The All New Music Tag Reboot!

Roger Miller - King Of The Road

 

Love that song!

Drops of Jupiter, By Train......get it?



If I could put the right clip.

 

JAMES BROWN - NIGHT TRAIN



James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. Eventually referred to as "The Godfather of Soul", Brown started singing in gospel groups and worked his way on up.[4][5] He has been recognized as one of the most iconic figures in the 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing. He was also called "The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business"[6] and "Mr. Dynamite". He was also noted as the lead singer of the famed Rhythm & Blues vocal group, The Famous Flames.

http://www.biography.com/articles/James-Brown-9228350

 

Bob Seger ~ Night Moves

A song from my youth, and one of the sad but telling comments from this videos page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN1_3zHjhW8

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMqNFAU0tOw

 

Another Song about another kind of life, and life is how it relates.

Also, I spent a good portion of my life in Corpus Christi

Johnny Rodriguez, Corpus Christi Bay

 

No. He is no myth for I have had the extreme misfortune of being assaulted by it sonically. He is so bad he makes this group almost tolerable! Key word almost!

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT! Bay City Rollers

 

Okay.....good music time!

 

The Late Great Sam Cooke- Another Saturday Night



Date of Birth 22 January 1931, Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA

Date of Death 11 December 1964, Los Angeles, California, USA (gunshot)

Mini Biography

Sam Cooke was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was one of eight children of Charles Cook Sr., a Baptist minister. When Sam sang as a little boy in church, everyone made note that his voice had "something special". He sang in church and in local gospel choirs until a group called the Highway Q.C.'s asked him to sing with them at various venues. By the time he reached 20, Sam's voice was a finely honed instrument and he was noted for bringing the spirit up in churchgoers.

When Sam replaced R.H. Harris, the legendary lead singer for the extremely popular gospel group The Soul Stirrers, it was the beginning of his meteoric rise. Cooke sang with the group for six years, traveling back and forth across the country and gaining a wealth of knowledge regarding how black people were treated. His refusal to sing at a segregated concert led to what many have described as one of the first real efforts in civil disobedience and helped usher in the new Civil Rights Movement.

After several gospel albums, Sam decided it was time to cross over from gospel (against almost everyone's advice) to record some soul and rhythm & blues. His hypnotically smooth voice, not to mention his finely chiseled good looks, brought him almost instant success. His first single released in 1957 was "You Send Me", which sold over a million copies and made Sam an "overnight success" in the business. He was on his way to becoming the biggest voice on the radio. Record producers vied to sign him to a contract. In 1960 he became the first major black artist to sign with RCA Records. Sam was not happy with the deal and when the time was right decided to start his own publishing company (KAGS Music) to keep control over his music and his own record company (SAR/Derby) to keep control of his money.

Sam married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Campbell, in 1959 and they had three children. Tragically, their youngest child, Vincent, drowned in their swimming pool at age four in June 1964.

On the night of December 11, 1964, Sam was had withdrawn some money to buy Christmas presents. The manager of the motel he was staying in, Bertha Franklin, who had shot and killed a man six months previously at the same motel, made arrangements with a local prostitute named Elisa Boyer to pick up Sam at a local bar and bring him back to the motel. As he and the woman entered the motel room Sam was struck on the head and momentarily knocked out. Boyer, who was known as a "drunk roller" who would rob her clients, took Sam's money and met Franklin at the motel office.

When Cooke regained consciousness he was disoriented, in addition to being without his pants and his wallet. He stumbled to the motel office and saw Boyer and Franklin counting his money ($2,500 - a considerable amount of money at the time) through the window. He demanded his pants, money and wallet back. When they didn't open the door, Cooke knocked on it as hard as he could and it came off the hinges. When he got up off the floor Mrs. Franklin shot him and then instructed Boyer to run down the street and call police from a phone booth. Boyer told them a phony story about a rape and left the scene and subsequently disappeared. Sam was dead when the police arrived and, since Boyer had stolen his wallet, they had no idea who it was and took it as a routine justified homicide in the ghetto.

The coroner's inquest should have been a slam-dunk, but not one pertinent question was asked by an investigator, now was a background check made that would have revealed Bertha Franklin's deadly past. The authorities simply took her made-up story as "gospel". Sam's murder was chalked up as just another unidentified "rapist" killed in Watts. It wasn't until the following Monday morning that a reporter found out Sam Cooke was signed in to the motel registry as himself and that one of the world's greatest talents and a true human being was dead, under shady circumstances that might never be covered by the media, since it's been 45 years.
Biography By: D. G. Balazs

Mini Biography

Sam Cooke was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 22, 1931. He was one of seven children of Charles Cooke Sr., who was a Baptist minister. When Sam sang as a little boy in church, everyone made note that his voice had "something special." He sang in his father's church until joining a group called the Highway Q.C.'s in his sophomore year in high school.

