King Kong

New Neil cover - Le Noise

“Le Noise” is complete. It is a solo record. Playbacks are happening now. Release date is September 28th. It will be available in Vinyl, CD and I tunes in the first edition, followed by Blu-Ray, and an APP for I-Phone and I-Pad a month or so later. The app will be free. It gives you an interactive album cover. Forgive my use of the word “album”. I am old school. When you buy the songs/movies from I- tunes they show up in your APP. Peace ny

Newcastle sunsets

Jim sings Bob

Lucky...

The last one, at least, isn't real: it's from a commercial for a car.

Last night's set list

At the Jolly Bowman, Wallsend: -

Love Song
Mind Your Own Business
Falling

Got to the Earl Grey to find it shut (later found out that it had shut on Friday!) so made enquiries to see if the gig was on elsewhere. Turned out to be on in Wallsend. Being last to arrive I went on just after 'last orders'. Didn't get back to the flat until 12:30am. What a day!

Sunday morning...

Daryl Dragon: The Cat in the Hat

The Beach Boys, including Daryl Dragon, on the cover of this Dutch/German release of Marcella

Daryl Dragon: The Cat in the Hat

Frank Black

21 October 2010

Singing and playing to a backing tape on the Old Grey Whistle Test, 1972

There’s more than one hat here, but the one we’re interested in is that worn by the piano player (though he didn't play on the actual track...)– the one that’s not Dennis Wilson. Daryl Dragon, son of the composer and arranger Carmen Dragon, was a member of The Dragons, a psychedelic jazz rock group, along with his brothers Dennis and Doug in the 1960s (see http://www.myspace.com/thedragonsbfi). Around 1967, Doug was asked by his friend Bruce Johnston, to audition (in front of Carl Wilson) to become members of the Beach Boys’ touring band. Although Doug did play with the band, it was Daryl (who had played on Bruce and Terry (Melcher's) version of Four Strong Winds in 1965) who ended up contributing more and almost became a fully fledged Beach Boy. They were later joined by their brother Dennis, who played percussion.

In 1970, Daryl became the band’s ‘musical director’, putting together brass sections and arranging brass for the tours and brass and strings for songs on albums, as well as contributing keyboards. Although he was offered a more permanent position with the band around the time of Holland, he turned it down. Daryl is on 20/20 (Bluebirds Over The Mountain - marimba), the Cotton Fields single (keyboard) and he and Denis Dragon are on Sunflower (Daryl plays vibraphone on Deidre, possibly tubular bells and harpsichord on This Whole World, piano on Got To Know The Woman, vibraphone on Tears In The Morning and piano on Cool Cool Water).

According to people who knows far more than I do (that'll be Craig Slowinski and Andrew G. Doe), Daryl probably played  the 'boogie-woogie' piano on Got To Know The Woman, H.E.L.P. Is On The Way, Sound Of Free and played on several songs from Surf's Up: Don't Go Near The Water, Student Demonstration Time (bass and possibly keys), A Day In The Life Of A Tree, 'Til I Die, and two from Carl and the Passions: Cuddle Up and Make It Good. See http://endlessharmony.boards.net/thread/171/daryl-dragon-passes-away

He is profusely thanked on the sleeve of the Holland album for his earlier work. http://earcandy_mag.tripod.com/ddragon.htm

Although he’s not credited in the liner notes, he’s more than likely on the 1973 In Concert album, because some of it was recorded over the Winter 1972 tour when both he and his future wife, Toni Tenille, were with the band.

During this period, Daryl worked a lot with Dennis Wilson and is credited as helping him develop his piano playing. In 1970 the pair released a single in Europe, Sound of Free/Lady, credited to Dennis Wilson and Rumbo and he worked extensively on Dennis' unreleased solo project from the early 70s.

http://www.danaddington.com/denny/dragon.html

“My real function with Dennis was to give him encouragement. The band didn’t see the value in his writing because they didn’t see it as commercial. They were looking for the next hit, because this [1969-72] was when the hits had stopped coming. Dennis didn’t think on those terms. My contribution to his songs has been somewhat overstated, to be frank. My relationship with him was more like Salieri’s with Mozart. I’d sit there and try and write down what was coming out of his head. There was never any thought but that we were shaping his musical inspiration. If I did anything, it was really just to help him commit to his ideas, which was not always easy for a guy with his constant energy overload.” (http://beatpatrol.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/ben-edmonds-dennis-wilson-the-lonely-sea-2002/)

In 1972, his future wife, Toni Tennille joined the Beach Boys’ tour to play keyboards alongside Daryl, who had been christened Captain Keyboards by Mike Love because of his penchant for wearing a sea captain’s hat. Later that year, rather than accept an invitation to join the band on a permanent basis, he left with Toni to form the sub-Carpenters soft-rock/pop duo, the Captain and Tennille.

