#Milt Gabler

[odk-2]

Bill Haley and His Comets - Goofin' Around (1956) 'Franny' Beecher/ Johnny Grande from: "Goofin' Around" (UK Promo Single} "Rock n' Roll Stage Show Pt. 3" (US | EP) "Calling All Comets" / "Goofin' Around" (German Single) "Bill Haley: The Decca Years and More" (Bear Family Records 5 CD Box Set)

Instrumental

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

YouTube from: the film "Don't Knock the Rock" (1956)

Personnel: Bill Haley: Rhythm Guitar Francis 'Franny' Beecher: Lead Guitar Rudy Pompilli: Tenor Saxophone Johnny Grande: Accordion / Piano William F. 'Billy' Williamson: Steel Guitar Al Rex: Double Bass Ralph Jones: Drums

Produced by Milt Gabler

Recoded: @ The Pythian Temple in New York Cily, New York USA on March 23, 1956

Released 1956: Brunswick Records UK Decca Records USA

Box Set Released 1991: Bill Haley: The Decca Years and More (Bear Family Records 5 CD Box Set)

[kickmag]

Throwback: Billie Holiday-Strange Fruit

Billie Holiday recorded "Strange Fruit" in 1939 and performed it at New York's first integrated nightclub, Café Society. Abel Meeropol wrote "Strange Fruit" as a poem in 1937 under the name Lewis Allan in response to a photograph taken by Lawrence Beitler of African-American boys J. Thomas Shipp and Abraham S. Smith hanging from trees on August 7, 1930, in Marion, Indiana. Holiday was signed to Columbia Records and they would not let her record "Strange Fruit" for fear of a southern backlash. Holiday's friend, Milt Gabler, the owner of Commodore Records, agreed to release it on his label so Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release. She re-recorded the song in 1944 but the 1939 recording sold one million copies and became her best-selling single. Holiday was initially concerned about retaliation for recording "Strange Fruit" but she did it anyway because it reminded her of the life-saving medical treatment her father was denied because of racism.  The poetic description of Black bodies, blood, and trees was haunting and her performance of it made audiences stand still. When she sang it at Café Society the lights were dimmed and you could only see her face. At the end of the performance, the audience looked up and she was gone before the stage lights were restored. Holiday's unique way of phrasing and improvisation is one of the reasons why her version of "Strange Fruit" is still the most popular after decades of new covers. 

"Strange Fruit" has been called the "song of the century" and  "the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement." Emmett Till's lynching has always been credited as the real start of the movement but "Strange Fruit"'s release two years before his birth was the most egregious artistic statement about Jim Crow America. 

Holiday died in 1959 after a tumultuous career as a jazz and pop vocalist innovator. Diana Ross received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Holiday in the 1972 film Lady Sings The Blues. Andra Day starred as the singer in Lee Daniels' 2021 film The United States vs. Billie Holiday. 

[lboogie1906]

Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1922 – November 10, 1994) was a jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretation of lyrics.

She was born in Harlem. Her father, Osmond, and mother, Evadne (Gayle) McRae, were immigrants from Jamaica. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. When she was 17 years old, she met singer Billie Holiday. As a teenager, she came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings. One of her early songs, “Dream of Life”, was, through their influence, recorded in 1939 by Wilson’s long-time collaborator Billie Holiday. She considered Holiday to be her primary influence.

She played piano at an NYC club called Minton’s Playhouse, Harlem’s most famous jazz club, sang as a chorus girl, and worked as a secretary. It was at Minton’s where she met trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Kenny Clarke, had her first important job as a pianist with Benny Carter’s big band (1944), worked with Count Basie (1944) and under the name “Carmen Clarke” made her first recording as a pianist with the Mercer Ellington Band (1946–47). But it was while working in Brooklyn that she came to the attention of Decca’s Milt Gabler. Her five-year association with Decca yielded 12 LPs.

She sang in jazz clubs across the world—for more than fifty years. She was a popular performer at the Monterey Jazz Festival, performing with Duke Ellington’s orchestra at the North Sea Jazz Festival, singing “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”, and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. She left New York for Southern California in the late 1960s, but appeared in New York regularly, usually at the Blue Note, where she performed two engagements a year through most of the 1980s. She collaborated with Harry Connick Jr. on the song “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone”. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[jpbjazz]

LÉGENDES DU JAZZ

CARMEN McRAE, UNE CHANTEUSE SANS COMPROMIS

"It's not easy, traveling to appear in club after club. And jazz musicians apparently do not receive the same respect that other musicians have. I [got] sick of having to get dressed in offices because they [didn't] have proper dressing rooms--or even full-length mirrors--in some of these clubs... All of this really detracts. Club owners don't seem to realize that the conditions in a lot of clubs aren't conducive to getting the best performances out of an artist."

- Carmen McRae

Née le 8 avril 1920 à Harlem, près de New York, Carmen Mercedes McRae était la fille unique d’Osmond ‘’Oscar’’ Llewelyn McRae et d’Evadne Gayle, deux immigrants originaires de la Jamaïque. Né à Santa Cruz, en Jamaïque, Osmond s’était d’abord installé au Costa Rica, puis à Cuba, avant de s’établir à New York où il avait opéré un club de santé au McAlpin Hotel de Harlem.

Très influencée par Louis Armstrong et Duke Ellington, McRae a d’abord commencé à étudier le piano classique à l’âge de huit ans. Un an après avoir obtenu son diplôme du Julia Richman High School en 1938, McRae avait remporté un concours amateur tenu au Théâtre Apollo de Harlem. La même année, McRae avait connu un premier succès lorsqu’elle avait écrit la chanson “Dream of Life” que Billie Holiday avait enregistré pour les disques Vocalion/Okeh.

McRae avait seulement dix-sept ans lorsqu’elle avait rencontré Billie pour la première fois. Elle expliquait: "We became friends the moment that I met her. We used to hang around together.’’ McRae avait aussi été trés influencée par Sarah Vaughan.

DÉBUTS DE CARRIÈRE

Peu après avoir rencontré Billie, McRae avait été remarquée par le pianiste Teddy Wilson et son épouse, la compositrice Irene Kitchings.

À la fin de l’adolescence et au début de la vingtaine, McRae avait joué du piano au Minton's Playhouse, chanté comme choriste et travaillé comme secrétaire. McRae assurait les intermissions comme pianiste au Minton’s Playhouse lorsqu’elle avait rencontré Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Pettiford et Kenny Clarke. Elle avait aussi fait partie du groupe de Tony Scott. Se rappelant ses débuts au Minton’s, McRae avait précisé:

"I met [saxophonist] Charlie Parker when... I was 18. And I met [trumpeter] Dizzy Gillespie and [bassist] Oscar Pettiford [and drummer Kenny Clarke]. There was a place under Minton's where we used to go. Teddy Hill, who ran Minton's, used to have the guys come in... They would work and after the club closed, which was [at] 4 o'clock, we'd go downstairs and other guys, other musicians, would come and we'd jam awhile."

Au début des années 1940, McRae s’était brièvement installée en Alabama avant de s’établir à Washington, D.C. où elle avait travaillé comme secrétaire pour le gouvernement fédéral avant de retourner à New York en 1943.

