CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — his first major retrospective of Native American art, in an exhibition entitled Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer will be at the Denver, Colorado Art Museum through August 12th.
In Denver thru August 12thIN A RECENT EDITORIAL on World Press Freedom Day, the German newspaper Der Spiegel notes that a Hungarian newspaper with close ties to that country’s right-wing leader has published a blacklist of foreign correspondents ... and demanding that the government take steps in response.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at updating some old stories — and one in particular. Jazz Ambassadors is a new PBS documentary on how jazz musicians could win the Cold War against the Soviets much better than any politician or aircraft carrier … and how students in Athens could (at first) stone the U.S. embassy … and the next day, carry-off trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie on their shoulders with glee.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Chelsea the Cat— a frail and dehydrated 18-year-old Australian kitteh who has been reunited with her family after roaming the streets of Sydney for 14 years … due to her microchip.
Chelsea the CatNEARLY 30% of the children in Peru have asthma— which authorities believe that results from environmental conditions, the administration of corticosteroids — which were over-prescribed in the past and can cause side effects — plus an unwillingness on the part of parents to accept that their children even have the disease, leading to much higher costs if treatment does not begin early.
YOU MAY RECALL the veterinarian whose license was suspended after shooting a cat through the head with an arrow and posting about it on social media, Kristen Lindsey— who was given a one-year suspension (which has ended) and who now practices with a four-year probationary period.
Incredibly, that was too much for the good doctor:
Lindsey attempted to get her sentence overturned in district court and the Texas Third Court of Appeals. Another appeal to challenge the rules dictating her disciplinary action was pending. She lost both cases on Friday, April 27, and is ordered to pay all costs related to the trial court and the court of appeals.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Pyewacket the Hero Cat— a Pennsylvania kitteh who alerted a family to an electrical fire that consumed their house … but who were mercifully able to escape, as a result.
Pyewacket the Hero CatYUK for TODAY — the world chess champion (from Norway) had to go to sudden death tie-breakers to successfully defend his title two years ago in Manhattan.
xIn New York, first time since the match in 2016! Hoping to catch an NBA or NHL playoff game while in town
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) May 9, 2018Unfortunately for him: only one of the five NY metro area teams even made the NBA/NHL playoffs (and the cross-river NJ Devils were eliminated, rather quickly).
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS ? — the disgraced former ‘Factor’ host Bill O’Reilly— who had more than his share of race-related outbursts over the years …. as well as billionaire hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb— forced to resign as chairman of Success Academy (NYC’s largest charter-school operator) after he was …. also dogged by race-tainted controversies.
Bill O’Reilly (born 1949) Daniel Loeb (born 1961)...… and finally, for a song of the week ............... someone who had a long career as a wide-ranging singer, playwright, poet and songwriter and should have been a household name but wasn't ....... due to being a wide-ranging singer, playwright, poet and songwriter was Oscar Brown, Jr - who began as a precocious teenager and then had a long career in the arts, while running for office twice (unsuccessfully) ... managing to leave his mark wherever he went, influencing others to come such as Gil Scott-Heron.
The Chicago native was the son of a prominent South Side attorney/real estate broker, and he did try to follow in his father's footsteps ... but didn't last long. For at age 15 he appeared on writer Studs Terkel's children's radio program "Secret City" and by the time he was 21, he was co-host of Negro Newsfront - the nation's first daily radio newscast created by African Americans. After being drafted into the Army, upon his discharge he dabbled in Communism - and even ran in 1952 for Congress as a Republican just to get his name on the ballot - but in 1956 left Communism (or was thrown out) because he felt he was "Too Black to be Red".
His big break came as a thirty-two year old in 1958, when he attended the opening of Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun - and met her musical producer husband, who hired him as a songwriter. With Paul Robeson as a role model, his first contribution was as a co-writer on the civil rights-themed 1960 album We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite with Roach's then-wife Abbey Lincoln as a featured singer. The notoriety from this (as well as club performances) led to Oscar Brown being offered a contract by Columbia.
And his first album Sin & Soul proved to be an enduring classic, garnering rave reviews from Steve Allen and (interestingly) Dorothy Kilgallen. In addition to light-hearted tunes such as "Signifying Monkey" and the energetic "But I Was Cool", this blues-influenced album had civil rights-themed songs such as "Bid 'Em In" (about a slave auction) and an ode to his first-born son, "Brown Baby".
With some arrangements by Quincy Jones, Brown's 1962 album Between Heaven & Hell continued in the same vein - as the All-Music Guide's Richie Unterberger put it, Brown was "delivering sly lyrics with a hipster feel to bluesy jazz arrangements with big-band verve".
