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 Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition beginning the celebration of the centennial of the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, California — featuring 275 objects (including photos, posters, letters and more from the post-World War I era) and entitled Nineteen Nineteen— will be on display until January 20th.
Now on display to Jan 20th
CHEERS to getting back here after a back-to-back weekend of reunions: two weekends ago at my high school reunion, then this past weekend mixing a family reunion with the annual Drinking Liberally chapter host’s conference (with guest appearances by Michael Moore and Jerry Nadler). I’ll recount it in my Top Comments diary on Thursday of next week.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the drummer extraordinaire Ginger Baker— part of my favorite band of all time (Cream) and who also appeared with Blind Faith and many jazz performers (which had been his first love) with a mercurial temper that was usually harnessed in his playing — who has died at the age of eighty, after battling poor health much of the past few years.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Moxie the Campus Cat— a fixture on the campus of Kenyon College in Ohio, where students are delighted by his friendliness in good times … and the ability to comfort those who are stressed-out.
Moxie the Campus Cat
IN LEARNING OF the construction of a new medical clinic in southern Illinois (across-the-border from Missouri) by Planned Parenthood: I was reminded of a Louisiana GOP congressman who was fooled by a 2012 story in The Onion — about an Abortionplex— linking to it on his Facebook page (before he had to delete it).
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Leon the Cat— a kitteh who has been hired by the Bar Association of the nation of Brazil — first as a receptionist, now as an attorney.
Leon the Cat
WHILE NAPOLEON BONAPARTE imposed an orderly street-numbering system in its big cities, small-town France often had either no street numbers or (if they did) an odd system based upon distance. Now with the needs of ambulance and fire services (not to mention home delivery) there is a move to standardize them.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — the mastermind of the college entrance scandal, William “Rick” Singer and Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Walton.
William “Rick” Singer
NBA star Bill Walton
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… nearly twenty-nine years ago, the British music scene lost one of its bright lights: a woman who was inspired by Delta blueswomen and carried their music forward on guitar, slide guitar and vocals. By her choice, she turned down opportunities for stardom and was therefore not able to garner a large US audience. Still, the story of Jo Ann Kelly is that of someone who helped prepare an audience for contemporaries like Bonnie Raitt and deserves a re-telling.
Born in south London in 1944, she and her brother Dave were taken with the post-war blues scene in the UK and both became guitarists in the club scene. At age twenty, she recorded a limited-pressing record … with future Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee (who later became a UK blues star of note). She preferred to play acoustic guitar, enabling her to get exposure at both blues and folk music festivals in Britain. She finally released her first (self-titled) solo album in 1969, well-received with songs by Muddy Waters to Robert Johnson.
When visiting American bluesmen (such as Mississippi Fred McDowell) would travel to Britain in the 1960’s, they often could not afford to bring their own bands, and enlisted local musicians for back-up … and Jo Ann Kelly became an in-demand partner. She also toured the US as an opening act for major groups.
To show you just how much she impressed those groups: both Canned Heat as well as Johnny Winter offered her a spot in their bands. She declined: first as she did not want to relocate overseas, second as she never wanted to be a permanent member of a UK band either, and third as she preferred solo acoustic blues, which had been surpassed by larger bands as the 1970’s unfolded. Very true to herself, yet had she taken-up one of those offers (even for a limited stint) she might be remembered more outside of Britain today.
Throughout the 70’s she recorded a few solo albums and also collaborated with other stellar guitarists who shared her love of acoustic Delta-style music: notably John Fahey on a 1972 album and also Stefan Grossman on a 1976 album. She and her brother Dave also learned that Memphis Minnie was in a Memphis nursing home (following a stroke) and they arranged benefit concerts to help cover some of Minnie’s medical bills, and forwarding letters and postcards to her in her final years (before her death in 1973).
In 1979, Jo Ann Kelly helped form a British all-star blues lineup for her brother Dave called The Blues Band— with former Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning, former Manfred Mann alumni (vocalist Paul Jones and guitarist Tom McGuinness) and drummer Hughie Flint (from John Mayall’s band). This group still exists forty years later (with personnel changes and often going on hiatus).
Jo Ann Kelly often called upon them to act as a back-up band for her sometime tours entitled Ladies and the Blues — where she would pay tribute to female blues stars such as Bessie Smith and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, as well as her idol Memphis Minnie.
She continued touring into the 1980’s, and at times became a touring member of other bands (such as the Terry Smith Blues Band, led by the former guitarist of the UK jazz-rock band If). She continued to release sporadic recordings, such as 1984’s Just Restless— with songs written by Carl Perkins, Denise LaSalle and Leon Russell as well as some traditional Gospel-flavored tunes.
In 1988, she began to suffer severe headaches, and it was diagnosed that she had a malignant brain tumor. She had a 1989 successful operation and returned to performing, seemingly over the ailment into the autumn of 1990. Alas, she collapsed and died from it on October 21, 1990 …. at only age forty-six.
Has she lived, she would have been age seventy-five today, and there are compilation albums — one from the Sixties and another a career retrospective — that show why she is considered Britain’s premiere blueswoman and why many visiting African-American blues performers asked for her first for musical backing — as she seemed to be able to emote their sound better than almost anyone else.
Cover of 1969 debut album
…. and later in the 1980’s
Of all of her work, my favorite is her rendition of a song believed to be written by her idol, Memphis Minnie. Chauffeur Blues was recorded in 1941, and perhaps the most famous cover was recorded twenty-five years later on the debut Jefferson Airplane album. This is a live recording from 1989 (when Jo Ann was accompanied only by a slide guitarist). Jo Ann Kelly’s cancer was believed to have been in check, alas it turned out to be just a year before her death.
Won't you be my chauffeur? I want him to drive me downtown Yes, he drives so easy I can't turn him downBut I don't want him To be riding these girls around So I will steal a pistol And shoot my chauffeur down
Going to let my chauffeur Drive me around the world Then he can be my little boy And I will be his girl
x xYouTube Video