Glump the Clumsy bought a new i not my Phone. Glump soon clumsily glumped it by putting in the wrong password — or was it passcode or both — so many times that he was locked out of his phone. How can my own phone lock me out wondered Glump. It didn’t seem reasonable but… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: A Fable for Our Times
By Devon Wendell Having covered The Playboy Jazz Festival for Don Heckman & The International Review Of Music for many years, I had met Hugh Hefner a few times.I didn’t get out of it what most might think. Growing up I was one of the few nerds who really did read Playboy for the articles… Read More Remembering Hef
By Roger Crane, the Song Scout “I knew I couldn’t sing over them, so I decided to sing under them. The more noise they made the more softly I sang. When they discovered they couldn’t hear me . . . they began to look at me. They began to listen. As I sang, I kept… Read More A ROGER SONG SCOUT AURAL BACK RUB: “Softly, with Feeling” – the Elegant Peggy Lee
by Michael Katz Sunday at the Monterey Jazz Festival is always a mixed bag of styles, from the high school big bands to the closing headliners, with jazz variations on everything from salsa and bluegrass to the traditional Hammond B3 blowouts. Given that the mission of MJF is jazz education, I always like to check… Read More 60th Monterey Jazz Festival Day 3
By Roger Crane, the Song Scout Background/Discussion Surprisingly, two top jazz standards “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “I Remember April” were both written for 1941 slapstick Abbott and Costello movies “You Don’t Know What Love Is” was dropped from Keep ‘em Flying before the movie was released but performed by vocalist Carol Bruce… Read More Keeping the GAS (Great American Songbook) Flame Burning -“You Don’t Know What Love Is”
By Michael Katz It’s 5:30 Friday night; a light breeze cools off a balmy mid-September evening at the Monterey Fairgrounds. The line of folks waiting to get in snakes all the way down the street, almost to the rear gate. Inside, a few of us scrivener types sit at picnic tables, observing the calm. In… Read More DAY ONE, 60th Monterey Jazz Festival
By Roger Crane, the Song Scout Background/Discussion “I Cover the Waterfront,” an exceptional song about lost love, began somewhat surprisingly, as a best-selling 1932 autobiographical book by 28-year old Max Miller, a newspaper reporter who ‘covered” as part of his beat the San Diego waterfront and other lowlife urban areas. His book was a best… Read More Keeping the GAS (Great American Songbook) Flame Burning, ” I Cover the Waterfront”
By Roger Crane, the Song Scout Background/Discussion Composer Johnny Green wrote some very fine songs although very few. His justly famous landmark “Body and Soul” was interpolated in the 1930 musical revue Three’s a Crowd which starred Clifton Webb and Libby Holman, who sang the song. Note I said “interpolated,” since the song was written… Read More Keeping the GAS (Great America Songbook) Flame Burning,”Body and Soul”
by Michael Katz The 60th Anniversary of the Monterey Jazz Festival takes place September 15-17, featuring 100th birthday salutes to Ella, Dizzy and Thelonius – and yes, if referring to those giants by their first names infers a name-dropping familiarity, that is what a personal 20 year history attending the MJF fosters. It’s a vibe,… Read More Monterey Jazz Festival 60th Anniversary Preview
By Roger Crane, Song Scout Background When composer-musicologist Alec Wilder’s highly literate book “American Popular Song – the Great Innovators” was published by the Oxford Press in 1972 one of my favorite pastimes was making two lists. 1) Superior songs that he missed or for which he did not share my enthusiasm. 2) Songs… Read More Keeping the GAS (Great American Songbook) Flame Burning: “Easy Living”
The International Review of Music 