career made her independently wealthy, remained devoted to her man (though they never married) until his death.
* A new print of Citizen Kane is showing at the GFT, Glasgow from October 30 until Thursday 5, and at the Filmhouse, Edinburgh from October 30 until Sunday 8.

Here they are, two giants together making great music. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Shortly after Nat King Cole’s death Oscar Peterson recorded the tribute album With Respect To Nat with his trio and Manny Albam’s big band as backup. Oscar’s vocals in these selections sound suprising like Nat himself, very well done!

Bought my first song from Amazon’s MP3 Downloads store with the $3 promotion code, MP34FREE. Click on the “Redeem a gift card or promotion code & view balance” link to enter the code before buying any songs.