Category: Saturday Matinee

Saturday Matinee – Trapeze Strip Tease, Al Cohn, Shaye Cohn & Tuba Skinny

From the Utoobage description:

Laverie Vallee, known better as Charmion, was a Sacramento born trapeze artist who possessed strength and a physique most men would be envious of. However, she was most well known for her risqué striptease performances. The act was incredibly impressive and provocative for the era. One of her greatest fans was Thomas Edison. As a result of that adoration, on November 11, 1901 Charmion committed a simplified version of her act to film for Edison. Charmion eventually retired to Santa Ana, California. She passed away on February 6, 1949 at the age of 73.

[Video found here. It’s silent. Talkies didn’t become commercially viable until the 1920s, so don’t crank up the volume and blow your speakers later.]

The Al Cohn Quartet at the Sanremo Jazz Festival 1987.
Al Cohn (1925-1988) was one of the greatest improvisational jazz saxophonists of all time. Now check this out:

That’s Shaye Cohn, Al Cohn’s granddaughter, playing stride.
Now check THIS out:

Tuba Skinny on Royal Street, New Orleans, April 2013 (covering Bessie Smith‘s “You’ve Got To Give Me Some” 1929).

Current lineup:

Shaye Cohn – Cornet, Piano, Fiddle, Accordion, Banjo & Spoons
Craig Flory – Clarinet & Saxophone
Barnabus Jones – Trombone, Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar, Vocals
Todd Burdick – Tuba
Gregory Sherman – Vocals, Guitar & HarmonicaMax Bien-Kahn – Guitar & Banjo
Jason Lawrence – Banjo & Guitar
Robin Rapuzzi – Washboard & Drum set
Erika Lewis – Vocals & Bass drum

Dang. I’ve been impressed with Shaye Cohn’s stuff for years without knowing her pedigree, and now I know where she got it from. Note how she cues the band while playing.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll do something else tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Nablus Soap Factory, WHODAT, Fishing With John & FISHBONE

Amazing. The contents of clay cylinders found during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800BC, and these guys in Nablus are still doing it the ancient way, by hand. Why?

Nice animation that must have taken a while to make [via].

Fishing with John (with Japanese subtitles). From the Utoobage comments: “The problem with other fishing shows is that they are too polished, too normal. And they don’t have enough Tom Waits.”

Reminds me of “The Fishin’ Musician” series featuring John Candy.

Now for something completely different.

I don’t know what Fishbone was yammering about here, but I like the vibe.

As long as a tune was good, I never paid much attention to lyrics, but sometimes, years later, I found that the songs I liked a lot weren’t about what I thought they were about at all.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Papa John Creach, Buddy Guy, and Gatemouth Brown with Roy Clark

Papa John Creach (1917-1994) performed with Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Stuff Smith, Charlie Christian, Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Nat King Cole and Roy Milton. Later he toured with Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane / Jefferson Starship.

Buddy Guy always looks like he’s having fun. This concert is from 1994 [via Mme. Jujujive].

Now THIS is killer.
Gatemouth Brown and Roy Clark picking jump blues speedgrass to Duke Ellington‘s “Take The A Train” in 1979.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend, folks. Go fire up the grille and burn something tasty.

Saturday Matinee – Dano Lancelot, Frank Zappa, Maceo Parker and Derek & The Dominos

Dano Lancelot covers UB40’s cover of Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine“ on steel drum, and it’s real pretty.

On 28 October 1976, 35 year-old Frank Zappa appeared on The Mike Douglas Show to discuss his music and promote his album “Zoot Allures.”  Note that Douglas’ show aired in the afternoons and was tailored to stay-at-home moms. Zappa picked an easy one for the studio band: “Black Napkins,” one of my favorite Zappa instrumentals.

“My god. You could base a whole religion around this groove.” -Comment on the UToobage.

Apparently the clip above comes from “My First Name Is Maceo,” a concert/documentary DVD released in 2005.

Maceo Parker– Alto Sax/Vocals
Fred Wesley– Trombone/Vocals
Pee Wee Ellis– Tenor Sax/Vocals
Bruno Speight– Guitar
Jamal Thomas– Drums
Will Boulware– Hammond B-3 Organ
Jerome “Jerry” Preston – Bass Guitar/Vocals

As a bonus, there’s this non sequitur ridiculous awesome.

