Let The Heavenly Clouds Tickle Your Bare Feet, Cesaria Evora ...

Well, I'm not doing much better with the illness I am afflicted with, however, I had to come off the DL for this.


I heard news this weekend that, certainly, put a damper in, if any, holiday spirit hovering around.


That being that the wonderful, and talented, Cape Verdean singer, Cesaria Evoria passed away, at the not-terribly-old-age of 70.


 


Man ...


Listening to her was such a pleasure, for she carried you off into a world, flooded and filled, with the most beautiful sounds, a world you may not know existed, just floating along, listening to her, lost in the beauty, thinking, hoping, it would never end.


I was fortunate to see her perform, twice, back in the mid and late 1990's, and it was awesome.


Coming out of those shows was like having seen something outside your own understanding, something miraculously divine and good, a refreshing of your soul.


From Jon Pareles at the NYT;

Ms. Évora’s music was in a style called morna, which is sung in taverns on the Cape Verde islands: slow, pensive ballads with an underlying lilt, suffused with sodade, the Cape Verdean creole term for a nostalgic longing that pervades music across Portugal (where the word is saudade) and its former empire.


Ms. Évora sang about love, sorrow and history, including slavery, in a husky, dignified, unhurried contralto that brought warmth and gravity to songs by Cape Verde’s leading poets. She also sang in her country’s more upbeat styles, coladeira and funaná, but her serenely sorrowful mornas were her legacy.


She always performed barefoot, a gesture of solidarity with poor women. A concert review in The New York Times described her as “a Yoda of melancholy” onstage.

 


And Barry Hatton at SF Chronicle-AP

Her singing style brought comparisons to American jazz singer Billie Holiday. "She belongs to the aristocracy of bar singers," French newspaper Le Monde said in 1991, adding that Ms. Evora had "a voice to melt the soul."


Ms. Evora's international fame came late in life. Her 1988 album "La Diva Aux Pieds Nus" ("Barefoot Diva"), recorded in France where she first found popularity, launched her international career.


Her 1995 album "Cesaria" was released in more than a dozen countries and brought her first Grammy nomination, leading to a tour of major concert halls around the world and album sales in the millions.


She won a 2003 Grammy in the World Music category for her album "Voz D'Amor."

Xeni Jardin, over on Boing Boing, also has a nice tribute to check out.



As does the BBC - Cesaria Evora, the voice that put Cape Verde on the map

So long Cesaria Evora ...


Try not to make the angels cry, with your so, so sweat voice ....




Cesaria Evora - Sodade (HD,16:9)







Cesaria Evora - Besame Mucho







Cesaria Evora - Carnaval De Sao Vicente ( Live In Paris )

Jazz Legend George Shearing Dies

I heard this on the radio this morning, and it shadowed the beginning of the day in sadness;

George Shearing dies aged 91

Announcing the death due to heart failure at Shearing's home in Manhattan, his agent, Dale Sheets, said: "He was a totally one of a kind performer. It was something wonderful to see, to watch him work."

I had the good fortune to catch Shearing a few times, both, in club, and festival, settings, and it was always a delicious treat, the crowd hushing to the point you could hear a pin drop, settling in for the unique Shearing sound.

Peter Keepnews explains;

The Shearing sound — which had the harmonic complexity of bebop but eschewed bebop’s ferocious energy — was built on the unusual instrumentation of vibraphone, guitar, piano, bass and drums. To get the “full block sound” he wanted, he had the vibraphone double what his right hand played and the guitar double the left. That sound came to represent the essence of sophisticated hip for countless listeners worldwide who preferred their jazz on the gentle side.

[snip]

By his own estimate Mr. Shearing wrote about 300 tunes, of which he liked to joke that roughly 295 were completely unknown.

He nevertheless contributed at least one bona fide standard to the jazz repertory: “Lullaby of Birdland,” written in 1952 and adopted as the theme song of the world-famous New York nightclub where he frequently performed. Both as an instrumental and with words by George David Weiss, it has been recorded by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Bill Haley and His Comets, who improbably cut a version called “Lullaby of Birdland Twist” in 1962

And who else remembers the television commercial, featuring Ray Charles (for a Pioneer LaserDisc), delivering the punchline "I liked it so much, I got one for my friend, George Shearing", the joke being Shearing is also blind.

RIP George Shearing, it was great having you around.


George Shearing - Lullaby of Birdland



And here's a personal favorite;

GEORGE SHEARING playing IT NEVER ENTERED MY MIND

Dennis Hopper Had Duende

I suppose, it was expected, the MSM obits would highlight the thing of "rebel" and, of course 'Easy Rider'.

That would be for actor Dennis Hopper, who passed away from his battle with cancer.

Why couldn't they just highlight, and dwell on, he was one fine, motherf'ing actor, and a whole bevy of turns.

Dennis Hopper had duende.