The Captain and Tennille, with prog-rock keyboards, sing Neil Sedaka's Love Will Keep Us Together

Their first album, Love Will Keep Us Together (1975), included material by their former employers: God Only Knows, Cuddle Up and Disney Girls; it also had the first released version of Johnston’s I Write The Songs. The Captain and Tennille are still married, although Daryl has unfortunately recently been diagnosed with a form of Parkinson’s Disease.

Tennille doesn’t seem to have recorded much with the Beach Boys during her tenure with the band, but she did provide backing vocals to Mike’s Everyone’s In Love With You on the 15 Big Ones album in 1976.

Here’s a rare photo of her playing keyboards with the band, sitting behind a Mike in a hat at the University of Georgia in 1972

For good measure, here are two more photos from that gig: Dennis at the keyboards

Dennis and Carl

(http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,8977.0.html).

Daryl’s name turns up as arranger for that song and as keyboard player (with Dennis on drums) for Susie Cincinnati; the latter, however, dated from the Sunflower sessions in 1969. Daryl and maybe Dennis are probably on Good Time from 1977’s Love You, but only because it was recorded during the Sunflower sessions too. The last Beach Boys’ album Daryl receives any credit for is Keeping The Summer live (1980); he played keyboards on the new track Some of Your Love and probably featured on When Girls Get Together, another track from the Sunflower period. Part of the album was recorded at his Rumbo Recorders studio.

On 3 June 1972, the Beach Boys played Crystal Palace Bowl in London. The cats in the hats are Al Jardine and a a elderly-looking Mike (all of 31 at the time); that’s Dennis Dragon playing percussion behind Al. The other Beach Boys present were Carl and Dennis Wilson, Blondie Chaplin and Rikky Fataar. Elton John and Keith Moon appeared with them that day, but Elton’s appearance at the start of this clip doesn’t seem to be related to the song. Carl and Daryl are on keyboards.

Some “Rock Family Tree” moments for those in a Pete Frame of mind:

1/ This shot from the Crystal Palace show in the Getty Archives shows Elton with the band, and emerging from his head is Billy Hinsche, Carl’s brother-in-law, who had been part of the band Dino, Desi and Billy, which also featured "Dino" Martin (Dean Paul Martin, son of Dean) and Desi Arnaz, Jr. (the son of television stars Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball). Although he turned down an offer to replace Bruce Johnston in the late 60s, he was a key part of the Beach Boys band from 1967 onwards, singing Sail On Sailor on stage and being given the first crack at the vocals of Honkin’ Down The Highway for the Love You Album (1977) before being replaced by Al Jardine. He has toured with Al Jardine and been his musical director and has recently played in Brian Wilson's touring band, appearing alongside Al, Blondie Chaplin and Brian.

2/ After Carl’s marriage to Annie Hinsche broke up, he remarried Dino Martin’s sister, Gina.

3/ Back in the 60s, a young guitarist Tim Weston auditioned for the band that became Dino, Desi and Billy, but was turned down; thirty years later, an accomplished jazz guitarist, he produced and played on Wouldn’t It Be Nice: A Jazz Portrait of Brian Wilson (1997).

4/ Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Toni Tennille and Billy Hinsche sing backing vocals on Elton John’s Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (1974).

5/ One of the Dragons’ sisters, Kathy, played flute on Bruce Johnston’s Going Public album (1977). The other, Carmen, was an accomplished harpist, as is Mike Love’s sister Maureen, who played on the Beach Boys’ Catch a Wave and In My Room and on presently unreleased material by her brother.

6/ The Dragon’s father, Carmen, wrote music for a number of movies, the most famous being Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).

Here's a recent - 2016 - interview with Toni in which she discusses her relationship with Daryl and briefly discusses The Beach Boys:

"Very saddened to hear of the passing of Daryl Dragon. Toni Tennille and Daryl joined The Beach Boys in the late 60's and met each other in our band. They then became The Captain and Tennille and love kept them together all these years. Darryl was a great musician and songwriter (he co-wrote Cuddle Up with Dennis Wilson) and a very special person but what I value most, he was always a true friend. Rest in peace Darryl"

- Al Jardine on Facebook, 2019

For further Beach Boy scholarly matters, see:
 http://www.beachboysarchives.com/ 
and http://bellagio10452.com/

Tonight's the night...

