THIS IS way back to a Los Angeles of beautiful memory. KCET hosting Leon Russell in “The Homewood Sessions”
rewind
Rewind: Gerald Wilson, 1960
(a very different Santa Monica)
In Memory of . . .
Four Little Girls …
Rewind: “Do The Right Thing”
Twenty-five years ago today…
Go, Rosie.
Rewind: Charlie Christian
Was late on a birthday post for Charlie Christian … but this one fits for a little “rewind” interlude.
Enjoy!
Rewind: “Where The Blues Were Born…”
KICKING LINE-UP in this little clip from the film, New Orleans (1947)
Among them: Kid Ory, Red Callender— whom I used to see sometimes rolling up for rehearsal with my neighbor from long-ago, John Carter and the smiling Billie Holiday alone warms my Sunday morning.
(note the different spelling of Callender’s name on the poster)
Rewind: Danny Barker
DANNY BARKER, New Orleans banjoist, guitarist, singer, songwriter and ukelele player, was born on this day in 1909.
Barker, who died in 1994, was the standard bearer of New Orleans traditional music — down to the its dress-code: White shirt, black slacks, shined shoes — always. Among the musicians with whom he shared stages, stands or tour-bus rides — Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway Ella Fitzgerald, Sydney Bechet and Lena Horne.
Barker left New Orleans for the New York music scene in the 30s (That moody, rollicking Milt Hinton photo above features Barker in the foreground on the left with Jerome Darr; at the bar — Barney Bigard and in the background: Willie “The Lion” Smith). But in 1965, he returned home to work at the New Orleans Jazz museum — his presence and playing, keeping what was left of the tradition alive and influencing the next generation of New Orleans jazz musicians.
Radio station WWOZ has a short (5-minute) audio piece up (made in 2009 on the occasion centennial of his birth) in honor of the great Danny Barker. You can click here to get to their page. It’s worth the pause for the colorful anecdotes alone.
and because I never tire of this…
“Night people are different from day people…”
Rewind: Hard Bop
THIS WAS one of my favorite “finds” of my childhood. Not so much as a much-listened to piece, but the graphics — the declaration of the title — which were a trip. The version my Mom had was a 45 with the cardboard sleeve so it looked like a mini-lp. I absconded with it. I just learned that I still have it among my things as it tumbled out while I was looking for something else.
Here’s “Cranky Spanky”
Rewind: Don and David — “Golden Years”*
*Sadly, they took the video down, so now a still will have to do:
Rewind: Mike Hammer Smooth Sailing Around L.A.’s Freeways . . . . .
… is looking a little bit like the Night One of the 405 Closure … :
Thanks Vintage L.A. for another great backward glance at the city of Angels…
native to the place 