A good friend of mine just turned me on to this awesome footage of Anita O’Day at the 1958 Newport Jazz festival, filmed by the amazing photographer Bert Stern. She was the epitome of a woman: beautiful, classy and cool. I love the way Bert Stern was able to capture the audience “in the moment” so to speak, this is cinematography at it’s best. You can tell that some of them just don’t get it, others are like “Aaaaawww Yeaaaah”. Awesome footage indeed. The clip features two songs:
Sweet Georgia Brown: I have never heard a version quite like this, her rhythm and movements just floor me.
Tea For Two: Sweet bop stuff. Again…pay attention to the timing. I love the way some folks in the audience are moving their heads around, just diggin’ it, while others have nothing but a blank stare. You have to love the mix of the Beat Generation with average middle class folks…with a pastor? Good stuff, hope you enjoy it.
I was browsing around youtube the other day and came across this….if you were born before 1980, you KNOW these commercials. It instantly took me back to my youth, sitting in a beanbag and watching TV while snacking on Otter Pops. I couldn’t stand it and had to find out more info on the geek kid (Donavan Freberg). According to his Wikipedia Article, he actually did the voice for Charlie Brown and Linus for a few years (among others). Anyway, sit back, relax and enjoy a one minute trip down memory lane.
I grew up listening to The Police, we all did. Well, anyone born before 1980 did as The Police were pretty much everywhere. However, it took the influence of my good friend Bissy to get me to really “listen to” and appreciate the musicians. With that said, Stewart Copeland has to be one of the most original drummers in existence (gotta pay respect to the traditional grip as well), his accents are so subtle, yet so solid. Andy Summers, sweet, sweet chords, yet so dissonant during the rare solo…and Sting has a bass/vocal sound like no other. I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to The Police for some time, but I just came across some live footage and it was beyond refreshing, rejuvenating even. They were original, period. Being able to mix pop music with quality musicianship is a feat on it’s own, I can name only a few other bands that have done the same. It really makes one wonder what has happened to “pop” music these days.
Spirits in the Material World
Roxanne – 1979 (check the end, how often do you get to see Exit Stage Left?)
Message In A Bottle – First Live Performance of the song
Sweet Live Footage – Quality is lame, footage is fantastic
