This Saturday At 9:00 A.M. PST: Bernard Herrmann Tribute On KFJC

"In orchestrating the picture I avoided, as much as possible, the realistic sound of a large symphony orchestra. The motion picture soundtrack is an exquisitely sensitive medium, and with skillful engineering a simple bass flute solo, the pulsing of a bass drum, or the sound of muted horns, can often be more effective than half a hundred musicians sawing away." Bernard Herrmann, 1941 New York Times interview

On KFJC this Saturday from 9:00 A.M. to noon Pacific Standard Time, film soundtrack music expert Robert Emmett will be presenting a three hour tribute to composer-conductor Bernard Herrmann.

Yesterday was the centenary of Bernard Herrmann's birth. If perchance you aren't a music or movie buff and do not know who Bernard Herrmann is, you certainly know his striking, dramatic scores for such films as Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Psycho, North By Northwest, Taxi Driver and many more.

He also conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra and created the music for Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre radio broadcasts prior to his film score composing career.

While saying that Herrmann's creative scores and varied orchestrations added tremendously to the impact of these iconic movies would be the understatement of the decade, they also stand alone as works of art.

One does not have to be a film music buff to hear his scores, independent of whatever celluloid opus they provided counterpoint for, and find them fascinating and immensely pleasurable listening.

Among the tributes that continue to hail forth through 2011 is a good overview written by Tom Huizenga, Bernard Herrmann At 100: Master Of The Movie Score.



There are also a number of documentaries available via YouTube. Here are the first three segments of Channel 4's documentary, Music Of The Movies - Bernard Herrmann (embedding is disabled on subsequent parts):







Herrmann, like noted pianist-author-raconteur Oscar Levant, wanted more than anything else to be an internationally recognized, respected classical composer/symphony conductor - and thus was never at peace with even resounding and sustained success in the craft of writing scores for motion pictures. It's also a bit reminiscent of the talented animation director Shamus Culhane, whose memoirs expressed how he didn't care for cartoons per se and, as what he really wanted was to play the violin or viola in a symphony orchestra or string quartet, his entire career was something of a "Plan B".

That said, Bernard Herrmann did write a cantata based on Moby Dick and an operatic take on Wuthering Heights, as well as symphonies.

One would hope that if he only knew of the sheer number of prestigious orchestras around the world performing his music in 2011 and beyond, Mr. Herrmann would feel some measure of satisfaction and vindication.

The KFJC tribute will be available via their Broadcast Archives through July 16.

We Nominate Tinky Weisblat For Alzheimer's Advisory Council

Today, your semi-intrepid correspondent breaks from his customary clip-laden tributes to mid-20th century movies/cartoons/music - or occasional short, snotty, snarky humor pieces - to take on a topic close to home.

The Department Of Health And Human Services is in the process of assembling an Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care & Services. Two of the council members will be caregivers.

We join those who support the nomination of author Tinky "Dakota" Weisblat - not just because we love her name and enjoy Tinky's prose on far-flung topics - but because she is a caregiver, an eloquent advocate, and currently resides in close proximity to Washington D.C.

Tinky, author of The Pudding Hollow Cookbook, has turned her wordsmithing ways to chronicling the day-to-day life of caregiving for a mother who suffers from dementia. Her blog, Pulling Taffy - A Family's Year with Dementia and Other Quirks, has provided a tremendous service to those of us - LOTS of us - who are both caring for family members stricken by Alzheimer's Disease and attempting to be as positive as we can through the experience.

She would be a terrific choice as one of the caregiver-advisors for the council.

Nominations can be e-mailed to Helen Lamont at Department Of Health And Human Services. In the following online version of Federal Register (Volume 76 issue 112), just scroll down past SUMMARY and DATES to ADDRESSES for further instructions.

The deadline is EOB on June 30, 2011.

Burt Bacharach Day

Since June 20 is the birthday of Brian Wilson, I'm posting the one clip available involving Brian (with or without The Beach Boys) covering Burt Bacharach music. Posted this clip of an intriguing but never finished demo - The Beach Boys covering Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By" - a couple of years back. Don't have the particulars, but it would appear to have been very likely recorded between the Wild Honey and Friends albums in 1967-1968.