Après avoir obtenu le premier contrat majeur de sa carrière avec le big band de Benny Carter en 1944 et collaboré avec Count Basie et Earl Hines de 1944 à 1946, McRae avait réalisé son premier enregistrement comme pianiste avec le groupe de Mercer Ellington sous le nom de Carmen Clarke (elle avait épousé Kenny Clarke en 1944). C’est en travaillant à Brooklyn que McRae avait attiré l’attention du producteur Milt Gabler des disques Decca avec qui elle avait enregistré douze albums en cinq ans et lui avait permis de connaître de grands succès avec des chansons comme “Skyliner”, “By Special Request”, “After Glow”, “Something to Swing About”, “Suppertime”, “Torchy” et “Blue Moon.” Au début des années 1950, McRae avait également travaillé comme pianiste avec le Mat Mathews Quintet. Comme pianiste, McRae avait été très influencée par Thelonious Monk.

En 1948, McRae s’était installée à Chicago avec l’acteur George Kirby, de qui elle était tombée amoureuse. McRae était devenue chanteuse un peu par hasard. Un jour, une des amies de McRae lui avait proposé de chanter lors d’une de ses soirées. Elle expliquait: "I was having all of those problems waiting for George to send me the check to pay the rent, and she said, 'C'mon with me.' She took me someplace to play piano and sing. I said, 'Girl, I know about seven songs,' but she just thought I was great. I thought she was crazy."

Après avoir rompu avec Kirby, McRae avait travaillé comme pianiste et chanteuse à l’Archway Lounge. McRae avait joué du piano pendant environ quatre ans dans des clubs de Chicago jusqu’à ce qu’elle décide de retourner à New York en 1952. C’est cependant à Chicago que McRae avait commencé à créer son propre style. Décrivant cette période de sa vie dans une entrevue qu’elle avait accordée au magazine Jazz Forum, McRae avait déclaré que Chicago "gave me whatever it is that I have now. That's the most prominent schooling I ever had."

À son retour à New York, McRae avait signé le contrat de disques qui avait lancé sa carrière et lui avait permis de remporter le prix de la meilleure chanteuse de la relève (Best New Female Singer) décerné par le magazine Down Beat en 1954. L’année suivante, elle avait terminé à égalité avec nulle autre qu’Ella Fitzgerald dans le cadre d’un sondage organisé par le magazine Metronome.

Parmi les plus importants enregistrements de McRae, on remarquait Here to Stay (1955-1959), Mad About The Man (1957) une collaboration avec le compositeur Noël Coward, Boy Meets Girl (1957) avec Sammy Davis, Jr., Lover Man (1962) et The Great American Songbook (1972). McRae avait enregistré un premier album comme leader en 1953. Après avoir dirigé son propre trio de 1961 à 1969, McRae s’était installée en Californie afin de se rapprocher de sa famille.

McRae avait également collaboré à l’album The Real Ambassadors (1961) de Dave Brubeck aux côtés de Louis Armstrong, et enregistré un album en hommage a Nat King Cole intitulé You're Lookin' at Me (1983). McRae avait aussi enregistré un album en duo avec Betty Carter intitulé The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets (1987) accompagnée au piano par Dave Brubeck et George Shearing.

McRae avait également fait plusieurs apparitions au cinéma dans des films comme The Subterraneans (1960), Hotel (1967) et Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986). Elle avait aussi participé à plusieurs séries télévisées, dont Soul (1976), Sammy and Company (1976) et Roots (1977).

DERNIÈRES ANNÉES

À la fin de sa carrière, McRae avait enregistré des albums en hommage à ses idoles Thelonious Monk (Carmen Sings Monk, 1990) et Sarah Vaughan (Sarah: Dedicated to You, 1991). Les paroles des pièces de Monk avaient été écrites par Jon Hendricks, Abbey Lincoln, Mike Ferro, Sally Swisher et Bernie Hanighen. Considéré comme un des meilleurs albums de sa carrière, Carmen Sings Monk avait représenté tout un défi pour McRae qui avait expliqué: "I considered it one of the hardest projects I've ever worked on. His melodies are not easy to remember because they don't go where you think they're going to go."

Amie de longue date de Billie Holiday, McRae n’avait jamais présenté un seul concert sans y inclure au moins une chanson tirée du répertoire de Lady Day. En 1983, McRae avait d’ailleurs rendu hommage à Billie sur un album intitulé For Lady Day, qui comprenait des classiques comme "Good Morning Heartache", "Them There Eyes", "Lover Man", "God Bless the Child" et "Don't Explain.’’ L’album n’avait finalement été publié qu’en 1995. McRae avait aussi collaboré avec les plus grands noms du jazz sur des albums comme Take Five Live (avec Dave Brubeck en 1961), Two For the Road (avec George Shearing en 1980) et Heat Wave (un album de jazz latin enregistré avec Cal Tjader en 1982).

Au cours de sa carrière, McRae avait chanté dans les clubs des États-Unis et d’un peu partout sur la planète durant plus de cinquante ans. Incontournable du Festival de jazz de Monterey, en Californie, où elle s’était produite de 1961 à 1963, en 1966, en 1971, en 1973 et en 1982, McRae avait également chanté avec l’orchestre de Duke Ellington au North Sea Jazz Festival en 1980 et au Festival de jazz de Montreux en 1989 où elle avait partagé la scène avec Dizzy Gillespie et Phil Woods. McRae était aussi très populaire au Japon.

 

Même si elle avait quitté New York pour le sud de la Californie à la fin des années 1960 afin de se rapprocher de sa famille, McRae avait continué de produire dans le Big Apple sur une base régulière, et plus particulièrement au club Blue Note, où elle s’était produite deux fois l’an pendant la majeure partie des années 1980. De mai à juin 1988, McRae avait également participé au premier album de Harry Connick Jr. dans le cadre de la pièce "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone". Grande fumeuse, McRae s’est retirée de la scène en mai 1991 après avoir connu des difficultés respiratoires à la suite d’un contrat au club Blue Note de New York.

Reconnue pour son élégance et son habileté à s’investir émotionnellement et intellectuellement dans les chansons qu’elle interprétait, Carmen McRae est morte le 10 novembre 1994 à sa résidence de Beverly Hills, en Californie. Elle était âgée de soixante-quatorze ans. Quatre jours auparavant, McRae était tombée dans un demi-coma, un mois après avoir été hospitalisée à la suite d’une attaque.

McRae s’est mariée à deux reprises. De 1944 à 1956, McRae avait d’abord été mariée au batteur Kenny Clarke, de qui elle s’était séparée en 1948. Après avoir divorcé de Clarke en 1956, McRae s’était remariée au contrebassiste Ike Isaacs de qui elle avait divorcé en 1967. Elle n’avait jamais eu d’enfants.

