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Showing posts from March, 2009

Jazz Ain't Nothin' But Soul by Norman Mapp

Jazz is makin' do with taters and grits Standing up each time you get hit Jazz ain't nothin' but soul From 1968 to 1970, I visited every jazz room in New York City. I went from Slug's in the Far East on 2nd Street between Avenues A and B all the way uptown to Club Baron and Small's Paradise. In the Village, I was at the Blue Note, Village Vanguard and Village Gate. Every Jazzmobile was on my list of things to do, whether it was in Queens, The Bronx, Manhattan or Brooklyn. The memory that has stayed with me throughout my Jazz Excursion is the song given to me on a lead sheet by the composer Norman Mapp who also wrote "Mr. Ugly" and "I Worry 'Bout You". This was in 1983, at Freddy's on the lower east side, when I was petitioning the manager for a night to bring my band there. Norman handed me the song, after we had a long discussion at the bar about my two mentors Betty "Bebop" Carter and Joe Lee Wilson . Both of them recorded an

Blues Roots

THIS IS A POST ON http://www.themodernvocalist.com/ I am currently a member of the "Blues Singers Group" on this site. I went on it just a bit ago to check on the activity. I am sad to see that there has been little activity since mid February. Talk about being blue about something, with all the talent & intellegence I have seen since joining this site I would have thought more contributions would be proffered. Singing the Blues is akin to playing the Blues on guitar, or sax, or harmonica, or piano. We attribute W. C. Handy with the 1st Bastion who held the Blues tune up like a torch, blazing in the twilight of inspiration. If not for Bessie Mae Smith @ 1919 who with her voice launched a timeless hit, we may never have heard Handy's " St. Louis Blues". Louie Armstrong may have never joined her with the Coronet & this song may have passed on into obscurity. Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Louie Armstrong, B.B. King, the names go on & on forming & fo
Here are photos from our events to date in 2009 http://ping.fm/7p7eH