Listening to how deftly the Burt and Brian styles of composition and vocal arrangement dovetail, one concludes that had Capitol Records encouraged the Brother label to release non-Beach Boys solo projects by The Wilsons - all spotlighting new original material and musical ideas that broke with the BB's "sun, surf n' babes" Top 40 formula - the results would have been rewarding.

Fortunately for music lovers, Brian re-emerged 30 years after this recording, Wondermints and Stockholm Strings in tow, to set things right and celebrate both the commercial and more experimental aspects of his music in style.

Saluting The Sultans Of Swing

Today, the jazz-crazed author of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog salutes The Sultans Of Swing. Let's start with this clip of Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa, tearing it up in the 1937 Warner Bros. musical Hollywood Hotel.



By the early 1930's, there were already tremendous swing bands led by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong (leading the Luis Russell Orchestra), Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford, Cab Calloway, Don Redman, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Walter Page, the Dorsey Brothers and legendary drummer Chick Webb, just to name a few.



Soon these mighty musical juggernauts of 1930 would be followed by Benny Goodman, Count Basie and, in Paris, a "little big band" known as The Hot Club Of France.



It remains a well kept secret to all but the most obsessed jazz buffs that the various Sultans Of Swing continued to record superb albums, and lots of them, long after the heydey of the genre was a dim speck in the rear view mirror. Had guitarists Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, saxophonist Leon "Chu" Berry, bassist Jimmy Blanton and drummer Chick Webb lived longer, they would have as well.



First and foremost, let us not forget the incredible Coleman Hawkins, the featured soloist in the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra (the one that rocked New York City in 1924) who continued performing and recording consistently great music in a distinguished five-decade career.



Hawkins does what he does brilliantly in this clip featuring swing trumpet ace and frequent bandmate Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge.



Here's The Hawk, in top form, with none other than ubiquitous studio ace and music educator Mickey Baker on guitar, in 1962.



And then there's Ben Webster, who made his name as one of the featured soloists in the Duke Ellington Orchestra.







And then, the flip side of the tenor saxophone coin, the wonderful Lester "Prez" Young, as light and airy in tone as Hawkins and Webster were gritty. Prez first swung the Walter Page and the Count Basie Orchestras and also made guest appearances on Benny Goodman recordings featuring guitarist Charlie Christian.



Along the way, Prez created numerous enduring musical masterpieces, with and without frequent collaborators Billie Holiday, Count Basie and Jo Jones. Late in his career, he recorded the most soulful and heartfelt albums of them all - any genre, any idiom.




Across the pond from Prez, but darn close to equally soulful, the incomparable guitar genius Django Reinhardt.





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Although Django passed away in 1953, his Hot Club Of France bandmate, Stephane Grappelli, would continue playing and touring into the 1990's.


Some of the greatest swing music was performed in the early 1940's and anticipates the swing-to-bop revolution in jazz.







This is no news flash. Among the stylistic and spiritual predecessors of Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, Philly Joe Jones and Art Blakey were the guys who drove the Goodman and Basie bands, Gene Krupa and "Papa Jo" Jones, who continued rocking the house well into the 1960's.





Jones played frequently with the tenor saxophonist responsible for the wild solo (which anticipated both r&b and hard bop in one fell swoop) on the Lionel Hampton Orchestra's rocked-out 1941 recording of "Flying Home", Illinois Jacquet.





Jacquet and Hampton never got bored with playing Flying Home and neither did the audience, as this 1967 Newport Jazz Festival recording demonstrates.



Among those post-WW2 genre changing recordings would be those by the restlessly creative Artie Shaw, who got bored with being the second King Of Swing in the 1930's and quickly reached the point when he never, ever wanted to play "Begin The Beguine" again).



Shaw continued recording and kept experimenting with new ideas and different ensemble blends long after the big band era was over.



Woody Herman's riff-powered Second Herd, featuring the stalwart sax section of Stan Getz, Zoot Sims,Serge Chaloff, Herbie Steward and (after Steward left the band) the writer of the band's arrangements, Al Cohn, chose the sophisticated swing-to-bop Lester Young approach over the more "thundering" 1930's style of the First Herd.