Here's the NYT Obit;

Dennis Hopper, 74, Hollywood Rebel, Dies

And, one from Yahoo and the AP;

Dennis Hopper, creator of hit 'Easy Rider,' dies (AP)

If you want the best read, check out Edward Copeland's "Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)";

How many odd turns can one man's life and career take? There's probably no limit, but Dennis Hopper, who died at 74 after a long battle with cancer, took a lot of them: From young actor of film and TV in the 1950s to counterculture icon of the 1960s and '70s (while adding director to his resume and still working with the likes of John Wayne); from nearly unemployable because of drugs to a career comeback in the mid-1980s before frequent returns to TV. On the side, he managed to find time to be a prolific photographer, painter and sculptor. His later years also brought the strangest twist for the hippie hero: he became a Republican. Still, it's his film and TV work that will be his legacy.

And, though he only had a small role, and not a great deal of screen time, his turn in 'True Romance' was perfect, a role only he could have played, it fit the film exquisitely.

True Romance - Sicilians

Hank Jones at 91, Legenday Jazz Pianist/Composer/Grammy Winner

Our In Box, this morning, carried the sad news, of the death of the great Jazz pianist, Hank Jones, at age 91, in the Bronx, New York.



We were lucky to have seen Hank Jones perform a handful of times, and it was always tremendous, a consummate professional, you left a Hank Jones show satisfied, and in awe, of his, seemingly, effortlessly manner of employing his gift.

From Dan Heckman, LA Times;

Hank Jones, jazz pianist who spanned styles and generations, dies at 91

Praised for the feather-soft precision of his touch, Jones was equally adept at unleashing the piano's full, orchestral gamut of sounds. Rhythmic lift and propulsive swing were inherent to his playing, whether performing as an accompanist or in a solo setting. And his deep understanding of harmony was the foundation for a skilled mastery of the diverse material in the Great American Songbook.

[snip]

As recently as 2008, Los Angeles jazz audiences heard Jones in a pair of Southland performances — in a trio concert at UCLA and a 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl — clearly illustrating that he had long ago ascended to the lofty level he described.

[snip]

Over the next 15 years he was a first-call accompanist for virtually every major jazz artist of the time, backing Fitzgerald, Davis, Young, Adderley, Hawkins, Holiday and Ben Webster, among others. A three-year run with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1947 to 1950 matched him with Roy Eldridge, Max Roach and Parker. In 1955, with the release of "The Trio of Hank Jones" (with Wendell Marshall and Kenny Clarke), he began a six-decade sequence of supplementing his busy sideman schedule with recordings under his own name.

Look through your collection of Jazz records (okay, CD's, or downloads), and you may be surprised on just how many that Jones is manning the piano.

Peter Keepnews, NYT;

Mr. Jones spent much of his career in the background. For three and a half decades he was primarily a sideman, most notably with Ella Fitzgerald; for much of that time he also worked as a studio musician on radio and television.

His fellow musicians admired his imagination, his versatility and his distinctive style, which blended the urbanity and rhythmic drive of the Harlem stride pianists, the dexterity of Art Tatum and the harmonic daring of bebop. (The pianist, composer and conductor André Previn once called Mr. Jones his favorite pianist, “regardless of idiom.”)

And, as to that "effortless" way of playing?

“I think the way you practice has a lot to do with it,” he explained. “If you practice scales religiously and practice each note firmly with equal strength, certainly you’ll develop a certain smoothness. I used to practice a lot. I still do when I’m at home.” Mr. Jones was 78 years old at the time.

BBC: Hank Jones obituary

RIP Hank Jones, but do it as you always have - keep on swingin'!

Here's a few tunes you can check out.

Hank Jones - On Green Dolphin Street




Hank Jones Trio 1979 - Bluesette




Hank Jones: Willow Weep For Me

The Last Bounce

Regular readers of The Garlic know that we pay attention to, and often, riff, on obituaries.

We've had some good ones, such as Stockholm Opera conducter, Sixten Ehrling, Marcel Marceau, Ingmar Bergman, and Baseball pitcher, Don Nottebart.



Today, we add another - George Nissen, the inventor of the trampoline.

I suppose we could riff that they will double-somersault the casket into the grave, or, that the final epitaph would be "BOING!"

We don't know if there is some ritual, or ceremonial platitude, they would give someone who invented the trampoline, so, we'll call it "The Last Bounce'

George Nissen, Father of the Trampoline, Dies at 96

One by one, the trapeze artists topped off their routines by dropping from their high-swinging bars into the net stretched below, then rebounding into somersaults, to the roar of the crowd at the traveling circus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And one child in the stands began to wonder: Hey, what if there was a contraption that made it possible to keep on bouncing and flipping?

George Nissen, 16, who was a member of the high school gymnastics and diving teams, was soon tinkering in his parents’ garage, strapping together a rectangular steel frame and a canvas sheet. Though not as springy as he had hoped, he called it a bouncing rig. That was in 1930.

[snip]

Then, in 1937, Mr. Nissen and two friends formed a traveling acrobatics act called the Three Leonardos and began performing across the Midwest and Texas and then in Mexico. It was there that he heard the Spanish word for diving board, el trampolin.

