There’s a major Frank Sinatra revival now going on. And the celebration of the singer Time Magazine named as the greatest entertainer of the 20th century is part re-appreciation of his art, and part hard-nosed business. The Los Angeles Times:
A new era is beginning in the career of Frank Sinatra even if the Chairman of the Board isn’t here to participate.
The iconic singer died May 14, 1998, and the 10th anniversary is being marked with a flurry of activity, including a new U.S. postage stamp with his likeness, lavish new CD and DVD collections, a major revival of his films on television and high-profile media appearances by his children.
This surge in all things Sinatra is more than just a fleeting commemoration, however — it’s more like the beginning of a corporate brand roll-out.
Late last year, the Sinatra heirs signed a pact with Warner Music Group Corp. that will bring Ol’ Blue Eyes back in a big way, not just as a digitally resurrected entertainer but also as an advertising pitchman and, potentially, the name on the marquee of a feature film, a Broadway show and a casino and resort.
Part of the way you can judge if a deceased icon “lives on” is whether he has appeal to young people. And you can see some appreciative comments under Sinatra videos on You Tube.
And it’s fun to watch the often offbeat Sinatra lip syncs on You Tube done by young people — like this great one (a classic lip sync of a classic):
Play an Ella ballad with a cat in the room, and the animal will invariably go up to the speaker, lie down and purr. – GEOFFREY FIDELMAN
Like many teenagers, I went my own way when it came to the music my parents played, so I was not particularly moved by their fondness for Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz vocalists.
But as I grew older and my musical horizons expanded, I kept bumping into Lady Ella, mostly as I devoured Duke Ellington albums, and it wasn’t too long before I was smitten by this singer with a mountain spring water purity of voice, a three-octave range and extraordinary interpretive powers.
My father especially loved Ella and her “My Man” was his favorite:
It’s cost me a lot
But there’s one thing that I’ve got,
It’s my man.
Cold and wet, tired you bet
But all that I soon forget,
With my man.
He and my mother finally got to see Ella perform live, and in honor of his birthday she dusted off “My Man” and sang it for him. It was to be his last birthday.
Bluegrass traditionalists are still in shock over a 2007 album collaboration between bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs and free-wheeling pianist Bruce Hornsby.
Pianos typically are not welcome additions to the acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, fiddles and upright basses of bluegrass bands, and I was inclined to agree until the Dear Friend & Conscience and I heard Hornsby and Skaggs in front of Skaggs’ marvelous six-piece Kentucky Thunder backup band last night at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.
Nevertheless, Hornsby’s presence was a hard sell.
It took perhaps a third of the two hour-plus concert before we could even hear Hornsby except on solos. Even after the sound was adjusted, his terrific keyboard stylings tended to get lost in the cacophony of strings, including Skaggs’ brilliant mandolin playing and gorgeous fiddling by Stuart Duncan and nonpareil banjo picking by Jim Mills.
And perhaps it is a reflection of my own tastes, but it seemed like Skaggs and Company brought more to Hornsby’s extended rock- , blues- and jazz-influenced songs such as “White-Wheeled Limousine” and “Mandolin Rain” than Hornsby did to Skaggs standards such as “Stubb” and “The Dreaded Spoon,” although their set-closing cover of Rick James‘ “Super Freak” was terrific.
Would I see this ensemble again? Absolutely, but it would be nice if the sound was right from the outset.
April 14th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Some younger Americans may not quite get Barack Obama’s swipe at Hillary Clinton, suggesting she is posing as Annie Oakley in his reference to her comments on guns — part of the increasingly aggressive tone between the two camps in light of the controversy over Obama’s comments about people in small towns being bitter.
READ THIS for a quick summary of Oakley, who was one of the Old West’s cultural figures, a legend in the late 19th and 20th centuries — and one of America’s first female superstars. In the late 20th century, her tale spawned movies, a TV show and — most famous of all — Irving Berlin’s immortal Broadway classic “Annie Get Your Gun.”
It’s usually a smart move when politicos use cultural references about their foes. Walter Mondale used the slogan from a commercial “Where’s the beef?” against Senator Gary Hart. It is said that Jackie Kennedy came up with the linkage of her assassinated husband JFK with the musical “Camelot,” and the song from the original cast album has been played on some tributes to him. You can also see the cultural reference technique used to great advantage, in terms of show business, in the employment of quick satire bits on the animated cartoon “Family Guy.”
Using a cultural phrase is “high concept” — immediately recognizable. In this case, Obama’s reference would have connected more to baby boomers. A cultural reference also conjures up a whole slew of other images associated with it. Used correctly, it could be an advantage.
Here is a rare treat that will explain the Annie Oakley reference to younger Americans. Here, from a very rare kinescope of the 1957 TV adaptation of the musical done live in front of a studio audience is Broadway legend Mary Martin (South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Peter Pan) playing Annie in the character’s most defining song — You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun. FOOTNOTE: To this day I remember watching this TV production live…I was in elementary school.
