Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Love and Woolworths Bargin Bin




A Carpet



Hello Jazz Lovers



A Beautiful Hot Dusty Day In Bahrain..



When I went out on my own for the first time in my late teens, I went to work in Downtown Houston, I lived in Downtown Houston and went to school in Downtown Houston and it was an exciting time to be young...I walked everywhere I went except on weekends to see my Mother...then I took the bus. I was discovering everything, the theater, the symphony, Jazz Clubs, Dance clubs, and shopping!!! And I discovered Della Reese ! and believe me I was hooked.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVF4W2DVzMs I had nothing but I had everything I needed...I was happy......

I have always loved Junk Shops and found an old portable Magnovox record player, took it apart and covered it with contact paper and was in heaven ! I know I drove my next room neighbor crazy with Della Reese on vinyl 33 1/3!!! This is also the time I discovered Woolworth's bargin bin, record albums were 1 dollar and some 3 for a dollar, (some of those albums are worth a fortune now)I bought any cover that looked interesting, and of course the people I knew, even Areatha was there...I found a copy of Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington which had been issued under Columbia Records in 1964. It is still one of my favorites. Here are a couple of cuts from that album.




Then Jazz lovers I found this from 1960 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYDFpC8Qpzc&feature=related, did I mention that I was a hopeless Romantic at that time(I still am)so I was truly into love songs as I waited to fall in love....Aretha did some wonderful work at Columbia it is sad it did not get the reconition it should have, but now is what's important. This next song I played over and over and over , I am sure if any of my friends at that time ever here these songs today, especially this one I know they think of me I am sure I drove them crazy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XKisuzJJKQ Cissy Houston is cutting up in the background!Aretha really worked it before going to Atlantic and soaring to current fame and this next song is what really set it off!!!!....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyolMNsN0Ig, but I was in love with the flip side, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAujPhoZyJo. Both sides went to number one!!!


The wonderrful thing about shopping in Woolworth's bargin bin is that I discovered some fantastic singers, This next Lady I bought just because I liked the cover of the album and boy was I surprised!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLC9PnefeEI, We were moving into the 70's and Camille Yarbrough "But It Comes Out Mad" from the album "Iron Pot Cooker" released in 1975 stayed on the player it seems forever...I have just reordered it on CD..This I truly recomend you get this one Jazzlovers>>>It was issued on Vanguard Records.. I must say here that there are some very cutting edge cuts on this album that are not posted here but well worth hearing. Here is another cut from the album...
This whole CD now is very thought provoking, highly recommended...OK Just one more!!!
Another Album I discovered in Woolworth's bargain bin was Zulema 1972, "If This World Were Mine" became my new favorite and I listened to this Album for hours and still Love it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HROa75lQ4GE&feature=related The other cut I was was mesmerized by was This one...
.
As I said JazzLovers This was a special time in my life, and writing this blog brings all my friends and happy times back into my life! So enjoy!!
P/S I also found and discovered Gill Scott- Heron In that Bin!!!!It was a wonderful time to be young and set my adventure into exploring new music for life! so enjoy this new journey.
Until Next time Jazzlovers
Keep the beat.....
Love feels better than hate.
DW JazzLover
P/S An Interview with James Moody,For My Bahrain readers, He will be here in Bahrain 10 August 2009 at The Cultral Center. Check it out Jazzlovers
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Saturday, July 25, 2009

E.Lynn Harris 20 June 1955 - 23 July 2009 R.I.P






A Day in Bahrain.



Hello Jazzlovers


My Favorite Writer Died Yesterday, Mr E. Lynn Harris, I really admired his writing and his life.


I met him years ago in a Houston After Hours Dance Club, and he was an energetic young man at the time, and judging from the comments on other blogs he never lost that. May he rest in Peace, He will be missed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vf3ZE7CLg0&feature=related


One of his best works was his auto biography " What Becomes of The Broken Hearted"it was truly inspired, it erased all excuses the masses use today to convince themselves they can not make it in life because of their past. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90wUItXn62s He did not let life get him down..