[snip]

Mr. Nissen, who devoted his life to promoting and manufacturing the trampoline, once renting a kangaroo to bounce with him in Central Park, died last Wednesday at a hospital near his home in San Diego. He was 96.

“And at the banquet before the competition he would do a handstand,” Mr. Normile said. “It became a tradition.”

[snip]

“The last time I saw him there was in 2006,” Mr. Normile continued. “He did one of those kind of yoga headstands where you’re on your head and elbows. That was only four years ago; he was 92.”

Dwight Normile for International Gymnast Magazine: Trampoline Inventor George Nissen Passes Away

Inventer of the Week Archive - George Nissen

Fascinating facts about the invention of Trampoline by George Nissen in 1935

Sad News Today ... The Passing of Kate McGarrigle

I can't properly convey the profound sadness I felt, when scanning through the paper today, passing over the Obits, and seeing that folk singer Kate McGarrigle, of the famed McGarrigle Sisters, passed away.



It's not that I was a devoted fan, and follower, of the McGarrigle Sisters, or Folk Music, overall.

Yet, I had some unusual awareness of them.

They came through Boston, fairly regularly, and with that, I would hear them on NPR, or local radio.

And, it always struck me, on how the McGarrigle Sisters had something beyond cool, something so special, beyond their talents.

Imagine having a career, with your sibling, with something you love, something you had engaged in, virtually, your entire life ...

How many people can claim that?

Born in Montreal and raised in St.-Sauveur-des-Monts, a small town about 50 miles north, Ms. McGarrigle absorbed a range of musical traditions around a musical hearth. Her father, Frank, was of Irish-Canadian stock and steeped in Stephen Foster and turn-of-the-century parlor songs; from her mother, Gaby, she and her two elder sisters — the oldest McGarrigle sister, Jane, was a church organist — learned old songs in French.

“Music was always there at home,” Kate McGarrigle said in a 1997 interview in Sing Out! magazine. “At parties, somebody would get up and sing, and my father would accompany them and sing the harmony. There were lots of friends and uncles and each would get up and give their big song.”

[snip]

Love and family life were central themes in both women’s music, and their songs often addressed romance’s place in the quotidian details of life. Kate McGarrigle’s 1990 song “I Eat Dinner” contemplates love lost among the leftovers, and both sisters’ “Matapedia,” from 1996, is based on a real event in Kate’s life, when an old flame saw her 17-year-old daughter, Martha, and mistook her for her mother.

Martha, like Rufus, has become a noted singer and songwriter. Their father is the singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, who was married to Ms. McGarrigle in the 1970s.

So sad, as Kate McGarrigle was only 63.


Kate and Anna McGarrigle : Ce Matin




Kate and Anna McGarrigle : Cool River




Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Petite Annonce




You can visit the McGarrigle's website here

Love Means Never Making Me Read That Book Again

We remember, oh, so well, the mania that erupted, when the book, soon followed by one of the sappiest movie ever made, came out, the buzz, the hosannas for the work ...

And, if you had sisters, holy cow, it was 24/7, over-the-moon, heart-clutching anguish, bemoaning the wait for their "Oliver" to come driving up in a little MG.



You couldn't escape it.

So, we pose a query to you out there.

Who else has gone so far, with so little?

Erich Segal, 72; authored hugely popular ‘Love Story’

He had originally written “Love Story’’ as a screenplay about the star-crossed love between a working-class Italian girl from Radcliffe and a Harvard boy from an old family. The 1970 film, which starred Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal and became a huge hit, was in production before Dr. Segal reworked it as a novel. When “Love Story’’ was released in paperback, it had the largest print order in publishing history at the time, with 4,325,000 copies.

Although Dr. Segal’s work resonated with the public, critics almost uniformly lambasted it. The judges for the National Book Award threatened to resign unless “Love Story’’ was withdrawn from nomination.

“It is a banal book which simply doesn’t qualify as literature,’’ said novelist William Styron, the head judge of the fiction panel.

But thrust into the limelight, Dr. Segal made weekend jaunts to Paris and London, returning to Yale for his classes on classical civilization. Dr. Segal also parlayed his love of running and knowledge of ancient Greece into a job as an ABC TV commentator for the Olympic Games.

If that was today, he'd have his own Reality television show, by now.

What love really means is never making me read that book again

Pez Creator Death Kicks Off Ferocious Battle Among Collectors, To Claim Body

The new year brought in the sad news, that Curtis Allina, creator of the now-infamous Pez Dispenser, passed away on December 15th, at the age of 87;

Curtis Allina Dies at 87; He Put the Heads on Pez

For nearly three decades after World War II, Mr. Allina was the vice president in charge of United States operations at what is now Pez Candy. In 1955, at his urging, what had been an austerely packaged Austrian confection for adults took on vibrant new life as a children’s product.