Also closer in spirit to the next wave - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Lennie Tristano - than to the commercial pop-oriented big bands - would be three who died in 1941-1942, the aforemtioned Charlie Christian, the Duke Ellington Orchestra's Jimmy Blanton and saxophonist Chu Berry. In fact, it could be argued that Christian WAS the next wave, as he was playing at Minton's Playhouse with Monk and drummer Kenny Clarke, often joined by Parker and Gillespie.



Count Basie Orchestra tenor saxophonist Don Byas, who, as Coleman Hawkins did, always looked forward, unafraid of new ideas in music, would join Dizzy Gillespie's 1942 quintet, featuring Max Roach on drums.



Don Byas relocated to Europe in 1946, where he continued to play and record in a style that blended key elements of swing music and what would be called bebop. Byas would be sought out by younger musicians, as well as American bands on tour.





Among the very harmonically advanced pianists (in addition to Ellington and Hines): the under-recorded but influential Clyde Hart, Mary Lou Williams, Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson.



Mary Lou Williams, the innovative and groundbreaking pianist, had already been looking ahead towards that future in her 1930's recordings as music director/arranger of the Andy Kirk Mighty Clouds Of Joy big band and would continue blazing new frontiers for four decades.



Here's Art Tatum, playing beautifully on The Steve Allen Show (IIRC, the piano virtuoso's only TV appearance) in 1954.





Teddy Wilson would be an enormous influence on the next generation of piano trios - especially those of Bill Evans - and would collaborate with Lester Young, bassist Gene Ramey and Jo Jones on Prez' last great albums in 1956.


Jazz pianist and vocalist Nat "King" Cole, who began his career as a stylistic disciple of Earl Hines and Teddy Wilson, hosted his own TV show in the 1950's! The thought, after viewing the Tatum clip and Nat's shows, persists: imagine, just imagine, jazz on television!



In the corporate-dominated 21st century, with 500+ cable channels, even the once music-friendly PBS is largely a jazz-free zone! So we'll time travel back to 1963 and Nat King Cole's BBC special; even when Nat played and sang primarily in a pop vein, the jazz feeling and harmonic/melodic sophistication remains undeniable.



These musicians and their swinging alumni did us all an enormous favor by never jumping the shark or becoming "oldies" acts.



The Count, The Duke, The Earl Of Hines and their various royalty/alumni, disregarding the ever-ephemeral and shifting public tastes, just continued swinging like mad.



Satchmo, Duke, Mary Lou Williams and Teddy Wilson in particular continued to create masterpieces late in their lengthy musical careers.



Pianist-composers Ellington and Williams kept writing new material and experimenting with new arrangements right up to their last days.





Closing this tribute: two clips of Mary Lou Williams, summarizing decades of jazz and blues with her customary panache and originality.

My Favorite Music Clip Ever a.k.a. The Clip Of The Day

25 years ago today, the great bandleader/clarinetist Benny Goodman passed away at 77 years of age, pretty much the way we would all like to leave this world - expiring during a post-practice nap after a five decade career in music.

Turns out my favorite music clip ever is the following incendiary performance by Benny's 1937 Quartet, featuring Lionel Hampton on vibes, pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer extraordinaire Gene Krupa, from Hollywood Hotel.



There are some excellent CD box sets of BG available, not the least of them the following beaut from the fabulous Mosaic Records.

And This Blog Loves Film History Researchers

Ever since seeing Buster Keaton's Cops on Paul Killiam's Silents Please TV show as a pre-schooler, I have been fascinated by vintage films and film history.



That said, this blogger is pleased to call attention to any worthy initiatives and projects benefitting film preservation - and regards today's posting as a rather belated birthday tribute to film historian, author, documentary producer and 2010 Oscar winner Kevin Brownlow.



One of our favorite San Francisco Bay Area organizations/venues, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, is on the list for the annual Community Challenge contest by the National Trust For Historic Preservation. The organization that receives the most yes votes from the This Place Matters list gets a $25,000 grant: manna from heaven in these lingeringly moribund economic times.



While the museum, soon to be hosting the 14th annual Broncho Billy Film Festival, is faring quite well in the voting, it will need all the support we silent movie mavens can muster to land that grant.