Cedella Booker, mother of international reggae icon Bob Marley, has died in her sleep in Miami.
I had the privilege of hanging out with this marvelous and vibrant woman several times when I was a guest in her Wilmington, Delaware, home and she a visitor at the farm where I lived. As matriarch of that city’s small Jamaican community, she always had an open door and offered a helping hand.
“Mama Marley” or “Mama B, “as she was alternately known, was born in Rhoden Hall, Jamaica and later moved to Nine Miles, St. Ann, where at age 18 she married Norval Sinclair Marley, a white Jamaican marine officer and ships captain with English roots. Their son Robert Nesta Marley was born in 1945.
Norval Marley died when Bob was 10. Mother and son then moved to Trench Town in Kingston, and in 1963 to Wilmington to live with her sister. There she met and married Edward Booker, who owned a local record store.
Bob returned to Jamaica in 1964, but his musical career foundered and in 1966 he returned to Wilmington with wife Rita, whom he had just married and later became a member of the I Threes, his back-up singers. He worked at a Chrysler Corporation auto manufacturing plant (the inspiration for his song “Night Shift”), but soon realized that his destiny was not toiling on an assembly line and he again returned to Jamaica, where his career finally took off.
We’ve run several posts that had YouTubes showing performers from the era of vaudeville (way before my time) that sparked lots of positive emails from readers, particularly young TMV readers.
And, now, here is the BEST clip of all.CLICK HERE to go to The Glittering Eye and read the wonderful post — and be sure to click on the rare 80 year old clip that shows you an incredible performance by two of vaudeville’s largely-forgotten headliners. Read the rest of this entry »
We ran this about a year ago but have had a reader request to run it again. Did you ever hear about the old vaudeville shows, where high-energy performers had to entrance an audience with their talents, energy and charisma?
Here’s a perfect example of that kind of act. In 1955 the great comedian Jimmy Durante (one of the most beloved performers of the early to mid 20th century) did his old vaudeville act on TV with his former partner Eddie Jackson. Note the pizazz with which they do the songs, the timing…and the incredible energy of these two performers who were not exactly spring chickens when they wowed this audience.
Young aspiring performers, take note and study their stage presence:
It is a testament to the complexity of the brain that despite decades of research we still have relatively little understanding of why so many of us enjoy music so deeply and revel in its ability to alter our moods, trigger memories and even change our lives.
That is just fine with me as someone who has never heard a kind of music that he didn’t like.
Regular readers of my blog (the cats, my next door neighbor’s cats, my faithful brother and that sweet woman from England who keeps seeing UFOs) know that I adore music.
Music is pretty much a full-time companion. It wakes me up in the morning and relaxes me in the evening. It helps me celebrate good times and weather bad times. It makes me move my body in fun and interesting ways when the Dear Friend & Conscience and I are at a concert or roll up the living room rug on a Saturday night and boogie. And I can say without equivocation that it does strange and wondrous things to my mind.
Yet for all of the music that I have absorbed since I first heard “Pop Goes the Weasel” played on a jack in the box, I don’t have a clue as to how and why it does those things to my mind.
Sacks, a groundbreaking neurologist and prolific medical writer, presents a pastiche of medical case studies ranging from the amazing tale of a man struck by lightning who subsequently develops a passion and talent for the concert piano to less fortunate souls who have violently disruptive musical hallucinations or less intrusive “ear wigs,” songs that play in a continuing loop in their minds. These “musical misalignments,” as Sacks calls them, are seldom fully treatable, let alone understood.
Even less understood are why some people, myself included, find such joy and even rapture in music while others – Sacks cites Che Guevara, who was rhythm-deaf, and Sigmund Freud and Vladimir Nabokov, brilliant men who didn’t get even the least bit of pleasure from music – as representative of large segments of the population.
I’m not a superstitious guy by nature, but how can I not help but believe that there was a Curse of the Grateful Dead Keyboardists?
Four of the Dead’s six keyboard players died of causes other than stage fright: Vince Welnick, a 2006 suicide; Keith Godchaux, a heroin addict who died in a 1980 car crash; Brent Mydland, who succumbed to a drug overdose in 1990, and Ronald “Pigpen” McKernan, whose liver packed in 35 years ago today at the tender age of 27.
McKernan was on board from the beginning, a member of all of the Grateful Dead’s precursor bands and the titular lead singer for eight or so years as the ensemble moved beyond its folk and bluegrass roots and coalesced around psychedelic drugs and the extended riffing for which it became legendary.
McKernan had a rough, often off-key voice and was a mediocre piano and organ player, but he packed more soul and attitude into the Dead than the rest of the band put together. And while he was the roughest-edged player in this eclectic menagerie he was nevertheless the gentle soul who brought the band and their rapt fans back to earth from their cosmic voyage at night’s end.
