Christiern

He strayed from the "I'm new here" forum?

Still others do nothing.

Thanks for posting these, Michael.

I agree, Jim. Bluemonk is over-reacting. It is easy to accuse someone like George Benson of selling out, but it is also silly. I wish George would play jazz more often, but that's a selfish wish--why shouldn't he make as much money as he can utilizing his talent. As I pointed out earlier, he did not start as a jazz player, he switched over to it--was he selling out then? Of course not.

They should come clean and just call it The JVC Festival. No wonder people can't distinguish between jazz and seriously diluted fare.

Meeting's over. Crouch wasn't there but Phil was. We kept our reunion quite civil--in fact, Phil said that the group was "in good hands with Chris here." He always did exaggerate...

George Benson's debut record (single) was strictly pop and he also sang on it. He switched to jazz before switching from it. Just call him a flip-flopper

catesta: "Damn, I can't change the station fast enough when I hear any of those songs." I find myself groping for the "Door Open" button.

When I first met him (after his debut album on Prestige and before John Hammond discovered him), he was living in a run-down East Harlem walk-up. That may have something to do with his desire to go where the money is.

Why do I associate Spy magazine with one ("Glum," I think) of these songs? Anyone heard of Spy? BTW, I have a wonderful tape made by Moore and Cook around 3 AM on a 1965 morning, when they dropped in on my midnight show. With Moore at the piano, Cook does 2 narratives, one in which he describes a gathering of the famous ("Nancy Cunard, perched upon the shoulders of the King of Sweden") at an estate. The other is the common room reminiscences of a school mate of T.E. Lawrence ("I still hear his girlish giggle" and "he had about him the look of an unmade Bedouin"). Very funny stuff. Jazzjet: "Sounds like you went to some interesting pubs!" I did--my BBC associates put Fodor to shame.

Perhaps you are confusing "vocalese" with strenuous efforts to sound hip when hipness simply isn't there. The latter often describes Kurt Elling and Mark Murphy's work, IMHO.

I may go as Rosie Grier (sans needlework, of course)

I may see Stanley at a J@LC meeting this week. In fact, Schaap may be there, too.

...and thank you for the many times you have graciously pointed out my ignorance

Where are your pants?

Not Kenneth Williams. I was working with and seeing a lot of him in those days. That said, I will admit that both songs sound William-ish. I somehow--way in the back of my faint memory--associate one or both of the songs with a satirical magazine--Spy?

White people can look so silly when they think they have rhythm. Reminds me of 1957, when I first saw "American Band Stand"--I thought it was a parody. Well, I guess it was, in a sense.

I love Bird, so I started off with "Possibly 'Lover Man'" from the Benedetti Mosaic box, but its total running time is only 8 seconds, so I turned to Roy Eldridge and Bud Freeman w. Ray Bryant, Tommy Bryant, Elmer Snowden, and Jo Jones.

Firesign Theater was a product of Pacifica Radio, when I was working there--I never found them funny, too strained. Since we have some of our British members on this thread, I wonder if any of you recall two funny songs that I used to hear on London juke boxes back in the mid-Sixties? "Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty" and (don't recall the title) one whose lyrics began with "When you're feeling glum, stick a finger up your bum, and laugh, laugh, laugh...." Anyone here recall something like that?

I can see the fireworks from my windows, but it seems to me that there is less such activity this year. I recall one 4th of July when a bunch of us tenants assembled on the roof of our building (we had a roof garden of sorts back then and no boring yu[[ie-type coopers) with drinks in hand to watch the Macy's fireworks. We ha done this many times before, but the ending was particularly spectacular that year--we all went ooooh and aaaaah, applauding before descending to our respective apartments. That night, the news had a story about the Macy's fireworks barges having blown up--people were killed! After that, they put a halt to the Macy's fireworks displays for a few years.

Thanks, Chris. Did you check out the list of speakers? An eclectic bunch.

According to him, absolutely. He has an amazing ability to give non-present eyewitness accounts. Customized memory, I suppose. But, to get back on track, the Newport festival in question took place 50 years ago, so that automatically eliminates most O'ers--still, there are a few of us who might have been there. I wasn't, sad to say.

The flag-waving crowd (mostly ignorant of our country's history) tends to go overboard with their purely visual passion, but this day has most lt become a tool for merchants. I see very little genuine celebration, at least in New York. Thanks, anyway, Goren. BTW, I believe Denmark was (is?) the only country to actually have a public celebration of America's independence.