Tuesday, November 30, 2010
By request...Big Mama Thornton....Peacock era recordings
Big Mama Thornton
They Call Her Big Mama - Willa Mae Thornton ©2002JKCMarion
Willa Mae Thornton was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1926. She got interested in music from the influence of her parents both of whom were with the local church, her father as a minister and her mother a choir singer. In the early to mid forties, she got experience in music as a member of a traveling revue called "Green's Hot Harlem Revue" which did one nighters throughout the South. In 1948 she settled in Houston, and appeared at night clubs such as the Bronze Peacock owned by Don Robey of Peacock Records. Her first appearance on record was in 1950 with a group called The Harlem Stars on E & W Records #100 with the songs "All Right Baby" and "Bad Luck Got My Man".
In 1951 Thornton began a long connection with Don Robey's Peacock label. The first release in the summer of that year was "Partnership Blues" and "All Fed Up" on #1567. The next Peacock record was in December with the Bill Harvey band on the tunes "No Jody For Me" and "Let Your Tears Fall Baby" on #1587. Willa Mae does a holiday show at the Bronze Peacock in Houston with Billy Wright, Marie Adams, and Jimmy McCracklin. "Let Your Tears Fall Baby" is a good seller.
"Everytime I Think Of You" and "Mischievous Boogie" recorded with the Joe Scott Orchestra is released on #1603. Thorton is called the Peacock Records "house rocker and show stopper" in trade ads. In October Thornton tours with Johnny Otis on the West Coast and readies a tour of Texas over the holidays. At year's end "Everytime" does well in Atlanta and Florida. In January of 1953 Willa Mae readies a tour with Johnny Ace and his band, and also has her newest Peacock release out. It will change the face of music over the next few years.
"Hound Dog" and "Nightmare" is released on #1612 recorded with the Johnny Otis band. "Hound Dog" takes off immediately and looks like a national hit record. Rufus Thomas quickly records an answer song called "Bear Cat" on Sun #181. Thornton's record is such a big seller that Peacock Records has three new pressing plants running full time to try and keep up with demand. The writers of the tune, two twenty year old former college students, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, have their mothers as legal guardians to their financial rewards from the hit tune which has a number of cover versions out. By mid summer, it is obvious that "Hound Dog" will be the biggest seller in the history of Peacock Records. In August, Willa Mae appears with Johnny Ace and his band at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles at the Fourth Annual Rhythm & Blues Jubilee. Willa Mae and Johnny Ace ready a big coast to coast tour during the fall. In late September after the incredible run of "Hound Dog", Willa Mae Thornton records her (second) signature tune "They Call Me Big Mama" on #1621 with the Johnny Otis band featuring Don Johnson on trumpet, George Washington on trombone, James van Streeter on tenor sax, Fred Ford on baritone sax, Devonia Williams on piano, Pete Lewis on guitar, Albert Winston on bass, Leard Bell on drums, and Johnny Otis on vibes and drums.
In late October, Thornton and Johnny Ace are set to appear at New York's Apollo Theater in their first eastern show, then they will be joined by Little Junior Parker & his Blue Flames on the tour. Spurred on by the success of gospel records, "Hound Dog" and Johnny Ace, Peacock and Duke Records move into new modern headquarters on Erastus Street in Houston. On Thanksgiving Night in Houston, B.B. King joins the Ace-Thornton-Parker show. At year's end Peacock releases "The Big Change" and "I Ain't No Fool Either". on #1626, and a duet with Johnny Ace on "Yes Baby" on Duke #118 ( the flip is "Saving My Love For You" by Johnny Ace). Willa Mae begins 1954 on a tour of the Southeast with Johnny Ace and the band of drummer C.C. Pinkston. In March Thornton and Ace do a week at Pep's in Philadelphia backed by the Johnny Board band, followed by a week at the Apollo Theater in New York. They next will head out to Ohio and the Midwest. In April "I Smell A Rat" and "I've Searched The World Over" are released on Peacock #1632. In June "I Smell A Rat" sells well and brings in big box office on the road in the Carolinas.
In August as Thornton tours the Southwest, Peacock Records releases #1642 - "Stop Hopping On Me" and "Story Of My Blues". By September, "Hopping" is selling big in Memphis and St. Louis. In October, added to the Ace - Thornton package for a West Coast swing are Memphis Slim and Faye Adams. "Rockabye Baby" and "Walking Blues" are released on #1647. In March of 1955 Peacock #1650 is out and features the songs "Laugth Laugh Laugh" and "The Fish". Late in the year Willa Mae records "How Come" and "Tarzan And The Dignified Monkey" with Elroy Peace on vocal on #1654. By 1956 the rock 'n roll age was upon the world, and as the new sensation Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog" to international acclaim, Peacock re-released Willa Mae Thornton's original on Peacock #1612. The Presley record spurs a number of lawsuits over the publishing rights. In early 1957 "Just Like A Dog" and "My Man Called Me" was released on #1681. By now Willa Mae Thornton is seen as one who is out of the rock / pop mainstream and so her affiliation with Peacock Records ends.
"Big Mama" Thornton continues to make personal appearances and is always remembered for her original version of "Hound Dog" which gets a spate of airplay during the summer of 1958 which leads to another re-release of the original. By the end of the year Thornton has moved permanently to the West Coast and does bookings at many California clubs such as the Rhumboogie in Oakland, the Gateway in Santa Cruz, and Basin Street West in San Francisco. In 1961 Willa Mae records for the Bay Tone label in Oakland with "You Did Me Wrong" and "Big Mama's Blues" on #107. In the mid sixties she recorded for Sotoplay Records in Los Angeles - "Summertime" and "Truth Comes To The Light" on #0033, and "Tomcat" on #0039. Willa Mae shows her harmonica talents on "Before Day" and "Me And My Chauffeur" for Kent #424. Besides the "Mississippi Saxophone" (harmonica) Thornton is also adept on the drums.