March 6th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
I was driving in the hills when my wife placed a vintage Harry Belafonte audio cassette into the car stereo player… Belafonte’s magical voice never fails to refresh me during strenuous drives. Nearly 40 years ago this wonderful musician had swept American women off their feet with his broad smile and throbbing Caribbean songs…Somewhat like Obama, the politician, who has woven his own magic (with his presence and words) over women, as well as men, in the present day US of A.
Of course, it is not an appropriate comparison. How can one compare a legendary musician with a politician? Let me explain. While listening to Belafonte’s old number “Women smarter than men in every way” (click here to listen), I thought how topical/relevant the song had become with Hillary Clinton registering dramatic wins in Ohio and Texas…leaving the legions of her detractors in the media/blogosphere virtually speechless.
The British newspaper, The Independent, somewhat agrees that the woman (Clinton) is smarter and tougher than the man (Obama). “Super Tuesday belonged to Barack Obama, but its sequel – the US state primaries held this week – belonged to Hillary Clinton. Her victories in Ohio and Texas have given her presidential election campaign a new lease of life. If she eventually wins the Democratic Party nomination, 4 March will go down as the date her fortunes turned. Americans like to say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
“Not for the first time in her varied career, Mrs Clinton showed herself to be among the toughest. She responded to the setbacks of Super Tuesday by revamping her campaign staff, going on to the attack and applying herself with renewed energy to the task in hand. Before this week, it was possible to argue that maybe Mrs Clinton did not have what it takes to win the nomination, let alone the presidency. It is far more difficult to maintain that position now.”
February 29th, 2008 by SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist
MORE HERE ON A MAN MOST PEOPLE KNOW IN ANOTHER INCARNATION. FOR BUDDY AT HIS FINEST, CLICK HERE AND LISTEN TO “MACHINE GUN” FROM JIMI HENDRIX’ CLASSIC BAND OF GYPSYS.
February 27th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
With the controversy over Senator Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Senator Barack Obama’s speeches and audience reaction to them, and suggestions elsewhere that Obama supporters are a kind of cult (yours truly does not believe it is a cult at all but that this is a charge being made to discredit Obama’s support), perhaps this is song via Old Blue Eyes is one that Mrs. Clinton thinks should be Obama fans’ new theme song:
February 26th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
While Ms Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, interacted with the Chinese leaders about the nuclear disarmament in North Korea, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra held a historic concert in the heart of North Korea — a nation still considered as an enemy by the US. The East Pyongyang Grand Theatre echoed with the strains of North Korean national anthem ‘Patriotic Song’, and followed by America’s ‘Star Spangled Banner” The concert was beamed live on the North Korean television.
The visit entailed the largest US presence in the reclusive state since the end of the Korean war, says the BBC. “The audience - made up of North Korea’s elite, as well as musicians and foreign guests - stood throughout both anthems, while the countries’ flags were displayed on the stage.
“Conductor Lorin Maazel said he and his colleagues were ‘pleased to play in this fine hall’ and told the audience in Korean to ‘have a good time’. The orchestra then played an opera prelude by Wagner followed by Dvorak’s Symphony Number Nine - known as the New World Symphony - and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. The orchestra finished by playing the much-loved Korean folk song Arirang, and received a lengthy standing ovation.
“Mr Maazel told the audience that there might one day be a piece called An American in Pyongyang…”
Ms Rice, herself a classical pianist, struck a discordant note in China: “I don’t think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea.” Well, if music diplomacy is not your cuppa tea then the other option is to start cleaning your guns!!! In any case the invitation to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was extended by North Korea…and that certainly is a diplomatic triumph for a nation steeped in poverty and remains a closed society.
GRAM PARSONS WAS ON LOAN TO US FOR A LITTLE WHILE, BUT WE DIDN’T LOOK UP FAST ENOUGH — MARK LEVITON
I’m a fast reader and usually race right through books. But there’s been a lot going on in my young life lately, and during the couple of weeks that it took me to read a book on Gram Parsons and then watch a documentary on him, I had the opportunity to listen to a lot of the music that influenced the legendary signer-songwriter. This included folk, country, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, jazz and soul. Oh yeah, and rock, too.
That made my respect for Gram Parsons the musical innovator all the greater and my contempt for Gram Parsons the friendship-abusing junkie all the deeper.
The book is Twenty Thousand Roads by David N. Meyer, a fascinating biography of Parsons, who had such a remarkably outsized influence on the course of American music in his mere 26 years on the planet. The greatest strength of the book is Meyer’s ability to explain and make sense of the many threads that played into that influence.
The documentary is Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel, which despite some wonderful live footage of Parsons performing, is pallid compared to the bio because of director Gandulf Hennig’s inability to or disinterest in fleshing out that influence. Read the rest of this entry »
Play an Ella ballad with a cat in the room, and the animal will invariably go up to the speaker, lie down and purr. – GEOFFREY FIDELMAN
I’m not a superstitious guy by nature, but how can I not help but believe that there was a Curse of the Grateful Dead Keyboardists?