Have a great weekend, folks.
See you back here tomorrow for, like, you know, stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Kyoto Tachibana H.S. Band, The Box, The Mendes Harmónica Trio & James Cotton

Kyoto Tachibana High School Brass Band, November 23, 2017 Rose Parade National Commemorative Parade at Fushimi Osuji Shopping Street.

They memorized the music. They memorized the choreography. They stayed in tune while jumping around and not breaking teeth, and they also stayed in perfect formation. What happens to them in private if they miss a step or crack a note? I’m still impressed [via].

Dušan Kastelic‘s The Box [via]. Reminds me of Lazar.

The Mendes Harmónica Trio blows “Rock Around The Clock.” Check out that double-decker Hohner on the left.

James Cotton (1936-2017) was one of my all time favorite blues harp players. Have at it.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back tomorrow for stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Elvis Covers: You wanna puke or you wanna rock?

Found in here. So cute it’ll make you puke.

Yeah, she’s got it down on the uke, but it was garbage even when Elvis sung it. Adult singers are much worse since they should know better, like this FAIL, this FAIL and THIS MAJOR LEAGUE FAIL.

Now THIS is how to do an Elvis Cover right.

[BTW, Steve Goodman was the guy who co-wrote and recorded the best damn country song ever. He also wrote and recorded the best damn train song ever.]

This song comes to mind as well. Even Mojo Nixon got it and asplained it perfectly over 30 years ago.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow to see if I’ve been banned from Twitter again.

Saturday Matinee – The Chantays, The Ventures, Johnny Thunders & The Vaughan Brothers

The Chantays were from Santa Ana, California. The oldest was 17, the youngest 14, when they recorded their 1962 hit “Pipeline” (according to the liner notes on my LP.) I was a kid in the midwest when I first heard it, and I liked it, but I didn’t equate it with surfing. I imagined a rock n’ roll sludge pump.

According to Wiki, the Chantays originally called the song “Liberty’s Whip” but I have my doubts.

A year later, The Ventures co-opted the classic. Not sure if royalties were paid but their version didn’t make Billboard’s Top 100.

Johnny Thunders‘ (nee New York Dolls) take was kinda different. Clip is apparently from here, circa 1989(?).

Jimmy Vaughan taught his brother guitar IIRC, and SRV took it from there. Video above from New Orleans 1987.

Jimmy Vaughan is an unsung guitar hero IMO.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more awesome than any human being can possibly handle.

Saturday Matinee – Tony Joe White, Jane Rose, Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band & RelaxTrio

BTW, that’s “poke sallet” for you city slickers. Poke is poisonous, and I remember it being called “hillbilly acid.” Young pokeweed is edible when cooked, but no U.S. food organization endorses the consumption of pokeweed regardless of how it is prepared, and the berries can kill you. It’s a lanky odd-looking weed with purple stems, grows to +6 feet.

“Sallet” is of French origin and refers to a mess of greens (including spinach, mustard greens, etc.) cooked until tender.

Jane Rose is nasty. I love it.

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is worth a listen. Country gospel rock is always good for the soul.

Finnish band RelaxTrio kicks psycho billy to a new level of psycho billy, whatever that means, but that girl pounds bass.

Linda Teränen (Vocals & double bass)
Oskari Nieminen (Vocals & guitar)
Vilho Voutilainen (Drums & backing vocals)

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more whatever.

Like this:

Saturday Matinee – Traffic Circle, Yes, Commander Cody & Bill Kirchen

I have that record somewhere. I think it’s called “Roundabout.”
Oh wait.

YES, they did some some cool stuff to listen to while sitting in the dark at 2:30AM staring at a lava lamp and watching rotating light cylinder projections on the walls of your dorm bedroom and suddenly realizing that all your friends had gone to bed. C’mon admit it. They sang like musically talented prepubescent girls. Relayer was their last decent album IMO, but none of their stuff was roadtrip music.

Commander Cody‘s classic cover (of Charlie Ryan‘s 1955 recording of “Hot Rod Lincoln“) featured the King of Dieselbilly Bill Kirchen.

Check out what Kirchen did with some guitar mods over 60 years ago:

See what he did there? Now listen to this:

Be patient, there’s some awesome in that vid.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll do something or other tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Strandbeest, Elvin Bishop & The Wailers

Awesome mechanics.

Glad to see Elvin Bishop is still rockin’.
He won me over years ago when he shouted out a recipe for carp. [Dedicated to Retired Geezer.]

The Wailers‘ “Stir It Up” (1967) is possibly the best Reggae groove ever. This might be the 2nd best. Here’s the 10th best.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for more aftershocks.