The Divine DeWine

Yesterday my friend, jazz singer Melodye DeWine, rang me up to ask my thoughts about some ad copy that had been written for her new CD Nocturnal Velvet. She read the advert, and there was usage of the word "future" to which I took exception.

"Darling," I said, "the future is a thing of the past. Just like 'talent,' which, according to the immortal and (newly) late, great Hildegarde, is also a thing of the past." But you'd never know it from listening to Melodye's debut CD which finds her in the company of some of Hollywood's top musicians, including Llew Matthews, John B. Williams, Luther Hughes, Ralph Penland, Jeff Clayton, and national bop treasure Jack Sheldon, who is heard to excellent effect on several tracks on the CD, including "Baby It's Cold Outside" .

There more info about the album, due out shortly, at Melodye's website .

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CBF

Separated at birth?

Disc 'o the Day - 8/3/05

Mariko Takahashi is a great, long-running music star in Japan. In her mid-fifties now, but really keeps up, as evidenced by "Koi Kotoba" a 1999 hit for her, arranged by the terrific Tomoji Sogawa. Just listen to all those synth squawks and burps way down (and sometimes not so way down) in the mix. And dig that crazy vocoder! The lyrics (Takahasi wrote the song) have something to do with Love (Koi) of Language (Kotoba)

Listen to "Koi Kotoba" (link is for a limited time only). Takahashi's two-disc "Best of" is available at amazon.com. $44.99, and worth every penny of it! Though I must confess that I picked it up at my local BookOff for a tad less. . .say, oh, $6.99.

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FROM YAHOO NEWS YESTERDAY RE: THE AIR FRANCE CRASH IN TORONTO:

"Hours after the crash and rescues, at least one passenger was less than complimentary about the work of some of the flight attendants during the accident.

Gwen Dunlop, a Toronto resident who was on the flight returning from vacation in France, said when the plane first touched down the passengers believed they had landed safely and clapped with relief.

'Only seconds later, it started really moving and obviously it wasn’t OK,' said Dunlop. 'At some point the wing was off. The oxygen masks never came down; the plane was filling up with smoke.'

'One of the hostesses said, ‘You can calm down, it’s OK,’ and yet the plane was on fire and smoke was pouring in,' Dunlop told The AP. "

PERHAPS DUNLOP WOULD'VE PREFERRED THE CAPTAIN TO'VE COME ON THE P.A. SYSTEM AND ANNOUNCED:

"EVERYBODY, RUN FOR YOU LIVES. . . SHE'S GONNA BLOW!"

DUNLOP THEN ADDED:

“I don’t like to criticize, but the staff did not seem helpful or prepared.”

AND YET, THE FLIGHT CREW STILL MANAGED TO GET ALL 300 OFF THE PLANE IN AN UNBELIEVABLE NINETY SECONDS FLAT! JUST THINK HOW QUICKLY ALL WOULD HAVE GOTTEN OFF HAD THE CREW NOT BEEN SO UN"HELPFUL" AND UN"PREPARED."

THERE'S JUST NO PLEASIN' SOME FOLKS. (AND I'M NOT ENTIRELY CONVINCED THAT DUNLOP DOESN'T "LIKE TO CRITICIZE.")