Film history buffs, merely click here and give the museum your yes vote. To harken back to the not wonderful days of machine politics, Vote Early And Vote Often! Well. . . er. . .uh. . . let's paraphrase that to say if 10,000 classic film buffs all vote yes, it's excellent news for the good folks at Niles. Voting ends June 30. Go, Niles!

To go through all the ways that the J.R. Bray Studio helped establish the art of cel animation would be longer than the grocery shopping list for a NFL team's caterer.

Patents and technology established by J.R. Bray and Earl Hurd a century ago were the beginnings of a foundation that subsequent animation producers, especially the brilliant and driven Walt Disney, took to the max just a few years later. And between 1913 and 1927, a host of important animators (including this blog's favorites, New York cartoon producers Max and Dave Fleischer) got their start in cartoonland with films produced under Bray's auspices.

That said, it's fantastic news that Tom Stathes of the Cartoons On Film blog, unquestionably among the youngest and most conscientious animation historians in the western world, has joined forces with quite a lineup of scholars to launch the Bray Animation Project. This will be an invaluable source for researchers and animation aficionados. Go, Tom!

Happy 100th Birthday, Vincent Price!

34 years ago today, Johnny Rotten wrote "God Save the Queen". 89 years ago, Hammer/Amicus horror mainstay - and star of Horror Of Dracula - Christopher Lee was born. And today is also the 100th birthday of Vincent Price.

While I don't have a clip of Vincent, the master of chilling character roles, singing "Anarchy In The U.K." with The Sex Pistols or cracking jokes on the set with Christopher Lee, unfortunately, this blog presents the next best thing: the following inspired animated tribute by soon-to-be feature film director Tim Burton, who would feature Vincent Price ten years later in the splendid film Edward Scissorhands.



The ten-day Vincentennial festival presented by Cinema St. Louis has been offering a veritable Plethora O' Price.

The bonanza for Missouri movie mavens includes such classic Vincent Price chillers as The Fly, House Of Usher, The Pit And The Pendulum, The Raven, The Tomb Of Ligeia, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theatre Of Blood.

Quite a few intrepid bloggers have penned scholarly tributes to the post-Lon-Boris-Bela classic horror movie king. Particularly noteworthy are:

• Ivan G. Shreve's Centennial Tributes: Vincent Price
• Roger Corman: Vincent Price's Vincentennial by Pete Timmermann
• In Praise Of Price by Jeff York
• From Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-Comedies, the excellent blog by Paul Castiglia, The Price Is Fright

I personally enjoyed the following deftly edited compendium of chiller-diller Vincent Price moments a great deal.



And I can't resist the clip from The Monster Club (1980) of Vincent, a few years before his soliloquy in Michael Jackson's Thriller, waxing poetic about the foibles of humanity and then singing "The Monster Mash."



Also can't resist the inevitable freakin' slew of trailers from Vincent Price's AIP backlog, ranging from William Castle chillers to (the very Outer Limits-like) The Last Man On Earth to his roles as evil incarnate in The Masque Of The Red Death and The Witchfinder General - and ultra-campy comedies!

Yet More Cool Classic Movie Events In The San Francisco Bay Area

To call San Francisco Bay Area a hospitable locale for classic film buffs craving big screen fun is quite the understatement. The schedules of the Castro Theatre, the Pacific Film Archive, the Stanford Theatre and the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum are jam-packed with excellent screenings 52 weeks a year.

I could devote this blog entirely to announcing upcoming classic movie events, but don't - alas, time to write this isn't all that plentiful.

I am, however, happy to give a quick shout-out to various upcoming shows this summer.

I Wake Up Screaming is a splendid annual two-week Film Noir Festival that curator extraordinaire Elliot Lavine programs for The Roxie Theatre.

Tomorrow night, this year's cornucopia of hard-boiled pulp cinema closes with Robert Aldrich's 1955 piece-de-resistance, the incredible Kiss Me Deadly.

In June, the Roxie hosts the Horror Society's fifteen days of 21st century Grand Guignol movie mayhem, the Another Hole On The Head festival: while not my personal cup of tea, this will absolutely be the cat's expensive designer pajamas for aficionados of (quite literal) cutting-edge contemporary indie cinema. On a somewhat more sedate level, the Pacific Film Archive will pay tribute to prolific director Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man) from June 10-29.

