Neal Pomea

I heard the author's mother on a speaking tour she gave when Dunces won the Pulitzer, and you could picture this frail little old lady calling out to Santa Battaglia and hiding her Muscatel in the oven! John Candy was being talked about for the role of Ignatius in some production that never happened. THAT would have been something!

As the Onion suggested, they need to remake 2009's Avatar for today's more modern, discerning audience. http://www.theonion.com/articles/classic-movie-avatar-updated-for-todays-audiences,18052/

Describes the lifestyle of a lot of oil field workers, too, from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi. YOU know that, but I thought I would point it out. [i have a friend in Lafayette Louisiana whose company does blowout preventers (like the problem with BP and the deep Gulf fiasco last summer), and he tells me that when drilling companies send crews out offshore, they try to not mix the cultures too much. It's crews of people from the same background, same state, as much as possible, sent together. The casualties on the BP rig were a strange mix of several states. Might have made for miscommunication, in his opinion.]

Great movie! Tennessee Williams story. Performances by her, Montgomery Clift, and Katherine Hepburn? Unforgettable! So beautiful that year! Can't thank her enough for her work. Virginia Woolf? Impossible acting.

I got a paperback copy of Tony Russell's Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 for $40 on a sale from Amazon, and it looks like it's cheaper now. Dick Spottswood did some great discographies of early Cajun artists, available in Ann Allen Savoy's book Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People. Everything Spottswood does is so valuable.

OLE! APEMAN (anagram of Neal Pomea)

JSP duplicated a lot from these CMF sets, which were setting the standard for Cajun reissues. I thought these were out of print. Did you get them on eBay? Used on Amazon? If you can get them, Arhoolie's lp series of Louisiana Cajun Music from the 70s were terrific! All songs transcribed and translated. I posted this blurb about them in the last few days on my Web site: "Ever since the 1970s I was aware of the recorded old time Cajun and Creole music of the 1920s and 1930s through a remarkable series of lps (long-playing records) on the market by the Arhoolie Records label. I will always be grateful to producer Chris Strachwitz for making that music available! It's as if it's in my DNA now! Some of these outstanding lps are still available from the Arhoolie Web site, with these titles: Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 1, First Recordings (OT108); Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 2, The Early 30s (OT109); Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 3, The String Bands of the 1930s (OT110); Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 4, The 30s to the 50s (OT111); Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 5, 1928-1938 (OT114); Amade Ardoin, His Original Recordings 1928-1934 Volume 6 (OT124); Leo Soileau, Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 7 (OT125)." I would not call what you listed above a "modest collection." It's really some of the best!!!

I return to these often: King Oliver Louis Armstrong Hot 5s and 7s Henry Red Allen and his New York Orchestra Chocolate Dandies Fletcher Henderson Orchestra 20s Duke Ellington late 20s Bennie Moten Clarence Williams' small groups Richard M. Jones Jelly Roll Morton Jabbo Smith Missourians Bix Django Miff Mole and His Molers among the singers, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, Ma Rainey, and Ethel Waters

I just got the Django Reinhardt this week and I am loving it!

