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 — an art/photography exhibit entitled The Flyover will be at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota through June 13th.
Now in Fargo, North DakotaHAIL and FAREWELL to the television, stage and screen actress Anne Jackson— who received several stage awards and whose marriage to Eli Wallach lasted over 66 years — who has died at the age of 90 ….
MUSIC NOTES — the first-ever box set of singer-songwriter recordings by the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg— yes, really, with guest performances by Bob Dylan, the folksinger Happy Traum and the jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, among others — will be released next month.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Maray the Cat— a kitteh granted employment at a Russian museum (as a doorman) after an April Fool’s joke job application written by staff …. was accepted due to public pressure, after the news media reported it.
Maray the CatAS SOMEONE whose parents died at ages 58 and 66, respectively … this never became an issue for my siblings and I. But in Japan — the nation with close to the highest % proportion of the elderly in the world — the issue of dementia has become an issue, with the country’s efforts having some successes (convenience stores becoming safe havens for wandering pensioners) and less so in others (with a low rate of elder care and bed space available).
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Archie the Cat— an upstate New York kitteh who remained at a shelter for thirteen years, helping to socialize other felines, yet never adopted … until now.
Archie the shelter kittehWHO WOULDA THUNK that tradition-minded northern Italy would be where the world’s first wine-making robot— nicknamed Genesis — provides for a faster process than the traditional method of crushing grapes underfoot, still in use after 70 years.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC, plus the Science Friday quiz from NPR.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — film stars Amanda Peet (“The Whole Nine Yards”) and Lake Bell (What Happens in Vegas”).
Amanda Peet Lake Bell...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… I wanted to look at a friendship (forged later on in life) between two keyboard players emblematic of their generations: the jazz stalwart Dave Brubeck and the classical-rock era star Keith Emerson. First, a brief overview of each.
Dave Brubeck was born in California on December, 1920 and due to being cross-eyed did not learn to read music in his youth (despite much training from his piano-teacher mother, and others). No worries: he had planned on attending the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California to be a large animal veterinarian and work on his father’s ranch.
Yet his zoology professor Dr. Arnold saw that he was less interested in science …. and more at something else on campus.
“Brubeck, your mind is not here with these frogs in the formaldehyde. Your mind is across the lawn, at the conservatory. Will you please go over there next year?"
That he did, yet his inability to read music (which he managed to hide by having an extraordinarily good ear) was finally discovered — and Brubeck said that the school’s dean did not want to graduate someone lacking in so essential a skill:
"But when some of the younger teachers heard this, they went to the dean and said, 'You're making a big mistake, because he writes the best counterpoint that I've ever heard’. So they convinced the dean to let me graduate.
And the dean said, 'You can graduate …. if you promise never to teach and embarrass the conservatory.' And that's the way I've gotten through life, is having to substitute other things for not being able to read well. But I can write, which is something very few people understand."
P.S. — his alma mater decided that …. well, he never did embarrass the conservatory, and established the Brubeck Institute on campus.
As for his ability to write: …. I have written about him before, noting he and his Quartet released one of the seminal jazz albums of 1959, Time Out — with no songs in 4/4 or ¾ (waltz), yet made them swing — and even had a hit single in Take Five. The “B” side of that was a tune (in 9/8 time) called Blue Rondo a la Turk— based upon a rhythm he heard on the streets of Istanbul, Turkey.
I have also written before about a theater musical he wrote (with lyrics by his wife Iola) that took on Jim Crow in the early 1960’s called The Real Ambassadors— with performers Carmen McRae, Louis Armstrong and others.
On the occasion of his 90th birthday, Britain’s newspaper The Guardian had celebrated his career with one of its In Praise Of editorials. Yet he always retained a common touch, as he related this story for his boxed set:
Some time ago, a woman in Connecticut, where Dave Brubeck lives, was looking for a pianist to play a wedding. Having got hold of a musicians union directory, she called a number she found under the "Piano" heading. Brubeck was considering taking the job, for scale, the minimum amount of pay the union allows a player to accept.
