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 entitled Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution — with more than 300 photographs, concert posters, a light show and concert recordings from his venues (including the Fillmore East) will be at the New York Historical Society through August 23rd.
ALTHOUGH SINCE ITS FOUNDING the nation of Israel has prohibited public services (including buses and trains) on the Sabbath — as a concession to the ultra-Orthodox clergy — just three months ago, the city of Tel Aviv and its suburbs began an alternative (privately-run) bus service to cover the Sabbath that is catching-on elsewhere, encouraged in part by the comparative weakness of the caretaker Netanyahu government.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Riley the Cat— who escaped from a Tennessee home a year ago, yet a woman who moved to Seattle to take a new job never lost hope … and now Riley was found in a feral community.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay in the Never Trump conservative publication The Bulwark about the irrelevance of Marco Rubio, including this quote: “He turned out to be — as Jeb Bush’s inner circle warned everybody who would listen — an opportunist and a charlatan”.
AT THE TWO-MINUTE MARK of this video is one of my favorite moments from the 1977 short-lived Richard Pryor TV show: featuring just The Pips (with an empty microphone for the non-existent lead singer).
YouTube VideoAS PART of the 1988 GOOD FRIDAY accord, the Republic of Ireland formally removed from its constitution a clause to seek reunification with Northern Ireland. Yet recent (and future) events suggest it may loom large once again: the recent electoral success of Sinn Fein, who prioritize the issue (although its success was arguing against the austerity supported by the two major parties), widespread opposition to Brexit, changes in the Republic’s laws on divorce, abortion and gay rights, and an expected Catholic majority when the 2021 census takes place.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Scooter the Cat— a Pennsylvania paraplegic therapy cat (for a semi-retired veterinarian) who brings smiles to the faces of nursing home patients that Scooter visits.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this quite comprehensive essay in the New Yorker about Stephen Miller— and the stakes we are up against.
SEPARATED at BIRTH— Scotswoman Megan Flockhart and Emma Watson (Hermione in the Harry Potter series).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… if he had done nothing else: signing James Brown to his first mid-level recording contract would merit Ralph Bass a place in history. Yet over the course of his five-decade career, he helped scout or produce numerous R&B (as well as Chicago blues) hits by name artists, even helping to write some major hits. While he did some work for his own small labels: he was always more comfortable as a staff producer at mid-to-major levels and deserves a look, some thirteen years after his passing.
Born in New York in 1911, he was a trained classical violinist yet found the music throughout his neighborhood leading him towards jazz (sneaking in to see Chick Webb at the Savoy Ballroom). His day job up until the end of WW-II was working for Shell Oil in rubber products. He dabbled as a DJ (as the war had taken many musicians away) and decided that he wanted a recorded music career.
He wrote to many NYC record labels, seeking a job — and the only response he received was from Paul Reiner: who had just purchased Black & White Records and (as he was moving operations to California) knew he would need new staff. Ralph Bass arrived in Los Angeles in 1947 (two weeks ahead of his interview) and asked the local musicians union who their best unrecorded talent was? Segregation meant that the list he received from the black musicians union had more undiscovered talent and he went to listen to many bands, settling upon Sammy Franklin & His Atomics as his #1 choice.
At his interview, Ralph Bass was asked, “If I hired you, what would you record?”— and Paul Reiner was impressed by the advance work Bass had done and set-up a recording session for the Atomics to perform the Joe Liggins recent hit The Honeydripper. Ralph Bass arrived early and told the recording engineer that he knew little about recording: but would let the engineer set all the levels if he would mind Bass ‘pretending’ to be in charge. The ruse worked: Reiner was impressed, the song became a West Coast hit and Ralph Bass was hired.
The rest of 1947 and into 1948, Ralph Bass (who was a quick study) saw Black & White Records take off, becoming a producer of records by such performers as Lena Horne, T-Bone Walker and Roosevelt Sykes. Paul Reiner overextended himself and ran Black & White Records into the ground by 1949 — before that, Ralph Bass was hired-away by Herman Lubinsky for his Savoy label, just coming into its own as a jazz and R&B major label.
Bass was promised more money and responsibility … and while neither materialized, he had further success recording Brownie McGhee, Charlie Parker and Billy Eckstine …. but was taken by the fourteen year-old singer Esther Phillips that bandleader Johnny Otis had discovered. Double Crossing Blues hit #1 on the R&B charts. Ralph Bass became Esther Phillip’s manager after she had a string of hits and decided to leave Johnny Otis’ band (to go out on her own). On tours of the South, Ralph Bass noted the increasing number of young white kids attending these shows … and was convinced he was in the right place.
After tiring of the broken promises, Ralph Bass left Savoy in 1951 to take a job with Syd Nathan’s King Records in Cincinnati. Nathan was a tough cookie like Lubinsky, but did give Ralph Bass his own subsidiary label (Federal). Bass brought Esther Phillips with him, but her career floundered by not having the Johnny Otis band back her (plus her own heroin addiction), leaving music for several years.
Ralph Bass went on to have great success in the 1950’s at Federal, producing hits for Clyde McPhatter and the Dominoes (Sixty Minute Man), Hank Ballard (Work With Me, Annie) and the first recorded version of the song Kansas City (by Little Willie Littlefield, later made famous by Wilbert Harrison).
It was while traveling that Ralph Bass heard a tape of James Brown with his Famous Flames — and brought them to Cincinnati in 1956 to record for the flagship King Records. Syd Nathan was appalled at the early recordings, saying that Please, Please, Please sounded like a stutter … and fired Ralph Bass. Bass persisted, and a deal was struck: King would release the single and if it failed … Ralph Bass would walk away without any severance. The song reached #6 in the R&B charts, and Ralph Bass stayed at King/Federal for another three years.
Ralph Bass was hired by Leonard and Phil Chess to serve as A&R director at Chess Records, where he stayed from 1959 to 1976. There he produced records by some of the label’s already established stars (Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters) and also the novelty single for comic Pigmeat Markham (Here Comes the Judge) that was prominently showcased on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Yet Ralph Bass was still traveling to find undiscovered talent. He first noticed a fourteen year-old Etta James, before she signed to his rival Johnny Otis’ label. After some struggles in the late 1950’s, Ralph Bass signed her to Chess — where she had tremendous hits from 1960-1965, such as “At Last”, “A Sunday Kind of Love” and “Trust in Me”.
In his later years, Ralph Bass produced records for MCA Records by John Lee Hooker before retiring in his early seventies.
Ralph Bass died in March, 1997 at the age of eighty-five and was portrayed in the 2014 James Brown biopic film Get On Up by the actor Josh Hopkins. Six years before his death, Ralph Bass was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer, as well as in the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
Of all of the works Ralph Bass produced: as a blues fan, I must go with one he did at his first major label, Black & White Records from 1947. Although its title is listed many different ways, Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker’s classic song Stormy Monday has been performed or recorded by innumerable jazz, soul, pop, and rock performers. It is included in the Grammy, Rock & Roll, and Blues Foundation Halls of Fame as well as the U.S. Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. Likewise, no two people sing the lyrics alike: here is a typical rendition.
YouTube VideoThey call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad Wednesday's worse, and Thursday's also sad
The eagle flies on Friday, and Saturday I go out to play Sunday I go to church, then I kneel down and pray
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me I'm crazy about my baby, send her back home to me