Friday, September 09, 2016

THE LAST HURRAH: JAZZ AND POP SINGING AND THE ONSLAUGHT OF ROCK

IT'S HERE 9/15/16




OVERVIEWS OF THE FOLLOWING VOCALISTS

SINGERS
A: Bea Abbott, Bonnie Alden, Laurie Allyn, Anamari, April Ames, Gayle Andrews, Charlie Applewhite, Johnny April, Jean Ash, Edyth Aymes
B: Ozzie Bailey, Eugenie Baird, Don Barbour, Gwen Bari, Charlene Bartley, Fifi Barton, Jeanne Baxter, Flo Bennett, Linda Bennett, Bob Benton, Frances Bergen, Connie Berry, Bill Black, Janet Blair, Betty Blake, Shannon Bolin, Janet Brace, Carol Brent, Mary Lou Brewer, Donna Brooks, Bobby Brookes, Carol Bruce, Marian Bruce, Joyce Bryant, Mel Bryant, Kenny Burrell
C: Thelma Carpenter, Jack Carroll, Mindy Carson, Paula Castle, Babs Caulkins, Inez Cavanaugh, Karen Chandler, (The Other) Ray Charles, Sue Childs, Sandra Church, Dottie Clark, Ceil Clayton, Rocky Cole, Jill Corey, Carole Creveling, Austin Cromer, Juanita Cruse, Bill Cunningham, Irma Curry, Marlene Cord, Helen Curtis
D: Pat Dahl, Dorothy Dandridge, Vivian Dandridge, Chris Dane, Anita Darien, Bill Darnel, Cora Lee Day, Ilene Day, Yvonne DeCarlo, Nick de Francis, Nick De Lano, Sylvia de Sayles, Bob Di Neri, Kenny Dorham, Diana Dors, Norma Douglas, Donna Drake, Doris Drew, Dorothy Dunn
E: Bob Ellis, Ken Errair, Sue Evans
F: Jules Farmer, Lucien Farrar, Talya Ferro, Toni Fisher, Johnny Flamingo, Rhonda Fleming
G: Kevin Gavin, Jeannie Gayle, Ernie George, Frances Gershwin, Althea Gibson, Leo Gooden, Honi Gordon, Dori Ann Gray, Paula Greer
H: Paula Haliday, Becky Hall, Flo Handy, Bev Hanson, Rose Hardaway, Martha Lou Harp, Ann Hathaway, Bill Hawkins, Cathy Hayes, Martha Hayes, Richard Hayes, Pat Healy, Don Heller, Tommy Hendrix, Larry Hovis, Dave Howard, Dori Howard, Gene Howard, Earl Humphreys
J: Beverly Jenkins, Inez Jones, Jeri Jorden, Crystal Joy
K: Lois Kahn, Bea Kalmus, Deno Kannes, Kathy Keegan, Ken & Beverly, George Kirby, Pat Kirby, Lisa Kirk, Danny Knight, Sunny Knight, Katherine Kovar
L: Fran Lacey, Herb Lance, Vicki Lane, John LaSalle, Bill Lawrence, Sunny Lawrence, Dee Lawson, Linda Lawson, Mamie Lee, Marjorie Lee, Perri Lee, Barbara Long, Tina Louise, Cherie Lynn, Molly Lyons
M: Ann McCormack, Marie McDonald, Patty McGovern, Nancy Malcombe, Lynn Marino, Micki Marlo, Mexie Marlowe, Janice Mars, Phyllis Marshall, Norma Mendoza, Meri Ellen, Joan Merrill, Linda Merrill, Toni Merrill, Marci Miller, Debby Moore, Marilyn Moore, Shelley Moore, Terry Morel, Mary Mulligan
N: Don Nelson, Dick Noel, Pat Northrop
O: Erin O'Brien, Pat O'Day, Jerry Orbach
P: Johnny Pace, Janis Paige, Peter Palmer, Jacy Parker, Freddie Paris, Cavril Payne, Roberta Peck, Kay Penton, Jacqueline Peters, Gil Peterson, Lovelady Powell, Nicki Price
R: Renée Raff, Lorry Raine, Toni Rami, Annita Ray, Bernadine Read, Carol Reed, Gale Robbins, Rita Robbins, Tina Robin, Chet Roble, Eileen Rodgers, Eileen Romey, Frank Rosalino, Ami Rouselle, June Rudell
S: Sheila M. Sanders, Vera Sanford, Patricia Scot, Chaney Scott, Lizabeth Scott, Peggy Serra, Sue Sharon, Sharlene Sharp, Beverly Shaw, Serena Shaw, Corky Shayne, Reed Sherman, Yvonne Shubert, Lee Simmons, Lu Ann Simms, Danny Small, Marla Smith, Gloria Smyth, Ann Sothern, Carol Stevens, Terri Stevens, Helyne Stewart, Ralph Strain, Gene Stridel, Elaine Stritch, Inga Swenson
T: Norene Tate, Lynne Taylor, Claudia Thompson, Maureen Tomson, Constance Towers, Jean Turner
V: Joe Valino, Rudy Valentyne, Monique Van Vooren, Connie Vaughn, Gwen Verdon
W: Bruce Walton III, Ann Williams, Easy Williams, Joyce Williams, Mae Williams, Marie Wilson, Pat Windsor, Wyoma Winters, Gloria Wood, Ilene Woods, Nancy Wright, Nat Wright, Gretchen Wyler
Y: Emily Yancy, Susannah Young
Z: Darlene Zito