Further sixties recordings include Fontana #681 - a new version of "Hound Dog" with Eddie Boyd and Buddy Guy live at a blues festival in Hamburg, Germany. Willa Mae Thornton was now a fixture at blues and folk festivals both here and in Europe. In London in the late sixties she recorded albums for the Arhoolie label with Shakey Horton, Eddie Boyd, and Buddy Guy, and at another session with Muddy Waters, James Cotton, and Otis Spann which featured her rendition of "Ball 'n Chain" which was covered by Janis Joplin to great effect. Later recordings included LP albums for Mercury and Vanguard (the LP's "Jail" and "Sassy Mama" with Buddy Lucas & his combo). Other LPs in the late 70s include "Saved" for Pentagram, and "She's Back" for Backbeat. Continued appearances at every major music festival (Newport, Monterey, Montreaux, etc.) gained a whole new generation of fans for the woman known forever as Big Mama. In 1983 Buddha Records released "The Blues - A Summit Meeting" which featured Thornton with B.B. King, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, and Muddy Waters at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Willa Mae Thornton's last recording was for the Ace label in England and took its title from a lyric line in "Hound Dog" - "Quit Snoopin' 'Round My Door". The end came for Thornton in July of 1984, and the world lost one of its most original talents in American music. Her talent lives on in her later LPs, many available on CD, and in "Hound Dog - The Peacock Recordings" an essential CD on the evolution of pop music in the world. Elvis was surely listening to Big Mama back in the day.
Here are a few recordings from her Peacock Records era:
Hound Dog
My man called me
I smell a rat
They call me Big Mama
You don't love me no more
Let your tears fall baby
Rock-a-bye-baby
Yes, baby
How come
Nightmare
Stop a-hoppin' on me
Just like a dog (barking up the wrong tree)
Walking blues
The big change
Hard times
Laugh, laugh, laugh
The fish
I've searched the whole world over
Cotton picking blues
Earl "Fatha" Hines.....Chicago...Grand Terrace Cafe NBC remote 1938
Chicago Defender, 08 October, 1932
Chicago Defender, 15 April, 1933
The 1935 Orch.
Here's a nice little OTR band remote from Chicago....August of 1938....The "New" Grand Terrace Ballroom.....Earl "Fatha" Hines and Orchestra. This is a nice one....running time of 29:49.
http://www.4shared.com/file/iyfUCaNa/earl-hines-nbc-remote-from-chi.html
Oh, here is the Grand Terrace today:
Originally The Sunset Cafe, later the Grand Terrace....now Meyer's Ace Hardware....(and from what I hear....the destination of many tours, as the store contains many artifact from it's earlier years, including, murals, etc.....I've seen a few pics and footage of them).
http://www.4shared.com/file/iyfUCaNa/earl-hines-nbc-remote-from-chi.html
Oh, here is the Grand Terrace today:
The two pics of Meyer's are from:
http://chicago-architecture-jyoti.blogspot.com/2010/03/sunset-cafe.html
Here's a bit more about the Sunset/Grand Terrace:
Owned by Louis Armstrong's manager, Joe Glazer, the Sunset Cafe was without question one of the most important and pivotal venues in Jazz history. What became a venue of commanding historical significance was originally built in 1909 as an ordinary automobile garage. Despite its unremarkable beginnings, after a 1921 remodeling, this 'garage' became the platform that launched many major careers that permanently defined and transformed the Jazz artform. Such performers as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway. Johnny Dodds, Bix Beiderbecke, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa and Earl "Fatha" Hines got their starts there and thus The Sunset Cafe building became one of the most important jazz venues in history. Armstrong recorded his first Hot Five records the same year he started at the Sunset Cafe. This was the first time that Louis Armstrong had made records under his own name. The records made by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven with Earl Hines during their Sunset Cafe Years are undisputed as absolute artistic classics, and reflective of the early pinnacle of Armstrong's musical genius. Many noted observers insist that these universally acclaimed masterpieces are in fact the greatest artistic achievements of Louis Armstrongs entire career. Cab Calloway got his professional start onstage under Louis Armstrong at the Sunset Cafe. Calloway eventually became one of only a few big band leaders to come up under Armstrong and, of course, Earl Hines. When Louis departed the Cafe for New York - it was the young Cab Calloway - 20 year old "kid from Baltimore" whom Armstrong and Glazer picked to take over from Louis at the Sunset. A few years later Calloway followed his mentor Armstrong to NY, and before long found himself headlining at another great temple of Jazz The Cotton Club, while back in Chicago the matchless Earl Hines inherited the Sunset Cafe mantle. In 1928, the 25-year-old Earl Hines opened what was to become a twelve year residency at what was now re-named The Grand Terrace Cafe - by now "controlled" [or 25% 'controlled'] by Al Capone. With Earl "Fatha" Hines as its bandleader, what used to be the Sunset Cafe continued its proud tradition as one most important centers for jazz music of all time, introducing under Hines Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Nat "King" Cole and Billy Eckstine, among many other Jazz immortals - as well as the dancing immortal - Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. And it was "live" from The Grand Terrace that the Hines Band became the most broadcast band in America.
While the historic structure that once housed New York's original Cotton Club was torn down decades ago for "urban renewal", Chicago's original Sunset Cafe/Grand Terrace Cafe building still stands, and still has some of its original murals on the walls, in silent testimony to the historic Jazz music that once radiated outward from its miraculous and storied stage down who's steps "Bojangles" Robinson so famously danced to Earl Hines' Band. Despite its near monumental artistic significance, The Sunset Cafe/Grand Terrace Cafe building itself came full circle back to its modest roots after the then Grand Terrace Cafe closed in 1950. It then served as a political office - and then an ACE hardware store since. Thanks to the relentless efforts of fans, historians, and preservationists it received, Chicago Landmark status on September 9, 1998.In recent years, there has been talk of resurrecting this unique and historic site in some manner, but plans thus far remain embryonic.
By request....well, this is the first part of the request....The Les Paul Show-radio 1950
The Les Paul Show NBC (w/ the Trio...Les, Mary Ford, and Eddie Stapleton)
11 shows from different dates in 1950
Les hosted a fifteen-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford, and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil," and "Tiger Rag". Several recordings of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today.
The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards up until his death.
During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster. Later Paul claimed to have made the myth real for his stage show, using a small(black)box attached to his guitar,which was connected to a sound on sound setting on an echoplex or other tape delay. He typically would lay down one track after another on stage, in sync, and then play over the repeating forms he had recorded.