Mise en nomination à six reprises pour des prix Grammy (notamment pour son hommage à Thelonious Monk en 1990 et pour son duo avec Betty Carter en 1988), McRae a été élue ‘’Jazz Master’’ par la National Endowment for the Arts en 1994. L’année précédente, McRae avait également remporté le Image Award décerné par la National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Le style de McRae avait été décrit par le critique Ralph Gleason comme un “exercise in dramatic art.” McRae, qui avait grandi dans un environnement très marqué par le blues, ne se considérait cependant pas comme une chanteuse de blues. Comme elle l’avait expliqué dans le cadre d’une entrevue qu’elle avait accordée au magazine Jazz Forum:  "The blues is like the national anthem of jazz. I have sung the blues... but more jazzy blues.... I think you have to have a special talent for [singing blues], which I don't have."

McRae avait toujours eu des opinions très arrêtées sur son métier. Considérant le jazz essentiellement comme un art d’improvisation, McRae croyait également qu’il était indispensable de savoir jouer d’un instrument pour devenir chanteuse de jazz. Elle expliquait: "You should know an instrument to be a good jazz singeré Ella [Fitzgerald] plays a little piano. Sarah [Vaughan] played piano; I play piano; Shirley Horn plays. All these ladies can sing Jazz." Selon McRae, une chanteuse de jazz devait également savoir improviser. Elle poursuivait: "You have to improvise, you have to have something of your own that has to do with that song. And you have to know where you're going when you improvise." Mais même si elle adorait la musique, McRae détestait certains aspects de son métier comme les nombreux voyages et le fait de devoir chanter dans les clubs. Comme elle l’avait expliqué au cours d’une entrevue accordée au magazine Coda: "It's not easy, traveling to appear in club after club. And jazz musicians apparently do not receive the same respect that other musicians have. I [got] sick of having to get dressed in offices because they [didn't] have proper dressing rooms--or even full-length mirrors--in some of these clubs... All of this really detracts. Club owners don't seem to realize that the conditions in a lot of clubs aren't conducive to getting the best performances out of an artist."

Même si elle était reconnue pour son sens du rythme, son contrôle vocal impeccable, sa technique irréprochable et sa grande maîtrise du scat et du bebop, McRae n’était jamais devenue aussi populaire que des chanteuses comme Ella Fitzgerald et Sarah Vaughan. McRae étant toujours demeurée fidèle à un jazz plutôt traditionnel, elle avait surtout rejoint une clientèle d’inconditionnels et de puristes. Mais même si elle avait parfois été blessée de ce manque de reconnaissance, McRae avait toujours refusé de faire des compromis et de changer son style. Comme McRae l’avait déclaré au cours d’une entrevue qu’elle avait accordée au magazine Down Beat, le jazz était quelque chose qui faisait partie de votre coeur, et qui faisait partie de vous. Il n’était donc pas possible de le changer.

©-2024, tous droits réservés, Les Productions de l’Imaginaire historique

[anotheruserwithnoname]

70 years of Rock Around the Clock

Seventy years ago today (April 12, 1954), the world of music changed forever when a group known as Bill Haley and His Comets walked into the Pythian Temple recording studio in New York City and recorded a song called Thirteen Women And Only One Man in Town.

Never heard of it? That's because no one gave a damn about the song producer Milt Gabler (uncle of Billy Crystal) wanted as the lead side of the single. Instead, people wanted to hear Rock Around the Clock. Well, at least they did a year later when a movie producer raided the record collection of a young boy named Peter Ford (son of Hollywood megastar Glenn Ford) in search of a title song for a movie about rebellious high school juveniles called Blackboard Jungle. Then it went straight to the top, and later hit the Top 40 again in 1974 when it was used as the theme for George Lucas' American Graffiti (the success of which made it possible for him to do a little side project called Star Wars) as well as for a new sitcom called Happy Days.

People will argue till they're blue in the face that their song of choice was the first rock and roll song. My choice was a 1950 recording - by Haley - called Teardrops from My Eyes (call it up on Youtube) but in truth you can find rock and roll-style recording going back almost to the start of the 20th century. Rock Around the Clock wasn't even the first major hit rock and roll song (Haley's own Crazy Man Crazy did that back in 1953, a year and a half before Elvis professionally recorded his first song). But RATC opened the floodgates and even though today's "rock" is nothing like the mashup of country music and rhythm and blues that was the original rock and roll formula, the fact is "rock and roll" will never burn out, and this song lit the fuse.

As it might be a no-no for me to post a Youtube "record video" of the original song, here is Haley and the Comets playing the song on the Ed Sullivan Show in the fall of 1955. I am honoured to have known and met three of the musicians on the original recording: Marshall Lytle (bass), Johnny Grande (piano, though he plays accordion here as the stage didn't have room for a piano) and Joey D'Ambrosio (sax). Also on this clip are two other people I knew - Dick Richards (who acted in movies like My Blue Heaven with SteveMartin and HBO series Oz under the name Richard Boccelli) on drums and Franny Beecher on lead guitar. (Rounding out the group is Billy Williamson on steel). Dick and Joey continued to tour as the Comets until COVID forced them to retire and they both passed away soon after. Immense respect to all these gentlemen - as well as to a 60-something postal carrier named Max Freedman who on the side did some songwriting and wrote Rock Around the Clock, and to James Myers, the song's publisher, who got his pseudonym Jimmy De Knight put on the songwriting credits, but was still an endless promoter of the song and of Bill Haley in those early days.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING AND CHARTS: 17/12/2022 (SZA’s ‘SOS’, Christmas Garbage)

“Last Christmas” by Wham! is back at #1. I’m not complaining, it’s a classic and welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

I figured this would be a short episode but there’s actually a decent amount to cover here. Most of that is found in our bizarro batch of new arrivals, but first – as always – we need to start with the notable dropouts, which are songs exiting the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. As with all Christmas weeks, we’ve got a pretty hefty list, including “Alone” by Burna Boy, “Snow on the Beach” by Taylor Swift featuring Lana Del Rey, “Ghost of You” by Mimi Webb, “Celestial” by Ed Sheeran and some big ones – “CUFF IT” by Beyoncé, “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)” by Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal, “3 Lions” by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds, “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic and finally, “All for You” by Cian Ducrot.

All of our highest-charting Christmas songs are in the top five, and there are 13 in the top 20 alone, with “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring the late Kirsty MacColl making it to the top 10 at #9, surprisingly late this year but it has been an early breeze in terms of holiday music overall. In terms of those returning to the top 75 for the first time this year, we only have two and they’re both dreadful: “Lonely this Christmas” by Mud at #71 and “Let it Snow!” by Michael Bublé at #68. We also see a return for the vaguely festive-sounding “Until I Found You” by Stephen Sanchez at #72, partly because of the remix version with Em Beihold going viral but I also think it just sounds like a Christmas song. In terms of notable gains outside of our Christmas classic, we see boosts for “golden hour” by JVKE at #67, “Christmas Drillings” by the Sidemen at #41 off of the debut last week, “Shirt” by SZA at #36, thanks to the album, and that’s pretty much it.

The top five on the UK Singles Chart this week consists of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee at #5, “Merry Christmas” by Ed Sheeran and Elton John at #4, “Escapism.” by RAYE featuring 070 Shake at #3, and of course the duo of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” at #2 and “Last Christmas” at #1. It’s a good top five but it’s also hardly current... and funnily enough, the same could be said of our new entries.

