zootsi

I like most of what's been posted already - here are a few that haven't been mentioned, that I really like: Dianne Reeves, Stacy Kent, King Pleasure, Georgie Fame

With the loss of Johnny Otis (west coast) and Castor (east coast), we're seeing the end of the early r&b era. In addition to his 70's hits, I believe Castor was a session musician at a lot of the 50's New York doo-wop recordings.

I was surfing youtube for jazzy Broadway tunes, and I came across this interesting Dutch video of a Milly Scott: My link Kinda like Sarah Vaughn. I can't find out much info on her as far as recordings, etc. I don't believe she's the same Millie Scott - 80's pop singer.

A great loss - one of the grand daddies of r&b. His live albums are among the best live r&b recordings. I believe Shuggie passed away several years ago.

BeBop - If you've never been to Youtube, you will be blown away. There are thousands of obscure jazz & r&b recordings out there. Some have video, most are just recordings. The first time I eve saw a video of T-Bone Walker was on Youtube!

Is the music you are looking for out on Youtube? If so, you can just record it down to your pc using some freeware like Audacity. Audacity lets you save the recording as MP3. You can then burn it to a cd. Very easy, quick and free. I've gotten lots of hard to find stuff this way.

Fun topic - a few things I picked up for a buck each at our town library yard sale last week: McCoy Tyner - Reflections Dr. John - Television Putamayo's Cuban Lounge Dan Hicks - Beatin' the Heat You never know what you'll find at yard sales - 99% of it is Madonna and Kiss - but every once in a while... I remember the good ol' days spending hours at Le Marche du Disc in Montreal where they had a ton of vintage r&b and blues for under $5 Canadian - things like Wynonie Harris, Little Willie John, Ruth Brown, Lee Andrews, etc. Strangely, the best deals on vintage collections I've found have been overseas. In a little shopping mall in Portugal I found 'Cuban Legends' (2 cds), and a Big Joe Turner 4 cd collection, 4 euros each.

I've seen it spelled both ways - Wanda Sa is how NPR spelled it in their article.

Any Wanda Sa fans out there? I just discovered her when NPR did a little segment on her the other day. Apparently she's appearing in New York. She's the real deal for Brazilian bossa nova and has been around since the '60's. Love her simple uncluttered sound.

Here's something that's been bugging me for 40 years - who are the 'Fabulous Cyclones'? They were included on several budget oldies albums in the '60's, I believe on the Design label. Whoever they are, they did some above average r&b instrumentals like 'Deep Love' and 'On the Road' that feature both tenor sax and guitars. Are they just a bunch of session guys or were they a real band? Anyone?

I'm not sure if he's a true jazz singer or not, but he is a living legend, and I could listen to his stuff all day long. I greatly admire the fact that in the early 60's he refused to 'sell out' and do more rock oriented material (even though I enjoy rock). He hung in there doing his own thing and rose to the top. A very class act.

Never been a huge 70's-80's pop fan, but Joel is one artist from that era that I somewhat enjoy. He is often compared to Elton John, but Joel has that 'New York street smarts' soul that I can identify with. Elton is very talented, but doesn't grab me. My favorite Joel tune is 'Get It Right The First Time'. I find Elvis Costello somewhat annoying - he doesn't have any real vocal abilities (IMHO), although I like the fact that he has a taste for good American standards. I once saw him performing on tv, playing a beautiful vintage Gibson L5 jazz guitar - he was literally banging on it with lots of distortion - painful for me to watch.

I haven't been on this forum in a while, but this is a fun topic. I typically like to play my own eclectic mixes, but here are a few lesser known cd's I'm always playing: Gene Harris Quartet - At Ste Chapelle Winery Akiko Tsuruga - Sweet and Funky (very listenable B3 stuff with Eric Johnson doing some very nice guitar work) Jimmy Rivers and the Cherokees - Brisbane Bop (Rivers was an amazing western swing guitarist) Doug Sahm and the Last Real Texas Blues Band (A live recording, very tasty covers of r&b classics) Greg Piccolo - Homage

Here's a doowop one I remember: Revels - Dead Mans Stroll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvraXl8BArg

I remember hearing him live on the radio every Saturday night from some club in Newark in the early '60's.I was a teenager then, just getting into blues guitar. Wow, I wish I recorded some of that stuff!

for really rootsy, old timey, Apalachian music, check out the Highwoodse String Band. La Vent Du Nord for authentic French Quebec folk Duke Robillard for 40's style blues jazz.

