DoDo (To)Day

UPDATE:

HERE'S THE 10/30/10 WSJ REVIEW OF SAM IRVIN'S NEW KAY THOMPSON BIO. AND NEXT WEDNESDAY (11/3) IRVIN WILL BE HOSTING A BOOK READING  & SIGNING AT L.A.'S BOOK SOUP AT 7 PM. HOPEFULLY A FEW MORE WILL TURN OUT THAN DID AT MY SIGNING THERE EARLIER THIS YEAR (TALK ABOUT PLAYING THE HOUSE!). BE THERE OR BE SQUARE OR YOU CAN BE BOTH @ 8818 W. SUNSET BL, WEST HOLLYWOOD

Michael Dees !

Last Saturday at L.A. Jazz Institute's Sinatra Fest. With Frankie Capp's Juggernaut. After a half-hour's worth of this vocal wonderfulness, I was a total wreck. That's me shouting out the Lord's name in vain at the conclusion. (Pardon my crummy Nano vid; just listen to the audio!)


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photo: James Harrod

Tokorode: Thanks for all your kind words re: my A Fine Romance: My Lifelong Affair with Jazz Singing and Singers

New Sue Raney Website

http://SueRaneySRO.com/

I was happy to be able to assist Ms. Raney in getting her new official website on-line. I worked with my friend Jeremy, the web master, for several weeks in getting things just right. I wanted it up and running in time for Raney’s Oct 23rd appearance at the L.A. Jazz Institute Sinatra fest, A Swingin‘ Affair. We made it just under the wire, with only a couple of hours to spare. As for the LAJI Saturday evening event, which operated as a tribute to Nelson Riddle, the enthusiastic full house reacted as if they didn’t quite know what had hit them. It’s not often these economically distressed days that one gets to witness a singer pulling all the stops out in front of a forty-piece orchestra replete with a twenty-member string section. Maybe Streisand, and that’s probably it. I didn’t ask Raney, but it’s doubtful that even she, veteran performer that Sue is, has often had the chance to participate in such a Herculean undertaking. Maybe with a handful of “Pops” orchestras, and that‘s it. Most of her repertoire last Saturday consisted of Nelson Riddle’s arrangements from her first Capitol Records album, When Your Lover Has Gone.

It wasn’t just Raney’s “perfect” (as one attendee later described it) performance that stood out, but, instead, the entire evening, which also included fine, young Brit singer Gary Williams and the glorious sound of the Nelson Riddle Orchestra conducted by son Christopher Riddle. It took real pro’s to achieve such near-perfect results with only two hours of rehearsal for a performance also lasting. . .two hours! In the near future, I’ll be posting photos of the occasion, and perhaps even an audio or video clip or three. And commentary on some of the rest of LAJI fest. Update: These just in, taken by my friend Ruriko. That's Christopher Riddle to Sue's right in photo one and in photo three.

Singer Kurt Reichenbach taken yesterday at the L.A. Jazz Institute's Swingin' Affair fest. And just dig that krazeeee silhouette! Photo by Gordon Sapsed.

Re-Pagination

This video that I created for the late Page Cavanaugh's 85th birthday party a few years back is still available on youtube, but for some unknown reason, it no longer shows up in their search engine. Sooooo, for what it's worth. . .



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"My Lee Wiley"

On the occcasion of the singer's 102nd birthday. Reposted from two years ago. Pts 1-5. Translated by J., narrated by Westbrook Van Voorhis. Originally broadcast on Japanese TV a decade-and-a-half (or-so) ago.Click on image twice for full screen.

AND NOW. . .A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

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It's Ann Richards' (October 1, 1935 - April 1, 1982) birthday

Reposted from 2008
Jazz singer Ann Richards' Playboy magazine photo shoot, June 1961

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The following is excerpted from a post of a few years ago by Noel Wedder on a Kenton net list:

"It [the photo spread] also severed his relationship with Hugh Hefner. Stan was appalled that Hefner hadn't extended him the courtesy of telling him in advance [Kenton's wife] Ann had posed nude for the magazine. The first we knew about it was when one of the guys picked up a copy of Playboy while we were touring. Try as we might we couldn't keep it away from Stan. The jig was up when Charles Suter [sic], then editor of Downbeat, confronted Stan in Chicago and asked about the layout and why Stan hadn't put a stop to it. 'What layout?,' Stan asked perplexed. Suter then gave him a copy of the magazine open to Ann's spread. Stan glanced quickly at the photos, closed the magazine, handed it back to Suter and walked away seething. Later that night Stan indicated Suter had been elevated to his shit list. He felt, and rightly so, Suter had overstepped the bounds of propriety by shoving the magazine in his face. 'Friends just don't do that to friends,' he bellowed."