While he was far from the first songwriter to do so, he became well-known for his efforts at vocalese - adding lyrics to well-known instrumental songs. He did so with the famous Nat Adderley tune Work Song and the Mongo Santamaria song Afro-Blue - the latter of which was sampled by The Doors on "Universal Mind". Jon Hendricks (of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross fame) was someone who was influenced by Oscar Brown in the art of vocalese.
Meanwhile, Oscar Brown had his eye at writing plays, with his 1961 effort Kicks & Company - with Burgess Meredith in the lead role, for which Dave Garroway allowed him an extended spot on the Today Show. Given that the play is set on an all-African-American college campus during desegregation, with the character "Mr. Kicks" as an emissary of Satan sent to try to derail these efforts - that appearance on the "Today" show helped raise money to get the show produced. It did not, however, break-even - one play that did was Big Time Buck White - which garnered support from Muhammad Ali - although it did better off-Broadway.
Yet as alluded to in the intro: Oscar Brown's versatility made it difficult for record companies to package him neatly, and his other work called him away frequently. Later in the 1960's, he organized a musical revue entitled Opportunity, Please Knock - intended to help stem gang violence. This garnered a 1968 invitation from Gary, Indiana mayor Richard Hatcher to produce a summer talent show that served as an early springboard for The Jacksons. By the end of the 60's, Oscar Brown moved to San Francisco, where he settled into producing plays.
But he had not given up music, releasing two 1970's albums Brother, Where are You - with "I Love San Francisco" as an ode to the city - and Fresh from 1975. He later went on to be an artist-in-residence at both Howard University as well as Hunter College in New York.
It wasn't until the 1990's until he returned to recordings, with 1995's Then and Now followed by 1998's Live Every Moment saw him recording new material as well as updating some of his classic tunes. In 1996, his original "Sin & Soul" was re-issued (along with several unreleased bonus tracks) - and it was his appearance at that time on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday that first led me to discover more of his work: singing "Brown Baby" a capella on the show.
Last decade he sang as part of the "Not in our Name" performances opposing the Iraq War in 2001, yet he had travelled to Cuba the previous year and was disillusioned with what he saw: this was a man in search of answers. He also appeared at the opening of Jazz at Lincoln Center when it opened in 2004.
That proved to be his last major public appearance, as Oscar Brown died in his native Chicago in May, 2005 at the age of 78 - from complications from the bone disease osteomyelitis - which the baseball star Mickey Mantle had also suffered from.
Oscar Brown Jr. leaves behind a legacy that includes: over 1,000 songs written, with twelve albums and twelve plays written, two performing musicians (daughters Africa and Maggie Brown) - and among the honors he achieved were the Paul Robeson & Black Writers Hall of Fame awards.
Musicians who perform versions of songs he wrote or co-wrote are: David Johansen ("Somebody Buy Me a Drink"), singer Dianne Reeve's ("Afro-Blue"), Nina Simone ("The Work Song"), and both Mahalia Jackson as well as Lena Horne (for "Brown Baby"). A documentary entitled Music Is My Life, Politics my Mistress came out in the year of Oscar Brown's death (2005) as well as the book What It Is: Poems and Opinions of Oscar Brown Jr. which perhaps expresses the breadth of this man's career as well as anything else.
Oscar Brown Jr. — 1960’s ... … and much later in his lifePossibly Oscar Brown's most memorable act of vocalese was his adding lyrics to the instrumental tune by the jazz pianist Bobby Timmons entitled Dat Dere - with lyrics below that every parent can relate to. And below you can listen to it.
Hey Daddy, what dat dere? And why that under dere? And oh hey Daddy, hey look at over dere! Hey what they doing there? And where they going there? And Daddy can I have that big elephant over there?Hey, who dat in my chair? And what's she doing there? And oh hey Daddy, can I go over there? Hey Daddy, what's a square? And where do we get air? And Daddy can I have that big elephant over there?
My quizzical kid, he doesn't want anything hid He's forever demanding to know, "Who, What, Why and Where?" Inquisitive child, and sometimes the questions get wild: like Daddy can I have that big elephant over there?
Don't wanna comb my hair and where's my teddy bear? And Daddy, hey look at the cowboy coming there Hey, can I have a pair of boots like that to wear? And Daddy, can I have that big elephant over there?
The time will march, the years will go The little fellow's going to grow I gotta tell him what he needs to know Help him along, 'till he'll know right from wrong Gotta make him strong
As life's parade goes trudging by He'll need to know some reasons why I don't have all the answers, but I'll try the best that I can, going help him to plan So he'll be a man
You give a kid your best and you hope they'll pass the test When you finally send them out into the world, somewhere But though he's grown, I'm betting I'll never be forgetting Daddy, can I have that big elephant over there?
Hey why they do that dere? And how you work that dere? And oh hey Daddy, what that say up dere? Hey Daddy, what is fair? How come I have to share? And Daddy can I have that big elephant over there?
x xYouTube Video