Jump to content

Stereojack

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,472

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Stereojack

  1. Bunny Berigan Mosaic

    in Mosaic and other box sets...

    Posted

    I wonder: what else to get to have more *good* Berigan? Classics' run of releases picking up after the Mosaic ends? (Or even those covering the same years? Is there material on those volumes coming from labels not covered in the Mosaic?)

    Berigan led his own big band beginning in 1937, which recorded extensively for Victor. The music is of pretty high quality with many classics in amongst the more commercial sides. Also recorded with Benny Goodman's band in 1935 and with Tommy Dorsey in 1937. Both associations yielded a number of classics, icluding King Porter Stomp, Sometimes I'm Happy (Goodman), Song of India, Marie (Dorsey). These are essentials for the Berigan fan.

    Chronological Classics and Hep have issued several volumes of his Victor sides, none of which are on the Mosaic.

  2. Nellie Lutcher RIP

    in Artists

    Posted

    THis obit claims she was 94. According to most sources, she was born October 15, 1915, which makes her 91.

    http://www.americanpress.com/index.php?opt...&Itemid=105

    Lake Charles-born Nellie Lutcher, a stylish jazz vocalist and pianist who was a top-selling recording artist in the 1940s and '50s, died Friday in Los Angeles. She was 94.

    Lutcher's hits included "Hurry on Down," "He's a Real Gone Guy" and "Fine Brown Frame." She sang a duet with Nat King Cole, "Can I Come in for a Second."

    Lutcher also had a novelty song she wrote about her hometown. It was "Lake Charles Boogie," and the lyrics included: "This little ditty / is a song about the city / where I was born."

    She performed well into her 70s.

    "My mom was a fighter," her son, Talmidge Lewis of Concord, Calif., told the American Press. "The things she believed in most were loyalty and family."

    Local rediscovery

    Lutcher's death comes at the same time her hometown had already begun a series of events saluting her life in music.

    The Imperial Calcasieu Museum, in conjunction with the American Press and others, has been organizing exhibits and tribute to Lutcher for this fall - timed to coincide with what would have been Lutcher's 95th

    birthday.

    Last month, rising artists Wendy Colonna, Eleisha Eagle and Breanna Fye appeared in a joint concert to raise money for the exhibit.

    Family tributes

    American Press Staff Writer Eric Cormier, who arrived in Los Angeles the day before her death in order to interview her, was with a Lutcher family member Friday when the news came by telephone.

    "My Aunt Nellie just died," jazz musician Daryl Jackson Munyungo, her nephew, told the American Press after hanging up.

    He got the call from another Lutcher nephew, Gene Jackson, who had been managing the ailing jazz great's affairs.

    Lutcher had been in failing health, battling pneumonia and other ailments before entering hospice care.

    "She was a fighter to the end," Jackson said. "She had told the family, 'I'm going to go when I'm ready to go.'"

    Of her renewed local recognition in Lake Charles - events which now double as tributes, he said, "We are very happy that Lake Charles is going to recognize her. This is an opportunity for all her fans, young

    and old, to honor her."

    Lutcher's life

    Nellie Lutcher was the oldest child of Isaac "Skinner" Lutcher, a bass player who worked for a packing company on the lakefront, and Susie Lutcher, who lost five of her 15 children to death during infancy.

    At age 8, she was as assistant pianist at New Sunlight Baptist Church in Lake Charles under pastor was M.T. Jackson.

    Lutcher attended Second Ward School and performed in the school orchestra. As a teenager, she played the piano briefly with the Imperial Orchestra, then the Southern Rhythm Boys, a local group of

    musicians from Texas and Louisiana.

    At 11, she played piano for blues singer Ma Rainey.

    In 1935, Lutcher moved to Los Angeles. She played piano with small groups.

    She signed with Capitol Records in 1947. over the next several years, her songs ranked on the pop, jazz and R&B charts.

    She also recorded with the Decca, Epic and Liberty labels.

    In 1952, she was honored on Ralph Edwards' NBC-TV show "This Is Your Life."

    Lutcher was only African American woman to serve on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Musicians Union. She had been a member since 1947.

    By BRETT DOWNER

    AMERICAN PRESS

  8. Wardell Gray Film

    in Artists

    Posted

    I have the film on VHS, it can be a little arty in spots. There is not much in the way of Wardell in action, one clip is repeated quite a bit in the film. However, there is a lot of oral history and I am glad I bought it for that reason.

    Agree. There are a few interesting interviews (Dorothy and ?? (ex-wives), Clark Terry, Gus Johnson (I think it was)). The material gets stretched waaaaay too far. The same soundie clips play many times. The only new-to-me film is with BG's band. And the same still photos are filmed over and over, mainly to fill time(?)

    I saw the film in Boston when the director premiered it. There are a few interesting interviews, but overall the film is a mess. The interview with Gus Johnson (already deeply afflicted with Alzheimer's) is embarassing. The inept "artsiness" is laughable. In his talk after the film, Revett admitted that getting clearance rights for the music was way too expensive, so he stretched what he had.

  10. comments heard in music stores...

    in Musician's Forum

    Posted

    I heard these in my store:

    Spaced out dude looks out the window while standing at the register, and says, "Is it raining outside, or am I high on acid?" (it wasn't)

    ********

    Me: "I'm sorry, we can't buy these records. They're all scratched."

    Customer: "Can't you just iron out the scratches?"

    ********

    "Do you know where I can get a pair of quad headphones?"

    ********

    "That's just the tip of the icebox."

    :g:g:g

  12. Worst Attempt at Commercial Crossover by an Otherwise Respected Jazz A

    in Miscellaneous Music

    Posted

    I have never heard it, but from others' comments I would wager that Jackie McLean's MONUMENTS might place highly in such a poll.

    That's what I've heard...well haven't heard. Don't know who owns the LP, but my feeling is that we won't see a cd reissue ever of this one. Can anyone provide an idea of just how bad this one is, from a listening experience? Didn't it pretty much ended McLean's recording career for some time after this one?

    I heard the LP when it came out (which is a long time ago). It is basically a disco album with strings, as I recall, and one track features a recitation by Jackie. As commercial efforts go, this one was a dismal failure.

    John Handy's "Hard Work" is at least a catchy track, and presumably John made a few bucks.

    Bill Evans' "Theme From the VIP's" is also a dud.

  19. where is 1010?

    in Mosaic and other box sets...

    Posted

    The Farmer estate made really unreasonable demands and the project was shelved. I have heard recently they relented a bit and the issue might come out.

    Help me with this - does the estate have any rights regarding the reissue of a legitimate album?

    I wonder if the undoctored tapes (this date is a studio recording with dubbed applause) can't be found?

  25. Yusef Lateef: 1984 (ABC/Impulse!)

    in Artists

    Posted

    I once bought an later pressing of Sun Ship that was Trane on one side, some Archie Shepp side on the other. Looking at the dead wax, I saw that the albums had similar catalog #s, just one digit was transposed. Don't now how many more of those made it to market,

    A large number of these got out. Perhaps all of the blue label MCA pressings of "Sun Ship" (probably from the early 1980's) contain one side of Archie Shepp's "On This Night", I seem to recall.

×
×
  • Create New...