Bodega okay?

Strawberries

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates


EDWIN MORGAN

The Dowser

With my forked branch of Lebanese cedar
I quarter the dunes like downs and guide
an invisible plough far over the sand.
But how to quarter such shifting acres
when the wind melts their shapes, and shadows
mass where all was bright before,
and landmarks walk like wraiths at noon?
All I know is that underneath,
how many miles no one can say,
an unbroken water-table waits
like a lake; it has seen no bird or sail
in its long darkness, and no man;
not even pharaohs dug so far
for all their thirst, or thirst of glory,
or thrust-power of ten thousand slaves.
I tell you I can smell it though,
that water. I am old and black
and I know the manners of the sun
which makes me bend, not break. I lose
my ghostly footprints without complaint.
I put every mirage in its place.
I watch the lizard make its lace.
Like one not quite blind I go
feeling for the sunken face.
So hot the days, the nights so cold,
I gather my white rags and sigh
but sighing step so steadily
that any vibrance in so deep
a lake would never fail to rise
towards the snowy cedar's bait.
Great desert, let your sweetness wake.

EDWIN MORGAN
1986

Edwin Morgan RIP

Edwin Morgan
Edwin Morgan, who has died aged 90, was a poet, both scholarly and playful, who demonstrated a complete mastery of form and an amazingly wide sweep of subject matter. A subtle humorist with a sometimes tragic air, he was also a superb translator from several European languages.

Published: 6:38PM BST 19 Aug 2010

Morgan, never easily categorisable, displayed an attractive energy, openness and the conviction that nothing was off-limits for poetry to address. His verse concerned such topics as meetings with aliens and spaceships, but could also be about a story from that day’s newspaper or an encounter with reality in a Glasgow street.

His collection The Second Life (1968) covered a fairly typical thematic range: successive poems dealt with Ernest Hemingway; Marilyn Monroe; Edith Piaf; the domes of St Sophia in Istanbul; a white rhinoceros; a wolf; an Aberdeen train; and the opening of the Forth Road Bridge.

The forms he used were likewise eclectic — ranging from substantial sonnet sequences to experiments with concrete poetry. He was flexible, too, with language. He was equally at home in English and in Scots, and also made attempts to create the speech patterns of the Loch Ness Monster and of the inhabitants encountered by “The First Men on Mercury”— “Gawl horrop. Bawr. Abawrhannabanna!” for example.

Although well-known for its lightness of touch, and its sheer enthusiasm for the trivial and miraculous phenomena of the 20th century, Morgan’s poetry was often found to depend for its celebratory nature on catching a moment before it had gone forever — and so pointing up, first of all, the moment’s imminent passing.

In an early poem, The Cape of Good Hope (1955), he asked the reader to, “remember/ My voice and verse, and pardon in the hope/ The despair, for by the despair I spoke.” Although that was written at a dark time for him, and his most joyful verse was still to come, Morgan retained his melancholy vein throughout his career.

Edwin George Morgan was born in Glasgow on April 27 1920, the only child of Stanley and Madge Morgan. His father, who had started as a clerk at a small firm of iron and steel merchants, was to end up a director. Even as a child, Edwin’s self-absorption disturbed his loving, but rigorously Presbyterian, parents.

He was educated at Rutherglen Academy, where he was unhappy; his fellow pupils labelled him a swot, although he maintained: “I just happened to get good marks.” From there he transferred to Glasgow High, where he began to write long, fantastic prose narratives, influenced by Verne, Wells and Burroughs. At 17 he enrolled at Glasgow University where, while reading English, he pursued his interest in American poets (e.e. cummings, Robert Lowell, Laura Riding) but also absorbed poetry in various European languages, particularly French and Russian. It was the beginning of his interest in translation.

By the end of his career he was to have translated from French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Hungarian among other languages; the authors included Yevtushenko, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Montale, Quasimodo, Lorca and Brecht. In 2001 he won the Weidenfeld Prize for Translation.

His Beowulf (1952) became a standard translation in America, while his Scots version of Cyrano de Bergerac (1992) was staged in a highly-acclaimed touring production by the Communicado company.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Morgan registered as a conscientious objector; but, before his case could be heard, he came to believe that there was no alternative to war with Germany. He therefore asked permission to serve with the RAMC, and did so, with the 42nd General Hospital in Egypt, Palestine and the Lebanon, from 1940 to 1946.