Ok, I went ahead and did that song list thing. These are all the songs, followed by the the songs/titles and artists that made these standards or else just well known recordings. Where I have a blank ________, I don't know of a song associated with it. These are in the Cajun/Creole repertoire. Only a few are done by Zydeco bands at all. 1. Tante Aline: became Viens me Chercher by Iry LeJeune 2. Two Step de Mama: became Elton Two Step by J.B. Fuselier then Lacassine Special by Iry LeJeune 3. Madame Atchen: became Ta Robe Barre by Bois Sec Ardoin and the Carriere Brothers 4. Two Step de Prairie Soileau: Quoi Faire by Bois Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot 5. La Valse à Abe: became Convict Waltz by Iry LeJeune, aka 99 Year Waltz 6. Two Step de Eunice: became Jolie Catin by Iry LeJeune and Eunice Two Step by Maurice Barzas and many others 7. Amedie Two Step: became Choupique Two Step by Nathan Abshire 8. Valse à Austin Ardoin: ____ 9. Blues de Basile: aka 'Tit Negre a Tante Dolie by Ambrose Thibodeaux, Le Crepe a Nazaire by Alphee Bergeron, Hula Hoop Two Step by Nathan Abshire, etc. 10. Valse à Thomas Ardoin: became Midnight Waltz by Lawrence Walker 11. Two Step de Elton _______ 12. Valse de Gueydan _________ (NOT the same Valse de Gueydan done by Leo Soileau, the one the Hackberry Ramblers recorded under the title Jolie Blonde) 13. Valce à Alcee Poullard ____________ 14. One Step de Oberlin: became Bayou Teche Two Step by Austin Pitre 15. Valse des Opelousas: became Bayou Chene Waltz by Iry LeJeune 16. One Step de Chamaux: became Lake Charles Two Step, done by Sidney Brown, Bois Sec Ardoin, Lawrence Ardoin, and many others 17. Les Blues de Voyage: became Blues du Voyageur done by Bois Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot 18. La Valse de Amitié: vocal became War Widow Waltz by Lee Sonnier (Laura Broussard on vocal) 19. Blues de Crowley: __________ 20 Oberlin: similar to J'ai Passé devant ta Porte 21: Sunset: _____ 22: Tout Que Reste C'est Mon Linge: ________ 23: Tostape de Jennings: ___________ 24: Midland Two Step: Midland Two Step done by many musicians 25: La Valse des Chantiers Pétrolipères 26. Valse Brunette: ___________ 27. Tortope d'Osrun: became High Point Two Step by Austin Pitre etc. 28. La Valse du Ballard: __________ 29. La Turtape de Saroied: ____________ 30. Valse de La Pointe d'Eglise: NOT the same tune that is aka Kaplan Waltz. Different tune. 31. Les Blues de la Prison: NOT Les Barres de la Prison. Rather, Prison Two Step done by Austin Pitre, McCauley-Reed-Vidrine 32. Valse de Mon Vieux Village: __________ 33: Si Dur d'Etre Seule: Grand Nuit Special by Iry LeJeune, aka Saturday Night Special 34: Aimez-Moi Ce Soir: _________

You're right about Lynn August! He was special. I think he is back to playing locally in Lafayette. Didn't realize he was still active, but it looks like he is: http://www.lynnaugustnow.com/ CJ is talented, and he made a big splash for a while. Have you seen Buckwheat Zydeco? More than anyone, like Lynn August he took Clifton's approach and applied it to soul and pop music,but more commercially. I have certainly lost track of the zydeco scene after Beau Jocque's surprising rise. It's not really been on my listening or live schedule at all in the last 15 years. One of these days I will put together a list of all Amede's songs and the Cajun standards that grew out of them, a surprising number, and ask anyone who can to try and do the same with Zydeco standards. There is just no real comparison at all! He is the root of Cajun music to a much greater degree, which may sound surprising for a black man in the 20s and 30s!

I think the Lomax Library of Congress field recordings of Cajun and Creole music (1934-37) show the traditional, home-style music that some of the musicians on that early zydeco cd were still drawing from and expanding upon. It was definitely still in the air! I just think that crediting zydeco to Ardoin is something of a marketing stretch. I agree that the commercial sounding Chenier from the 1950s sounds like he "comes out of nowhere" (or R&B radio!). It was later in the 60s that Chris Strachwitz encouraged him to play more old-sounding stuff, like his classic version of Les Haricots Sont Pas Salé. In person, it was always songs like that one and Josephine and My Baby Don't Wear No Shoes that got the dance crowd really going! Then to follow one of those zydeco numbers with a great blues? Knocked a crowd out! There's this cd on Rounder to shed light for us:

Are we talking about this CD? I love that first Arhoolie cd on early zydeco! Don't see much connection with Ardoin there, to my mind, other than the songs done by McZiel and Gernger. They're playing in that earlier Creole style, a lot like Ardoin. But if I remember right, on one song Willie Green says he's going to play some French music (Jolie Blonde from the white Cajun repertoire), then jump right back on the rock and roll! That's what those guys considered zydeco -- rock and roll! Chenier himself has made a lot of contradictory statements about the music, but in the end it's moot, I guess! The Bear Family set on J.D. Miller will be three volumes, not four. I have heard them and they sound really good!