Wednesday, June 29, 2016

"THE LAST MUSICAL HURRAH:

 JAZZ AND POP SINGERS AND THE ONSLAUGHT OF ROCK"




COMING IN JULY

A


BEA ABBOTT 1958 The Too, Too Marvelous Bea Westminster SWB 7035) Abbott mini-bio in The Last Musical Hurrah: Jazz and Pop Singers and the Onslaught of Rock

TOMORROW (6/30) Laurie Allyn

                                                           


LAURIE ALLYN  1957/2006 Paradise V.S.O.P. 111 Allyn mini-bio in The Last Musical Hurrah: Jazz and Pop Singers and the Onslaught of Rock


TOMORROW (7/2 ) April Ames
__________________________________________



APRILAMES 1957 Strike a Match Gene Norman Presents GNP –32 Ames mini-bio in The Last Musical Hurrah: Jazz and Pop Singers and the Onslaught of Rock


TOMORROW (7/3) Anamari
_________________________________________

Hear here: http://tinyurl.com/h56fazc




Anamari 1964 Anamari Atlantic SD 8092 Anamari mini-bio in The Last Musical Hurrah: Jazz and Pop Singers and the Onslaught of Rock

TOMORROW (7/4) Charlie Applewhite)
                                        ________________________________________________________
Applewhite sings "Long Ago and Far Away

Charlie Applewhite 1958 Love Affair Design DLP-57 Applewhite  mini-bio in The Last Musical Hurrah: Jazz and Pop Singers and the Onslaught of Rock

TOMORROW  (7/5) Johnny April
                                   _______________________________________________________
Johnny April Sings
'Bix Reichner's original verse to "You Better Go Now," from "New Faces of 1936," was not recorded until 1959 when singer-pianist Johnny April got around to it.

http://tinyurl.com/q39jvrm'

Johnny April 1959 If You Are Not Plucked You Die! Apollo Stereo 485

TOMORROW (7/6) Ozzie Bailey
                                  _________________________________________________________
Ozzie Bailey w/ Duke Ellington




TOMORR0W (7/7) Eugenie Baird
 __________________________________________________
  


Read my memoir, "Early Plastic," for free! That is to say that . . .

AFTER READING IT, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO "FEED THE KITTY," YOU CAN DO SO AT PAYPAL.COM. EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS. LIKE THE GREEKS ARE SO FOND OF SAYING, "LITTLE BY LITTLE, THE SACK IS FILLED. " MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT NAME IS drchilledair@yahoo.com . ANY QUESTIONS CAN ALSO BE SENT TO THAT EMAIL ADDRESS.


DRAMATIS PERSONAE INCLUDE:THE BEATLES, LENNY BRUCE, NEAL CASSADY, SALVADOR DALI, BOB DYLAN, ALLEN GINSBURG, JANIS JOPLIN, TIMOTHY LEARY, CHARLES MANSON, BETTE MIDLER, NICO. BRIAN WILSON, GORE VIDAL, ANDY WARHOL and MINNIE MOORE


GO HERE TO READ:
https://www.scribd.com/document/317529040/Early-Plastic


Bill Reed is also the author of: Rock on Film, A Fine Romance: My Lifelong Affair with Jazz Singing and Singers, Hot From Harlem: Profiles in Classic African-American Entertainment, The Leonard Reed Story: Brains as Well as Feet, Shared Air: My Six-Decade Interface With Celebrity, and the forthcoming The Last Musical Hurrah: Jazz and Pop Singers and the Onslaught of Rock



To enlarge Scribd pages, click four inward-pointing arrows icon at top right of manuscript.

                           

Monday, May 23, 2016

ALERT THE MEDIA!