He then completed his (first-class) degree at Glasgow, where he became an assistant lecturer, and in 1950 a lecturer. He was at this time a particularly troubled person, by no means at peace with his homosexuality, of which he had been aware since his school days. Various casual affairs caused extensive misery, but in 1963, when he met John Scott, a working-class storeman from a Catholic family, Morgan at last found a relationship of romantic, enduring, reciprocated love. It was Scott who gave Morgan the capacity for joy which inspired much of his best later work; and the title The Second Life refers to the new lease Morgan felt he received through his love. Poems of Years (1982) is dedicated to Scott, who died in 1978.

Homosexuality was not decriminalised in Scotland until 1980, and Morgan, characteristically impish, “came out” officially only on his 70th birthday. But his work had long since made matters plain. The New Divan (1977), for example, which recreates the exotic world of his wartime experience, tells of an affair which ended when the authorities posted the man elsewhere. By the 1980s even the titles — Dear man, my love goes out in waves — told all. But he maintained official reticence to ensure that he was not confined in the role of “gay poet”.

Although highly academic, Morgan was extremely open to foreign influences such as the Black Mountain poets, the Beats, Russian modernism and Portuguese concrete poets, as well as being excited by the liberating influence of pop music (he recently collaborated with the Scottish band Idlewild). He was not keen on, or worthy of, being pigeonholed.

He became Senior Lecturer at Glasgow in 1965, a Reader in 1971 and Professor in 1975. He retired in 1980 and was a visiting professor of English at Strathclyde University from 1987 to 1990.

In 2004 a poem he wrote for the opening of the Scottish Parliament building was read at the occasion. He continued to publish volumes of poetry in his old age, in April this year bringing out a book of new and uncollected poems, Dreams and Other Nightmares.

Morgan was appointed OBE in 1982, and received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2000.

In 1999 he was named Glasgow’s first Poet Laureate, and in 2004 as the first Scottish national poet, The Scots Makar — shortly afterwards the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the Scottish Poetry Library a £50,000 grant to acquire and house Morgan’s extensive archive.

He won Scottish Arts Council Book Awards in 1968, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1991 and 1992. In 1983, for Poems of Thirty Years, he shared the Saltire Society Award for Best Scottish Book of the Year, and two years later he won the Soros Translation Award for translations from Attila Jozsef. He blew the prize-money on a day-trip by Concorde to the North Pole, where he met Father Christmas.

Latterly Morgan had been suffering from cancer and was being cared for in a residential home in Glasgow. Although often in pain, he said recently: “Scientists will be working on that, I feel quite sure. But even if they overcome it, there is one big overhanging effect to it all — the knowledge that you’re not going to live for very much longer. And that can make you very pessimistic — or it can make you very determined not to be pessimistic. I prefer the second option.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7954871/Edwin-Morgan.html

May Day Parades aren't what they used to be

Is this a drink I see before me?

God save the Queen

Dylan to unveil new paintings in Denmark

Mon Aug 16, 11:24 am ET

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – American music legend Bob Dylan, who has turned to painting in his later years, will unveil a new set of works in Copenhagen next month, the National Gallery of Denmark announced Monday.

Some 40 acrylic paintings and eight drawings from Dylan's "Brazil Series" created especially for Denmark's largest museum, also known as the Statens Museum for Kunst, will go on display from September 4 to January 30.

"It was an honor to be asked and a thrilling challenge," said the 68-year-old folk music icon better known for his songs such as "Mr Tambourine Man" and "Blowin' in the Wind".

"I chose Brazil as a subject because I have been there many times and I like the atmosphere," Dylan said in a statement published by the museum.His new paintings "show the scenes from daily life in the cities, the slums and the countryside in Brazil where Bob Dylan has been several times," the museum's curator and director, Kaspar Monrad told AFP.

The collection includes depictions of wine growers, gypsies, politicians, gamblers and gangsters, "underlying the artist's fascination for the diversity of this country," Monrad added.

Dylan's style was "inspired by American realism from the start of the 20th century and deep affinity with painters... such as Matisse in the 1920s," the curator said.

It was the Danish museum that contacted Dylan's agent at the end of 2008 to invite him to paint a new set of works for the gallery, which Dylan worked on between 2009 and the first half of this year.

"I've been to the National Gallery of Denmark and it definitely is an impressive art museum. It was more than a little surprising when I was asked to create works specifically for this museum," Dylan said.

