Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll)

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 — a career retrospective entitled Ruth Asawa: Life's Work is at the Pulitzer Art Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri through February 16th.

In St. Louis through February 16th

AN INTERESTING STUDY suggested that job descriptions containing a boilerplate equal opportunity statement actually led to fewer applications by minorities (concerned they would be treated as ‘tokens’) ….. whereas including a human-sounding statement from the CEO personally was more effective.

HAIL and FAREWELL to the young busboy who cradled the head of Robert Kennedy (after he had been shot) fifty years ago in Los Angeles ….

  Juan Romero (1950-1968)

... who struggled with pain for many years, and has died at the age of sixty-eight.

THURSDAY's CHILD is named Ajay the Cat— an English kitteh reunited after a six-year absence after leaving home …. adopted by a family from the SPCA, who then gave Ajay up for adoption (due to a move) and a Facebook post led to the reunion.

            Ajay the Cat

YOUR WEEKEND READS begin with (1) an essay by the former NPR commentator and author Diane Roberts— about the part of Florida’s past it has not yet faced-up to …. but just might in next month’s elections …. and (2) this Business Week essay on a former Obama operative who left J.P. Morgan to work on opposition research— using numerous volunteers to comb through court records & online postings: then requiring three matches to act upon it. (Continued below).

ALTHOUGH it has been seventy years since their last king (Michael) abdicated, many citizens of Romania believe that it is time to restore a constitutional  monarchy ….. well, if there’s ever a consensus on who is the heir-to-the-throne.

FRIDAY's CHILD is named Rocky the Cat— a New Jersey kitteh who was left-for-dead by the docks, and partially paralyzed … now gets around better on wheels.

  Rocky the Cat (on wheels)

YOUR WEEKEND READS also include a pair from the Atlantic’s Adam Serwer — (3) a shorter essay that the conviction in Chicago goes against-the-grain of how law enforcement is treated in the courts, and (4) a lengthy one that delves into not only the Supreme Court but also how other institutions wish to roll-back-time.

BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.

OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? — TV stars Adam Brody (The O.C.) as well as Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl).

   Adam Brody (born 1979)

  Penn Badgley (born 1986)

...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… a quick look at two of the early pioneers of boogie-woogie piano: a percussive style using the left-hand in a strong eighth-note blues pattern — which had its origins in the late 1800’s, then had its heyday from 1920 to the early 1950’s. Its sound was adopted first into jump blues big bands (Louis Jordan among them) and was then absorbed into the emerging rock & roll scene (such as Little Richard, Fats Domino & Jerry Lee Lewis).

Jimmy Yancey (whose date-of-birth has been estimated at anything from 1894 to 1898) was a Chicago native who appeared in a family vaudeville act. During World War I, he played baseball in the Negro Leagues and served as a groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox for nearly his entire life.

The All Music Guide describes his style as not overly technical yet had unpredictable bass notes that became known as the “Yancey bass” and influenced later pianists. And he had the idiosyncratic habit of ending most songs (no matter the key) in E-flat.

Some of his most popular tunes included … the Yancey Stomp and the Yancey Special, plus his (slower) version of the Leroy Carr tune How Long Blues. He first recorded in 1939 and — while these records garnered critical praise — they did not sell well (one reason he had the Comiskey Park seasonal gig). In 1943 he recorded some vocal tunes with his wife Estelle (nicknamed “Mama Yancey”) and the two performed at Carnegie Hall in 1948.

After a July, 1951 recording for Atlantic, he fell ill and died two months later of a diabetic stroke. He would have been in his fifties (give the uncertain date of birth).

Jimmy Yancey was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as an Early Influence) in its initial inductions in 1986.

Jimmy Yancey (???? — 1951)

Albert Ammons was also a native Chicagoan (born in 1907) and one of his early influences was indeed Jimmy Yancey. At age seventeen, he met a fellow taxicab driver named Meade “Lux” Lewis”— and the two often played as a duet off-and-on for much of their careers. At age twenty-seven, Ammons was leading his own trio at the Club De Lisa on the city’s South Side.

He had more commercial success than Yancey, recording “Boogie Woogie Stomp” and “Swanee River Boogie” in 1936. Moving to New York, he performed at Carnegie Hall in 1938 in a notable quartet featuring singer Big Joe Turner, helping to establish boogie-woogie on a national scale. He jammed with Benny Goodman and in 1939 had the first record releases ever on the newly-founded Blue Note records — considered possibly the most venerable jazz label in history. He also recorded with trumpeter Harry James on “Woo Woo”.

In 1941, he accidentally severed a fingertip and was out-of-action until 1944. He returned to Chicago in 1945 and had steady work in clubs and on records. Plus he had a memorable 1946 recording with his twenty year-old son Gene on tenor saxophone.

He went on to record with Lionel Hampton and performed at Harry Truman’s second-term inauguration in January, 1949 … yet fell ill and died in December 1949 at only age forty-two (his son Gene also died young, in 1974 at age forty-nine). Among the fans of Albert Ammons was British bluesman John Mayall, whose “Boogie Albert” is a short 1971 tribute song.

Albert Ammons (1907-1949)

Although these two men were known for solo/duet pieces … let's close with some vocal works.

For Jimmy Yancey — here is Santa Fe Blues recorded with his wife on vocals … (I can’t pass-up a railroad song, I’ll confess).

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And for Albert Ammons — he often worked with one of the more famous female blues singers of the 20th Century, Sippie Wallace— and here is their take on the song Buzz Me.

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