NEW ARRIVALS

#75 – “A Holly Jolly Christmas” – Burl Ives

Produced by Milt Gabler

It really is disgraceful that Michael Bublé’s version of this song first charted in 2015 and peaked at #24 in 2020, yet this is the first time the original has ever even charted in the top 75. Well, at least we’ve got the 1965 classic charting this week, and whilst it’s technically not the very first version of the song written by Johnny Marks, it’s the canonised version that always does well this time of year in the US, being a common top 10 hit there. It deserves it too, being the theme song to the Rankin/Bass TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and having about as much cheer as that special, with the infectious chorus ding-dong-dinging the refrain, iconic guitar riff and Ives’ rich, jolly voice just giving off all possible Santa Claus vibes. The scratchy acoustics may have not aged as well, and it’s pretty one-note, but it’s way too optimistic for me to have many negative opinions. I mean, come on, it’s Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas”, are you going to complain when this comes on?

#74 – “Together This Christmas” – Maisie Peters

Produced by who cares?

I like some Maisie Peters songs but not nearly enough for me to accept her audacity in making an Amazon-exclusive Christmas single, connected to a soundtrack from an Amazon-exclusive film. At what point is dystopia not a looming threat and instead just the present day? This isn’t even a cover, it’s an original track so this just feels like a dick move to the fans, and sure, it’s on YouTube but it’s not on her channel and it’s not on Spotify or Apple Music. This is our first of two this week and like always, I took some suggestions.

Callum suggested “This is what it feels like” by Norwegian singer Amanda Tenfjord, and I’m sorry, Callum, but I kind of hate it. Sure, there’s some genuine swell with the strings, even if they feel really inauthentic and compressed, but with Tenfjord’s very typical smoky indie girl voice not even having the weight to it that most have, all of that goes out of the window. The song even starts with the only trick in its book of boring climaxes, so it’s just a bit disappointing when I realise that the song has nothing really to say other than some unnecessarily wordy verses and platitudes of love. Maybe if I were in love, this would mean something but since I’m not, I can’t tell the difference between this and any given mid-tier Coldplay track. I hope the song she represents Greece with at the Eurovision Song Contest is better than this or at least more unique.

Jade, as you’d expect, suggested “Black Mascara.” by RAYE and I’ve known of this for a while but was surprised when it didn’t end up charting. It’s awesome – it may not be as ambitious as “Escapism.” but the atmosphere is solidly witchy in a way that may be a bit on the nose but perfectly fits the unfinished nature of the song, which is actually a compliment here. Half the lyrical ideas feel like broken half-sentences in RAYE’s inner struggle to come to terms with what this man did to her, which is kept vague but feels sinister. Considering that the production is echoing and sporadic amidst the pulsing house groove, it reads much less like a story but instead a view of RAYE’s mind at a particular moment, with the listener kind of having to fill in some of the narrative details, especially since RAYE spends her entire rap verse essentially just drowning in her insecurities and deflecting over a sparse blend of synths before it once again delves into that velvet drop. I’m honestly more excited for a RAYE album than I figured I’d ever be, I love the growth and I’m hyped to hear what comes next.

#66 – “Jingle Bells” – Sam Ryder

Produced by—wait a second

“Jingle Bells”? You are pay-walling “Jingle Bells”? Seriously? I guess with a #1 album that charted zero new songs, you’d resort to such absurd strategies. Anyways, Piran suggested “If We’ll Ever Be Remembered” by Martin Garrix featuring Shaun Farrugia, a song from the DJ that starts with a surprisingly raspy and acoustic folk guitar alongside Farrugia’s Chris Martin impression, before succumbing to a swell that his strained falsetto can’t exactly match. The weak, bendy synth that tries to replicate the guitar just sounds terrible, especially when Garrix tries to place some weight against it with the bass beat in the drop. If Tenfjord is mid-tier Coldplay in their pop rock mould, this is like when they did songs with Avicii. In fact, if I didn’t know the writing credits, I’d assume this was written by them. That’s not to say that this is all that awful, but that synth tone is really annoying and nothing outside of it is unique enough to make it tolerable. Sorry.

Finally, Jade also suggested “Emotions” by Ella Henderson, a completely fine pop song. I like the breezy indie guitar that undercuts it, even if the loop feels a bit drowned out by Henderson’s echoing vocals, and the motivational content about emotions getting in the way resonate... but the drums don’t hit that well, and it all feels a bit too calculated to actually have those emotions come through. In fact, the percussion is my main issue, as they are so stiff for a song that should be more driving and may need a tempo shift upwards – any drum and bass producers could really get on this and make something special. I like the little details like the backing harmonies in the second verse and post-chorus that deserve a less compressed mix than this, but I’m not over the Moon about it.

These suggestions may have not been as good as last time, but they can’t all be winners, and I appreciate everyone who gave suggestions to further my silly little protest against Big Bezos. If you want less silent protesting, just wait until next week... it’s a lot.

#57 – “Bloody Mary” – Lady Gaga

Produced by DJ White Shadow and Lady Gaga

I’m going to take a guess and say this is not about the mother of Jesus, though it’s not entirely separated from Christianity so I guess it fits the season. This album cut from Lady Gaga’s 2011 album Born this Way has gathered some viral attention on TikTok because of course, and here it is on the chart. It’s a bit less wholesome than “Holly Jolly Christmas”, mostly because Lady Gaga is preparing herself to play the Mary Magdalene to her man’s Jesus Christ and be close enough to him that it’s complete worship, even calling Pontius Pilate, who killed Jesus, “Punktious”. I’m not super religious so some of this falls on a deaf ear, even if I sense some parody or irony considering Gaga’s never shied away from romanticising the rebel – or the Punktious – but it’s still a killer, grimy electroclash track with gurgling, oily vocal loops and a flat, dated clap that feels as loveably cheap as 2010s EDM-pop could get – especially those album cuts you don’t remember. Even with the really infectious chorus, the post-chorus screech and the incoherent breakdown with Gaga vocalising over Gregorian chants of “Gaga”, I didn’t really see how this became a thing on TikTok because of its kind of slodgy and absolutely not 2022-sounding production, but because it’s 2022, and on TikTok, there’s a nightcore version. At least Gaga hasn’t made it official – that always bothers me. Oh, and there’s a connection to the new Addams Family series with Jenna Ortega, so I guess nightcore versions of avant-pop songs by ground-breaking women released at least a decade ago featured in Netflix shows about teenagers are just the oddly specific trend. The original is genuinely great and whilst I honestly can’t see it sticking around in any way bar maybe making its way into the Halloween canon of songs, I’d love to see it have a little run. It’s already debuted high, so I wouldn’t put it past it.