When Sam replaced R.H. Harris, the legendary lead singer for the extremely popular gospel group called The Soul Stirrers, it was the beginning of Sam's meteoric rise. Cooke sang with the group for six years, traveling back and forth across the country and gained a wealth of knowledge regarding how black people were treated. His refusal to sing at a segregated concert led to what many have described as one of the first real efforts in civil disobedience and helped usher in the new Civil Rights Movement.

After becoming one of the most recognized names in gospel, Sam decided to crossover from gospel to the more lucrative world of popular music. Because of his good looks and intonation, he was an instant success. His first single released in 1957 was "You Send Me" and sold over 1.7 million copies, and made Sam an "overnight success." Considered the very first Soul single, "You Send Me" combined Cooke's gospel background with rhythm and blues.

Having already established his own publishing company (KAGS Music) and record label (SAR/Derby), Cooke signed an unprecedented record deal with RCA in January of 1960. The deal allowed Cooke to retain his songwriter's royalties, a financially lucrative move since he had written most of his best-selling material.

Sam married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Campbell, in 1959 and had they had three children. Tragically, Vincent their youngest, drowned in their swimming pool at age four in June 1964.

According to the "official version" of events, Cooke ran into Elisa Boyer at Martoni's restaurant on the evening of December 10, 1964. After making a stop at a nightclub called PJ's, the two continued on to the Hacienda Motel in El Segundo, California on the early morning of December 11, 1964.

Cooke supposedly dragged Ms. Boyer into the room and proceeded to undress her against her will. She escaped while Cooke was in the bathroom, scooping up her clothes in addition to some of Cooke's, and an estimated $5000 of his money. Cooke, half-dressed, was said to have gone to the motel manager's office and knocked violently at the door, provoking Bertha Franklin to shoot him in self-defense.

There were several questionable factors surrounding Sam Cooke's death, including shoddy investigation by the Los Angeles Police Dept., several unasked and unanswered questions in the coroner's inquest, and the questionable background of Boyer and Franklin themselves. Boyer, for example, was a well-known prostitute in Hollywood (begging the question why would she say she was in a motel against her will?), and was said to have routinely run robbery scams with Franklin - an ex-prostitute herself. It has long been the theory that Sam Cooke was taken to the Hacienda against his will, and that Boyer and Franklin were pawns in the cover-up.

Sam Cooke was becoming a powerful figure not just on the music scene, but on the business side of the industry as well. His refusal to succumb to outside influences had become career-threatening, and behind-the-scene factors concerning his death have been written about extensively in a biography from his family's perspective.

Biography By:Erik Greene

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0177492/bio

 

Since the girl looked like Frankenstein

 

Bobby McFerrin - My Favorite Things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wqplKtzWpI

 

Gotta like the original

 

However, this is considered by most musicologists the very best version of this song. John Coltrane took away the "sing song method" that had been applied to this song previously and turned it into a stunning jazz masterpiece. This European video shows the master at the peak of his prowess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I6xkVRWzCY

DrThiMarques on May 9, 2008

My Favorite Things is a 1961 jazz album by John Coltrane. It is considered by many jazz critics and listeners to be a highly significant and historic recording. It was the first session recorded by Coltrane on the Atlantic label, the first to introduce his new quartet featuring McCoy Tyner (Piano), Elvin Jones (Drums) and Steve Davis (Bass) - neither Jimmy Garrison nor Reggie Workman featured as yet.

It is classed as another album in which Coltrane made a break free of bop, introducing complex harmonic reworkings of such songs as "My Favorite Things", and "But Not For Me". Additionally, at a time when the soprano saxophone was considered obsolete, it demonstrated Coltrane's further investigation of the instrument's capabilities in a jazz idiom.

The standard "Summertime" is notable for its upbeat, searching feel, a demonstration of Coltrane's 'sheets of sound', a stark antithesis to Miles Davis's melancholy, lyrical version on Porgy and Bess. "But Not For Me" is reharmonised using the famous Coltrane changes, and features an extended coda over a repeated ii-V-I-vi progression.

The title track is a modal rendition of the Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein's seminal song My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. The melody is heard numerous times throughout the almost 14-minute version, and instead of soloing over the written chord changes, both Tyner and Coltrane taking extended solos over vamps of the two tonic chords, E minor and E major. Tyner's solo is famous for being extremely chordal and rhythmic, as opposed to developing melodies. In the documentary The World According to John Coltrane, narrator Ed Wheeler remarks: "In 1960, Coltrane left Miles [Davis] and formed his own quartet to further explore modal playing, freer directions, and a growing Indian influence. They transformed "My Favorite Things", the cheerful populist song from 'The Sound of Music,' into a hypnotic eastern dervish dance. The recording was a hit and became Coltrane's most requested tune—an abridged broad public acceptance."

 

One of my favorite "Classic" songs, redone by Coltrane

 

Vince Guaraldi Trio - Greensleeves



A Few Words about Dr. Funk
By Derrick Bang

Like most so-called overnight successes, Vincent Anthony Guaraldi -- who forever described himself as "a reformed boogie-woogie piano player" -- worked hard for his big break.