That year, the first character dispensers, as they are known in the parlance of Peziana, were issued, giving birth to what is today a highly collectible pop-cultural artifact. Instantly recognizable, the dispensers are slim plastic containers, usually anthropomorphic in design, whose heads — modeled after those of TV characters, cartoon figures or historical personages — flip back to disgorge brick-shaped pieces of candy.

[snip]

A Pez dispenser is a simple little machine: back snaps the head, out pops the candy, and the head flicks shut again with a satisfying click. But oh, the variations, from a spate of licensed characters to those designed by Pez. For serious collectors, the most highly prized dispensers, long discontinued, are elusive objects of desire that can run to thousands of dollars apiece.

It is now, those "serious collectors" that are causing tremendous trouble for authorties in Olympia, Washington, where Allina resided.

Hundreds have descended on the town, and have been badgering family members, seeking to purchase Allina's body for their Pez collections.

In some cases, collectors have attempted to break into Allina's home, and, in another incident, there was a carjacking of a young lady, thought to be a granddaughter.

"It's been awful," said one resident.

"They are stalking people all over town, going through garbage cans, looking for anything they can lay claim to."

One collector, who asked to remain anonymous, was near hyperventilation, with the thought of claiming Allina's body for his collection.

"I have thousand, and thousands of Pez dispensers, going back decades .. Rare and impossible to find ones ... Having Mr. Allina in the collection would just make it priceless."

Another collector that was also seeking the body, planned to cash out his collection, on eBay.

When contacted, eBay, on the possibility of someone selling the Pez creators' body, the spokesperson indicated they had no specific rules against it, if it were part of a collection, and cautioned anyone purchasing it, to verify who the seller was, and check their rating for selling on eBay.

"We really don't want to get in the middle of a sale, of someone buying a collection and it not being the specified item."

In a related matter, the Pez Corporation announced that they are discontinuing plans for the release of a new, 2010 Pez Dispenser, Allina's final creation, the head of the former President, The Commander Guy, dispensing shoe-shaped pez pellets.

Barry Crimmins: "So Long Obes"

It was rather sudden, and shocking, to hear the news that star stand-up comic, and television game show host, Ken Ober passed away over the weekend;

Ken Ober dies at 52; host of MTV's 'Remote Control' game show

Ken Ober, ‘Remote Control’ Host, Is Dead at 52



From his Wikipedia page;

He received his break after appearing as a contestant on Star Search.[4] He was most widely known for his role on the MTV game show Remote Control,[5] which he hosted for three seasons, spanning 1987 to 1989, then in reruns for an additional two years. That show also helped launch the careers of Adam Sandler, Denis Leary, and Colin Quinn. Ober was known among '90s and '00s audiences for his hosting jobs on Make Me Laugh,[6] Smush, and the ESPN game show Perfect Match.

There's plenty about Ken Ober, his life, and death, out on the World Wide Web.

However, the most moving, the most personal, the most heart-felt post you can find, is from Barry Crimmins, long-time friend of Ken Ober.

So long, Obes

Although he was an expert needler, he knew exactly how not to be a pain in the ass. During a period when I was besieged by people wasting my time by beating around the bush looking for dates, Ken never squandered a moment of my too-busy days. This was just a small part of the reason I so enjoyed his inordinately good company. I don't recall how it started, but early on Ken and I began mockingly calling each other frattish nicknames. This was not out of respect for the ludicrous campus Greek traditions we had scuffed up against in college. No, it was disdain for the dildoic that made him "Obes" and me "Cribs." This gag, which had been fleshed out over eons of sarcasm and enough drinks to swell a rhino's liver, stuck for the duration of our friendship. It personalized it and gave it a special status. While talking this summer we finally acknowledged that we had become what we had resisted since the days at the Ding: long lost frat brothers from the old Grabba Break house in Cambridge.

[snip]

Yesterday, when the horrible news of Ken's death reached me, my first thought was of Bear. As tough as it is for humans to lose Ken, it has to be worse for his dog. I've been assured that Bear is in good hands but I feel so bad for him because as unbelievable as Ken's sudden death is to his family and legions of pals, it's got to be worse for a dog who was man's best friend to one of the best men ever. Poor Bear!

I can't imagine I'll ever get over Ken's ridiculously premature death (he was 52). Ask anyone who knew him (and believe me, there won't be anywhere near six degrees of separation between you and Ken) and they'll tell you that he was such a solid and unswerving friend that it seemed like he would always, always be there. Now that he isn't, those of us who were graced by his magnificent friendship know we cannot ever replace him. What we can do is begin to pay down the debt we owe to humanity for having had Ken Ober in our lives for as long as we did. So if you loved Kenny, track down an old friend today to see how they're doing or maybe stop and encourage that taken-for-granted intern on your staff. Take your dog for an extra long walk and let her or him sneak up on the couch. Don't have a dog? Adopt one. Can't have a dog? Make a donation to a no-kill shelter near you.

Go read the entire post.

And, if you knew "Obes", leave a comment for "Cribs" when you finish reading.

