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 Woody Guthrie: People Are the Song— featuring musical instruments, handwritten lyrics, manuscripts, photographs, books, art, and audiovisual media — is at the Morgan Library in NYC to May 22nd.
AGRICULTURAL NOTES— African nations are seeking to diversify imports of wheat, as between 2018-2020 it imported 43% from just … Russia and Ukraine.
YOUR RATHER SCARY WEEKEND READ is this lengthy account of a high school football player (who played against my alma mater) recruited by Penn State in 1977 ... and as ESPN tells it, “He would become perhaps the most dangerous person to ever play college football". Three years younger than me, yet his school photo resembles someone who could have been a classmate of mine. He died in prison in 2020, yet whose full crime story was dormant … until now.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Dwight the Cat— an Ontario kitteh swiped from his home by a pizza delivery driver … but spotted on CCTV and now reunited.
TRANSPORTATION NOTES— while in the news today due to NATO: the nation of Finland traditionally uses a wider gauge of rail (due to prior Soviet influence) than the norm. Now, they are seeking to construct an undersea tunnel to Estonia that would enable the Rail Baltica project to provide seamless, one-seat travel between Helsinki to Warsaw on standard gauge rail.
FRIDAY's CHILDREN are named Wheezer and Joe the Cats— two felines in a joint program between a county humane society and a Wisconsin college animal science class, where students help socialize the kittehs for adoption preparation.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the record company executive Art Rupe— whose Specialty Records label in the 50’s and 60’s recorded performers such as Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Percy Mayfield, Art Neville, Clifton Chenier, Lloyd Price and Little Richard — who has died at the age of one hundred and four.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
SEPARATED at BIRTH— TV/film stars Courteney Cox and Demi Moore.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… when one reviews the "Rock Stars Who Died Too Young" file: one of them would be the 25 year-old guitarist Tommy Bolin whose drug overdose ended a career that was had already achieved much. Not simply in rock music: he had roots in blues, jazz and funk, and had recorded albums with not only name bands, but also several noted solo releases. Forty-five years later, as the All-Music Guide's Greg Prato wonders .... "What could he have been?"
Born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1951, Bolin began playing as a 13 year-old, and in 1967 was expelled from school for .... refusing to cut his hair. He later moved to Boulder, Colorado and formed a band whose name was later changed to Zephyr - whose debut album as well as Going Back to Colorado (from 1969-1971) are truly worth checking yet.
Featuring a Joplin-esque singer named Candy Givens - the band not only covered blues-rock in-and-out, but offered new interpretations on jazz classics such as St. James Infirmary and from modern jazz: Pharaoh Sanders' The Creator Has a Master Plan epic. Although they were (ultimately) not successful other than as a regional group: Bolin's ability was garnering rave reviews (including that of Jimmy Page, as Zephyr was an opening act for Led Zeppelin at that time).
Intrigued by the burgeoning jazz-rock-fusion (of Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Weather Report, etc.) of the early 70's: a twenty year-old Bolin founded such a band called Energy in 1971. They never released an album at the time (although some surfaced years later).
Yet this led to Tommy Bolin's breakthrough: as a sideman on the 1973 Spectrum album. The first solo album by the explosive Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Billy Cobham is among the best jazz-rock albums of all time. Just listen to Tommy's playing on Quadrant Four and Red Baron - and you'll see why it was an inspiration for rock veterans like Jeff Beck, who explored that world with albums such as "Wired" and "Blow by Blow".
In 1973 Bolin was the answer to the needs of the James Gang - who had not recovered from the loss of Joe Walsh, and whose replacement Dominic Troiano had left. While Bolin's work did not help return James Gang to its former glory in the charts, the two albums he participated on received excellent reviews.
He left the band in late 1974 and relocated to Los Angeles, seeking a role as a session guitarist. No trouble finding work: he performed with Alphonse Mouzon, Carmine Appice and the Canadian band Moxy.
He began recording his first solo album Teaser in 1974, which showed not only his wide-ranging taste in songs (rock to jazz to ballads) but also a flair for songwriting and even singing, which he had never delved into in the past.
Before it was released, the phone rang again: as Deep Purple had seen the loss of founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in late 1974, singer David Coverdale recalled Bolin's work on Billy Cobham's Spectrum and Bolin eventually auditioned for (and won) a spot in the band. He began touring with them, and was on the 1975 Come Taste the Band recording. But by this time, Bolin's heroin habit was beginning to escalate, and the band broke-up after a farewell tour in 1976.
Tommy Bolin resumed session work and released a successful second solo album Private Eyes that was issued on CBS. He toured throughout the remainder of 1976, and opened a show for Jeff Beck on December 3rd, 1976, posing for a photo with Jeff after the show.
The next day, Tommy Bolin was dead from a heroin overdose.
Although his recordings alone are an important legacy, his brother Johnnie has done a great deal to preserve his memory. The drummer for Black Oak Arkansas since 1985: Johnnie has organized annual Tommy Bolin tribute concerts and manages the catalog of his brother's discography, including a compilation album that is quite comprehensive.
In addition, the specialty Dean Guitars company for several years featured a Tommy Bolin signature model, the 2008 biography Touched by Magic chronicled his life and he was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2019. Guitar enthusiasts will probably be influenced by Tommy Bolin for years to come.
Of all of his work: I'm still drawn to his work (at age eighteen) on the eponymous first Zephyr album: Cross the River shows the band at its heaviest (and also more introspective) and shows Candy Givens' vocal range: sometimes subtle, other times ... well ... not very subtle.
From far, far, far...'cross the river A man's voice calls out to me I can't hear what he's saying, Why won't he let me be? I beg him to release me Oh, but he will not set me freeI saw him right through the madness But he walked right into my life For he walked across the river, and His smile tells me that he's kind I don't love him, not right now But I think it's going to work out fine.