Saturday, March 20, 2010

Percy Mayfield " Please Send Me Someone To Love"

Percy Mayfield
August 12, 1920 – August 11, 1984


 very windy and beautiful day in Bahrain


Hello Jazzlovers,

I have moved to a new place and taking my time getting it just right, because this is my last move..I am lightening my load and getting rid of a lot of things both physical and mental..This will be my home....
I have clothes I have had since I was a teenager and I do pull them out and still wear them but it is time to let go....emotionally I am down to  carry on luggage and plan to do the same with my house....I had 5 complete sets of dishes and still finding complete  sets of silver wear ( Yes sughah real silver) Not counting the stainless.....and  complete sets of crystal still in the original boxes! Just tooooo much!

I read the story titled "The Blue Willow Plate when I was about 6 years old and just fell in love with blue willow pattern, so that was my first set of dishes and the only thing I packed when my marrage broke up along with my child on the back seat of my old Carvair and got the hell out of my home town...Like many things in life I have now disposed of those dishes a couple of days ago and now iam down to 2 sets of dishes one very nice of hand painted fine china for everday and of course my "Royal Dalton"(shades of Mrs. Bucket, Keeping up Apperences) and it feels good...I have really gotten rid of all the emotional baggage of ramifications of thing pass and can look back with a smile of innocence still in my heart...now I am gettin rid of things that remind me of percived sad times.....It feels good...

Which brings me to Percy Mayfield, (as I said I now look back with clear eyes) my innocence was taken away from me when I was 6 years old and I relived the ramafications of that for years until I remembered that I really did not remember the incident at all only the things that happened after, as my whole life changed that day...everyone involved is now gone so why hold on to it? so I have let it go..But the major thing that followed me from that day was the lost of trust! Trust issues are still very important to me until today and I am a very trust worthy person because of that incident yet it has invaded every relationship I have ever had! If I lose trust in someone it is over Thank you Mam!!!Nothing left to say....

Now in 1952 I had become a very lonley child and spent hours alone by choice trying to understand this world, my mother played music all the time and one day this song penertrated my brain..and in someway became my theme song, it is still my favorite song and I do have favorite artist versions but the original still moves me to tears...on that day in 1952 I heard Percy Mayfield do "Please Send Me Someone to Love", My Mother played this song over and over and over, I did not complain because you see I understood the song even at that early age..( I am listening to it now?And Now that I understand my Mothers life better I also know what it was to her..( My mother wrote me a letter 7 March 1983, and she died November 1983, I got the letter 7 March 1984) she had never stopped loving my father....Please send me someone to love was released in 1950 but I think it took 2 years to get back to Louisiana...or to get my attention..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoZlcq9eL1k

Percy Mayfield was born in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. As a youth, he showed a talent for poetry and this led him into songwriting and singing. He began his performing career in Texas and then moved to Los Angeles, California by 1942 where success as a singer continued to elude him. Finally in 1947 a small record label, Swing Time, signed him to record his song "Two Years of Torture". The song sold steadily over the next few years, prompting Art Rupe to sign Mayfield to his label, Specialty Records in 1950.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUqX9oK8_ZY&NR=1

Although his vocal style was influenced by such stylists as Charles Brown, Percy Mayfield did not focus on the white market as did many West Coast bluesmen. Rather, he sang blues ballads, mostly his own songs, in a gentle vocal style. His most famous recording, "Please Send Me Someone to Love", a number one R&B hit single in 1950, was widely influential and recorded by many other singers. The song is a brilliant combination of sensitivity to wider issues of conflict in the world and the very personal need for love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpAY7z3uL-c

I trully love this man always have he has always knew how I felt...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvxjiue3zW4&feature=related


Gladys Knight and BB King does a good job too I am so happy this song has stood the test of time, I am going to add a couple of other versions Jazzlovers please enjoy....

BB King Gladys Knight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jot9br3ea60

One of my Most fav.. Versions Sade..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7qFmvQp_MA&feature=related

The Great Miss Nancy Wilson.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6_1P3zDM_w

Marlena Shaw and Ernestine Anderson also do a very good job with the song although I can not find it on You Tube yet, I anyone has it please send it to me.. I have the CD's but have not learned to upload them yet...

The Moonglows.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXHvq168mXY

The reason I am talking about love here and the past is I think most of us really desire to be loved for ourselfves and that is my point, I realize now I had to take the time to really love me! Which ment I had to strip away the layers of baggage and walls I used  to proctect myself and get to myself and love that person underneath unconditionally before I could let someone in...I have done that and it the Universe  sees fit to send that love!!! Sughah I am ready!!!

Until next time JazzLovers,

Keep the beat.

DW Jazzlover..

Monday, March 1, 2010

Alberta Hunter A Very Interesting Life A Lesson for All



Alberta Hunter
April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984

Hello JazzLovers it is a rainy day in Beautiful Bahrain

I have had a long dry spell, I have just did not feel like writing, but that is ok too...I have become very unhappy with my neighborhood, (not condusive to writing)it is going down and my flat the harder I try to clean and upgrade just reveals another problem...So I am moving tomorrow to a new building "Way out on the outside of town " That is a song by Ruth Brown by the way! I will miss the area only because I can walk everywhere and now I had to find something on the bus line...I don't drive.(So you see Alan we are all moving right now!) I have found a nice 2 bedroom flat with windows!!!!!!!!!a new building and CLEAN!!more than I can say for this building...But enough of that..

Mis Alberta Hunter has been on my mind, I discovered her a couple of years before she died and fell in love with her music..Of course she was then in her 80s,, but she had a very interesting life..She started singing in the 20s and gained fame for her jazzz and blues style..in 1950 she left the entertainment field and went to nursing school and retired from Nursing at 80 and was rediscovered as a singer and the rest is history...
So Jazz lovers I just wanted to introduce her to you......She traveled the world in her early career and and once more in her 80s...Remarkable.

Handy Man
 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4505406898043114457#

Jazz Fest 1982

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4505406898043114457#docid=-4780066716829901242

Alberta Hunter wrote this song in 1922 and Bessie Smith made it a very big hit.."Down Hearted Blues"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4505406898043114457#docid=-4158518805838742848

This is my Favorite song by Ms. Hunter "No Body knows You when You're Down and Out"

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

"My Castle's Jumping" Age 82 Plus interview! Very Sassy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW9vzBRXwD0&feature=related


Alberta Hunter in Concert in France 1983 part 1,2 and  3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKD1cY8C-To&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwVaONPgzaI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS7cGsyGx1c&feature=related

"The Down Town Strutters Ball" is one of the best she has ever done!

Ms. Alberta Hunter answers a question I had in an earlier bolg about aging, I think she is just fantastic to have lived her life so fully.....Thanks to her I have nothing to complain about..I could tell her story here but I think she did a better job than I ever could...Enjoy Jazzlovers..A remarkable Woman.

Until next Time Jazzlovers,

Keep the beat.


DW Jazzlover