Category Archives: moldies but moodies

Everyday

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Lately I’ve been listening to Grace Jones quite a bit. Don’t know why, but I do love the albums she recorded with the Compass Point All Stars who included Sly and Robbie among others. Really a crackerjack team of musicians behind her, better than the disco team that recorded her first three albums.

My friend Jet resembled Grace Jones a little bit. He was black and had a fade much like hers. It was the look he was going after and succeeded at least to me after a few drinks. I think the first time I actually heard Grace was when I was visiting my friend Stan in Wallington NJ. We were probably going to a show or something and Stan played the Nightclubbing album which is my favorite Grace Jones record.

Through the years a subconscious gauge on how much someone loved music meant they had to have at least one grace Jones album, preferably one with the Compass Point team. It seemed that a lot of people that I met did. Jimmy Lee, an ex-roommate was infatuated with the song, Living My Life.

A favorite memory of mine, is when I was a bar back at McSwells on Friday nights with Declan and Martha and Slave to the Rhythm was on the jukebox. Slave to the Rhythm is one of my favorite songs of all time, but while bar backing I would invariably play a different version of Slave to the Rhythm on the b-side, called GI Blues.

I called it Heavy Rhythm for a long time. A harder version which is perfect for walking through the streets of midtown Manhattan. I hear it and I am back behind the bar washing glasses, stocking the beer and telling customers that I wasn’t a bartender. After downloading a version of the song I finally bought the album last night through iTunes, which doesn’t make it an album, but rather a download. I have a cassette somewhere.

Today I checked out some YouTube videos and found something that I hadn’t looked for before to my surprise. It was Lambert Hendricks and Ross singing Everyday. I remember in 1988 coming home from McSwells in an altered state one Monday morning and too wired to sleep, I turned on the tv and watched a show with David Sanborn and Jools Holland called Sunday Night.

Either Jools or David introduced a clip from the 1950s and it just grabbed me right from the start. I was captivated, just watching them swinging and singing. Totally captivated. I told my brother Frank about it and of course, he had some info and gossip about Lambert Hendricks and Ross.

It must have been before the holidays because for Xmas that year Frank got me a copy of Lambert Hendricks and Ross’ Greatest Hits. I loved it and played it quite a bit. A few years after that, I’m working at Right Track Recording and I forget who the client was, but a phone call came in for them.

I picked up the call and asked who it was and the caller said, Jon Hendricks. I sort of bent the rules and asked if he was the same Jon Hendricks from Lambert Hendricks and Ross. He said yes, that he was. I told him about seeing the clip from the 1950s on TV and it was amazing, I gushed.

I could tell that he was impressed that the music he made 40 years earlier was being appreciated by a younger generation. It was a small thrill just chatting with him for a minute. He did visit the Manhattan Transfer, that’s who he was calling for and made it a point to see me and shake my hand, thanking me for knowing his music.

A few years ago, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross were performing together for what promised to be the last time. Dave Lambert died in a car accident in 1966. Annie was upset that Jon had mentioned that Annie was a junkie back in the day. She honored the engagements that were booked, but after that, never again.

I took Bill for an Xmas present to see them at the Blue Note. Cramped and crowded it wasn’t the best venue to see them but at least I had an opportunity to see the two of them for perhaps the last time.

Here’s the clip that I originally saw twenty years or at least I think it is. I still love it!
2.17.2020: Here’s the studio version, I hope you like it, let me know what you think!

https://youtu.be/ruztzNc8nn4

Locomotion

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Ugh. So muggy out. And constant rain rain rain. It’s actually tropical storm Hannah which so far killed over 100 people in Haiti. Today was also the day that the B-52’s were doing a free show in Cranford NJ.

The original flyer said that in case of rain the show would be moved to Kean University where my niece Corrinne goes to school, but checking the website today, the promoters stated they they have taken provisions and the stage will be weather proofed and the show will go on as scheduled, outside.

It’s just as well that we didn’t go, Bill and I had planned to go with Chaz, because the rain has been steady and sometimes blowing sideways and it promised to be muddy and not much fun. Last night Bill and I hung out.

Bill was rather subdued. He was told at work that he will probably have to change his schedule. Right now he’s flexible as a part timer working 37 hours a week. But their not happy with that and want him to go full time.

That would close the window that he currently has which allows him to go on interviews and go sees for his acting career as well as allowing him to run down to his mother’s apartment should something go wrong. So he was understandably bummed.

All I could do was suggest that he try to forget about it for now, get a good nights sleep and see how he feels about it tomorrow. Some advice that I should probably heed. He listened and went to bed after a few laughs courtesy of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

I stayed up and watched Bill Maher who had Dan Savage on so that was pretty good. Michael Steele is not the same Michael Steele from the Bangles. The one on Bill Maher’s show last night was a real jerk. Of course he towed the republican line until it became so much static.

Slept like a log last night, Bill was up and working on a script when I got out of bed. Went out and ran errands, needed some more Stevia and got the bagels and the papers. Then proceeded to watch the rain come falling down.

Just got back from visiting Julio and Stine and Alexander two floors down. Haven’t seen the peanut in over a month and he’s now 15 pound and 25 inches. And quite active too. He can now focus and he’s always looking around.

And he can turn over by himself now, and can also support his head on his own. Still adorable, quite the little man. Gurgle and goo goo is his vocabulary so far, and if he’s anything like Julio, he’ll never shut up. But the space monkey is adorable and everything is good physically with him.

Right now Carole King is on Public Television. She’s nice. I met her at Right Track, where I wrote about last night. How can anyone not like Carole King? If only for the songs that she’s written.

Well thats about it now. Too sticky and hummus here.

Late addition:
from John Ridley/Huffington Post
cut n’ paste
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ridley/the-guide-to-the-conserva_b_124368.html