My recent book, "Shared Air: My Six-Decade Interface With Celebrity" is now available at Amazon Kindle for the breathtakingly low price of $4.49. How can we afford to sell it at that price? The answer: volumeVolumeVOLUME! "Shared Air" is an overview of the many noted personages with whom I've had direct contact over the years in all manner of circumstances . . . both colorful and everyday. : 
DRAMATIS PERSONAE Charles Laughton, Robert Blake, Little Jimmy Scott, Lou Levy, Nico, Severn Darden, Tim Hardin, Tim Reid, Jane HarveY, Dusty Springfield, Chris Connor, Mary Ann McCall, John F. Kennedy, Lizabeth Scott, Joe Franklin, Dan Propper, Stanley Siegel, Elizabeth Montgomery, Djuna Barnes, Myrna Loy, Billy Wilder, Shelley Winters, Chet Baker, Lucy Ann Polk, Jo Stafford, Paul Weston, Oscar Brown, Jr., Marilyn Bergman, Nat Shapiro, Fayard Nicholas, Charlie Mingus, Fred Katz, Carl Van Vechten, Frank Zappa, Salvador Dali, Dame Joan Collins, Barbara Stanwyck, Neal Cassady, Ricky Jay, Chuck Berry, Blossom Dearie, Miles Davis, Nino Tempo, Leslie Nielson, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, Gore Vidal, Ruth Olay, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Demas Dean, Bumps Blackwell, Sally Marr, Teri Garr, Richard Berry, Charles Manson, Page Cavanaugh, Paul Giamatti, Frances Nealy, Frances E. Williams, Wonderful Smith, Johnny Carson, Michel Legrand, Herb Jeffries, Dave Frishberg, Sir Ian McKellen, Van Dyke Parks, Annie Ross,Sarah Vaughan, Cynthia Harris, Jimi Hendrix, Bette Midler, Noreen Nash / Lucille Bremer , Walter Shenson / Alan Livingston / The Beatles, Yma Sumac, Don Bagley, Helen Grayco, Julie London, Spike Jones, Clayburn Pierson, Tuesday Weld, Barbara Harris



Check it out at this Amazon link:

Sunday, January 10, 2016

MY CV



Bill Reed is a journalist and writer whose many articles on show business, the arts, and popular music have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Examiner and International Documentary. He has also worked as a video jack-of-all-trades for the Criterion Collection, produced many jazz recordings for Japan and authored or co-authored the following books:

   FORTHCOMING





THE LAST MUSICAL HURRAH:

                        Jazz and Pop Singing and the Onslaught of Rock

FROM THE: FOREWORD


If Tony Bennett is correct when he proclaims that the genre of music focused on herein—the likes of Berlin, Porter, Kern, Gershwin—will eventually come to be seen as “the classical music of the 20th Century,” then perhaps even some of this music’s more recherché practitioners, along with the Sinatras and Fitzgeralds, could conceivably end up one day as the subject of doctoral dissertations (Burthen and Vibrato in Late-Period Babs Caulkins). The rubric under which this neo-classical music has come to be categorized in more recent times is Great American Songbook. The cause of these artists’ anonymity is spelled out in the dilemma of late fifties jazz singer Beverly Kenney who co-wrote and performed a song entitled “I Hate Rock and Roll,” and who finally committed suicide at the untimely age of twenty-eight.

Singer Jennie Smith saw the kid music boulder bearing down on “the scene” and got out while the getting was good. She retired circa ‘65. Her colleague Teddi King bravely, but barely, soldiered on until dying of lupus in 1977. Of those three examples, Beverly Kenney was clearly the most obviously done in by the tsunami of rock music. Only those artists who were well-established by the time of the rock revolution—along with the exception of Barbra Streisand—were able to remain afloat, i.e. Cole, Sinatra, Fitzgerald. . . . . . . . . . .

One among the 250 entries: 

Laurie Allyn 1957/2006 Paradise 
V.S.O.P. 111 
Born Didi Pierce, Sequim, WA. One of her first professional engagements was at the memorable Crystal Palace in St. Louis.

The twelve tracks on Laurie Allyn’s LP, arranged by Marty Paich and featuring the likes of Al Viola, Red Mitchell and Pete Candoli, were recorded in Hollywood on October 2nd, 4th and 5th, 1957. But no sooner had the record’s produceralso the owner of Mode Records finished recording the sessions than he had the sad duty of telling Allyn that he would not be able to release her recording because Mode was folding. This was to have been Mode Records #130. Allyn went back home to Texas to tend to an ailing mother, never to perform again. And this wonderful recording sat on the shelves until the current owner of the Mode catalog decided to give it a first time issue. . .nearly fifty years after it was recorded. A perfect example of “Better late than never.” Allyn was also included in my 2006 Japanese One Shot Wonders presentation before the Tokyo Vocal Jazz Appreciation Society. 