Here's a great link to a 1940 Popular Science article on Les Paul's home radio station:
Oh, here's the shows...........this is part of a larger request for Les and also for some solo Mary (which I'm still doing some detective work to find), from "anonymous".....(boy, there sure are a lot of folks on the 'net with that name ;)
Show #1 Mar 03, 1950
Show #2 May 05, 1950
Show #3 May 12, 1950
Show #4 May 26 1950
Show #5 June 09, 1950
Show #6 June 16, 1950
Show #7 June 23, 1950
Show #8 June 30, 1950
Show #9 July 11, 1950
Show #10 Aug. 04, 1950
Show #11 Aug. 11, 1950
Monday, November 29, 2010
Today's OTR Part II..........Duke Ellington...Broadcast from the 400...1945
http://www.4shared.com/file/qQXoDxWW/duke-45-04-28-05-broadcast-fro.html
Today's OTR.........Part I.....An Armed Forces Radio broadcast of "Johnny Mercer's Music shop"
I don't have a date on this one.....a nice listen, though.........with Jo Stafford, The Paul Weston Orch., and June Hutton w/ the Pied Pipers.
"Hi there fellas, hope ya feel Tip Top
This is Johnny Mercer and his Music Shop.
All you soldiers, sailors and marines out there,
all you Gals in the service.........we're on the air!"
Enjoy :)
This is Johnny Mercer and his Music Shop.
All you soldiers, sailors and marines out there,
all you Gals in the service.........we're on the air!"
Enjoy :)
Two live ones from The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.....BBC 2008 and live in Austria....
These two are both quite fun....first a Live at the BBC 2008 recording:
Chat I
Smells like Teen Spirit (Nivana cover)
Chat II (w/ excerpts from "The Jungle Book" and "Let's dance to Joy Division")
Kill the Director (w/ The Wombats-Wombats cover)
Chat III
Miserlou
Chat IV
Pinball Wizard
Chat V
Merry X-Mas everybody (Slade cover)
And next, a recording live at Glatt and Verkehrt Festival, Winzer Krems-Krems, Austria July 26, 2009:
Intro
Running wild
Born to be wild
Miserlou
Life on Mars/Substitute
Anarchy in the UK
Hot tamales
Theme from Shaft
Teenage dirtbag
Yes, Sir, I can boogie
Pinball wizard
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Rock around the clock
America
Limehouse blues
Orange blossom special/In-a-gadda-da-vida
Hard to handle
Smells like teen spirit
Fly me to the moon/I will survive
Le Freak
Another childhood favourite Christmas LP.....Will Glahe and his Orch. "Christmas Greetings from Germany"
I listen to this one every year, still........... :) I grew up with a Bavarian Grandmother....these are the Christmas carols I always think of when the season comes......enjoy....and....Gesegnete Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr!
Alle Jahre Wieder
Liese Rieselt Der Schnee
Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprunden
Morgen Kommt Der Weihnachtsmann
Herbei, Oh Ihr Glaubigen
Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum
Am Weihnachtsbaum Die Lichter Brennen
Ihr Kinderlein, Kommet
Von Himmel Hoch
Susse Die Glocken Nie Klingen
O Du Frohliche
Saturday, November 27, 2010
I must be trapped somewhere between the '30s and the '80s tonight.....lol
Actually, I'm putting together several lists, and I'm passing time on here with some fun stuff............more Esther Phillips, some Hammond B3 stuff, more vintage Hawaiian tunes, Glen Grey and the Casa Loma Orch., The Ozzie Nelson Orch.....and more lists to come....soon....I promise!
I couldn't help posting this one...cracking up....granted, I never "got" this video, when it was new....
I just LOVE all of the "literal" videos of bad '80s MTV music vids..............too funny!!
Tau Moe Family.......recordings with Bob Brozman "Ho`omana`o I Na Mele O Ka Wa U`i"
A fascinating story............The Tau Moe family....read on.....
From: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/budda/kuleana/taumoefamily
Tau Moe Family had considerable influence on the evolution of early Hawaiian music. Tau Moe, his wife and two children traveled the world in the 1920s showcasing Hawaiian music and culture as "The Aloha Four". The group was one of the first to tour Europe during the Hawaiian cultural expansion and for many years the family of four played in Europe, India and Asia. Tau Moe's life of music began as a child in Samoa. Travelling with his father, a Mormon missionary who set up churches and taught music, Tau learned his love of music from his father. When Tau was 11, his father moved the family to Hawai'I and it was there that he was introduced to the musical styles he would grow to love and then showcase around the world. In Hawai'i, Tau Moe learned the steel guitar from M.K. Moke. He soon met another steel guitar player, Rose, who was to become his wife. The two joined a travelling show and began showcasing their musical talents. They couple had their first child, Lani, in Japan, and she too joined the family act that would come to be known, with the birth of son, Dorian, as the "Aloha Four." During the 1920s, Hawaiian music was sweeping the world with its own lilting and melodic sound. At the height of their popularity, Tau Moe and his family played for numerous world leaders in Germany, in Paris, Brussels and Japan, mesmerizing foreign audiences. They worked with a circus troupe, toured with the Josephine Baker show to Venice and played steel guitar music to an eager audience in Egypt. They also were profiled frequently in the press. Years later, Tau and Rose retired, but not before leaving an indelible mark on the history of Hawaiian music, as one of the earliest musical forces to bring Hawaiian culture to international audiences.
And...from: http://www.bobbrozman.com/taumoe.html
Tau Moe Family
The story of the Tau Moe Family is perhaps one of the most incredible 20th century traveling musician stories to be found anywhere, a veritable Odyssey around the world.
Tau and Rose Moe (pronounced Mo-ay) performed together as husband and wife for over 61 years and for many years with their children Lani and Dorian. Tau, born in Samoa in 1908, was raised in Laie, a small community on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. He played music from early childhood. Rose, born in 1908, was the youngest daughter of the Kaohu family of the Kohala district on the big Island. Her family was musical, her childhood steeped in traditional music and dancing.
Young Tau became professionally interested in music and played with many artists, including M.K. Moke, John Almeida, and David Kaili, who were to become legends of Hawaiian music. Tau seems to have absorbed earlier styles, though the musicians he knew spanned the first and second generation of steel players.