#48 – “50s” – Headie One

Produced by Kyle Evans and Tyrell 169

Like on most weird weeks, once we get higher into the chart, the new arrivals get a bit less interesting, and considering that we just have this and two album cuts from SZA, it feels like a pretty standard week from here on out. You almost wouldn’t know it’s Christmas – though there’s a Winter feel to them at least. This new Headie One single relies on a pretty cheap-sounding loop that’s pretty lazily sequenced on a drill beat that goes for unique in its finger snaps and funkier bass, but it ends up not having either bounce or violence and losing most of the appeal that drill should have. With more focus on those choral vocals, this could go for atmospheric sample drill, or eschew drums entirely even because Headie One gives a career-best performance on a pretty mediocre beat, yet when everything drops out for the piano-lead second verse, it sounds cold and dramatic, and Headie’s honest lyrics about his place in the industry and scene resonate as well as they can. His first verse has some funny turns of phrase too and the typically menacing delivery undermines them in the best way because it increases the replay value – half of the jokes you won’t really catch, like him getting culture shock visiting Ghanaian relatives, thoroughly roasting his “opp” in a very specific way that’s pretty funny if not all biting and my personal favourite: saying that the people he deals too liked the heroin but are like Nigel Farage because they prefer cocaine... since it’s white. It’s been done before, but I’ll never get sick of that kind of bar. As is, I really wished this was a good beat, though honestly the experimental nature of it may end up growing on me. Headie’s great on this, and I figured this would be exemplified by a remix with a better beat but there actually IS a remix with scruz. It’s called the “headiokart” remix and replaces the beat with a house beat that sounds like it’s from the Nintendo 64... it’s awful, but in a comical way that I genuinely couldn’t stop laughing about. I’d almost recommend it.

#27 – “Nobody Gets Me” – SZA

Produced by benny blanco and Carter Lang

SZA has released her newest album SOS, and it’s likely to be #1 in the US, hit #2 here in the UK, and has two new debuts... but I didn’t listen to it. Sorry, if I get the time for 23 tracks, I’ll update, but other than the singles – two of which I liked, one of which I didn’t – I’ve only heard “Forgiveless” with Ol’ Dirty Bastard purely out of curiosity and I did like the dusty sampling and SZA’s commanding lyricism, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m prepared for 67 minutes of it. Apparently there’s a grunge song featuring Lizzo so I’ll check that fascinating concept out after this episode, but I’m not sensing grunge from what actually charted, I’ll say that. This seems to what she’s pushing as the single, given the video, and it’s really serviceable. I like her earnest delivery in a song that’s a pretty pleasant love song, but it may be a bit too much as it gets into cooing on a frankly sickly acoustic guitar melody. I know that the song is about a failed engagement, and she’s still longing for that relationship, thinking that nobody will take the place of that guy in any of her future relationships, but with the harmonies that feel kind of pasted on instead of implemented into the song, and the mantra of the chorus, it’s not exactly hard to lose yourself in the frankly boring atmosphere than to pay attention to those lyrics. It does annoy me when a song that can go into detail and tries to ends up with a more universal chorus to sell, and we could have really used a bridge for variation or some intensity, but considering how deflated the song is, I don’t hear any stakes and I’m not really interested as a result.

#15 – “Kill Bill” – SZA

Produced by Carter Lang and Rob Bisel

This is the opening track bar the one-minute introduction, and I like this a lot more. The sinister beeping keys open the track before that overwhelming, dusty funk groove comes in, with some of the most organic sounding basslines in R&B laying a foundation for the dissonant chorus wherein SZA plays with the sing-songy inflection whilst also saying that she might just kill her ex so she doesn’t think about him anymore. The content mirrors the film as she tries to reckon with yourself about the morality of the whole thing, whether she should act on love or selfishness, with a toxic possessiveness that may alienate some people but sounds venomous on this almost Wall of Sound production. These murderous intentions eventually get realised as the chorus changes and the bridge elaborates that she did this all sober and didn’t need anything to influence her to just outright kill him – AND his girlfriend – which does put into question how “sober” one can really be amidst heartbreak. I do wish it was a bit less unmoving, even if that would break up the nonchalance of the song, since a bit more tension would make the final chorus pay off a lot better, but it’s good as is.

Conclusion

Best of the Week goes to Burl Ives for “A Holly Jolly Christmas”, and since we’re not including Amazon original songs, I’m basically down to four to pick for the other categories. I suppose Lady Gaga gets the Honourable Mention for “Bloody Mary”, but it should be telling that the older songs are out-shadowing the new crop pretty hard. Worst of the Week goes to SZA for “Nobody Gets Me”, even if my main problem is just it being boring and on the edge of good rather than actually bad, and the same goes for the Dishonourable Mention, which goes to “50s” by Headie One. Seriously though, check out that remix. As for what’s on the horizon... well, I’ll say thank you for reading and next week, we see what the Christmas #1 of the UK Singles Chart of 2022 ends up being. Given that LadBaby’s contesting, there’ll be at least two – or three – familiar names and faces. It’s the most important chart of the year, so let’s hope it makes no sense. Top off a bad year with a bad case of the “I have no idea what is going on” disease. See you next week!

[missholson]

Bert Kaempfert And His Orchestra A Song For Lovers (1974)

Composer: Herbert Rehbein, Bert Kaempfert Producer: Milt Gabler Album: Portrait In Music ℗ 1974 Doris Kaempfert, under exclusive license to Polydor/Island, a division of Universal Music GmbH

[mudwerks]

August 1947. New York. "Lou Blum, Jack Crystal [reaching] and Herbie Hill [rear] at Milt Gabler's Commodore Record Shop on 42nd Street." Medium format negative by William Gottlieb for Down Beat magazine. View full size.

[fyeahcindie]

This is singer-songwriter Yokez 叶玉棂 (Yap Yoke Ling) from Singapore.

She’s doing a crowdfunding for her debut ep over at Kickstarter. Lots of pledge levels and perks available, and $1,610 pledged so far of a modest $4,904 goal.  38 days left in the campaign.

Lots of covers and live stuff on her YT channel, let’s check out her rendition of a classic:

Watch to the end for some amusing outtakes.  =D

[odk-2]

Rock Around the Clock Three Versions

1) Sonny Dae and His Knights - (We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock (1954) Jimmy DeKnight (James E. Myers) / Max Freedman from: “Rock Around the Clock” / “Moving Guitar” (Single)

R&B | Rock and Roll

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Sonny Dae: Vocals Hal Hogan: Piano Art Buono: Guitar Mark Bennett: Bass / Drums

Recorded: on March 20, 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

Arcade Records

♫♫♫ ♫♫♫ ♫♫♫

2) Bill Haley and His Comets - (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock (1954) Jimmy DeKnight (James E. Myers) / Max Freedman from: "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" / "Thirteen Women" (Single) "From the Original Master Tapes: Bill Haley and His Comets" (1985 Compilation)

Rock and Roll | 1st Wave Rock and Roll

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Originally issued in 1954 with "Thirteen Women" as the A-side.