Or, just give "Cribs", a shout-out ...

Can't Wait To See The Super Bowl Ad On This One!

This one, we'll have to wait awhile, to see how it plays out.



Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.Com, is looking to make (pun intended) his next killing;

Out of print ... Monster.com made its name by putting help-wanted ads online. And now its founder sees untapped potential in widening the audience for death notices, too

Taylor, the founder of the online career site that became Monster.com, raised $32 million in venture capital funding for Eons. The company filled its Charlestown offices with about 60 staffers, who focused on building an online community for people over the age of 50 with features such as a 40-question quiz that aimed to estimate one’s longevity and supply advice about healthy living.

But three years after the glitzy launch party, just 12 people remain on the payroll at Eons, and the site’s traffic has been shrinking. Taylor is now hoping that Tributes.com, a spinoff from Eons, might do better than the original site. It offers news about notable personalities who’ve died, and sells online obituaries (they prefer the term “tributes’’) to grieving families via a network of funeral homes. Just as Monster grew to a $1.3 billion company by putting a section of newspaper classifieds online - the help-wanted ads - Taylor plans to do the same for death notices, though this time, he faces competition from a big rival.

[snip]

The site tries to build traffic by creating online memorials for departed celebrities such as Paul Newman and Michael Jackson. It also has information from the Social Security Administration about more than 80 million deceased Americans. But its revenue comes from individuals who pay for online obits that can include unlimited text about the deceased, along with photos, videos, and music.

Yes, you too can live for infinity, out on the World Wide Web!

(We touched on this, back in April - After Death, No Reason For The Spam To Stop)

Not only that, but if you go out to Tributes.Com, you can set up your very on "Celebrity Alert"

Oh yeah, death is going to be big bucks.

It's definitely not your father's funeral home any longer.

Now, we will have to wait until next January, for the Super Bowl, to see if Taylor copies his success of Monster.Com, for Tributes.Com, with some clever, witty television spot.

Maybe they can come up with a combo - Someone dies while searching Monster.Com for a job, so the segue to the deceased's Tribute.Com page, perhaps offering a deal if you sign up for both services.


Bonus Links

Monster.com Super Bowl Ad

Legendary Ads ... Some ads suck, but these are an art form. Or at least funny

Kellogg Grades 2009 Super Bowl Ads, Monster.com Gets A+

You Were Cool, Mark Fidrych ... You Were Way Cool ...

More sad news out of the baseball world this evening.

Following last week's tragic car accident that claimed California Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, and earlier today, Philadelphia Phillies announcer Harry Kalas died before a game (you can say he "died with his booth on") and then, a real bombshell (at least, emotionally), that Mark "The Bird" Fidrych died today, perhaps in some kind of accident, repairing his truck.



Back in the mid-70's, 1976 to be specific, Fidrych took over baseball, lock, stock, and barrel, eventually, at season's end, earning the "Rookie of the Year' honors.

He was special, a real character, a honest character.

He played the game like it was supposed to be played - he had fun.

Tall, and with the gangly delivery, he soon got pegged as "The Bird", and he talked to himself out on the mound ... And he did his own groundswork on the mound, all contributing to the brilliant, blazing, rocket-of-a-shooting-star that Fidrych was.



A shoulder injury in his second year eventually cut his career short, as Fidrych played only five-years, all with the Detroit Tigers (ironically, he missed by a year, or two, the advancement in medicine, the surgery to repair his shoulder, that, possibly, would have given him a glorious career).

He came home, here, to Massachusetts, and, baffling to some, simply, lived his life.

You Were Cool, Mark Fidrych ... You Were Way Cool ...

You had duende ...




Nick Acocella: In '76, Bird was the word

Mark "The Bird" Fidrych

So Long Blossom, It Was A Great Ride!

Well, it was a cumbersome weekend to begin with, and I did labor today to write a few posts (those will go up tomorrow).

And, just as I was settling in to tag (link) them, a good friend dropped an email on me that stopped me in my tracks;

Blossom Dearie, cabaret singer, dies at 82



Oh man, not fair.

I knew that she had been ill in the past few years, even stopped performing for sometime.

Yet, it still brings about a mother lode of sadness to know that she has passed on.

When I first got into Jazz, for the first few years, it was the instrumentals - Miles, Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Stan Getz, Coltrane, Duke and Basie, Lester Young, Bill Evans, Weather Report, and a bevy of others - then, I got hip to the vocals.

First Ella, Sarah, Lady Day, Carmen McRae and, next, Blossom Dearie.

Her duet with Bob Dorough hooked me.

Baby It's Cold Outside



Blossom Dearie, cabaret singer, dies at 82

Blossom Dearie, the jazz pixie with a little-girl voice and pageboy haircut who was a fixture in New York and London nightclubs for decades, died on Saturday at her apartment in Greenwich Village. She was 82.