In 1927, Rose joined a troupe of musicians featuring Tau and his three uncles. The group, Mme. Riviere's Hawaiians (managed by a French university professor), toured extensively in Asia from 1928 to 1934. They performed in Japan, China, Southeast Asia, Philippines, India, Burma, and Indonesia. The show included Hawaiian and Samoan music, dancing, and native "rituals." Mme. Riviere traveled in intellectual circles, and on eday in 1932 she took Tau to meet Mahatma Ghandi, an experience which made an impression on the young, but very curious Tau.
In 1929, the group recorded eight songs in Tokyo for American release. Rare today, these records were purely ethnic in style with traditional accompaniment of guitars, uke, steel guitar, and beautiful vocals led by Rose's falsetto singing. The records clearly show the influences of the period before 1915 without sounding like the more modern styles being recorded by other Hawaiians in 1929. They therefore give us a deep look back into what Hawaiian music sounded like up to and even over a century ago.
Lani, the son of Tau and Rose, was born in Tokyo in 1929. By 1934, in Shanghai, the Mme. Riviere tour broke up. Lani, at age five (already a signer, dancer, and ukulele player), joined his parents to form a trio. In Shanghai, "Ua Like No Ua Like," "Samoan Moon," and "Aloha Means I Love You" were recorded by Tau and Rose, in 1934. As of the recording of REMEMBERING THE SONGS OF OUR YOUTH, the Moe's award-winning 1989 release with Bob Brozman, there were no known surviving copies, and therefore the arrangements of these songs on the album were re-created only by the grace of Tau's excellent memory. Tau's memory was proven to be perfect, as years later Bob found one of the Shanghai recordings.
After working as a trio in India for several months, the Moes traveled to Egypt, arriving nearly broke, in late 1935. First finding work in Alexandria, they performed in Egypt's larger cities through 1936. From 1936-1938, their journey took them through Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland, Russia, France, and Germany! During the late 1930's, Tau had become quite popular in Germany. In fact, one night after a show, he was obliged to meet Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, and company. Tau was friends with many Jewish musicians, whom he helped in leaving Germany. He himself was advised by the American embassy to leave Germany as war loomed.
The outbreak of WWII forced them to flee Europe entirely. They settled briefly in Lebanon, but thern Italy declared war there. They worked their way further east in the Middle East, boarding a ship at Bagdhad in the hope of going home to Hawaii. However, Pearl Harbor had just been bombed and the Pacific Ocean was closed for travel, so the Moe family settled in India for the rest of the war years. Tau organized bands and orchestras for the top hotels in the major cities of India, employing a multi national group of musicians, all on the move because of the war. He would transcribe for performance the latest songs from musical films, watching the films several times in order to write down the melodies, chords, and words. Daughter Dorian was born in 1945 and soon was part of the act: dancing, singing, and later playing the guitar. In the late 1940s, after many engagements in principle Indian cities, the Moe family returned to Europe.
The Moe quartet worked in every Western European country, as well as Japan and Australia, through the 1950s and 1960s, recording, performing, and appearing in television and films. Their music became more modern, as can be heard on their many European recordings, the last one having been released in Yugoslavia in 1982.
The family continued touring together in Asia, Australia, and the U.S. mainland. In the late 1970s, Tau decided more that five decades on the road was enough. The whole family retired to Laie, Tau's childhood home. Tau's musical lifetime, already many times more intense, traveled, and long-lived than most, was to come full circle with his final recording, with Bob Brozman, in 1988. He spent the rest of his life receiving many awards, and enjoying the contact from old fans from around the world.
Read Bob's account of the exciting conclusion to Tau's story, and how Bob and the Tau Moe Family were united to record HO'OMANA'O I NA MELE O KA WA U'I - REMEMBERING THE SONGS OF OUR YOUTH, winner of the Library of Congress Award.
Rose Moe passed away in 2000, and Tau Moe passed away at age 95, in 2004.
And one more........ http://archives.starbulletin.com/1996/06/03/features/story1.html
All the World was their Stage
Tau Moe Family had considerable influence on the evolution of early Hawaiian music. Tau Moe, his wife and two children traveled the world in the 1920s showcasing Hawaiian music and culture as "The Aloha Four". The group was one of the first to tour Europe during the Hawaiian cultural expansion and for many years the family of four played in Europe, India and Asia. Tau Moe's life of music began as a child in Samoa. Travelling with his father, a Mormon missionary who set up churches and taught music, Tau learned his love of music from his father. When Tau was 11, his father moved the family to Hawai'I and it was there that he was introduced to the musical styles he would grow to love and then showcase around the world. In Hawai'i, Tau Moe learned the steel guitar from M.K. Moke. He soon met another steel guitar player, Rose, who was to become his wife. The two joined a travelling show and began showcasing their musical talents. They couple had their first child, Lani, in Japan, and she too joined the family act that would come to be known, with the birth of son, Dorian, as the "Aloha Four." During the 1920s, Hawaiian music was sweeping the world with its own lilting and melodic sound. At the height of their popularity, Tau Moe and his family played for numerous world leaders in Germany, in Paris, Brussels and Japan, mesmerizing foreign audiences. They worked with a circus troupe, toured with the Josephine Baker show to Venice and played steel guitar music to an eager audience in Egypt. They also were profiled frequently in the press. Years later, Tau and Rose retired, but not before leaving an indelible mark on the history of Hawaiian music, as one of the earliest musical forces to bring Hawaiian culture to international audiences.
And...from: http://www.bobbrozman.com/taumoe.html
Tau Moe Family
The story of the Tau Moe Family is perhaps one of the most incredible 20th century traveling musician stories to be found anywhere, a veritable Odyssey around the world.
Tau and Rose Moe (pronounced Mo-ay) performed together as husband and wife for over 61 years and for many years with their children Lani and Dorian. Tau, born in Samoa in 1908, was raised in Laie, a small community on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. He played music from early childhood. Rose, born in 1908, was the youngest daughter of the Kaohu family of the Kohala district on the big Island. Her family was musical, her childhood steeped in traditional music and dancing.
Young Tau became professionally interested in music and played with many artists, including M.K. Moke, John Almeida, and David Kaili, who were to become legends of Hawaiian music. Tau seems to have absorbed earlier styles, though the musicians he knew spanned the first and second generation of steel players.