Recorded: @ The Pythian Temple in New York City, New York USA on April 12, 1954

Personnel: Bill Haley: Lead Vocals / Guitar Danny Cedrone: Lead Guitar Billy Williamson: Steel Guitar Joey D'Ambrosia: Tenor Saxophone Johnny Grande: Piano Marshall Lytle: Bass Billy Guesak: Drums

Produced by Milt Gabler

Released: on May 10, 1954

Decca Records

MCA Records (1985 Compilation)

♫♫♫ ♫♫♫ ♫♫♫

3) Sex Pistols – Rock Around the Clock (1979) Jimmy DeKnight (James E. Myers) / Max Freedman from: "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" / "Rock Around the Clock" (Single)

Punk | UK Punk

Tumblr (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Tenpole Tudor: Vocals Steve Jones: Guitar Dave Goodman: Bass Paul Cook: Drums

Produced by Paul Cook / Steve Jones

Recorded: @ Ramport Studios in London, England UK June, 1978

Released: September 12, 1979

Virgin Records

Sonny Dae and His Knights | Bill Haley | Sex Pistols

[rockincountryblues]

Bill Haley and Decca Records executive Milt Gabler in New York, 1955

[jcs-study]

I might like this show a little too much.

Ever wonder if you're too big a fan of your favorite piece of entertainment?

I began to ponder the possibility when I realized I had 104 recordings of Jesus Christ Superstar, studio and live, in whole or in part, stored on my mobile device.

My pondering only grew as I glanced at memorabilia I'd amassed over the years:

A photocopied early draft of the screenplay for the 1973 film (obtained on eBay and since signed by leading cast members Ted Neeley, Barry Dennen, Bob Bingham, Kurt Yaghjian, and -- most recently -- Yvonne Elliman).

A copy of the Ellis Nassour/Richard Broderick tome Rock Opera, which detailed the show's history from inception through the 1973 film, signed by its authors, (possibly) personalized to someone described in the book who'd been involved from the ground up.

Tim Rice's memoir, in paperback, autographed and inscribed to a woman with the same last name (no relation), a piece of his stationery with a further note to her pressed within its pages.

An assortment of CDs and home video releases (of particular note: the recent 50th-anniversary rereleases of the concept album, in "deluxe edition" 3-CD box set and "new half-speed master 180-gm" vinyl form; a DVD of the 1973 film whose sleeve has been signed by Carl Anderson, Dennen, Neeley, Elliman, Yaghjian, Bingham, and Larry Marshall; a VHS tape of the Indigo Girls and friends' SXSW performance of JCS: A Resurrection dating from when they sold it through their site; countless bootlegs in varying states of generational loss as well as tacky remakes that one hopes will be lost to future generations).

Ticket stubs, playbills, and programs alike -- to say nothing of tie-in clothing, accessories, etc. -- from nineteen live performances of thirteen different productions, not all of which occurred when I was born or had me in attendance, six of those which did featuring original cast members from the album and/or film. (I'm also staring at a VIP pass from a recent concert co-headlined by Neeley and Elliman still sitting on my desk.)

Countless digital copies of musical scores, band parts, scripts, and even ephemera -- the complete production file for the 1973 film (courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives) and a collection of JCS-related items from the papers of Decca Records executive Milt Gabler fall into that category -- obtained in the murky musical theater trading world over the years. (One especially rare score cost me $75 to obtain from a noteworthy private collector!)

And that's saying nothing of the friendships made and connections forged helping to administrate the number one Internet fan community for JCS.

As well as having had the unparalleled fortune of experiencing the show from multiple viewpoints, which has given me a unique insight into its inner workings, my love of JCS -- and the love of show biz in general that sprang from it -- caused me to collaborate in my adult life with a New York City producer/auteur on a variety of major media projects for both stage and screen. So, without JCS, it's safe to say I might not have had the career I have (and enjoy) now.

Hi. I'm Gibson, and I'm a Jesus Christ Superstar addict connoisseur. I discovered this piece at the age of four, and I've been enamored ever since. I grew up trying to imitate Ted and Carl, and over time I've progressed from a preadolescent unusually obsessed (thank you, autism spectrum disorder) with religious fiction and nonfictional religious studies, the shelves of his film collection littered with biblical epics based on both testaments, to a savvy entertainment professional that just can't let go of his first love.

This is my second attempt to use this blog for JCS musings. Time will tell if I get more out of it than I did before. But this time, I think I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do with it, so I deleted one superfluous post, privated a bunch of the rest, left public some of the stuff I eventually want to return to -- or discuss more maturely -- as an example of what will go here, and wrote this post.

"What's the Buzz?" is the ask box, and I encourage you to use it. "Disclaimer and Credits" is what will hopefully prevent me from getting sued and acknowledges all the wonderful people I've met along the way as a JCS fan.

So, now that we've dispensed with the niceties, let's proceed to the matter at hand... could we start again, please?

[projazznet]

Count Basie and His Orchestra – In a Mellow Tone

“In a Mellow Tone“, also known as “In a Mellotone”, is a 1939 jazz standard composed by Duke Ellington, with lyrics written by Milt Gabler. The song was based on the 1917 standard “Rose Room” by Art Hickman and Harry Williams, which Ellington himself had recorded in 1932.

[songsofprotestpeacerevolution]

Billie Holiday-Strange Fruit

“Bitter Fruit” was a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan in 1937. Meeropol came across a 1930 photo that captured the lynching of two Black men Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. The visceral image haunted him for days and prompted him to put pen to paper.  

Meeropol put the words to music, the song made its way around New York City. When blues singer Billie Holiday heard the lyrics, the vivid depiction of death reminded her of her father, who died from a lung disorder after being denied treatment at a hospital because of his race.

Holiday said in her autobiography,  “It reminds me of how Pop died. But I have to keep singing it, not only because people ask for it, but because 20 years after Pop died, the things that killed him are still happening in the South.”

She first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. The club owner Barney Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday’s face; and there would be no encore.

Holiday went to her record label, Columbia to record the song, they and her producer John Hammond feared negative reaction by southern record retailers and from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS and refused to allow her recording. But gave her a one-session release from her contract to record it elsewhere. Holiday sang it for her friend Milt Gabler, producer & owner of the Commodore label, he was bought to tears & it was recorded on April 20, 1939.

Harry Anslinger, a known racist & Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner was not happy about the song and much less it’s singer. He believed that drugs caused Black people to “overstep their boundaries” in society and that Black jazz singers, who smoked marijuana, created the devil’s music. Journalist Larry Sloman recorded, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk, he longed to see them all behind bars. He wrote to all the agents he had sent to follow them and instructed: “Please prepare all cases in your jurisdiction involving musicians in violation of the marijuana laws. We will have a great national round-up arrest of all such persons on a single day. I will let you know what day.” His advice on drug raids to his men was always simple: “Shoot first.”

The Treasury Department told Anslinger he was wasting his time taking on a community that couldn’t be fractured, so he settled on a single target. His Public Enemy #1: Billie Holiday. Anslinger forbid Holiday to perform “Strange Fruit,” she refused. Knowing that Holiday was a drug user, he had some of his men frame her by selling her heroin. When she was caught using the drug, she was thrown into prison for the next year and a half.

“It was called ‘The United States of America versus Billie Holiday,’” she wrote in her memoir, “and that’s just the way it felt.”