The man eventually dubbed "Dr. Funk" by his compatriots was born in San Francisco on July 17, 1928; he graduated from Lincoln High School and then San Francisco State College. Guaraldi began performing while in college, haunting sessions at the Black Hawk and Jackson's Nook, sometimes with the Chubby Jackson/Bill Harris band, other times in combos with Sonny Criss and Bill Harris. He played weddings, high school concerts, and countless other small-potatoes gigs.

His first serious booking came at the Black Hawk, when he worked as an intermission pianist ... filling in for the legendary Art Tatum. "It was more than scary", Guaraldi later recalled. "I came close to giving up the instrument, and I wouldn't have been the first after working with Tatum". Guaraldi's first recorded work can be heard on "Vibratharpe", a 1953 release by the Cal Tjader Trio. Guaraldi then avoided studios for the next few years, preferring to further hone his talents in the often unforgiving atmosphere of San Francisco's beatnik club scene. In 1955 he put together his own trio -- longtime friend Eddie Duran on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass -- and tackled North Beach's bohemian hungry i club. He also returned to studio work that year, making his recorded debut as group leader, although with different personnel: John Markham (drums), Eugene Wright (bass) and Jerry Dodgion (alto sax). What soon came to be recognized as the "Guaraldi sound", however, resulted from several recording sessions with his hungry i buddies. The original Vince Guaraldi Trio, with Duran and Reilly, can be heard on two releases: "The Vince Guaraldi Trio" (1956) and "A Flower is a Lonesome Thing" (1957)

The late 50s were a busy time. Aside from studio sessions with Conte Candoli (two albums), Frank Rosolino (one album), and Cal Tjader (at least ten albums), Guaraldi toured in 1956 with Woody Herman's third "Thundering Herd", replacing Nat Pierce on piano for one season. Not too much later, just after midnight during 1958's first annual Monterey Jazz Festival, some 6,000 rabid but by now quite tired jazz fans came to their feet when The Cal Tjader Quintet blew them away.

Thanks in no small part to the "sound of surprise" from the feisty Guaraldi, whose extended blues riffs literally had the crowd screaming for more, Tjader's quintet received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

.National prominence was just around the corner. Inspired by the 1959 French/Portuguese film "Black Orpheus", Guaraldi hit the studio with a new trio -- Monte Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums -- and recorded his own interpretations of Antonio Carlos Jobim's haunting soundtrack music. The 1962 album was called "Jazz Impression of Black Orpheus", and "Samba de Orpheus" was the first selection released as a single. Combing the album for a suitable B-side number, Guaraldi's producers finally ghettoized a modest original composition titled "Cast Your Fate to the Wind".

Fortunately, some enterprising Sacramento, California DJs turned the single over...

...and the rest is history.

"Cast Your Fate to the Wind" became a Gold Record winner and earned the 1963 Grammy as Best Instrumental Jazz Composition. It was constantly demanded during Guaraldi's club engagements, and suddenly jazz fans couldn't get enough of him. He responded with several albums during 1963 and '64, perhaps the most important of which was "Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete, and Friends", with Fred Marshall (bass), Jerry Granelli (drums) and Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete. That marked the first of several collaborations with Sete, a musical collaboration whose whole was greater than the sum of its already quite talented parts.

Guaraldi was also a recognized fixture on television, if only in the greater San Francisco region. He and jazz critic Ralph Gleason documented the success of"Cast Your Fate to the Wind" in the three-part "Anatomy of a Hit", produced for San Francisco's KQED; later, shortly after his first album with Sete, Guaraldi did a "Jazz Casual" TV show for the same network.

The most prestigious task, however, was yet to come. Even before Duke Ellington played San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, that venerable institution's Reverend Charles Gompertz selected Guaraldi to write a modern jazz setting for the choral Eucharist. The composer labored18 months with his trio and a 68-voice choir, and the result is an impressive blend of Latin influences, waltz tempos, and traditional jazz "supper music". It was performed live on May 21, 1965, and the album became another popular and critical hit. Clearly, if Vince Guaraldi could write music for God, he could pen tunes for Charlie Brown.

The jazz pianist's association with Charles Schulz's creations actually had begun the year before, when Guaraldi was hired to score the first Peanuts television special, adocumentary called"A Boy Named Charlie Brown " (not to be confused with the big- screen feature of the same title). The show brought together four remarkable talents: Schulz, writer/producer/director Lee Mendelson, artist Bill Melendez and Guaraldi.

To find out more: http://www.vinceguaraldi.com/

Source: http://www.vinceguaraldi.com/

 

The musical education I'm getting is quite interesting

 

MERLE HAGGARD - Big City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou5tnqSLNlM

 

Bright Lights, Big City - JIMMY REED

 

It's another Jimmy and a fire makes a bright light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeujvRxWlJI&feature=related