In 1927, Rose joined a troupe of musicians featuring Tau and his three uncles. The group, Mme. Riviere's Hawaiians (managed by a French university professor), toured extensively in Asia from 1928 to 1934. They performed in Japan, China, Southeast Asia, Philippines, India, Burma, and Indonesia. The show included Hawaiian and Samoan music, dancing, and native "rituals." Mme. Riviere traveled in intellectual circles, and on eday in 1932 she took Tau to meet Mahatma Ghandi, an experience which made an impression on the young, but very curious Tau.
In 1929, the group recorded eight songs in Tokyo for American release. Rare today, these records were purely ethnic in style with traditional accompaniment of guitars, uke, steel guitar, and beautiful vocals led by Rose's falsetto singing. The records clearly show the influences of the period before 1915 without sounding like the more modern styles being recorded by other Hawaiians in 1929. They therefore give us a deep look back into what Hawaiian music sounded like up to and even over a century ago.
Lani, the son of Tau and Rose, was born in Tokyo in 1929. By 1934, in Shanghai, the Mme. Riviere tour broke up. Lani, at age five (already a signer, dancer, and ukulele player), joined his parents to form a trio. In Shanghai, "Ua Like No Ua Like," "Samoan Moon," and "Aloha Means I Love You" were recorded by Tau and Rose, in 1934. As of the recording of REMEMBERING THE SONGS OF OUR YOUTH, the Moe's award-winning 1989 release with Bob Brozman, there were no known surviving copies, and therefore the arrangements of these songs on the album were re-created only by the grace of Tau's excellent memory. Tau's memory was proven to be perfect, as years later Bob found one of the Shanghai recordings.
After working as a trio in India for several months, the Moes traveled to Egypt, arriving nearly broke, in late 1935. First finding work in Alexandria, they performed in Egypt's larger cities through 1936. From 1936-1938, their journey took them through Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland, Russia, France, and Germany! During the late 1930's, Tau had become quite popular in Germany. In fact, one night after a show, he was obliged to meet Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, and company. Tau was friends with many Jewish musicians, whom he helped in leaving Germany. He himself was advised by the American embassy to leave Germany as war loomed.
The outbreak of WWII forced them to flee Europe entirely. They settled briefly in Lebanon, but thern Italy declared war there. They worked their way further east in the Middle East, boarding a ship at Bagdhad in the hope of going home to Hawaii. However, Pearl Harbor had just been bombed and the Pacific Ocean was closed for travel, so the Moe family settled in India for the rest of the war years. Tau organized bands and orchestras for the top hotels in the major cities of India, employing a multi national group of musicians, all on the move because of the war. He would transcribe for performance the latest songs from musical films, watching the films several times in order to write down the melodies, chords, and words. Daughter Dorian was born in 1945 and soon was part of the act: dancing, singing, and later playing the guitar. In the late 1940s, after many engagements in principle Indian cities, the Moe family returned to Europe.
The Moe quartet worked in every Western European country, as well as Japan and Australia, through the 1950s and 1960s, recording, performing, and appearing in television and films. Their music became more modern, as can be heard on their many European recordings, the last one having been released in Yugoslavia in 1982.
The family continued touring together in Asia, Australia, and the U.S. mainland. In the late 1970s, Tau decided more that five decades on the road was enough. The whole family retired to Laie, Tau's childhood home. Tau's musical lifetime, already many times more intense, traveled, and long-lived than most, was to come full circle with his final recording, with Bob Brozman, in 1988. He spent the rest of his life receiving many awards, and enjoying the contact from old fans from around the world.
Read Bob's account of the exciting conclusion to Tau's story, and how Bob and the Tau Moe Family were united to record HO'OMANA'O I NA MELE O KA WA U'I - REMEMBERING THE SONGS OF OUR YOUTH, winner of the Library of Congress Award.
Rose Moe passed away in 2000, and Tau Moe passed away at age 95, in 2004.
And one more........ http://archives.starbulletin.com/1996/06/03/features/story1.html
All the World was their Stage
The Tau family spanned the globe playing Hawaiian music. About the only place they weren't widely known was right here at "home"
By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin
FIRST, the music.
Tau Moe holds the stainless steel National Resonator Guitar in his lap, just touching the strings. Next to him, his wife, Rose, starts to sing.
It is magic. His playing is effortless, her singing poignant. The haunting sound of the steel guitar blends perfectly with the clear falsetto.
The sound of steel guitar is the sound of the romance of Hawaii today and in days past. It echoes through the history Tau and Rose made after they met in music class in downtown Honolulu in the 1920s.
The story comes second.
Moe is Samoan. He was born Aug. 13, 1908 and grew up in Laie, where he and his uncles joined an entertainment troupe, Madame Riviere's Hawaiians, that featured Rose Kaohu, who was a dancer and musician.
When the Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened in 1927, Moe played steel guitar.
He and Rose went to Manila in 1928 with Madame Riviere, the former French ambassador, who formed a troupe to play in the Pacific's former colonial outposts.
By 1930, they were on their own, and had recorded eight records. They married, sang and danced, raised two children and went on the road - for 54 years.
The Tau Moe Family traveled around the world seven times, learning a half-dozen languages, making hundreds of records in countries as diverse as India, Greece, Yugoslavia and Germany.
They didn't come back to Hawaii for good until 1982: World famous recording stars and entertainers. Unknowns in Hawaii.
"He is unacknowledged in his own home. More than anybody else, he deserves to be acknowledged as the Hawaiian music ambassador to the world," musicologist, author and international musician Robert Brozman says about Moe.
"He was playing steel guitar where it was never heard before."
Tall and dignified even at 87, Moe wants to tell hundreds of good stories about living on the road for five decades. He is content in quiet obscurity, not interested in dwelling on the obvious slight delivered by the local Hawaiian music community, although he does note, "I don't think people realize what we did for Hawaii."
Now living back in Laie, Tau takes care of Rose, who has Alzheimer's disease. Their son Lani, 65, a teacher and manager of the Kalihi District Park senior citizen's program, lives with them. Daughter Dorian, 49, an established executive with the Polynesian Cultural Center, lives nearby.