Two silent movie retrospectives will present big screen rarities of the first order this summer. On June 24-26, Niles' Broncho Billy Film Festival will screen rare nuggets from The Mack Sennett Studio, where Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, Edgar Kennedy and many more started their careers in celluloid funmaking. The Castro Theatre will host the 16th San Francisco Silent Film Festival from July 14-17. Both festivals will draw international historians, archivists and diehard classic film buffs like the most powerful of mega-magnets.

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones - For Rice Krispies!

Burt Bacharach Day

Released 45 Years Ago Today: Pet Sounds By The Beach Boys

I regard 1966 as something of a watershed year in 20th century music, across the genres. The sheer number of legendary figures from rock, blues, soul, old-school country, jazz (and those musicians who bravely cut across the genres) still at the top of their game in 1966 and recording great albums boggles the mind.

Smack dab in the middle of this feverish period of creative experimentation, on May 16, 1966, Pet Sounds, the acknowledged piece-de-resistance of Brian Wilson And The Beach Boys, was officially released by Capitol Records.



While the average teenage record consumer of the time may well have not known what to make of Pet Sounds, the music community - and especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney - knew that Brian's "orchestral pop" had set a new and most ambitious bar line.



Although Pet Sounds now stands comfortably atop this blogger's short list of absolute favorite pop albums, I must confess that the intricacy, beauty and creativity of the vocal and instrumental arrangements by maestro Brian Wilson were pretty much lost on me in my guitar hero and prog rock-obsessed youth. Perhaps influenced by the rampant over-exposure and saturation of The Beach Boys' numerous Top 40 hits, I didn't "get" Pet Sounds (and such later Beach Boys masterpieces as Sunflower) at the time for a good reason: I didn't actually sit down and listen to the album in its entirety until many years later.



It took repeated listenings to Brian Wilson's music, decades later, sparked by an inspirational viewing of Don Was' 1995 documentary I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, to convince me.



This blogger/music lover's mind was seriously blown by the following YouTube clips about the making of Pet Sounds, which illuminate Brian Wilson's role as producer-arranger-conductor-mastermind.







In 2011, I am still listening to Pet Sounds and finding sonic nuances I had never perceived before.





I still love all that amazing mid-1960's music, from the ever-tuneful Beatles and Beach Boys to the soulful blues and propulsive hard bop, right through to the audacious avantgardists (Zappa, Beefheart, Ayler, Ornette), but will always have a soft spot for the following favorite songs from Pet Sounds:









Brian Wilson produced the "Good Vibrations" single later in 1966 and had planned his "and now for something completely different" followup, SMILE, which departed even from The Beach Boys pop hitmaking formula than Pet Sounds.





With apologies to Bob Dylan, The Doors, The Kinks, The Byrds, The Zombies and The Small Faces for the sin of omission, my brief "desert island" list of pop masterpieces that never fail to be satisfying listening, preferably with headphones and without any interruptions, includes:

• The aforementioned SMILE sessions, recorded and arranged by Brian Wilson in late 1966 and early 1967
  Arthur Lee and Love's Forever Changes
• #1 Record by Big Star
• The Beatles' Revolver

Of 1950's pop, the recordings that rival the aforementioned psychedelic era chestnuts for profound, sublime artistry - and I never tire of listening to these, either - would be the ultra-atmospheric Frank Sinatra studio masterpieces (Songs For Swingin' Lovers, In The Wee Small Hours, Only The Lonely), many featuring the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. And those ravishingly beautiful albums will be grist for another blog entry.

To Brian, the boys and intrepid Hollywood Studio aces The Wrecking Crew, thanks a million for the music and the memories.


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The Thrillville Pulp Fiction Collection

This blog's friend and colleague Will The Thrill Viharo has been on fire writing 21st century noir tales for quite some time now. Here's the coming attractions trailer that offers a glimpse of Will's intriguing literary world:



I'm (uncharacteristically) at a loss for words to describe Will's fiction: to term it an original, improvisational, at some times harrowing, at others quite funny "James Cain meets Robert Rodriguez meets Sam Fuller's Naked Kiss meets infinitity" blend is an oversimplication. I look forward to Will's next book, which no doubt will be completely different than all the others and cause me to eat my words with a judicious dose of searingly hot Thai chili sauce.