[Snip]

A singer, pianist and songwriter with an independent spirit who zealously guarded her privacy, Ms. Dearie pursued a singular career that blurred the line between jazz and cabaret. An interpretive minimalist with caviar taste in songs and musicians, she was a genre unto herself. Rarely raising her sly, kittenish voice, Ms. Dearie confided song lyrics in a playful style below whose surface layers of insinuation lurked. Her cheery style influenced many younger jazz and cabaret singers, most notably Stacey Kent and the singer and pianist Daryl Sherman.

But just under her fey camouflage lay a needling wit. If you listened closely, you could hear the scathing contempt she brought to one of her signature songs, “I’m Hip,” the Dave Frishberg-Bob Dorough demolition of a namedropping bohemian poseur. Ms. Dearie was for years closely associated with Mr. Frishberg and Mr. Dorough. It was Mr. Frishberg who wrote another of her perennials, “Peel Me a Grape.”

Ms. Dearie didn’t suffer fools gladly and was unafraid to voice her disdain for music she didn’t like; the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber were a particular pet peeve.

And while aging Jazzheads like myself got to know her music, so did a generation of youngsters get hip to her;

Blossom Dearie, Educator

It’s ironic then that many of us may forget that we first heard Blossom Dearie not on vinyl or CD but in the middle of H.R. Pufnstuf after an ad for Count Chocula. Starting with “Figure Eight,” on the original Multiplication Rock (1973), she contributed three installments to what would eventually become Schoolhouse Rock! I think the song she did with Bob Dorough, Jack Sheldon, and Essra Mohawk, “Mother Necessity” (“Mother Necessity, where would we be?”) is up there with “I’m Just a Bill” and “Conjunction Junction” in becoming something like mascots for the series, as instantly recognized and recalled as any three-chord Beatles riff. “Mother Necessity” was so nice a lesson that, as a kid, it never even hit you that were learning something. But my personal favorite was her 1975 “Unpack Your Adjectives”: It turned a letter from camp into an easy-to-remember grammar lesson and made mnemonics as appealing as Fruity Pebbles: “Friends asked us to describe/The people, places, and every last thing./So we unpacked our adjectives.”

Along with all of the above, if anything, Blossom Dearie was truly, incredibly, totally, unbelievably unique.

Blossom Dear on Wikipedia

Blossom Dearie, Vocalist Whose Wispy Voice Caressed Show Music and Standards, Has Died

RIP: Blossom Dearie, 1926-2009

We leave you with her music




Peel Me A Grape
H/T to GirlJukeBox

Blossom Dearie - I'm Hip




Blossom Dearie - I Won't Dance




Blossom Dearie - I Wish You Love

Year End Brings Another Sad Note ... Loss of Jazz Giant Freddie Hubbard

We made reference to one year-end disappointment yesterday, and, on the heels of that, this morning, a good friend alerted me to another.

Jazz Legend Freddie Hubbard passed away, at the age of 70, apparently as a result of a heart attack suffered a week ago.



I had the good fortune to see Hubbard perform scores-of-times, here on the East Coast, and also in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

He was an incredible soloist ... You could walk into a room, with music playing and immediately recognize "Oh, that's Freddie Hubbard on ..." and you would stand and listen, the music washing over you, so, so satisfying.

From Don Heckman, in the LA Times;

From the beginning, Hubbard's playing was characterized by its strength and assurance, its capacity to roam confidently across the trumpet's entire range, and his gift for spontaneous melodic invention.

He was barely out of his teens in the late 1950s and working with such established jazz figures as drummer Philly Joe Jones, trombonist Slide Hampton, saxophonist Sonny Rollins and composer/arranger Quincy Jones. His identification as an important new arrival gained him a Down Beat Critics Poll Award when he was in his early 20s.

[Snip]

Seemingly the first choice for artists of every stripe, he was present on many of the most significant jazz albums of the '60s, among them Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz," John Coltrane's "Ascension," Eric Dolphy's "Out To Lunch," Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth," Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil" and Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage."

He received a Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006.

He was both a master musician (he played with a "Who's-Who of Jazz History), and a top-notch performer, not shy about joking or bantering with the audience from the stage.

Always a pro ... Well, just about always ...

One performance, in the mid-90's, at the Regattabar, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, wasn't quite up-to-par.

Bringing a new girlfriend to the show, that I had built up to incredible heights, saw the rhythm section come out, play for nearly a half hour, minus Hubbard ... Hubbard then came and took the stage, played for about 20-minutes and left the stage, with the rhythm section finishing up another 20-minutes, or so.

The heated discussion we noticed Hubbard engaged in, as we entered the club, must have had to do with, perhaps, the financial arrangement and, apparently, Hubbard came out and played just enough to meet the gig requirements.

That brought to mind stories of Hubbard I heard, at a party in the late 1980's, in Los Angeles, during the Playboy Jazz Festival, where the late John Stubblefield had the room in stitches, falling on the floor with laughter, retelling tales of being on tour with Hubbard.