"Everything I got came from singing and playing my guitar," Moe says.
It all started with the steel guitar, invented in Hawaii at the turn of the century by Joe Kekuku, who, in the Kamehameha Schools machine shop, designed a steel bar that would sustain a musical note when pressed across the strings.
Moe plays with a style that can be found only in archive records. Hawaiian entertainer Keith Haugen explains that when Moe left Hawaii in 1928 he was playing a type of music popular at the end of the 19th century.
"He is a very good musician," Haugen said. "His idea of what is Hawaiian music didn't change. What he plays is like what he played 50 or 60 years ago."
The sound of Hawaiian steel guitar took off after the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, according to Hawaiian music historian Harry Soria.
"There was a huge salt water fish tank, plants from Hawaii. In the center of the Hawaii pavilion was a stage with continuous shows with steel guitars and hula dancers," Soria said.
"America went nuts and the Hawaiian craze was born. First the ukulele was popularized. Hula dancers became popular ... Tin Pan Alley music started."
The Hawaiian steel guitar hypnotized people. It became BIG business, in records, on the radio. At least one side of everybody's record had to include Hawaiian or Polynesian music.
Through countless countries, Tau and Rose managed to keep a family together.
"They are a very loving family," Soria said. "They lived on the road for decades. In all, it is just incredible."
"What a life I had in show business. I thought I was going to get some money and come home and go to the university," Moe said.
But when he decided to come home, his children, by then established professionals, wanted to know what this home thing was.
"My dad said he wanted to go home," Lani recalled. "I said what is home?"
For more than a half century home was hotel after hotel. Meeting the rich and famous, living with the common folk and spreading Hawaiian music.
"In our (first) performance we weren't allowed to speak English," Moe said. "Our manager told us that was so everyone would think we were natives. It was all show business."
Within years, he became one of the most influential Hawaiian musicians in Asia and Europe. Moe is credited with introducing the steel guitar to the Asian subcontinent.
More than anybody else, he deserves to be acknowledged as the Hawaiian music ambassador to the world. He was playing steel guitar where it was never heard before.
Robert Brozman
Musicologist
"Today, there is a lot of steel guitar in Indian music," Brozman said. "I collect all the records and before he came, nobody was recording steel guitar. The year after he arrived, there were eight recordings."
Everyone has a story about Moe in India. Brozman talks about how Moe met Gandhi. Dorian recounts the family story of how Lani was born during Moslem-Hindu riots in India and a taxi equipped with dual machine guns was needed to get Rose to the hospital for his birth.
Moe tells how he taught an Indian maharaja how to play the guitar in the 1930s.
"The man had diamond buttons on his shirt. He took one off and gave it to Mom," Moe said.
Asked where the diamond is now, Dorian shows her hand, flashing an enormous diamond on a ring.
The family moved to Egypt, playing in Alexandria, then moving on to Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland, Russia and Germany.
Everywhere they went, Moe insisted they live the life of local people. Soon they were picking up the customs and language of each country.
"I go to their house, I eat their food, by the time I leave, I speak their language," Moe said.
The family picked up languages like tourists collect postcards. Tau learned Hindu; everyone learned French, German and Italian.
In Paris, Tau worried that the Hawaiian craze would fade, so he beefed up the act.
"I learned tap dancing; Lani learned classical dance; Mom learned acrobatics," he said "Then at night we all came home and taught each other."
In 1938, the Moes met Adolf Hitler, and fellow Nazis Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels at a fund-raiser for German orphans. The irony was that Moe had many Jewish musician friends and used the family's German passports to smuggle many out of the country.
Moe tells one story about how Rose was helping to smuggle the possessions of his Austrian agent out of the country. "The guard wanted to know why Rose was wearing three fur coats. " 'I'm from Hawaii, so I get very cold,' she said."
The next year, the American Embassy warned Moe to leave Germany. The family moved to Beirut, where the Embassy again warned them that Italy had declared war.
"We had only a couple of hours to get a bus to Baghdad," Moe said "We spent days in the desert, no one had food. Luckily, I brought loaves of French bread - it was the only thing anybody on the bus had to eat for the four-day trip."
Moe spent World War II in India, leading an unlikely big band of musicians from a variety of countries, including China and Russia.
After the war, the Moes returned briefly to Hawaii, but by 1947, they were back on the road, playing first in California, then back to Europe.
They played Monte Carlo, Rome, Nice. They danced in the Moulin Rouge. They appeared in a show with Josephine Baker in Venice. They spent the winter in St. Moritz. They appeared with Maurice Chevalier.
"Those were good memories, those were the glamour days," Lani said.
Now Moe speaks quietly in Hawaiian to Rose who is humming on the couch.
"She still sings every night, you know," Tau said.
For your listening pleasure......The Tau Moe Family with Bob Brozman 1989 "Ho`omana`o I Na Mele O Ka Wa U`i"...............enjoy!
Mai Kai No Kauai
Kolopa
Paahana
Aloha means I love you
La Lupe Ua Sola
Goodbye my Feleni
Ua like No a Like
Meleana E medley
Samoan Moon
He Aloha No A Honolulu
Na Ali'i
E Mama Ea
Fort St. 1929 and 1988
Friday, November 26, 2010
Tone Poems III - David Grisman, Bob Brozman, and Mike Auldridge
A great CD, especially for fans of National Resophonic instruments. David Grisman, with the amazing Bob Brozman, and Mike Auldridge.
