The Last Kind

by John Blase
http://thebeautifuldue.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/the-last-kind/

Men, women, and girl singers - 

of the three kinds of humans

you were the last. You loved jazz 

and the smoky little rooms

where the tunes got played. They

took note of your crusade, your

scat without scatting, your 

vibrato-less gee-whizzy Fifties cool, 

plus this pluperfect female shape 

even George Shearing could see. 

But they kept listening because

of your uninhibited phrasing,

your mad human offerings

of punctuation: semicolons where

men could breathe, commas to

put women at ease, parentheses

that gave girl singers courage.

 

That you always sang haunted 

was widely-felt, but the ghosts were

only known by a few. Born to

be blue was always more than

a song. Then rock-n-roll invaded

our land and the loud was too

much, so you made yourself silent,

an esoteric casualty of war.

There will never be another you

is more than a song.

Dick and Kiz Harp

 Here are the Harps (listen) 
ultra rare photo courtesy of the Colliers

You'll find a pic of her in the dictionary next to the phrase "Too hip for the house."

This is my new friend from the net, Arlene Corwin. Among her other claims to fame (does she need any more?) is that she intro'd "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" in the original St. Louis production of The Nervous Set (also the first to sing "The Ballad of the Sad Young Men").

X number of years later (you do the math) here she is current day in her adopted home of Sweden blowing the lid off the place with one of my favorite songs.

If you go to her web site you'll learn that she is also a yoga instructor, a poet and that on more than one occasion she professionally partnered with. . .Slim Gaillard!

So much to learn, so little time

Listen hear

1	Introduction
2	Basic Hip
3	Vocabulary Building
4	The Loose Wig
5	The Riff
6	The Hang Up
7	Put on, Put Down, Come on, Come Down, Bring Down
8	Cool
9	Uncool
10	Field Trip #1
11	Field Trip #2
12	Field Trip #3
13	Summary

Beverly Kenney on Hugh Hefner Playboy TV

click twice for full screen image

If I'm not mistaken, the air date was mid-January 1960; this was just a few months before her death on April 13.

2/12/12 update: In the process, just now, of sussing out the air date, I came across this molto curioso item in Walter Winchell's ('member him?) 2/13/59 column: "Jazz singer Beverly Kenney, who is a private eye between bookings. . .." Hunh?

Thanks to James, Jeroen, and Allen for bringing this clip to my attention. I'm so verklempt that I can hardly type. Something of a major cultural event in my world!

More about Beverly: 
http://tinyurl.com/7bne849

Rare Sue Raney

Composer (s) : Larry Pontius, Julian Lee .
Show Name: For The Love Of Man .
Label Information: UNICEF YPRX 1020 LP.  
Rec. for UNICEF
Country Of Pressing: Australia  .