Dylan displayed his last canvas collection "Drawn Blank Series" in Germany in 2007 and in Britain in 2008.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100816/ennew_afp/entertainmentdenmarkusmusicartdylan_20100816152417

Tonight's set list

At The Habit, York: -

Love Letters In The Sand
Sleepy Time (debut performance)
Falling
I'm Just A Loser
Mind Your Own Business

A wild, mad racing crowd were in. They were happy to sing along with MYOB.

The Savory Collection

Jazz treasure trove to be made public
Savory Collection, featuring rare live sets by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Coleman Hawkins, to go on display at US National Jazz Museum

Sean Michaels
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 18 August 2010 10.15

Some of the most sought-after recordings in early jazz will soon be available to the public – at least if you're willing to travel to Harlem. The Savory Collection, including rare live sets by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins and many more, is to be displayed at the US National Jazz Museum, and with it, some of the only 1930s jazz recordings more than a few minutes long.

During the late 30s, audio engineer William Savory recorded nearly 1,000 discs of radio broadcasts, capturing an unparalleled slice of the swing era. Although there are already lots of jazz recordings from that period, most are no more than three minutes long: the limitations of 10in 78-rpm shellac discs made longer recordings impossible. As the New York Times reports, Savory's collection is different. With aluminium or acetate discs 12- or 16in wide, sometimes recorded at 33 1/3 rpm, he was able to capture longer performances "in their entirety", according to the paper, "including jam sessions at which musicians could stretch out and play extended solos that tested their creative mettle".

The audio quality is also high. Savory was "a technical genius", explained the museum's executive director, Loren Schoenberg. "You hear some of this stuff and you say, 'This can't be 70 years old.'" The collection includes unreleased music by Count Basie, Lester Young and Benny Goodman; the only known recordings from the world's first outdoor jazz festival, in 1938; a six-minute version of Body and Soul, performed by Coleman Hawkins; and Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit, accompanied by piano, less than a month after the original recording was released. "You have the most inane scripted introduction ever," Schoenberg said, "but then Billie comes in, and she drives a stake right through your heart."

Savory died in 2004, and the National Jazz Museum acquired the collection from his son, Eugene Desavouret. But while they are now digitising the recordings, they may never be able to release them. Copyrights are a minefield, involving hundreds of performers, radio stations, publishers and heirs, and in this era of digital distribution, the legal requirements are unclear.

Schoenberg hopes to make the recordings available at the museum and possibly, eventually, online. "Every one of these discs is an unexpected discovery," said Doug Pomeroy, the engineer overseeing the digital transfer. "I can hardly wait to transfer some of this stuff because I am so eager to hear it, to find out what's there and solve all the mysteries."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/aug/18/jazz-treasure-trove

Oscar Peterson - Songbooks Etc

There are at least five Oscar Petersons on display on this comprehensive 10 x CD Box Set representing Oscars work with the legendary Norman Granz and celebrating his 80th birthday on August 15th 2005.......the virtuoso soloist, the leader of a rapidly evolving piano trio, the master accompanist, the indefatigable anchor of the Jazz At The Philharmonic rhythm section, and the devoted chronicler of the American popular song.

CD's 1-5 of AVID's Re- mastered set focuses on Oscars rather neglected work interpreting the Great American Songbook where he and Granz 'tried to draw more people into jazz', including works by Kern, Arlen, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Gershwin amongst many others.

CD 6 features Oscars first session with Granz as he accompanies the legendary Billie Holiday across 16 sides that show his talent as an accompanist.

CD's 7-8 capture Oscars collaboration with four leading tenor sax men, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Stan Getz getting fired up with Dizzy Gillespie and a rare session with the unique Flip Phillips.

CD’s 9-10 features the entire 1954 issue from the JATP, including Oscar playing alongside such names as Lester Young, Bill Harris and Ray Brown. Complete with a fine essay by Dr Richard Palmer AVID's latest release is a testament to a great pianist whose courage, dedication and sheer will shine through in his playing and to a great partnership with his friend, mentor and patron Norman Granz.

£9.99 on Amazon. Crazy price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/1952-54-Songbook-Albums-Etcetera/dp/B000A3MHNA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1282134961&sr=1-2-fkmr0

Specials

FRIDAY NIGHT BOY COOL #70

Herman Leonard RIP

Charlie Parker and the Metronome All Stars, NYC, 1949

Thelonious Monk, NYC, 1949

Ella Fitzgerald, Downbeat Club, NYC, 1949

Miles Davis, NYC, 1949

Oscar Pettiford, NYC, 1950

Nat King Cole Quartet, NYC, 1949

Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Brown, NYC, 1949

Gerry Mulligan and Zoot Sims, NYC, 1955

Tony Bennett, NYC, 1950

Fats Navarro, NYC, 1948

Lena Horne, NYC, 1948

Frank Sinatra, Monte Carlo, 1958

More on this site at: http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.com/2009/11/friday-night-boy-cool-33.html

See also http://www.lpb.org/programs/frame/leonard.html

http://www.hermanleonard.com/

Herman Leonard RIP

Obituary: Herman Leonard dies at 87; photographer chronicled mid-century jazz scene
Leonard's smoke-filled images of jazz greats in dark clubs documented a musical era. Many of his black-and-white prints were lost in Hurricane Katrina.