Tonight At The Historic Bal Theatre: The Rock And Roll Horror Show

TONIGHT at 7:00 p.m. at The Historic BAL Theatre
14808 East 14th Street, San Leandro, CA 94578

Bay Area Film Events (Godzilla Fest, Bob Wilkins Tribute, Creature Features At The Giants Game, Beatles Film Festival) and KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival co-founder Sci Fi Bob have joined forces to produce The Rock And Roll Horror Show.

This evening of schlocky big screen fun features The Cave Girls and surf-rockers The Deadlies from the late-night series Creepy KOFY Movietime.



After The Deadlies conjure the rockin' spirit of the late, great Link Wray, archivist Sci Fi Bob will present a screening of spine-chilling 1950's commercials, Frankenstein trailers, vintage rock clips and monstrous cartoons.

Cringe in abject terror AND rock out at the historic Bal Theatre!

Happy 80th Birthday, Willie Mays!

The 80th birthday Willie Mays is a big deal for your correspondent, a San Francisco Giants fan since he was old enough to comprehend the sport.

Willie celebrated his 80th birthday in style, with a luncheon bash, followed by the pre-game ceremony at the opener of the weekend series between the Giants and the Colorado Rockies.





Standing beside Mr. Mays at the festivities were fellow Hall Of Famers Willie "Stretch" McCovey, Gaylord Perry and Orlando "The Baby Bull" Cepeda, as well as two gentlemen who played with Willie on The Birmingham Black Barons in the 1940's! The game that followed turned out to be a thrilling come-from-behind walkoff 4-3 victory over the formidable Rockies.



Mr. Mays is unsurpassed in baseball legend, but arguably equaled by George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who only tore up the American League with 714 dingers, 2213 RBIS and a .342 average after a career as a dominant pitcher.



There have been great hitters (Ted Williams, Barry Bonds), paragons of consistency in the excellence of their all-around game (Henry Aaron, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio), baserunning daredevils (Maury Wills, Lou Brock, Ricky Henderson) who changed the nature of baseball, guys who inspired with clutch hits, amazing throws from the warning track and sheer swagger (Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Roberto Clemente), but none combined all of the above quite like Willie Mays.

Willie was also known as a singularly brilliant baseball strategist, a coach on the field, often trusted by managers to relay the latest and greatest signs to his teammates from his roving outfield post. Chris Haft of MLB.com penned a superlative tribute focusing on Willie's Jedi Master or chess champion baseball mind.



Any discussion of the Say Hey Kid and Sunday sermon in the hallowed halls of the Holy Temple Of Major League Baseball, first and foremost, begins with viewing of a certain play Willie made in the far Siberian depths of center field at New York's Polo Grounds.



If that the catch and throw of the screaming line drive off the bat of the Cleveland Indians' Vic Wertz did not impress the living daylights out of you, dear reader, consider that the game-winning play took place in the freakin' 1954 World Series and emphatically took the oxygen out of the Giants' opponents.

The website of Psychotronic Paul favorite The Daily Show features an interview of The Say Hey Kid by witty comedian and rabid baseball fan Jon Stewart. Even better among the various interviews with Willie available on YouTube are the following splendid two-parter:





Thankfully, Willie, a frequent visitor to the Giants' clubhouse, got to relish the first San Francisco Giants World Series victory in 2010, take the trophy to New York, visit the elementary school he attended and share baseball lore with East Coast baseball fans, some of whom were there for the Giants' upset of the mighty 111-43 Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series.

In the city of San Francisco, May 6 is officially Willie Mays Day. SAY HEY!

The Jazz Guitar Genius Of Eddie Lang

Before Django, before Oscar Alemán, before Charlie Christian, there was Eddie Lang.



Trained as a violinist, the Philadelphia-born Lang switched to banjo and guitar and, after a prominent role in the popular Mound City Blue Blowers, ultimately became New York City's studio ace with the OKeh, Columbia and Victor record labels - in a role not dissimilar from fellow "house guitarists" Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis at Norman Granz' Verve Records a quarter century later - working with recording artists of diverse styles and persuasions.