Freddie Hubbard on Wikipedia

Freddie Hubbard at JazzTrumpetSolos.com

NYT OBITUARY - Freddie Hubbard, Jazz Trumpeter, Dies at 70

BBC: Jazz giant Freddie Hubbard dies

AP - Freddie Hubbard dies - brilliant jazz trumpeter


A related note, word came today that Nat Hentoff, prolific writer of Jazz, and other subjects, has been laid off by The Village Voice.

“Nat Hentoff wrote liner notes for every great musician that I’ve ever loved, from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, and that’s not even what he’s been writing about for the last 30 years,” said Tom Robbins, a Voice staff writer.

Mr. Hentoff said he learned the news in a phone call with Mr. Ortega on Tuesday morning. “I’m 83 and a half. You’d think they’d have let me go silently,” he said. “Fortunately, I’ve never been more productive.”

Mr. Hentoff plans to continue to write a weekly column for the United Media syndicate and contribute pieces to The Wall Street Journal. His book “At the Jazz Band Ball: 60 Years on the Jazz Scene,” is expected next year.

“With all due immodesty, I think it doesn’t help to lose me because people have told me they read The Voice not only for me, but certainly for me,” he said.

Some of Freddie Hubbard's Music

You can click to listen to classics Red Clay and Little Sunflower, as I post below a few personal favorites.


Freddie Hubbard "Hubbard's Cupboard"




Sky Dive - Freddie Hubbard




FREDDIE HUBBARD - FIRST LIGHT




No doubt, Freddie will wow'em up in Bebop Heaven!

R.I.P. Freddie Hubbard ...

It was great having you here!

Sad News ... 'To Kill A Mockingbird Director' Robert Mulligan Passes Away

I would suspect, this news might even bring tears to the eyes of Boo Radley.

Still, to this day, one of the few works that is both one of my all-time favorite books, and movie.

And news today arrives, that the director of the movie, Robert Mulligan, has passed away.

Robert Mulligan; directed 'To Kill a Mockingbird'; 83

The highlight of Mr. Mulligan's career was "To Kill a Mockingbird," a courtroom drama adapted from Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and centered on Southern attorney Atticus Finch and his children, Scout and Jem. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best picture, and won three: best actor (Gregory Peck), best screenplay (Horton Foote), and art direction (Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead, and Oliver Emert).

Guardian U.K.: Film director Robert Mulligan dies aged 83

The Hollywood Reporter: Robert Mulligan dies at 83; 'Mockingbird' helmer helped actors find Oscar-winning form

Some other films Mulligan directed, include;

Fear Strikes Out (1957)

Inside Daisy Clover (1965)

Up the Down Staircase (1967)

Summer of '42 (1971)

Retro Garlic: Deep Throat Now Goes Deep Six ... Mark Felt Obit

We had the "BREAKING NEWS" this morning, that the infamous icon of the Watergate Scandal, Mark Felt, aka "Deep Throat", passed away - at the age of 95.

Obituaries - 'Deep Throat' Mark Felt Dies at 95

W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95

Leaving aside the "breaking news" aspect of it, it was heady times, the all-consuming early 70's, when the man who was a crook, President Richard Nixon, was doing a soft-tap dance on the laws of the nation, and Constitution (as opposed to the sledgehammer The Bush Grindhouse has taken to it), and the FBI Agent Felt would soon make two young reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, mega-journalistic superstars.

Adding to the intrigue of "Deep Throat" was the agreement that he would not be revealed until his death.

Well, that got blown a couple of years ago.

Felt wasn't dead, but pretty far gone with dementia, and memory-loss.

So, it was "BREAKING NEWS" when Felt was identified as being the ever-mysterious "Deep Throat", ending the decades-old guessing game.

Who Is W. Mark Felt? ...Man Who Admits to Being 'Deep Throat' Breaks His 30-Year Silence

DEEP THROAT REVEALED

And when that news broke, we had a number of days here on The Garlic, where we had quite a bit of fun with it, hence, a Retro Garlic today.

The Retro Part

Top Ten Cloves: Things G. Gordon Liddy Would Like To See Happen Now That "Deep Throat" Is Exposed

News In Brief - Haig Stood In-The-Ready If Felt Backed Down; Former Nixon Staffer Okay To Take "Deep Throat" Rap

More Revelation Bombshells ... Felt Admits To Being 'You're So Vain' Target; Simon Confirms "Brief Affair" With Former FBI Man

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things Mark Felt Is Admitting

Burnett To Sign Deep Throat For New Reality Series; Felt To Host Show On Real-Life Whistle-Blowers

New Felt Leak of Novak "Deep Throat' File; Wild Guesses Often Traded With Fellow Conservative Buchanan

Under Fire, Woodward Offers Reason He Didn't Write Plame Story; Not Comfortable With Public Meetings; Didn't Have High-Level Secret FBI Source

If You're A Disneyland Freak, Here's The Nuts-and-Bolts

As regular readers of The Garlic well know, we delve into, and, at times, have some fun with Obituaries.

