I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
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 — this month saw the opening of the National Comedy Center— the first museum telling the history of comedy in America, with fifty interactive exhibits — in upstate western-most New York (the birthplace of Lucille Ball).
Museum in Jamestown, New YorkPROGRAMMING NOTE — yours truly will be on vacation later in the week, and so will neither be posting in Friday’s C&J, nor my normal Sunday wrap-up diary Odds & Ends. Returning the following week, as we head into September.
TV NOTES — with CBS planning a 2019 revival of the legendary series Twilight Zone— its creative director (Academy Award winner Jordan Peele) has not yet ruled out taking-on Rod Serling’s role as the series narrator.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Arthur the Cat— the winner of Britain’s Most Caring Cat for 2018, transforming the life of a woman after she had been discharged from a three-and-a-half year stay at a mental health unit … and now has been able to live independently for the longest period in her adult life.
Arthur the Caring CatAFTER TWENTY YEARS of negotiations, the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) agreed how to divide it up, in principle. They started by defining the world’s largest inland body of water (and home to immense oil and gas reserves as well as its famous sturgeon) … as an actual sea.
WITH THE TRADITIONAL August escape from Paris to the countryside by its residents, France’s upgrades of its railroads (via the launch of the TVG in 1981) plus its historical view (as shown in numerous paintings by Claude Monet) has led to a higher % of rail journeys than its other Continental neighbors.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named P.V. the Cat— discovered more than two weeks after the Carr Fire destroyed his family’s home in Redding, California. Hiding in a crack between steps near a creek, his paws were burned and his whiskers singed …. but he will be okay.
P.V. the CatOPERA NOTES — today in Germany, an unfinished opera by Franz Liszt— Sardanapalo, the story of the last king of ancient Assyria (today’s Syria, northern Iraq and parts of Turkey and Iran) — will be performed 170 years years later, and after years of painstaking work by David Trippett, a music lecturer at the University of Cambridge in England.
BRAIN TEASER — try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
APPARENTLY … Sister Mary Joe Sobieck (who teaches at a Chicagoland high school) played both volleyball and softball while attending The College of St. Scholastica in Minnesota … so her curve ball wasn’t an oddity. And of course, some asked the question …. “How many runs did she allow today? Nun”.
xMercy, Sister Mary Jo! pic.twitter.com/oM9jBDT5N7
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 19, 2018YOUR WEEKEND READS are two essays on the right-wing polemicist Dinesh D’Souza from two conservatives: one from Conor Friedersdorf (focusing on the “Democrats are the real racists” meme), the other by David Frum: seeing D’Souza’s feelings of being ‘persecuted by elites’ as being symbolic of the decline of the conservative movement .. that he once believed in.
MOTHER-DAUGHTER? — Former Miss USA and TV star Ali Landry (Rita Lefleur on the UPN sitcom “Eve”) and TV star Victoria Justice (Nickelodeon shows “Zoey 101” and “Victorious”).
Ari Landry (born 1973) Victoria Justice (born 1993)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… fifteen years ago, the music world lost Herbie Mann— one of the (comparatively) few flutists that the general public in the second half of the 20th Century would be familiar with, along with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and Chris Wood of Traffic. (Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Hubert Laws and Bud Shank are more known by jazz buffs). Herbie Mann was able to thrive in the 1960’s-70’s by embracing electronic instruments, incorporating world music, funk, R&B and rock music into his style, was not afraid to employ young musicians from different genres and could be slotted-in at many a music festival around-the-world ... without ever being out-of-place. Despite early reviews from critics, his work deserves a fresh look.
Born as Herbert Solomon to parents of Eastern European ancestry in Brooklyn, New York in 1930, he played saxophone in the Borscht Belt resorts at age fifteen, and then while in the US Army from 1948-1952, he had a chance to hone his skills in a military band. Returning home, he found the music scene in New York filled with saxophone aces ... deciding to fall-back on his second instrument. He had few role models, and so adapted his own style when playing in Phil Woods’ band.
In 1957 he released his breakthrough album The Magic Flute of Herbie Mann which had a radio hit “The Evolution of Mann” on New York radio. Later that year, he formed an Afro-Cuban band with percussionist Ray Mantilla … and as he was able to pay his bandmembers more money than other Latin orchestras, for a time there was a rift.
Due to his recording of African Suite, the State Department enlisted him (in those Cold War days) to join a musical tour of Africa, visiting fifteen countries in the process from 1959-1960. He undertook a tour of South America at the beginning of the 1960’s and (along with Stan Getz) was among the leading US-born proponents of bossa nova music. He even had a 1961 minor hit song Comin’ Home Baby— in the post-Elvis, pre-Beatles era when that was possible.
The mid-60’s saw him expanding his horizons (while always having one foot in the jazz camp), hiring a young Chick Corea on piano. Moving to the eclectic Atlantic Records label, he incorporated elements of R&B and Yiddish music, then in 1967 released Impressions of the Middle East.
After listening to some music from Stax Records, he went to Memphis to record his most famous album, 1969’s Memphis Underground— one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. This album had the emerging jazz-rock pioneer Larry Coryell on one guitar, with R&B guitarist Sonny Sharrock forming a tandem unlike any other band. Purist critics were unhappy, but this album — featuring cover versions of Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming”, Don Covay’s “Chain of Fools” (yes, you-know-who had the definitive version) and even “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
In the 1970’s, Herbie Mann founded his own label (Embryo) and continued to incorporate R&B into his show with his Family of Mann group. In late 1973, he travelled to the UK to record London Underground— working with then-Rolling Stone guitarist Mick Taylor, drummer Aynsley Dunbar and King Crimson saxophonist Ian McDonald. He tried his luck with the burgeoning dance music scene, even having a #1 dance hit in 1975 with Hijack, then settled into obscurity for much of the 1980’s.
He re-emerged in the 1990’s, founding his own (aptly-named) Kokopelli Records, and began to play more mainstream jazz … while never sounding truly conventional, recording several albums over the decade.
In the late 1990’s, he was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer, which cut down on his schedule. His last concert was — quite appropriately — at the 2003 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which features all sorts of music — where he received a standing ovation at the show’s end. He died just a few weeks later on July 1, 2003 at the age of seventy-three.
His final (posthumous) album release was 2004’s Beyond Brooklyn (his birthplace) where he reunited with old bandmate Phil Woods, and there was a nice 2011 compilation album of some of his best work. He won thirteen consecutive Downbeat Magazine readers’ polls in the flute category and had twenty-five albums that reached the Billboard Top 200 album charts.
Because of that, he was always cited as having sold-out, saying "I was the Kenny G of the Sixties. People would run up to the stage and stamp their fists and say, 'That's not jazz!' ". While there may be some of his late 70’s music that could be downgraded, many critics today look at his overall body of work with respect.
Herbie Mann in the 70’s ... …. and then later in lifeOf all of his work: the instrumental title track from Memphis Underground (with Sonny Sharrock/Larry Coryell on guitars, and Roy Ayers on vibraphone) remains my favorite. Nearly fifty years later: it can still be heard on the radio, or Sirius-XM.
x xYouTube Video