Using the nom-de-plume Blind Willie Dunn in those 1920's days of segregation, Eddie played guitar with Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Lonnie Johnson and many more jazz and blues innovators.

When the guitarist joined the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, which also featured Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, he met Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer. The trio soon got down to business recording such Roaring Twenties classics as the following:

Arguably, Lang's best known musical partnership was with violinist Joe Venuti.

Here's a brief clip of the inspired Venuti/Lang duo - without a doubt, an enormous influence on The Hot Club Of France - from the "meet the band" segment of Universal Pictures' 1930 musical (and tribute to Whiteman), The King Of Jazz:



The following bit of Fun On The Frets features Eddie performing a beautifully arranged duo with another superb early jazz guitarist, Carl Kress.

Eddie, like The Boswell Sisters, had a guest shot in The Big Broadcast Of 1932. He plays his customary stellar guitar and shares the screen with Bing Crosby:



Unfortunately, in one of those pointless tragedies, Eddie Lang passed away on March 26, 1933 as a result of a botched tonsillectomy. Music fans are very lucky that he recorded prolifically.

This blog extends 21st century bravos and huzzahs to this trailblazer of jazz guitar.

If this piques your swingin' heart's interest, by all means read Sally-Ann Worsfold's excellent and comprehensive liner notes from The Quintessential Eddie Lang CD - and we thank those who create the Red Hot Jazz website for posting them.

Remembering Ted Lightnin' Kratter

Ted Lightnin' Kratter, a force on the local bluegrass scene in the San Francisco Bay Area, walking encyclopedia of American roots music and much beloved friend to many, passed away of cancer on Sunday.

Those who knew Ted's driving guitar and mandolin music marveled at his unique synthesis of protean elements from Jerry Garcia, Clarence White, John Fahey, Bill Monroe, Leo Kottke, David Grisman, Robbie Robertson and Duane Allman, as well as his ability to recall all the verses from "Smoke On The Water". Those who knew Ted as a friend, colleague and bandmate enjoyed his original blast of positive energy, good humor, generosity and insightful knowledge on diverse topics.

Adieu and good night, Ted, and we'll talk some more when it's my time. Peace out.

And This Blog Loves The Boswell Sisters

When reflecting on the many splendid musical talents from New Orleans – and the mere thought of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Henry "Red" Allen, Irma Thomas, Fats Domino, Guitar Slim, Dr. John, James Black, James Booker, Professor Longhair, all variations on The Meters, Radiators and The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Allen Toussaint, Ed Blackwell, The Marsalises, The Batistes, The Nevilles, Donald Harrison, Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton and swingin’ Harry Connick Jr. brings a big, fat, deep-in-the soul smile to my face – don't forget the fabulous Boswell Sisters: Martha (1905 - 1958), Connee (1907 - 1976) and Vet (1911 - 1988).



With Glenn Miller arrangements and the skilled backing of New York's finest session musicians - Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey, Carl Kress, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, etc. - The Boswell Sisters recorded numerous sprightly tunes for Okeh and Brunswick.

Like their contemporaries - Satchmo, Fats, Cab, Basie, Billie, Django, Duke, Earl "Fatha" Hines, etc. - they made recordings that swing like mad and still sound great 80 years later!





Here are The Boswells at the top of their game, in The Big Broadcast Of 1932, a wonderful Paramount Pictures musical that also features the original Swooner Crooner himself, Mr. Bing Crosby. Swing it, Boswell Sisters!





Three cheers for The Boswell Sisters, three gals linked in sweet harmony.

This Blog Digs Trailers From Bad Movies

Do we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog enjoy trailers from bad movies? Yes - very much.





Probably a bit too much.







We even like trailers from 1930's programmers, which are several cuts above the aforementioned Z-pictures and schlockers but fun just the same.

































with some great versions of "What Is This Thing Called Love."