Some just beg to be painted with satire, others, well, there's something about them, perhaps being impressive, and that they deserve some extra recognition.

We have the latter tonight, something we espied in SiliconValley.com today.

Cassidy: Silicon Valley innovator left legacy of fun and thrills

Karl Bacon was a quiet guy who never wanted much of a fuss. So when he died last month at 98, he almost slipped away from us without being noticed.

That first paragraph, and the next few that followed, wasn't making things any clearer.

Until we hit here;

In 1946, Bacon and partner Ed Morgan opened the Arrow Development Co. in Mountain View. The two were a tight team who started out doing some machine work for HP and just about anything else that would bring cash through the door. Bacon was the math mind, a self-taught engineer who tended to figure out what needed to be made while Morgan concentrated on how to manufacture it.

Then Morgan got the idea that they could build a merry-go-round for the city of San Jose, which they did. Soon a man named Walt Disney was talking to them about coming up with some rides for a new park he was opening in Anaheim. They did that, too.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Mad Tea Party, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, It's a Small World, Alice in Wonderland, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and more.

"They did most of the rides in Fantasyland," says Jane Bacon, 87, Karl's wife of 67 years. "They really didn't know what they were getting into."

She was speaking specifically of the flying Dumbos, which had a way of leaking hydraulic fluid in the early days, but she could have been talking about Bacon and Morgan's career in general. Because in the end what the two did was nothing less than revolutionize the amusement park business.

Not too shabby.

Pretty good to know, that your life's work touched millions, upon millions, primarily, in a very positive manner (even for those young ones that got the bejeeves scared out of them, or vomited, only to laugh about it as grown-ups, when their siblings dredged it up at some family gathering).


Some Other Garlic Obits

Heston Dead; Coroner Can't Pry Gun From Cold Dead Hands

Don Nottebart ... Now, This Is An Obit With Some Ooomph!

Swedish Film Icon Ingmar Bergman Dead at 89 ; Police Depressed, Working Through Emptiness, Not Ruling Out Foul Play

Obit - Avis Founder Pulls Off The Road at 92

Another Legend Gone ... Miriam Makeba

Mama Afrika.

She sang, she danced, she fought apartheid.

I was saddened this evening, after hearing the legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba has passed away.

I had just listened to some of her music the week before last.

From the Miriam Makeba website;

Media Statement

Issued by: ZM Makeba Trust and Siyandisa Music

10th November 2008
Johannesburg

The world was dealt a blow early this morning, in a small town outside Naples, Italy when Zenzile Miriam Makeba..Mama Afrika to the world, passed away.. and left this earth, aged 76 years. She was born on 4th March 1932.

Whilst this great lady was alive she would say “I will sing until the last day of my life”

Zenzile Miriam Makeba collapsed on stage, at the end of her set, after singing Pata Pata,. She was immediately attended to by her grandson Nelson Lumumba Lee and others before being rushed to the nearest hospital. Tragically, in the early hours of this 10th of November 2008 morning, the doctors pronounced that they were unable to revive her.

Ambassador Makeba, was with her band, and was performing before an outdoor audience, in the open air at Via Verde, in the small town of Castelvolturno, not far from Naples. The audience included her long time friend, Italian promoter, Roberto Meglioli, who she had called on Friday from Holland, and asked to attend her show. He was on stage with her at the end of the show, and there she collapsed into his arms.

Dr Miriam Makeba never forgot her struggle through her life, and never stopped identifying with those who were downtrodden and who suffered. An activist to the end, the event where she was performing at, was an Anti-Racism and Anti-Mafia Event. “Mazi” as she was affectionately known by those who knew her well, never shied from speaking her mind and standing for her beliefs. She was an outstanding South African, a and indeed a gracious and true citizen of the World.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba is survived by her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Monique Lee, and her great- grandchildren Lindelani, Ayanda and Kwame.

From Wikipedia;

In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959 by independant filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. She attended the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival.

Makeba then traveled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including "Pata Pata", "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika". In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid.

She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, [4] and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.[5]

From the International Herald Tribune;

In a statement on Monday, Mandela said the death "of our beloved Miriam has saddened us and our nation."

He continued: "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."

"She was South Africa's first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours," Mandela's was one of many tributes from South African leaders.

BBC - S African icon Miriam Makeba dies; South African singing legend Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, after being taken ill in Italy

ABC/AP - South African Musical Legend Miriam Makeba Dies; Miriam Makeba, who sang about apartheid in South Africa, dies in Italy at age 76

Reuters - "Mama Africa" Miriam Makeba dies after concert

NPR - South African Singer Miriam Makeba Dies

World Music Central - South African Star Miriam Makeba Dies in Italy of a Heart Attack

LA Times - Miriam Makeba dies at 76; South African singer spent 31 years in exile


She was a bright, shining sun, in a country for so long kept in darkness.

Her spirit, her talent, helped many overcome so much.

RIP Miriam Makeba!

We’ll take you out with her signature tune ...

Pata Pata-Miriam Makeba-1967