August 16, 2010
By Keith Thursby
Los Angeles Times

Herman Leonard, a photographer best known for his iconic images of such jazz greats as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, has died. He was 87.

Leonard died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family spokeswoman said. No cause was given. He had been living in Los Angeles since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, flooding his home and destroying thousands of prints.

Leonard became famous for the smoky, backlighted black-and-white photos he took in dark jazz clubs beginning in the late 1940s.

"I took advantage of being a photographer to get myself into the clubs so I could sit in front of Charlie Parker," he told The Times in March before the opening of an exhibit on jazz photography at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. "I got to listen to music in person. That enriched me. The money didn't. And I tried to make images that would satisfy me."

The images did much more than that. They documented a musical era and cemented Leonard's status.

"He knows how to capture, and to make, the natural beauty, artistry and individuality of musicians shine through — shine through the paper and the chemicals and the book and the gallery and the years," John Edward Hasse, of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, told the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., in 1999. "He's an artist."

He was born in Allentown in 1923 and became interested in photography early on thanks to his older brother. He attended Ohio University to study photography but that was interrupted by a stint in the Army from 1943 to 1945. Leonard returned to college and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1947.

After working as an apprentice for famed portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh, Leonard moved to New York in 1948 and started becoming immersed in the jazz scene. Using a 4-by-5 Speed Graphic camera, he shot Art Tatum, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and countless other jazz greats.

Ellington watching Ella Fitzgerald sing in 1948. Dexter Gordon sitting, holding a cigarette and balancing his saxophone on a knee. There was music, amazing access and plenty of smoke.

"The smoke was part of the atmosphere of those days and dramatized the photographs a lot, maybe over-stylized them a bit," he told The Times in 1990.

He spent 1956 as a personal photographer for actor Marlon Brando on a trip to the Far East. Then he moved to Paris and did commercial work, including for Playboy magazine, and kept shooting jazz.

"Ninety-nine percent of everything I shot was off the cuff," he said in 2001. "I wanted to capture what was really there untainted by anything I would do. My whole principle was to capture the mood and atmosphere of the moment."

The negatives of his jazz photos had been put away when he left the United States; but beginning in the 1980s he rediscovered them, and his first book, "The Eye of Jazz," was published in 1985. The first exhibition of Leonard's jazz photos was held in London in 1988.

More exhibitions and praise followed.

Leonard's work showed an intimacy that "comes from a true insider whose genuine friendship with the musicians allowed him to capture moments that are personal and insightful," David Houston, chief curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, told the Morning Call in 2005. "You could teach the personal and musical evolution of jazz in the '50s through his work."

Leonard moved to New Orleans in 1992. His home was flooded by Hurricane Katrina and he lost thousands of prints. But his 60,000 negatives were safe, having been sent before the hurricane to the Ogden Museum. His return to New Orleans was chronicled in the 2006 documentary "Saving Jazz."

"When I was photographing Miles or Dizzy in the early days, I knew these were good and important musicians, but not as important as they turned out to be," he told the Chicago Tribune in 1999. "I had no idea. If I had any inkling, I would have shot 10 times as many pictures."

Leonard is survived by children Valerie, Shana, Michael and David; and six grandchildren.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/16/local/la-me-herman-leonard-20100816

Return of the Capeman

Paul Simon’s ‘Capeman’ Stalks Another Chance

By LARRY ROHTER
Published: August 11, 2010

“The Capeman,” Paul Simon’s ill-fated foray into the Broadway musical, was so spectacular and costly a flop that when it closed in 1998 after only 68 performances, it was hard to imagine it could ever have an afterlife. But time passes, memories fade, and tastes change, and so for three nights beginning Saturday, the Public Theater will be presenting a new, streamlined version of the show outdoors at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

The Public has been careful to keep expectations modest, referring to the performances as a “concert” or “workshop” that’s no more than a “fun way to end the summer.” But because the director chosen for the project, Diane Paulus, also mounted a revival of “Hair” for the Public Theater in Central Park in 2007 that eventually ended up on Broadway, there is already speculation that the Public may have similar aspirations for “The Capeman.”