Have posted Valentine's Day cartoons, the best being Tex Avery's MGM cartoon LIL' TINKER, on this blog before. Here's one that's not among Tex Avery's top 150 cartoons but is not bad for mid-1930's Merrie Melodies and has a terrific ending. Besides, we love the bit in which the main character, who is more than a little reminiscent of Harvey Comics, has fire instead of water in his shower. Nothing will accelerate one's efforts to freshen up in the morning quite like a 5000 degree blast!

One way to honor February 14 would be to, upon ponderance of this day go ask Shakespeare, then read some sonnets! But also check out this incredible song by Burt Bacharach.



Love the excellent vocal by Rufus Wainright and the song's lyrics.

I've been hoping for a better day
It's a long time coming, but I wait anyway
'Til the dark clouds have all blown away
And the sun shines again

I keep trying, I've been holding on
Though the days are empty in a world that's gone wrong
Life's a miracle or a foolish tale
I don't know, go ask Shakespeare

Love's the answer, like I said before
It's the one thing needed, maybe now even more
Love's the secret we've been looking for
'Til the sun shines again

So I keep hoping and I'm holding on
There's a cold wind blowing, but I know love is strong
There will come a day when sorrow is gone
And the sun shines again

I keep hoping for a better day
It's a long time coming, but I wait anyway
Life's a miracle or a foolish tale
I don't know, go ask Shakespeare






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Burt Bacharach Day

The Latest Treasure Trove For Classic Comedy Geeks by Paul F. Etcheverry

Firing up that Beatles classic Revolver album for the annual ceremonial listening of George Harrison's Taxman and pondering when I will attend The Stanford Theatre's Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor, this blogger must call attention to some recent additions to the category of now available cinematic rarities: these DVD releases, combined with last fall's epic Chaplin At Keystone box set, present nothing less than a classic comedy bonanza.



First and foremost, there's The Ernie Kovacs Collection. Arguably, Ernie Kovacs, who first hit the airwaves almost 20 years before Monty Python and a quarter century before Saturday Night Live and SCTV, is still the most brilliant, forward-thinking comedy auteur to have ever worked in television.

On the heels of Tuesday night's Kovacs tribute at Manhattan's Paley Center For Media, the 6-DVD box set will be officially released by Shout Factory on April 19.

We can think the wonderful singer-comedienne (and Ernie's wife) Edie Adams, who bought all the Kovacs footage she could, for the very existence of this DVD. Edie's son, Josh Mills, elaborates:



Ken Tucker, prolific writer on 20th century pop culture over the years, has penned a glowing review of the new Ernie retrospective in Entertainment Weekly. David Bianculli followed suit on NPR's Fresh Air from WHYY.

This 6-DVD box set, curated by film historian and silent film accompanist Ben Model, concentrates on Ernie's NBC shows of the 1950's, which (with the exception of a brief run on Comedy Central in the early 1990's) have rarely been seen since their original broadcast and never were issued on VHS or laserdisc. Those who pre-order the set will get a 7th DVD in the bargain.

Not to be outdone, Warner Archive released a 4-DVD set of the historic and often quite funny Vitaphone Varieties one-reelers on April 12.

This compendium of 60 short films from 1926-1930, restored from the last surviving film elements known to exist and never before released on DVD, is quite the "dawn of talkies" (A.K.A. the "boom microphone in the plant" era) time capsule - filled with musical novelty acts, nutjob comics, vaudevillians, opera singers and stage character actors picking up a little extra dough.

Alas, your correspondent is still catching up to last year's Warner Archive releases, especially the pre-Code "showgirls n' surrealism" packed Vitaphone Cavalcade Of Musical Comedy Shorts

As well as the Classic Musical Shorts From The Dream Factory box set.

And then's more. . .

Those ultra-geeky (in the best sense of the phrase) dyed-in-the-wool film buffs who have a multi-region DVD system which will play discs other than NTSC, specifically the the PAL broadcast standard, will love Edition Filmmuseum's riotously funny retrospective of Hal Roach Studio comedies starring Yiddish comedian-character actor Max Davidson.

The Max Davidson series was Leo McCarey's pet project at Roach in 1928, between his very successful stints writing and co-directing outrageous comedy shorts featuring Charley Chase and Laurel & Hardy.

All of the above present the entertainment equivalent of crack for incurable classic comedy and vintage movie geeks.