Cultural Whirl

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...

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

Mar 3, 2009 FUNDRAISER at Christine's WOMEN IN JAZZ ENSEMBLE March 7, 2009 @ 3pm to 5pm African American Research Library & Cultural Center 2650 Sistrunk Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311 www.wijsf.com/events/aarlcc-wij.htm www.wijsf.com/projects/announcements.htm Contact Info: 954-607-7471 Admission $20 Benefits Friends of AARLCC TUNE IN TO MUSICWOMAN LIVE! every Wednesday at www.blogtalkradio.com Archived shows are linked at www.wijsf.com/radio.htm

Diva JC's Red Room What does America mean to you?

[Photo source] Bobby Durham: February 3, 1937 | Died: July 6, 2008 This poem is dedicated to Bobby Durham , the late drummer who passed away in Italy recently. It was read, today, Feb 15 at his memorial service in Basel, Switzerland, by singer Sandy Patton. Bully Muldoon by Joan Cartwright This is a story of Bully Muldoon We met in Philly in a smoky saloon Pricie played the keys, I sang the words While Benny strummed the bassline, strong That Bulldog was like a cartoon Always smiling and making us laugh But playing the drums was his passion He was rhythm, alive, what a gas! Now, the reason they called him Bully Muldoon Had nothing to do with a drum They were a trio, The Canine Trio Is how they'd announce when they'd come The Great Dane, that was Benny Nelson on bass And Gerald Price the Doberman Pincher They'd save Bobby for last cause he was a gas He's The Pitt Bull and he'll bite your ass! When Pricie would say this, I'd burst into laughter I was young, but st...

In the world, a collective of sensory experience shared offers to many an agreed upon experience with the effect of presenting a consummate sense of human community in time and space. In conventional time (the multi-dimensional world existing in a non-unific sense of time and space) the notion of singularity is at best a notion on a shelf. The unifying thought then is one of multi-dimensionality, having the nature of being more than one place at one time. It also defies the parochial sense of limitation because humans are often bound by their five-sense appreciation of the world. We never stop to consider that of those five senses, vision is the only thing that happens outside of 200 meters around you and, if we are to understand the universe, we would first consider that the world is much broader than what our five senses can tell. Multi-dimensionality offers color where, before, there was only black and white. It offers depth where, before, there was only length and width. It offer...