“We are setting out to create a fantastic experience in the park this weekend, and we don’t need for it to do anything else,” the Public’s artistic director, Oskar Eustis, said when asked about a next step for Mr. Simon’s work. “Obviously we hope that there is an ever-expanding audience for it. If we get something that works, our goal is to give it the broadest possible reach. So, sure, we hope this is a step that leads to a further life for this piece. But there is nothing in terms of specific. We literally don’t know what we have.”The rehabilitation of “The Capeman,” which lost an estimated $11 million on Broadway — said at the time to be a record — actually began two years ago, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As the first segment of a broader program devoted to Mr. Simon’s music, the academy’s executive producer, Joseph Melillo, focused on what had always been considered the musical’s strongest aspect — a collection of songs that drew on influences ranging from blues and doo-wop to Latin Caribbean styles like aguinaldos and guajiras — and simply jettisoned the rest.

“I wanted to be an exorcist,” Mr. Melillo said in an interview this week. “I wanted to help Paul, to get this demon out of him and onto the stage, where we could say, ‘Look everyone, this is great music.’”

This weekend’s performances, which will be free and run around 90 minutes each, take that process a step closer to a full staging. Parts of the book, written by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott, have been restored, but in a stripped-down and altered form, with nearly an hour of the original libretto eliminated.

“It’s almost like an oratorio now,” said Ms. Paulus, who remembers attending a preview of the original Broadway production and liking it. “There are a few vignettes of dialogue, mostly interpolated in the songs, but the power of the story and the transformations of the characters come from the cumulative power of the music.”

Mr. Eustis confessed that, unlike Ms. Paulus, he has never seen a live performance of “The Capeman.” His interest, he said, stems from his tenure at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., where he worked with Edgar Dobie, one of the producers of the Broadway version of the play and now managing director at Arena Stage in Washington.

“I knew that the show famously had not worked on Broadway,” Mr. Eustis said. “But I had listened to both the cast album and the album Paul Simon released and thought that the music was dramaturgically and sociologically brilliant, with the kind of insight you get on his great works like ‘Graceland.’ ”

It may also help that the theatrical landscape has altered somewhat since the debacle of “The Capeman.” The Afrobeat musical “Fela!,” with its distinct political theme, has been a recent critical hit on Broadway, winning three Tony awards, and is holding its own commercially. Mr. Eustis and Ms. Paulus also mentioned the success of “In the Heights” and “Passing Strange,” both shows that focus on the experience of minority groups, as indications that the boundaries of the genre have expanded.

But it is also clear that the team behind the new version of the play has tried to be more accommodating to what the public expects a musical to be, with the consent of Mr. Simon, who has been involved behind the scenes in the reshaping but declined a request for an interview.

The new version of “The Capeman” is thus more conventional, both in its story and the manner in which it is presented. For example, it eliminates video projections that appeared in the Broadway version in favor of live actors speaking some of the same lines.

“I think that what Paul did was great, creating a new approach to doing things within the format of the traditional musical so that it could be both entertaining and meaningful,” said the salsa singer and actor Rubén Blades, who played one of the lead roles in the original production. “But we had our problems. People were making choices, most of whom had not been involved before in a Broadway experience, which has a definite set of dos and don’ts. We didn’t consult the people who knew, and so we got killed.”

In the original staging, the main character was a real-life figure, Salvador Agron, who as a bitter teenager in 1959 murdered two members of a rival gang on a Hell’s Kitchen playground and later, in prison, learned to read, found God and died in 1986 a free man. The salsa star Marc Anthony played Agron as a teenager, and Mr. Blades played the repentant older man.But both critics and audiences seemed to find the character unsympathetic and the story too cluttered. “Irrevocable damage seems to have occurred with Mr. Simon’s and Mr. Walcott’s very conception of the show’s central character,” who “remains a blank passive figure, a tabula rasa scrawled upon by bad karma and a bad society,” Ben Brantley wrote in his New York Times review of the 1998 production. Protesters also picketed the show, accusing “The Capeman” of glorifying a killer.

Ms. Paulus has taken a different approach, carving out more space in the story for a more appealing figure: Agron’s long-suffering mother, Esmeralda, who will be played by Natascia Diaz. Anthony Lee Medina will play Agron as a teenager, and Iván Hernández will play him as an older man.