But finally the name attached to the phone number registered with the woman. She shrieked in embarrassment, apologized profusely for what she believed had been an insult, and hung up. "Usually, I play at weddings only for close friends," Brubeck joked later. "But I was thinking it over."
He may also have been thinking about the years following World War II, when his dream was to make scale.
Meanwhile, Keith Emerson was born in November, 1944 in West Yorkshire, England and became (in the words of the All-Music Guide writer Steve Huey), “perhaps the greatest, most technically accomplished keyboardist in rock history”. And he was (along with Elton John) among its most flamboyant: with Keith spinning on his keyboards, using a knife to play certain notes and more.
He began his career with The Nice, and then formed progressive rock’s first supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer— with bassist Greg Lake (King Crimson) as well as drummer Carl Palmer (Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster).
And while they could be excessive (with an over-reliance on electronics), at their best: they were inspiring. I have no doubt that the enduring popularity of Modeste Mussorgsky’s classical work Pictures at an Exhibition today is in part due to the EL&P rock version released in 1972. While visiting the Alte Pinakothek museum in Munich, Germany years ago: employees let people know closing time was at hand by carrying a portable tape player …... that played the opening bars to this work.
Fast forward to 2003, when Keith Emerson went to see Dave Brubeck perform (at age 83). Emerson reflected upon his admiration for Brubeck’s work in his youth.
When I was 15 years old I was going through further education in Sussex, England. My mother and father earned little and my meager earnings from a newspaper and grocery round were put towards a stereo record player. That Christmas, my present from Mum and Dad was a single 45 vinyl record. "Take Five". On the B-side was "Blue Rondo a la Turk". I played the hell out of it.
In 1968, I recorded a 4/4 version of “Blue Rondo” …. and played the hell out of it in live performance.
A most unlikely hit singleEmerson finally got a chance to meet one of his role models:
I didn't think he'd know who I was. He stood up saying, "Keith, don’t spin around on the piano - it’s very dangerous!" He signed a publication of his transcribed solos with the words, "For Keith, with many thanks for your 4/4 version … which I can't play."
Obviously he was referring to his "Blue Rondo a la Turk" ,that he wrote in his time signature of 9/8. With his sense of humor it was obvious he could play it in 4/4 … but wouldn't want to play it in any time other than his own.
They met again in 2009, this time at a show in California (where Emerson had relocated to). After a most entertaining show, Keith and his girlfriend Mari went up to meet with Brubeck, and after a nice discussion they walked out together.
Two keyboard wizardsThe hotel was right across from The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts where the great man, on his own, was walking. He turned. "Keith, where is the elevator?"
We directed him to it as I asked after his wife, Iola.
"Can you believe it?" he said. "She made it all the way through the tour and decided to get sick at the end."
We helped him into the elevator while wishing Iola well. As the doors closed he bowed towards Mari. "Mari…" and the elevator doors closed.
What a Gentleman! What an Icon!
Dave Brubeck died in December, 2012, one day shy of his 92nd birthday. His lyricist wife Iola died in March, 2014 at the age of 90. They had been married for seventy years, and their sons are noted performers in their own right.
Iola and Dave BrubeckSadly, Keith Emerson committed suicide just last month at the age of 71. His old bandmate, the fabulous drummer Carl Palmer had already planned a summer tour— and it will now serve as a tribute concert tour of the works of Keith Emerson. In addition, there will be a Keith Emerson memorial concert to be held next month in Los Angeles — with performers such as Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (Doobie Brothers), Eddie Jobson (Roxy Music) and two members of the band Toto.
Still surrounded by wiresOf all of Keith Emerson’s works, my favorite remains Take a Pebble — written (and sung) by his bassist Greg Lake. While lengthy …. more than forty-five years later ……. it endures.
x YouTube Video