Here's a review from Amazon.com:
David Grisman is clearly onto something with his continuing Tone Poems series. On the first volume, he was joined by Tony Rice on a set of music that illustrated the evolution of vintage instruments and bluegrass. Tone Poems II focused on jazz--standards and otherwise--using a similar lineup of coveted mandolins and guitars (this time played by Grisman and Martin Taylor). On Tone Poems III, we get to hear the gorgeous-sounding--and gorgeous-looking--resonator and slide instruments that found their popularity in the 1920s Hawaiian music craze and evolved into fixtures of blues, country, and bluegrass. The recorded sound of these Weissenborns, Gibsons, Martins, and Nationals is sublime, and the extensive liner-note photos will have instrument collectors drooling. The lineup of Grisman with guitarists Bob Brozman and Mike Auldridge is instrumental versatility defined--they tackle Jimmie Rodgers's "Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia," standards ("St. Louis Blues"), even so-called newgrass ("New Steal"), along with plenty of blues and Hawaiian cuts. Priceless instruments, timeless music, and a must-have for acoustic music lovers. --Jason Verlinde
And another, from Vintage Guitar Magazine Review, November 6, 2000 :
The first Tone Poems was released in 1994 and paired Grisman with bluegrass guitar legend Tony Rice. It was followed in 1995 by Tone Poems II featuring the hot jazz licks of Scots guitarist Martin Taylor. Now, mandolin fanatic Grisman has joined forces with dobro-player extraordinaire Mike Auldridge and "Mr. National" Bob Brozman to create Tone Poems III: The Sounds of the Great Slide & Resophonic Instruments. If you thrill to the sound of slide or get sentimental over a Hawaiian melody, this album is a dream come true. Auldridge needs no introduction to dobro fans. Following in Josh Graves footsteps, he was a founding member of one of the legendary modern bluegrass bands, Washington, D.C.'s the Seldom Scene. For anyone who harbored any doubts, his first, eponymous solo LP proved without a doubt that this man could play the dobro and became perhaps the classic bluegrass dobro album. Brozman of course literally wrote the book on National guitars, as well as recording fourteen albums championng their sound. His musical influences run the gamut of anyone who picked up a slide or a National, from Sol Hoopii to Oscar Aleman. The collection of instruments here is also stellar: hollow-neck koa Hawaiians, "German-silver" National tri- and single-cones, wood-bodied Dobros, Martins, Gibsons, Gretsches, Mosrites, and modern R.Q. Jones, National, Guernsey, and Bear Creek guitars, ukes, mandolins, and various creations in between. Due to their rarity and the scarcity of history on many brands and models, the 46-page liner booklet is worth the album's price alone. And then there's the music. Ages-old Hawaiian tunes, sweet early jazz, pioneering bluegrass, and boot-kicking western swing---it's a phenomenal collection of classic songs and original compositions that combine to create a musical history of slide and resophonic instruments. It just doesn't get any better than this.
Three of my favourite musicians on one great CD............enjoy.
Nostalgia prelude
Akaka Falls
Moonlight Bay
Peach pickin' time in Georgia
St. Louis blues
Whispering
Trash can stomp
Frankie and Johnny
Kohala March
Crazy rhythm
Beat biscuit blues
Great speckled bird
It happened in Monterey
Limehouse blues
Style O blues
Honolulu nights
Stompin' at the Savoy
Fort Worth drag
Just Joshin'
New steal
Las Ninas
David Grisman Quintet -Great American Music Hall, San Franciso-May, 28, 1977
A nice live recording tonight........The David Grisman Quintet, from a concert at the Great American Music Hall on May 28, 1977.
Dawg's Rag
Obanion's Wake
16 16
Band Introduction
Swing 51
Norwegian Wood w/John Carlini
Swing 42
Spain
Japan
Ricochet
Fish Scale
Dawg's Bull
Minor Swing
Obanion's Wake
16 16
Band Introduction
Swing 51
Norwegian Wood w/John Carlini
Swing 42
Spain
Japan
Ricochet
Fish Scale
Dawg's Bull
Minor Swing
A Tommy Dorsey Show OTR from 1946 w/ guest Duke Ellington
A nice one.........very nice. From August 8, 1946........with a lot of music from the boys and The Duke, plus a lot of a great conversation and bad jokes..........lol. You'll enjoy this one.........a definite keeper.
Ok, Mr. Anchovy.....You asked for some Hammond B3.....let's start with this :)
Well, I've got a lotta music featuring Hammond playing.....I think I'm going to posting a bit. Not quite sure the order I'm going in...lol...surprise (Bass ackwards as ever, hereabouts). But, I think I'll start with someone that you don't hear about much....Trudy Pitts.
When I was a kid, I picked up this LP, "Bucket full of Soul" at a yard sale. It was relased in about 1968, and it totally blew me away. I thought her playing was pretty unusual and different. I could really hear the classical training in her jazz playing. I was first thinking of her when you mentioned the B3. The LP is in petty bad shape, so uploading it wouldn't have been much of a listen for anyone. However, I do have some other stuff that she released, and her recorded output isn't huge...so I'm going to post what I have.
Here's pics and bio to start us off:
Trudy Pitts (born 1933) is a soul jazz keyboardist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is known primarily for her skill with the Hammond B3 organ.
She is married to Bill Carney (born 1925), known to most as Mr. 'C'. He often joins her on the drums.
In 1999, the Prestige label remastered a couple of her discs from the 1960s into a single compact disc, Legends of Acid Jazz, Trudy Pitts & Pat Martino. She also accompanies Pat Martino on the Prestige Rudy Van Gelder re-issue El Hombre.
On September 15, 2006 Ms. Pitts was the first jazz artist play a concert on Philadelphia's Kimmel Center's 7,000 pipe organ, "taking the medium to a whole new level".
A nice article that I found online:
http://jazztimes.com/articles/18293-trudy-pitts-the-godmotherJanuary/February 2007
Trudy Pitts: The Godmother
Mention the pipe organ and the average person is more likely to think of Bach than bebop. Mozart called the pipe organ “The King of Instruments”; composers from Sweelinck to Messiaen wrote for it—including, most famously, J.S. Bach himself. Perhaps no other instrument is as exclusive to the European classical tradition. Certainly its use in jazz has been limited. Aside from Fats Waller in the ’30s, few musicians have attempted to make the wind-blown behemoth swing. Its sluggish response is something of a hindrance when it comes to playing music requiring split-second timing—and no music depends on split-second timing more than jazz. Of course, jazz musicians typically make a practice of finding novel solutions to difficult problems. The folks who run Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts obviously understood that. Last year they decided they wanted someone to play jazz on their new Dobson pipe organ, the largest concert organ in the United States. Their search for a musician willing and able to meet the challenge quickly centered on one person: a hometown hero, Philly native Trudy Pitts.