Songs: “All I Need is You,” “You Go to My Head,” “Paradise,” “Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” “Easy Living,” “You're So Bad for Me,” “The More I See You,” “I'll Never Smile Again,” “So In Love,” “That's What a Woman is For, “Where Are You,” “Take Me In Your Arms” 



Here are the A's & B's: 

A: Bea Abbott, Bonnie Alden, Laurie Allyn, Anamari, Gayle Andrews, Johnny April, Jean Ash, Edith Aymes

B: Eugenie Baird, Don Barbour, Gwen Bari, Charlene Bartley, Fifi Barton, Jeanne Baxter, Flo Bennett, Frances Bergen, Connie Berry, Bill Black, Betty Blake, Shannon Bolin, Maureen Borden, Janet Brace, Carol Brent, Mary Lou Brewer, Donna Brooks, Bobby Brookes, Carol Bruce, Mel Bryant, Kenny Burrell (the guitarist's one vocal album)

And Scarcely a lemon in the lot!

Here's my streaming net show on the subject of One Shot Wonders.


***

PUBLISHED 2015 by CELLAR DOOR PRESS



Shared Air: My Six-Decade Interface With Celebrity is an overview of the many noted personages with whom the author has had direct contact over the years in all manner of circumstances . . . both colorful and everyday. "Dramatis Personae" include: Charles Laughton, Robert Blake, Little Jimmy Scott, Nico, Severn Darden, Tim Hardin, Dusty Springfield, Chris Connor, John F. Kennedy, Lizabeth Scott, Joe Franklin, Elizabeth Montgomery, Djuna Barnes, Myrna Loy, Billy Wilder, Shelley Winters, Chet Baker, Jo Stafford, Charlie Mingus, Carl Van Vechten, Frank Zappa, Salvador Dali, Dame Joan Collins, Barbara Stanwyck, Neal Cassady, Chuck Berry, Blossom Dearie, Miles Davis, Gore Vidal, Sally Marr, Charles Manson, Johnny Carson, Dave Frishberg, Van Dyke Parks, Annie Ross, Sarah Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Bette Midler, Walter Shenson, Tuesday Weld, Barbara Harris . . .and dozens more

***


PUBLISHED 2015 byBearManor PRESS



Legendary man-of-many-faces Leonard Reed and historic Black show business come alive through the eyes of someone who saw it all. From beginnings in medicine shows, Al Capone, speakeasies, Vaudeville, on up through The Cotton Club, The Apollo Theater, TV, and his professional partnership with boxing great Joe Louis, Reed was—in his own words—“too Black to be White, and too White to be Black.” His behind-the-scenes struggles through theatre’s most celebrated haunts are told through no-holds-barred interviews, rich research, and more than fifty rare illustrations that capture the glamour and excitement of the Golden Age of show biz and African-American golf. (also Kindle)


        ***

PUBLISHED 2009 by McFARLAND PRESS



From the early days of minstrelsy to Black Broadway, this book is the story of African American entertainment as seen through the eyes of its most famous as well as some of its most obscure practitioners. The book forms a chronological arc that moves from the beginning of African American participation in show business up through the present age. Will Marion Cook and Billy McClain are discovered in action at the very dawn of black parity in the entertainment field; six chapters later, the young Sammy Davis Jr. breaks through the invisible ceiling that has kept those before him "in their place." In between, the likes of Valaida Snow, Nora Holt, Billy Strayhorn, Hazel Scott, Dinah Washington, and others are found making contributions to the fight against racism both in and out of "the business." (also Kindle)



***

PUBLISHED 2000 by CELLAR DOOR PRESS



A memoir of growing up in the south of the 1950s and coming of age in the hippie era of the 1960s. The author is homosexual; however, the book, which deals mainly with the counter culture, should appeal to a broad spectrum of readership. The "cast of characters" includes Bette Midler, Tim Hardin, Janis Joplin, Andre Codrescu, and many more, with all of whom the author had personal relationships.


  ***

PUBLISHED 1982 by G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS




In the early '50's critics attacked Blackboard Jungle and Rock Around the Clock as “lewd immoral and disgusting.” Now [1982], 30 years later, ROCK ON FILM explores the far-reaching impact of rock films on all our lives. (co-authored by David Ehrenstein)     


***

PUBLISHED by SCRIBD 2009 (Kindle only)




A Fine Romance: My Lifelong Affair With Jazz Singers and Singing is a distillation of some of the many articles on vocal jazz that the author has written. The content covers a wide variety of artists from ultra-obscure "One Shot Wonders" to the legendary. Chapters include: Sue Raney, Dusty Springfield, Nina Simone, Irene Kral, Nat King Cole, Chris Connor, Kay Thompson, Pinky Winters, Susannah McCorkle, and Judy Garland.