duaneiac

A couple of discs I really enjoyed from his Concord years:

And that is the surprising and unusual thing. So many singer-songwriters of the rock era began as songwriters first writing songs for established performers until they could get a record deal of their own -- think of people like Randy Newman, Neil Diamond, Carole King, Paul Williams. Mr. Temperton, though, started out performing in a band and had some big hits with that band. The most likely career trajectory would have been for him to start his own band or head off on a solo career. Instead, he was happy to forego the performing business altogether and focus on the songwriting. He wrote some massive hits for others in the 1980's and it seems likely he could have had a record deal of his own any time then had he so desired. Most unusual in this age when everybody, it seems, wants to be famous that he was content to be rich but not famous. I'd seen his name on many song credits, but knew nothing at all about him. I must admit, until reading his obit, I always assumed he was African American, not a white Brit.

I'm a fan of old time radio shows and one program of which I have heard a few episodes is the Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show, which aired in the 1940's & 50's and starred the husband and wife team of the bandleader/singer and the former movie star/singer. I realized I had never seen an Alice Faye movie, so I watched this one. It's a pretty heavy handed biopic of the long ago stage star. Ms. Faye is good, always lovely to look at and a very good singer, but the movie itself is nothing but tired plot cliches -- even in 1940 they must have been cliches already.

Rod Temperton, who composed the mega-hit "Thriller" for Michael Jackson has passed away at age 66. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rod-temperton-thriller-songwriter-dead-at-66-w443480 While he probably could have lived comfortably on the royalties from that one song alone, he actually had a very successful career crafting pop songs. His other works included "The Lady In My Life", "Rock With You", "Always and Forever", "Yah Mo Be There", "The Spice of Life", "Give Me The Night" and "Baby, Come To Me".

I have been watching this 7 DVD set of performances from It's a show I rarely saw back in the day, but this is the music of my youth and it's been great fun to watch all these various performers doing their things. The show really did present a pretty wide spectrum of popular music of the 1970's, everything from Alice Cooper to Marvin Gaye, from ELO to EW & F, from Sly & The Family Stone to KC & The Sunshine Band. They even included crossover country and jazz stars (Crystal Gayle, Mac Davis, Chuck Mangione, George Benson) who had big hits then. It was really fun to see some of the one-hit wonders like Redbone, Stories, Billy Paul (note to pop star wannabes: if you are trying to have a hit single, make sure it is a song that will not wear out your voice from having to sing it night after night for months on end.), Dobie Gray. There are some interview features included on the discs and the show's producer, Burt Sugarman, made a big deal about how all of the acts had to perform live on the show, but by the time they got to the disco era, it's clear some of the performers were lip-synching. For the most part though, these are great, genuinely "live" performances that brought back a lot of memories.

The film which gave us Jerome Kern's "Long Ago (And Far Away)". It may not be a "must see" film, but it is an entertaining movie with a rather trite plot. There is one outstanding dance sequence in which Gene Kelly dances along a street scene with his reflection/conscience -- it's kind of a warm-up for what he would do years later in the famous "Singin' In The Rain" number. Eve Arden is very good in a supporting role and Rita Hayworth is excellent as the star.

Getting ready to watch the live webcast of Mary Chapin Carpenter at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco this afternoon.

I don't follow baseball anymore, but was he any relation to the late bassist Wilfred Middlebrooks?

Excerpts from a press release: It was only a matter of time before guitarist Paul Mehling focused his creative mojo on Lennon and McCartney’s vast and enduring treasure trove of songs. The founder and guiding spirit of the Hot Club of San Francisco, America’s longest running Gypsy swing ensemble, Mehling was first inspired to pick up a guitar when the Beatles launched the British Invasion via Ed Sullivan’s CBS variety show on Feb. 9, 1964. Now Mehling’s HCSF is recolonizing the Fab Four’s songbook in the name of Gypsy jazz legend Django Reinhardt with John, Paul, George and Django, a ravishing and consistently revelatory reimagining of classic Beatles tunes. Slated for release on Mehling’s Hot Club label in September, 2016, the band’s 14th album is designed both to seduce Beatlephiles and enchant Djangologists, with arrangements that serve the songs rather than turning them into vehicles for blazing solos. “We’ve been road testing arrangements and tune selections for several years and it’s just gold,” Mehling says. “These tunes were really well crafted, and our job is to present the songs through our prism. Our vision can be summed up as WWDD?: What Would Django Do? What if he hadn’t died, and had lived long enough to interpret Beatles songs? Because you know he totally would have.” With its psychedelic production and hypnotic 5/4 groove, “Fool On the Hill” feels like Django traded Parisian nightlife for an acid test, a trip he thoroughly enjoyed. With French-born Hot Club rhythm guitarist Isabelle Fontaine’s simmering delivery of her translated lyrics “If I Needed Someone” turns into a Gallic torch song (and check out Mehling’s brilliant interpolation of “Within You Without You” in his solo). “Don’t Bother Me” bounces with a swinging reggae feel, and “You Can’t Do That” gets to Paris via New Orleans with a washboard powered beat. “You Don’t See Me” gets a straight ahead Gypsy swing treatment, and the woozy ballad “Because” turns into a brisk Gypsy jazz sprint. ______ Amazon shows a release date of Oct. 21.

