Job Wanted

I recently completed on specccch a long profile of the great---I hasten to invoke a term I seldom use, "legendary"---musician, Page Cavanaugh. Here's the final paragraph:

“'We got some recognition," say Page. "We always had good press, especially in New York because we always made sure to have good press agents. One of them got me a quote from Walter Winchell: ‘The greatest thing to hit town since kissing.’ And boy, that made it all over the United States. He pauses a beat, then adds, “You know, the coming of rock and roll never affected me that much. I continued to play the little clubs, sometimes the big clubs. The trio could play ourselves east, play ourselves home.” In the final analysis, that probably is all that really mattered to Cavanaugh. And he did it all without resorting to the regulation Tip Jar, a “tool” of the lounge trade. Plus, he won’t play Andrew Lloyd Webber no matter how much you might offer him to do so. In other words, he’s one classy guy."

And the first paragraph of the story, consisting of an anecdote from Cavanaugh about his (again, that word) legendary manager Bullets Durgom, is a classique show biz story for the ages. In between, I attempt to chronicle at least the highlights of Page's more than six decades in "the biz."

Most of the writing I do these days is for this blog and---you should pardon the expression---for free. However, in the instance of this piece, does anyone happen to know of a magazine or newspaper, on-line or otherwise, that might be interested in throwing a handful of shekels my way in exchange for publishing this? (If advertising for a job was good enough for mid-career Bette Davis, it's good enough for me.)
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RUTH OLAY!

Cat Blog Friday Summer Re-runs: "Leave It to Kuro!"

Mieko Hirota

Are you familiar with the very big Japanese pop star since the mid-1960s, Mieko Hirota? Perhaps not. But nearly all of her native countrymen know her. I met her for the first time recently here in L.A. Hirota san was passing through town with her manager on their way back from a top-secret recording project in a part of the world other than Japan. A mutual friend suggested that we get together. I subsequently received as a gift from him a boxed 8 CD set of Hirota's more-jazz oriented albums over the past 40-years-or-so that has just come out. They are all quite good. I am led to believe that this is the largest Japan-only boxed jazz set ever released. Or some such Jesuitical hair-splitting calculation of one sort or another.

Part of the lore about (her fans call her) "Mico" (or "Miko") in Japan is that when Ella Fitzgerald first heard Hirota sing in the 1960s, when Mieko would have been in her mid-to-late teens, she wanted to---the phrase keeps cropping up---"adopt Hirota." I am assuming that what this means in reality is that Ella offered to mentor her or take her under her wing. Mieko san's English is not all that terrific (these days, most Americans' isn't either), thus I opted not to get bogged down quizzing her about this otherwise intriguing Ella anecdote.

But Hirota did have an absolutely fascinating story to tell about how she began singing jazz in the first place. All because of a chance meeting with jazz promoter extraordinaire George Wein on the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train in 1964. Up till then, known as the Dynamite Girl, Hirota had been almost strictly singing stuff like Brenda Lee and Annette covers in her native language. But right there on the spot, Wein had her convinced that she that could sing jazz (which she probably had almost never heard before). I think what Hirota told me is that, shortly thereafter, pianist Wein accompanied her singing at an audition in Tokyo and the next thing Mico knew, she was appearing---she told me in a voice filled with awe---"on the same stage as Frank Sinatra" at the '65 Newport Jazz Fest. She performed an 8-song set backed by Billy Taylor's group. The LP she cut immediately subsequent to that and consisting mostly of Bob Dorough songs, "Miko in New York," is, taking her limited exposure to jazz into account, pretty amazing. Later albums display an increased understanding for, and facility with the form. "New York" was produced by multi-hyphenate music man Bobby Scott. Billy Taylor's trio also accompanies her on the lp, and the presence in the group of bassist Ben Tucker, Dorough's songwriting partner, is surely the reason for the felicitous inclusion of so many of the duo's compositions.

Although few non-Japanese in the U.S. are likely to have heard of her, Mieko Hirota is, extra-nationally, probably the most famous person that I ever sat down and just spent a nice sociable afternoon with. . .not counting all those countless movie junkets that I used to do for the San-Francisco Examiner (If it's 2:15, this must be Mel Gibson).

As noted, Hirota san's English is a bit on the limited side and my Japanese is next to non-existent, still we managed to communicate quite nicely. A star since the mid-1960s, she still commands quite a following. But she was so completely unaffected and unassuming, you'd never guess that she is someone who, if she wished to do so, could trot out all the diva-tude she wanted to and get away with it. For as a Japanese friend of mine recently observed, "Mico. . .she is pops queen!"

ARTIE Malvin, R.I.P.

Are we havin' fun yet?

"Arthur Malvin, 83; Lyricist, Composer Won Two Emmys
Arthur Malvin, a composer and lyricist whose work with Carol Burnett and Frank Sinatra earned him two Emmy Awards, and who received a Tony nomination for helping create the musical "Sugar Babies," has died. He was 83. . .."

So began an obituary in today's L.A. Times. In addition to the many hats that Malvin wore, as evidenced by his obit, I seemed to recall his name from yet another part of the musical waterfront. At first I couldn't remember, but I cogitated reallll hard for a few minutes and then---boingggg!--- it all came rushing back to me! Arthur Malvin was also ARTIE Malvin whose voice was heard on all those 18 hits for 2.98 LP packages that were so popular in the 1950s, a fascinating, woebegone, sub-sub genre of the era. The kind offering up "Top Hits of the Day Played and Sung by Popular Radio and Television Artists." Leading one to wonder, as I wrote elsewhere on this blog, if they are so popular WHY, then, do they mostly remain unidentified? Malvin's name, though, was usually listed. A big fish in that small but significant vinyl pond.

I was actually naive enough to have bought a lot of those packages as an adolescent---besides, we were wayyy poor---and have managed to hang on to them through all my various locational perigrinations. I just now checked my collection and, sure enough, I have Malvin singing a vast array of 50s pop, everything from "Jailhouse Rock" and "You Send Me" to the Bill Haley hit, "The Saints Rock and Roll." He even did an entire album of Haley knockoffs. Malvin was, to put it kindly, not so adept at this kind of heavy kid music from the 50s, but listening, just now, as he wraps his tonsils around "A Blossom Fell" (on "8 Top Hits" - Waldorf Music Hall 3313), he proves more than adequate at boy-band-singer crooning.

Never putting two and two together until now, I was always curious about whatever happened to the guy. Now I know. And I can't help but wonder if Emmy-winner Arthur Malvin woulda copped to being just plain ole Artie: "Hey, Arthur! Howzabout knockin' off a few bars of 'Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'?" Arthur, indeed!

There is a very good Malvin bio, with emphasis on his singing career here: http://spaceagepop.com/malvin.htm