Tag: 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 – Maddy Bailey, Zappa’s Bolero, The Cadillac Three & John L. Hooker Suckuppery

Maddy Bailey takes no offense [via].

Frank Zappa conducted Ravel’s Bolero, one of the most boring compositions ever, but added a Reggae beat. Why not?

The Cadillac Three make some fun noise. Never met ’em, but I grew up with some just like ’em. Good people.

Holy crap! Look at the lineup of that John Lee Hooker backup band!

Have a great weekend, folks. Boogie chillun’.

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 – k.d.lang & The Reclines, Maryann & The Ramblin’ Two / The Hi-Flyin’ Combo / The Tri-Tones

Joanie Sommers‘ 1962 hit “Johnny Get Angry” was a complaint about a wimpy boyfriend who wouldn’t stand up for himself, let alone her (and includes a kazoo chorus for some bizarre reason).

k.d.lang & The Reclines‘ 1991 cover changed the message. There’s a bit of “Holiday For Strings” at 2:00, and that’s kinda funny.

The ghost of Patsy Cline lives on lang’s album “Absolute Torch & Twang.” Get a copy.

Maryann Lents hails from Tallinn, Estonia and nails American rockabilly. She mixes up band members depending on venue. Not sure if it’s “Maryann” or “Mariann” since it appears both ways on the FB pages (and yeah, she’s jamming chords).

“Maryann & The Ramblin’ Two“

Maryann Lants- rhythm guitar, vocals
Ivar Kannelmäe- solo guitar, vocals
Eduards Glotovs- upright bass

“Maryann & The Hi-Flyin’ Combo“

Maryann Lants – vocals, ac guitar
Wictor Johannson – el guitar
Igor “Garik” Golovenko – doublebass
Peeter Karo – drums

“Maryann & The Tri-Tones“

Maryann (Vocal, Rhythm guitar)
Artur (Lead guitar)
Peeter (Drums)
Mari (Upright bass)

Have a great weekend, folks. Stay tuned for more pure awesome.

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 – The Iguanas, The Forbidden Pigs & The Paladins

New Orleans band The Iguanas (Rod Hodges on guitar & accordion, Joe Cabral on sax & guitar, Rene Coman on bass, Doug Garrison on drums, and Eric Lucero on trumpet) live at Cafe Nine, New Haven, Connecticut on Oct. 19th, 2008. Nice vibe.

I have an Iguanas CD.

The missus and I saw them live. Billy would climb up on his upright bass, the drummer would leap over his drum set and hammer on the strings. Great show.

I have a Forbidden Pigs CD.

Glad to see The Paladins are still around. Saw them live – they were the warm up band for The Fabulous Thunderbirds at the now-defunct Golden Bear. Bass player was killer, looked like he was biting an invisible tennis ball while slapping.

I have a Paladins CD.

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