Could you possibly add FRANK MORGAN PIANO JAZZ 2-16-04 and COUNT BASIE 11-3-68 MUNICH MARLENE SHAW VOCALIST to my list? Thanks, Dan.

I'd be interested in the following, if available: HORACE SILVER 4-16-65 / 2-11-66 / 2-16-66 SCOTT HAMILTON 11-30-2009 SWEDEN TWO DISCS SHIRLEY SCOTT – FATHEAD NEWMAN 7-11-96 COPENHAGEN RHODA SCOTT 5-27-2010 PARIS TWO DISCS BIG JOE TURNER EDDIE VINSON LEE ALLEN ORCHESTRA 10-27-83 L.A. - TWO DISCS COUNT BASIE WITH GREY – ELDREDGE – LOCKJAW PLUS BIG BAND WITH JOE WILLIAMS – 4-22-72 STUTTGART JIMMY ROWLES FEAT AL COHN 8-14-77 PENN VALLEY PA TWO DISCS COUNT BASIE WITH JIMMY RUSHING 9-16-63 STUTTGART HANK JONES TRIO WITH CHET BAKER – PEPPER ADAMS 6-83 STOCKHOLM HORACE SILVER AND THE SILVER BRASS ENSEMBLE – JOE HENDERSON R. HOLLOWAY 7-15-94 UMBRIA JAZZ FEST BOBBY HUTCHERSON QUINTET JULY 96 STUTTGART JAY MCSHANN – CLEANHEAD – WEBSTER – 3-10-69 ANTWERPEN – TWO DISCS KEVIN MAHOGANY W. RED HOLLOWAY 8-14-06 NORTHAMPTON MA TWO DISCS LOCKJAW-GRIFF W. MONTOLIU – 8-8-75 HAMBURG TWO DISCS JUNIOR MANCE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER B-CAST 2004 PHINEAS NEWBORN PIANO JAZZ 1987 VIBRATION SOCIETY – RRK TRIBUTE 9-86 NEWARK MJQ 8-17-91 FRANCE TWO DISCS JAZZ ALIVE – NEW YEAR'S EVE 1980 – THREE DISCS – BURRELL, STITT, DEX, SHAW

Disc 4 of 4 from this Proper Records boxed set.

The first couple of seasons were pretty strong, generally good stories with some good/interesting guest stars. Then I think the producers got kind of tongue in cheek with the concept, trying to replicate the success Batman was having. There was always an underlying sense of humor to many of the episodes, but I think they made it a bit more cartoonish for a while and that led to the shows' downfall. They tried to return to their original form in the final season, but it was too late by then. Still, I'd say it was a good adventure series, very much a product of its Cold War time

The Man From UNCLE complete series box, today only on Amazon, $45.99

The horror . . . the horror . . .

I read the book a few years back and quite enjoyed it. I'll have to see if I can find the movie version available somewhere. Recently watched: The final film in the Shaft trilogy, one might expect it to be some low-budget, quickie exploitation movie, but it is actually a pretty darn good adventure movie. Despite Mr. Shaft's protestation that "I'm no James Bond. Simply Sam Spade" (and that is the kind of humor to be found here, so if that offends, best stay away), this movie is more akin to a Bond film than a private eye film. Shaft is hired to go undercover among an African tribe whose men are being smuggled into Europe and exploited as virtual slaves. The film has the international scope of a Bond film -- moving from New York to Addis Ababa to Paris -- the requisite beautiful, sexually available women and the standard wealthy, despicable super-villain. There are some good action scenes, and interesting characters and the story solidly holds the viewer's interest (even if one does have to accept some typical movie plot contrivances). If the Shaft series could have continued along these lines, I'd certainly have liked to see more of them rather than more lame Roger Moore Bond films.

The MST3K version of Gamera Vs. Guiron, which has one of my favorite bits from the whole series:

Disc: Nagoya - Nov. 12, 1976

Achingly beautiful! Not just Sonny's playing, but Tommy Flanagan also -- exquisite!

Another box of "live" Frank Sinatra performances from the Sinatra archives is coming in October. This one has an interesting looking assortment of material. Long ago, I had the Monte Carlo Sporting Club concert on a cassette tape (that I found in a Woolworth's bargain bin of all places) and it was one of my favorite concert recordings. I lost that tape years ago, so I'm looking forward to its inclusion on this set. Here's some details: "The first CD kicks off with Sinatra’s June 14, 1958 show at Monte Carlo’s Sporting Club at which he was introduced by none other than Noel Coward, and concludes with his recordings at Italy’s RAI Radio Club from May 20, 1953. The second disc flashes forward to 1961 and a lengthy concert at Australia’s Sydney Stadium from December 2 of that year. The third disc features Ol’ Blue Eyes’ landmark September 297, 1979 show at Egypt’s Pyramids while the fourth takes listeners to the Dominican Republic’s Altos de Chevon in the city of La Romana. The DVD comprises entirely unreleased material, documenting Sinatra on a 1962 goodwill tour raising money for underprivileged children. There’s an entire show from Hibya Park, Japan from April 21, plus the documentaries Frank Sinatra with All God’s Children and Sinatra in Israel and twelve commercials Sinatra made for the Perugina candy company. These commercials featured newly-recorded (albeit abbreviated) versions of his classics, performed with The Bill Miller Sextet and arranged by Neal Hefti." More info & track listings here.