Fantastic Mood by Cleve Lyons. This unusual, obscure Hammond B3 piece was played many years ago on the George 'Hound Dog' Lorenz radio show out of Buffalo. I can remember it from my youth, never knew what it was until I just came across it on Hound Dog's web site.

OK it's that time of year again! In a few weeks we'll all be totally sick of Christmas music - but right now, how about some favorites? Here are some of mine: Ramsey Lewis - Santa Claus is Coming to Town Charles Brown - Please Come Home for Chirstmas Vince Guaraldi - Charlie Brown Christmas (the whole album) Ronettes - Sleighride Big Maybelle - White Christmas (THE best version ever) Drifters - White Christmas Joan Baez - I Wonder as I Wander Ray Charles/Betty Carter - Baby it's Cold Outside Sinatra - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

If you like Fats Waller, Louis Jordan, or Dave Frishberg, check out Two Ton Baker at this website http://twotonbaker.com/ Lots of his recordings to listen to for free. I came across this website last night - lots of undiscovered gems, especially if you want some simple, good timey, 1940's lounge jazz. I vaguely remembered 'The Coconut Song' from my dad's 78's when I was very young. I still love it!

How about Dr. John?

Get a pair of BIC dv62si's (about $120 a pair on Amazon). These are nicely built and decent sounding bookshelf units with high quality speakers but mediocre electronics. THEN contact Ed Frias, ( EFESPEAKERS@commspeed.net) who will give you instructions on pulling the crossover board out, and mailing them to him. For about $40 he will upgrade these boards. When you put them back together, you will have a pair of speakers that will blow away anything under $400! I did this, and they are now amazing. Ed also sells his own speakers, but they may be beyond your budget.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to catch a Dianne Reeves concert at Dartmouth College. What an amazing performer - she was accompanied by two guitarists, Russ Malone, and Romero Lubambo. This show may well be the best jazz performance I've ever seen; Reeves is possibly the best jazz vocalist alive. I was a bit leery of a 'just two guitars' show, but Malone and Lumbabo were both outstanding and so different in their approach - Malone the traditional jazz guitarist with a velvety sound and lightining fast runs, Lumbabo representing the consumate Brazillian accoustic school of guitar. Reeves did a whole gamut of genres, from torchy standards to a rousing Bo Diddley-ish fanale. My only small gripe is that there was also a very much in the background keyboardist on some of the tunes, who got no mention. I highly recommend catching one of her live shows.

I just wanted to put out a recommendation for the dvd 'the TAMI Show' for any fans of early 60's r&b and rock. This was a live stage show taped in '64 featuring James Brown, Marvn Gaye, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, Supremes, etc, etc. The quality is gritty and black and white, but it's a great document on the popular music of that time period. The footage of James Brown is beyond question the best r&b performance ever filmed, and the Stones had to follow him. At this point, this dvd is still hung up in legal issues so it's not officially available, but I copies can be had if you look deep enough.

Anyone catch the Stax/Volt Review Live In Norway (1967) video? It's been playing on public tv lately - good stuff!

Here's a very inexpensive and simple way to convert vinyl to cd: 1. Using your stereo system, record your album onto a cassette. 2. Download a free copy of Audacity software onto your pc, and get familiar with it's features. 3. Connect a good quality boom box to your computer. Just get a stereo mini patch cord , plug one end into the boom box earphones out, the other end into the pc's line in or mic in. 4. Use Audacity to record the music form your cassette, saving it as an mp3 file. I've done this for many of my vintage lp's, and it works great. It's a slow processs, and the fidelity is fair to middlin' but it's totally free, and quite simple.