“I’ve tried to work on getting the piece to the essence, the heart of the story,” Ms. Paulus said. “The story is still about Salvador Agron, but I’ve been working with Paul over the last year to think about another doorway into the story, through the viewpoint of his mother.”

Besides Mr. Simon, a handful of performers have been involved with all three versions of “Capeman.” One of them is the salsa and jazz pianist Oscar Hernández, the show’s musical director, who said the music has also been tweaked to reflect the new focus.

“It’s not a major change, but kind of a revamping here and there of certain songs,” he said. “The songs are in a different sequence, and we’ve taken some out and added some that weren’t in the original show and done a few different edits, turning solos into duets and things like that, in the interest of shortening and tightening things.”

In addition the choreographer Sergio Trujillo, whose previous credits include “Jersey Boys,” “Memphis,” “The Addams Family” and “Guys and Dolls,” has been brought on board, part of an effort to give the play the “visceral physicality” that Ms. Paulus felt was lacking in the original version. As a result “there’s more dance, motion and movement” than before, Mr. Hernández said.

“In a perfect world ‘The Capeman’ would come back and be a huge success,” he added. “But for something that left such a bad taste in everyone’s mouth back then, being able to do this again, first at BAM and now at the Public, has been kind of redeeming, especially for Paul. We’re in a good place now.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/th...er/rssnyt?_r=1

Wake up, Paul; you've been dreaming!

Take your hands out your pockets!

A new, improved (but still underused) Quayside bus passes three slovenly members of the FNB on a wet night in Newcastle.

Midnight in Paris

Our Lady of Alvinos on set with director Woody Allen and star Owen Wilson:

Cover Up Or Cock Up?

It's over to you...

The ink rubber wasn't effective so Paul enlisted his 'burly henchman' to graffiti over the offending graffiti in an attempted cover up of the dirty deed.

How well have they succeeded? I'll leave that to our readers to decide. Over to you, Dave!

The Duke

The Hand of Ravenscroft

Da tries his healing hand on a sceptical Terence Kelly's 'legendary' deaf ear.

"By God, sir, it worked. I can hear!"

When asked if it hurt, Terry shook his head and smiled: "It was like a trip to the moon on gossamer wings."

Viz at the Lit and Phil

Exhibition celebrates 30th anniversary of Viz

David Whetstone
Evening Chronicle
Aug 13 2010

SOME of the North East’s greatest brains have wowed audiences at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle.

George Stephenson demonstrated his miners’ safety lamp there in 1815 and electric lightbulb inventor Sir Joseph Swan lectured there in 1880.

Even today, with its huge library of old books, the place has an air of quiet erudition.But maybe that should read until today. For last night Viz co-founder Chris Donald officially opened the 30th anniversary exhibition of his mischievous mag in the Lit & Phil’s ground floor gallery.

And between now and September 4 that studious atmosphere might be punctuated with the sound of raucous guffaws.

Amid the original artwork of Viz favourites such as Biffa Bacon and Roger Mellie, Lit & Phil board member Chris Purser said: “As far as we are concerned, Viz is quintessentially Geordie and Tyneside.“The show was in London last year and someone said to them, ‘You are taking it to Newcastle, aren’t you?’. They hadn’t thought about it.

“We had the space and, frankly, this part of the place is under-used.”

Chris pointed out that the creators of some of Viz’s many rude and funny characters are actually quite a brainy bunch.

Cartoonist Davey Jones’s cartoon image of Gilbert Ratchet Vitruvian Handyman is a spoof of a famous scientific drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

Meanwhile Viz co-founder Simon Donald sent up a famous John Everett Millais painting called Bubbles, used to advertise Pears’ Soap in Victorian times, with a vulgar version showing Johnny Fartpants.

Then there is the send up of WH Auden’s famous poem The Night Train, featuring Postman Plod in the Viz version.

“There is no reason why we shouldn’t have this exhibition here,” said Chris.

“We’ve got books here with cartoons from the 18th Century which are just as rude.”

The exhibition includes original artwork and Viz merchandise.There is also a programme of events including cartoon workshops and talks.

There is a small admission charge to the exhibition which is being held in aid of the Lit & Phil.

And while items such as the Queen Mumorial tea-towel and the model of Viz’s fictional home town, Fulchester, are not for sale, you can buy a special bag with both the Viz and Lit & Phil logos on it.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/08/13/exhibition-celebrates-30th-anniversary-of-viz-72703-27055984/

Seems rather sad that they feel they have to justify it - and odd that the Journal's chief arts correspondent has been enlisted to write this for the Chronic...