She refused to weep on the stand, she didn’t want any sympathy. She just wanted to be sent to a hospital so she could kick the drugs and get well. Please, she said to the judge, “I want the cure.” Instead she was sentenced to a West Virginia prison, forced to go cold turkey and work during the days in a pigsty, among other places. She never sang while imprisoned. Upon her release in 1948 as a former convict, she was stripped of her cabaret performer’s license. Carrying on she went to bigger venues including sold out performances at Carnegie Hall. Holiday’s demons followed her and she eventually went back to using heroin.

At the age of 44 she collapsed and was taken to Knickerbocker Hospital in Manhattan waited for an hour & a half, then turned away because of her addiction. An ambulance driver recognized her, so she ended up in a public ward of New York City’s Metropolitan Hospital. Emaciated because she had not been eating; cirrhosis of the liver because of chronic drinking; cardiac and respiratory problems due to chronic smoking; and several leg ulcers caused by starting to inject street heroin once again. “They are going to arrest me in this damn bed.”

Her other demon was still after her. Anslinger had narcotics agents sent to her hospital bed and said they had found less than one-eighth of an ounce of heroin in a tinfoil envelope. They claimed it was hanging on a nail on the wall, six feet from the bottom of her bed—a spot Billie was incapable of reaching. They confiscated everything in her room, handcuffed her to her bed and posted two police officers at her door, orders to forbid any visitors from coming in without a written permit, and her friends were told there was no way to see her. A friend protested that it was against the law to arrest somebody who was on the critical list. They solved that problem: they had taken her off the critical list. A new doctor had been allowed to prescribe her methadone to treat her withdrawal symptoms, after days of treatment it was abruptly stopped.  

Anslinger’s agents, took her fingerprints & mugshots in her hospital bed, they questioned here there without allowing her to talk to a lawyer. She died in that bed with police officers at the door to protect the public from her. Anslinger wrote with a racist satisfaction- “For her, there would be no more ‘Good Morning Heartache.’” Holiday’s legacy has grown in spite of her tragic demise. She has been inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame,  posthumously granted 23 Grammys and in 1999 Time designated “Strange Fruit” the “song of the century.”

[aion-rsa]

The United States vs. Billie Holiday: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics Was Formed to Kill Jazz

https://ift.tt/3smcRhE

This article contains The United States vs. Billie Holiday spoilers. 

Federal drug enforcement was created for the express purpose of persecuting Billie Holiday. Director Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday focuses a cinematic microscope on the events, but a much larger picture is visible just outside the lens. Holiday’s best friend and one-time manager Maely Dufty told mourners at the funeral that Billie was murdered by a conspiracy orchestrated by the narcotics police, according to Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari. The book also said Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, was a particularly virulent racist who hounded “Lady Day” throughout the 1940s and drove her to her death in the 1950s.

This is corroborated in Billie, a 2020 BBC documentary directed by James Erskine, and Alexander Cockburn’s book Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press, which also claims Anslinger hated jazz music, which he believed brought the white race down to the level of African descendants through the corrupting influence of jungle rhythms. He also believed marijuana was the devil’s weed and transformed the post-Prohibition fight against alcohol into a war on drugs. The first line of battle was against the musicians who partook.

“Marijuana is taken by… musicians,” Anslinger testified to Congress prior to the vote on the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. “And I’m not speaking about good musicians, but the jazz type.” The LaGuardia Committee, appointed in 1939 by one of the Act’s strongest opponents, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, ultimately refuted every point made in the effective drug czar’s testimony. Based on the findings, “the Treasury Department told Anslinger he was wasting his time,” according to Chasing the Scream. The opportunistic department head “scaled down his focus until it settled like a laser on one single target.”

Federal authorization of selective enforcement should come as no surprise. Just this month, HBO Max released Judas and the Black Messiah about how the FBI and local law enforcement targeted the Black Panthers and put a bullet in the back of the head of Fred Hampton after he was apparently drugged by the informant. In MLK/FBI (2020), director Sam Pollard used newly declassified files to fill in the gaps on the story of the U.S. government’s surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Days ago, The Washington Post reported the daughters of assassinated civil rights leader Malcolm X requested his murder investigation be reopened in light of a deathbed letter from officer Raymond A. Wood, alleging New York police and the FBI conspired in his killing.

During the closing credits of The United States vs. Billie Holiday we read that Holiday, played passionately by Andra Day in the film, was similarly arrested on her deathbed. She was in the hospital suffering from cirrhosis of the liver when she was cuffed to her bed. They don’t mention police had been stationed outside her door barring family, fans, and well-wishers from offering the singer comfort as she lay dying. They also don’t mention that police removed gifts people brought to the room, as well as flowers, radio, record player, chocolates, and any magazines. When she died at age 44, it was found that Holiday had 15 $50 bills strapped to her leg, the remainder of her money after years of top selling records. Billie intended to give it to the nurses to thank them for looking after her.

As The United States vs. Billie Holiday points out, the feds had been watching Holiday since club owner Barney Josephson encouraged her to sing “Strange Fruit” at the integrated Cafe Society in Greenwich Village in 1939. Waiters would stop all service during the performance of the song. The room would be dark, and it would never be followed by an encore.

The lyric came from a three-stanza poem, “Bitter Fruit,” about a lynching. It was written by Lewis Allan, the pseudonym of New York schoolteacher and songwriter named Abel Meeropol, a costumer at the club. Meeropol set the words to music, and the song was first performed by singer Laura Duncan at Madison Square Garden.

Holiday and her accompanist Sonny White adapted Allan’s melody and chord structure, and released the song on Milt Gabler’s independent label Commodore Records in 1939. The legendary John Hammond, who discovered Holiday in 1933 while she was singing in a Harlem nightclub called Monette’s, refused to release it on Columbia Records, where Billie was signed. 

The song “marked a watershed,” according to David Margolick’s 2000 book Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights. Influential jazz writer Leonard Feather called the song “the first significant protest in words and music, the first significant cry against racism.”

Holiday experienced the brutally enforced racial segregation of the Jim Crow laws during her trips south with her bands, according to Billie Holiday, the 1990 book by Bud Kliment. She was also demeaned at the Lincoln Hotel in New York City in October 1938 when management demanded she walk through the kitchen and use the service elevator to get on the stage. Holiday also caught flak for being considered too light skinned to sing with one band, and was on at least one occasion forced to wear special makeup to darken her complexion.

Holiday was 18 years old when she recorded her first commercial session with Benny Goodman’s group at Columbia Records, but knew firsthand that an integrated band would be more threatening than an all-Black group. According to most biographies, Holiday began using hard drugs in the early ’40s under the influence of her first husband, Jimmy Monroe, brother of the owner of Monroe’s Uptown House in Harlem.

Anslinger, the first commissioner for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, was an extreme racist, even by the standards of the time, according to Chasing the Scream. He claimed narcotics made black people forget their place in the fabric of American society, and jazz musicians created “Satanic” music under pot’s influence.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday doesn’t shy away from the drug czar’s blatant racism, but Garrett Hedlund’s Harry J. Anslinger doesn’t capture the full depths of the disgust the man felt and put into practice through his selective enforcement. Hedlund is able to mouth some of the epithets his character threw at ethnic targets, but most of the actual quotes on record are so offensive there is no need to subject any audience to them today. The film barely even mentions the strange and forbidden fruit imbibed in slow-burning paper that Anslinger obsessed over almost as much as Holiday’s song.