http://www.tompkinssquare.com/archives/108 Actually, this stuff is already all available, but it's nice to now have it in one package. The sound is indeed better than what you get on the Arhoolie cd I'm Never Coming Back and the JSP sets I mention below. But the notes do not shed much light on this mysterious musician or his times. Still rough, but I am sure there aren't a lot of sources in good shape. I am enjoying this two cd set! Cajun Early Recordings, JSP7726, has 2 of Ardoin's 34 songs. Cajun Country, JSP7749, has 18 of the 34 songs. Rare and Authentic Cajun, JSP77115, has the other 14 of the 34 songs and they are already remastered by Chris King. So at most it's possibly 20 of the 34 song newly remastered, but that was enough for me to order it. The Cajun Country cd in particular has some sound problems, especially on Valse à Austin Ardoin and Valse des Amities. The Arhoolie versions of those two songs (on CD7007, I'm Never Coming Back) do not sound any better to me. King has certainly improved the sound on these two. Ardoin is recently credited with being the father of Cajun AND Zydeco music, but I personally find that to be an interesting rewrite of history -- not the way it was understood in Louisiana until Arhoolie made Zydeco music marketable outside of Louisiana and Texas. The musicians Ardoin influenced most are probably Iry LeJeune and Austin Pitre from the Cajun tradition, and of course Alphonse Bois Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot from the black Creole tradition. If he influenced Zydeco, I would say it's in the sense that Clifton Chenier pretty much rejected Ardoin's music and wanted to create a new kind of music, which came to be called zydeco, drawing on a vocal musical tradition in Louisiana called juré, blues, and swing. I would call Chenier the real father of zydeco, analogous to the way Bill Monroe is the father of bluegrass. But of course, YMMV!

All he needs is a good woman to take care of him.

Ordered the Django, which will be my first Mosaic. Guess I'm sentimental. Quintette du Hot Club de France were the first jazz artists I really listened to with any attention. They really took me by surprise when I was in high school.

Interactive hardware, and twice the good will!

One when you hold the iPod vertically, the other when you hold it horizontally!

Music will certainly survive and people will continue to do new things with it. I am only kidding a little when I say I preferred it when a "single" was really two songs, side A and side B. They didn't have to put anything out on side B, but they did. You maybe bought the record for one song, then got a surprise on the flip side that sometimes you liked even better! Could it be that the music industry today has only half the good will it used to have? :blush2: A downloaded single could easily come with a surprising bonus second song, but I never see it happening.

Alan Lomax Archive and IODA to Disseminate more than 17,000 Historic Recordings

I am listening to Walter Johnson do play by play for a Senators game in 1939 with the Cleveland Indians! Amazing! It's part of a radio station premium for their fundraising. They have cds of an entire day of broadcasting. Game picks up in 4th inning. Ran from 4:00 -5:15 on the last day of the season. http://www.archive.org/download/CompleteBroadcastDay/WJSV_390921-COMPLETE_BROADCAST_DAY_PART_11.MP3 From Internet Archive

I haven't seen too many of his films in the last twenty years either except Hollywood Ending, which I liked. I barely remember Manhattan Murder Mystery. I am more partial to some of his lesser regarded films like Broadway Danny Rose, Zelig, Radio Days. I rate Danny Rose very highly. I would be interested in seeing Match Point, which he says is perhaps closest to his original vision.

I just think Murray should remember that he's working in metaphors. First language/second language, "owning a music," "a music evolving" are all metaphors. Sure, I realize that's what we have to work with any time we use language, but sometimes the metaphors only go so far. They also can obscure. I am particularly wary/weary of the metaphor of a genre of music "evolving/developing" because I think such metaphors can be an inauthentic way of relating to the past. But that is a political issue, for sure. "The past is never dead -- it's not even past!" in the words of Faulkner. This thing about one race having a better aptitude for X than another race is potentially dangerous. The flip side is that said race does not have aptitude for Y, which is how they used to argue against voting rights for certain groups. Be careful, Mr. Murray, of what you are introducing to the argument!

We will probably also add umlauts over the p and the w in Super Bowl. You know, to toughen up our image! http://www.theonion.com/search/?q=toughens+image+with+umlauts