A gifted organist, pianist and vocalist, Trudy Pitts is a product of the same fertile local jazz scene that produced John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan and Benny Golson, among many others. She might not be as well-known as some—her husband, manager and musical partner, drummer/vocalist Bill “Mr. C” Carney, calls her “the best-kept secret in jazz”—but she can play with the best of them. Trudy’s style is a compelling blend of earthiness and sophistication. She plays the funkiest ideas with the fine touch of a concert pianist and a liquid swing that would do Basie proud. Consider that she has more than 50 years of experience playing with some of the finest jazz musicians around (Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Pat Martino to name just a few), plus an extensive background in classical music. It makes sense that the Kimmel Center would choose her to put their organ through its paces.
Ms. Pitts grew up in a musical family. Her mother and two older sisters played piano. Trudy couldn’t wait to get in on the fun, and started piano lessons at age 6. It wasn’t long before Trudy began playing in church, where she had her first encounter with a pipe organ. “I started being a Sunday school piano player, back in the day,” she says in her warm, gracious manner, “when my church moved to a larger building that had an organ. They asked if I would like to take organ lessons. At that time I was about 12 or 13, and I was excited!” she laughs. “Of course I would!”
Trudy eventually settled on a career in music. She studied classical music at several colleges and conservatories, including Juilliard. Among her early professional experiences was a stint in the pit orchestra on tour with the Tony Award-winning musical “Raisin.” She also worked around Philadelphia as a solo pianist and vocalist. Playing jazz wasn’t on the agenda. “All of my training was classical,” she says. “I wanted to be a concert pianist.” Things changed in 1955 when she met her future husband. Mr. C fronted a band called the Hi-Tones, which at the time included both Coltrane and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath. Mr. C needed an organ player to replace the one he’d just lost—the estimable Shirley Scott.
“Mr. C went to the musicians union here in Philly and got some recommendations,” says Trudy. “I was one of them. Not that they’d heard me do jazz, because I had hardly done any jazz.” The Hammond B3 was new to her, as well. “Here was another challenge in my face, to play another kind of instrument.” She’d heard a lot of jazz around her house. Her older siblings were jazz fans; Trudy herself greatly admired Erroll Garner, but she’d received no instruction in playing the music. “I’m not saying that I didn’t experiment with it when my ear began to be awed by it, but all of my training was in the classics.” As it turned out, her classical studies helped with her jazz playing, especially in terms of harmony. “I didn’t have to study chords because, with my knowledge of what the 88 can do, and my hearing—I had perfect pitch—I could deal with chord changes,” she says. “What a blessing that was! If I heard a song on the radio I could just sit down and play it.” Although Trudy didn’t get the gig on a permanent basis, Mr. C took her under his wing. The couple began a musical—and later, personal—relationship that continues to this day.
Trudy and Mr. C married in 1958, and began playing together full-time that same year. The couple worked steadily after that—not just in Philly, but around the world, thanks largely to a long-term gig on a cruise ship, the S.S. France. In 1967, she recorded her first albums, Introducing the Fabulous Trudy Pitts and These Blues of Mine, both for Prestige. They had two children, a son and a daughter, who accompanied their parents on their travels. “I was their tutor on the road. Their teachers would give me work to take with me, and we would do it, and I enjoyed the daylights out of it!” she says. Raising a family on the road wasn’t easy. “There’s a lot of stress involved in that, because you have to arrange for education, for safety, for closeness with the family; finding someone to help take care of the kids while you’re working. You have to be confident that everything is in order. It always seemed to work out, though, even if I had to take them to work with me.” Eventually they had to cut down on the traveling, “because of the schooling and other things,” Trudy says. “I had to slow it down in terms of being away as much.” More than ever, Philadelphia became their home base. Over the years, Trudy continued to perform, teach and record. She and Mr. C are local institutions, “The Godparents of Philly jazz.”
The concert at the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall was scheduled for Sept. 15, 2006. Trudy was to play the first half with a quartet that would include Tim Warfield on tenor sax, Bob DeVos on guitar and Mr. C on drums; singer Nancy Wilson would play the second half. For Trudy, it was a special opportunity. It was also a tall hill to climb.
In order to prepare, Trudy had access to the organ during the month of August. Unfortunately, the technicians who might’ve helped were on vacation, so Trudy essentially had to learn the complex system of manuals, pedals and stops on her own. She was consulting with the engineer right up until curtain time. “I didn’t have a rehearsal with my sidemen until the day of the performance. A lot of stuff was going on.” Yet despite the magnitude of the challenge (or perhaps because of it), the evening was memorable for all the right reasons. “Everything went almost as well as I would have it go,” she says. “I got a standing ovation—I got ovations after the tunes, in the middle of tunes! It was very refreshing, very encouraging.”
The concert was one of the latest challenges in a career that’s had its fill. “I can’t even begin to tell you all the different ways I’ve gone. You do what you have to do, what’s presented to you,” she says. “You make the best of it, and that’s what I did. It was exciting at every level of my career in music.” Ultimately, drive and curiosity sustained her, helping her become a more complete artist. “I was hell-bent on being as total a musician as I could be,” she says. “Sometimes that means you have to be open to different attitudes, to different environments and vibes. I never had a problem doing that.” It’s the kind of philosophy that allows a person to do the impossible: In Trudy’s case, that includes making a 32-ton pipe organ swing. “Yeah, ain’t that deep?” she says. “I’m still wondering how I was able to do it. But it did happen to an extent, even though it wasn’t the same feeling as with a Hammond. It ain’t nothing you can relate to anything else. It was different, but I enjoyed the daylights out of it!”
Recommended listening
Despite its confusing title and corny psychedelic cover art, Legends of Acid Jazz: Trudy Pitts with Pat Martino (Prestige, 1998) is a fine reissue that includes Pitts’ two 1967 leader LPs, Introducing the Fabulous Trudy Pitts and These Blues of Mine. A solo piano set, Me, Myself and I, is available at cdbaby.com.
And, here's what I have: (Maybe, if I can find a source of "Bucket full of soul" in good shape, I'll get a copy of it up soon)
Steppin' in Minor
Spanish flea
Music to watch girls by
Something wonderful
Take Five
It was a very good year
Siete
Night song
Fiddlin'
Feelin' it (live)
Matchmaker (live)
When lights are low (live)
Jitterbug waltz (live)
Mean perspective (live)
Amazing grace (live)
Autumn leaves (live)
Make someone happy (live)