Read more

Movies

Judas and the Black Messiah Ending Shows Horrific Legacy of COINTELPRO

By David Crow

Culture

Ma Rainey’s Life and Reign as the Mother of the Blues

By Tony Sokol

Commissioner Anslinger came to power during the “Reefer Madness” era, and shaped much of the anti-marijuana paranoia of the period, according to Alexander Cockburn’s Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press. His first major campaign was to criminalize hemp, rebranding it as “marijuana” in an attempt “to associate it with Mexican laborers.” He claimed the drug “can arouse in blacks and Hispanics a state of menacing fury or homicidal attack.”

Anslinger promoted racist fictions and singled out groups he personally disliked as special targets. He said the lives of the jazzmen “reek of filth,” and the genre itself was proof that marijuana drives people insane. On drug raids, he advised his agents to “shoot first.” Anslinger persecuted many black musicians, including Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. When Louis Armstrong was arrested for possession, Anslinger orchestrated a nationwide media smear campaign.

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics’ “race panic” tactics had a double standard. Anslinger only had a “friendly chat” with Judy Garland over her heroin addiction, suggesting she take longer vacations between films. He wrote to MGM, reporting he observed no evidence of a drug problem.

Anslinger ordered Holiday to cease performing “Strange Fruit” almost immediately after word got out about the performances. When she refused, he sent agent Jimmy Fletcher to frame the singer.  Anslinger hated hiring Black agents, according to both Whiteout and Chasing the Scream, but white officers stood out on these investigations. He did insist no Black man in his Bureau could ever be a boss to white men, and pigeonholed officers like Fletcher to street agents.

Donald Clark and Julia Blackburn studied the only remaining interview with Jimmy Fletcher for their biography Billie Holiday: Wishing on The Moon. That interview has since been lost by the archives handling it. According to their book when Fletcher first saw Billie at the raid on her brother-in-law’s Philadelphia apartment in May 1947, “She was drinking enough booze to stun a horse and hoovering up vast quantities of cocaine.”

Fletcher’s partner sent for a policewoman to conduct a body search. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll strip,” Billie said before stripping and marking her territory in a provocative show of non-violent defiance by urinating on the floor (another action Daniels’ movie glosses over). Holiday was arrested and put on trial for possession of narcotics.

According to Hettie Jones’ book Big Star Fallin’ Mama: Five Women in Black Music, Holiday “Signed away her right to a lawyer and no one advised her to do otherwise.” She thought she would be sent to a hospital to kick the drugs and get well. “It was called ‘The United States of America versus Billie Holiday,’” she recalled in Lady Sings the Blues, the 1956 memoir she co-wrote with William Dufty, “and that’s just the way it felt.” Holiday was sentenced to a year and a day in a West Virginia prison. When her autobiography was published, Holiday tracked Fletcher down and sent him a signed copy.

When Holiday was released in 1948, the federal government refused to renew her cabaret performer’s license, which was mandatory for performing in any club serving alcohol. Under Anslinger’s recommended edict, Holiday was restricted “on the grounds that listening to her might harm the morals of the public,” according to the book Lady Sings the Blues.

The jazz culture had its own code. Musicians not only wouldn’t rat out other musicians, they would chip in to bail out any player who got popped. When it appeared Fletcher, who shadowed Holiday for years, became protective of Holiday, Anslinger got Holiday’s abusive husband and manager Louis McKay to snitch.

Two years after Holiday’s first conviction, Anslinger recruited Colonel George White, a former San Francisco journalist who applied to join the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The personality test given to all applicants determined White was a sadist, and he quickly rose through the bureau’s ranks. He gained bureau acclaim as the first and only white man to infiltrate a Chinese drug gang.

White had a history of planting drugs on women and abused his powers in many ways. According to Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, after White retired from the Bureau, he bragged, “Where else [but in the Bureau of Narcotics] could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the All-Highest?” He “may well have been high when he busted Billie for getting high,” according to Chasing the Scream.

White arrested Holiday, without a warrant, at the Mark Twain Hotel in San Francisco in 1949. Billie insisted she had been clean for over a year, and said the dope was planted in her room by White. Bureau agents said they found her works in the room and the stash in a wastepaper basket next to a side room. They never entered the kit into evidence. According to Ken Vail’s book Lady Day’s Diary, Holiday immediately offered to go into a clinic, saying they could monitor her for withdrawal symptoms and that would prove she was being framed. Holiday checked herself into the clinic, paying $1,000 for the stay and she “didn’t so much as shiver.”  She was not convicted by jury at trial.

Afterward White attended one of Holiday’s shows at the Café Society Uptown and requested his favorite songs. After the show was over, the federal cop told Billie’s manager “I did not think much of Ms. Holiday’s performance.”

In 1959, Billie collapsed while at the apartment of a young musician named Frankie Freedom. After waiting on a stretcher for an hour and a half, Manhattan’s Knickerbocker Hospital turned her away, saying she was a drug addict. Recognized by one of the ambulance drivers, Holiday was admitted in a public ward of New York City’s Metropolitan Hospital. She lit a cigarette as soon as they took her off oxygen.

In spite of being told her liver was failing and cancerous, and her heart and lungs were compromised, Holiday did not want to stay at the hospital. “They’re going to kill me. They’re going to kill me in there. Don’t let them,” she told Maely Dufty.

Billie went into heroin withdrawal, alone. When Holiday responded to methadone treatment, Anslinger’s men prevented hospital staff from administering any further methadone, even though it had been officially prescribed by her doctor. Drug cops claimed to find a tinfoil envelope containing under an eighth of an ounce of heroin. It was found hanging on a nail on the wall, six feet from Billie’s bed where the frail and restrained artist could not have reached it.

The cops handcuffed her to the bed, stationed two policemen at the door and told Holiday they’d take her to prison if she didn’t drop dime on her dealer. When Maely Dufty informed the police it was against the law to arrest a patient in critical care, the cops had Holiday taken off the list.

Outside the hospital, protesters gathered on the streets holding up signs reading “Let Lady Live.” The demonstrations were led by the Rev. Eugene Callender. The Harlem pastor, who built a clinic for heroin addicts in his church, requested the singer be allowed to be treated there.

Holiday didn’t blame the cops. She said the drug war forced police to treat people like criminals when they were actually ill.

“Imagine if the government chased sick people with diabetes, put a tax on insulin and drove it into the black market, told doctors they couldn’t treat them, then sent them to jail,” she wrote in Lady Sings the Blues. “If we did that, everyone would know we were crazy. Yet we do practically the same thing every day in the week to sick people hooked on drugs.”

Holiday’s social commentary didn’t end with “Strange Fruit.” She wrote and sang about racial equality in the song “God Bless the Child,” her voice captured the pains of domestic violence. Most of Holiday’s contemporaries were too scared of being hassled by the feds to perform “Strange Fruit.” Billie Holiday refused to stop. She was killed for it. But never silenced.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday is streaming on Hulu now.

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