He wrote of real life and self deception, of how society will attempt to make you live a lie, in order to maintain their own comfort zone in their own lies...E. Lynn Expossed the inside of why people need self decption.. Everyone in his books were human, with human frailties that made them act the way they did, non were evil, just misguided by our society...



No other author except for Brother James Baldwin has been able to expose so much raw emotion and realisim in each of his charaters in every one of his offerings...In E.Lynn"s Offering, just as in Brother Baldwin you had no choice but to see yourself.. And for that I am grateful...Now a way to say goodbye..


Todays Blog is my tribute to a wonderful Humanist, Mr. E. Lynn Harris R.I.P

Well JazzLovers if you have not read any of his books please start with " Invisible Life" and work your way through all eleven books to the last one "Basket Ball Jones"


Until next time Jazzlovers,


Keep the beat .


DW Jazzlover
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Man In The Mirror a Way to Say Goodbye


A Canal At Night

Hello Jazz Lovers,

An at Home day in Bahrain

I have been trying to write for a week now, but it just would not come out. Nothing felt right,

now I know why. This blog writes it's self and this is what it wanted to say today..

I have just finished watching the Michael Jackson Memorial and it was well done and very

movingly dignified. While watching it I remembered something I had written in July 1993, while
visiting Amsterdam (Yes My favorite city) I do a lot of thinking when I am there.

But tonight the poem I wrote came back to me and I have no idea of why I wrote it. But today
Seemed like a good time to publish it as a tribute to Michael.


WE Were All Children Once

So many things are done "for the children".

We were all children once .

Look at us today!

Good Believers yet!

Yet a child lays hungry in the streets!

Old Folks dying alone!

We were all children once.

What are you teaching yours?

What you say or what you do?

We were all children once yet,

What is true ?

What we do or what we say we do?

I will never me say a bad thing again about,

Michael Jackson.

Dangerous---Will you be there?

It's a shame,

We Were all children once,

We are all Gods children yet!


I am making my change today, I am going to keep the promise I made July 1993.


Thank you for helping me to grow a little more Michael, I am stepping out on faith.

Michael no matter what you think of him was the Greatest Entertainer of All Time.

Well Jazz Lovers I just had to say it.

Until next time Keep The beat.

DW JazzLover.
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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Memory Lane is a Long and Winding Highway

Moss Bluff





Hello Jazz Lovers,



A very hot and dusty beautiful day in Bahrain.


Today I am taking a slow walk down memory's highway, (Too old for a stroll down memory lane)I am now realizing that none of us have a choice in where we were born or who we were born. But we do have a choice in who we are today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kkJeF14COI

Moss Bluff will always be the place that helped shape my love for music and dancing,(it was not allowed) Sothern living had so many things that were not allowed. Dancing in certain areas of my childhood was definitly not allowed. So we loved to dance!!! There were two known record players in our area,45 rpms,in Moss Bluff while we were in grade school. Eva Lois and Janice, Eva Lois was invited to all grade school parties.....mostly birthdays. At Janice's is where we learned the 6-2-6, which was the precurser to the electric slide (no sugah there is nothing new).


The slop was done to this next cut which was the precurse to the Moon Walk.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7QSMyz5rg


In High School there was the forbidden DANCE!!! The slow drag! Now I know some of you do not know what that is but as Gladys Knight Said " You touched your partner"!" Didn't have to look for them"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjLZtt8ggiI She says it very well here, but at that time music was about falling in love with the idea of love.... The beautiful thing about slow dancing was if you were in love! you could touch in public (but not too close) it was wonderful it was a magic time....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XKisuzJJKQ&feature=related If you wanted to fall in love,or wanted to get close to someone,if you thought you wanted to fall in love!!! Slow dancing was a way to be close,,,,,there will never be a more beautiful time...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yLlvywMDEY

On this song you would do The Slow Buggie ! Now how many of you remember that one???

Moss Bluff was a wonderful place to grow up....


Well Jazz lovers I would like to leave you with one of the most beautiful peices of music ever written... Mr. Erroll Garner Playing " Misty"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_tAU3GM9XI


Until the next time Keep the beat and remember Love is the answer.....to all things..


DW Jazzlover..
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