Primed for jazz

If you are like I am (born in the mid to late '60s, raised on '70s TV), you were primed to be a fan of jazz. Did it work on you? Probably not, but "they" sure tried. It worked on me. Gen X-ers would become as familiar with the sound of brushes softly brush-a brush brushing (that's what you call alliteration) on a snare drum and the tinkling ivories of a well-played jazz piano as they would the sound of their mother's voice. Witness a few of the jazz-inflected contributors to our generational zeitgeist. Maybe you didn't realize the conspiracy as it unfolded:

First, one of the nicest and most genuine men to have ever walked the face of this imperfect planet, Fred Rogers (I cried like a baby the day he died, as did you). Fred Rogers was of course an accomplished pianist and composer. It seems like he was always taking his viewers on a trip to Negri's Music Shop. Thank you for that, Mr. Rogers!


That theme sure is jazzy!


At about 3:50, and things get really jazzy at around a minute from that.




"The Music of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood"


Vince Guaraldi and Trio did the music for many of Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" cartoons, with the most obvious perhaps being the wonderful music for A Charlie Brown Christmas (damn I love "Skating"! I could listen to that all year long):



"Mah-Na Mah-Na," originally from Sesame Street(?) and later The Muppet Show:



HONORABLE MENTIONS
I would have caught these in rerun form some years after their introduction.
The first season theme music to I Dream of Jeannie was an instrumental jazz waltz written by Richard Wess. From the second season on, however, it was replaced by a new theme entitled "Jeannie," composed by Hugo Montenegro.



And of course that leads to:


The Bewitched theme by Warren Barker
Peggy Lee did a great version of this tune, complete with the lyrics:

Primed for Jazz (One More Time)

SFA Theater neon

The pink "F" has been out for a couple of weeks on the SFA Theater here in Nacogdoches. But it has been repaired. It's always nice (and refreshing) to see how well this theater is maintained, despite the fact it is no longer in use. I also love the idea that the neon is lit from sunset to sunrise, every single day. That, to me, is whimsical. And whimsy is a spiritual salve.

"More Than a Woman"

In my humble onion, "How Deep Is Your Love" is the Bee Gees' masterpiece. The vocal harmonies between 00:03-00:16 alone should have earned them an award in addition to the Grammy they won for the song itself. That is some seriously beautiful work, which sadly, they were apparently unable to replicate live. But as far as the version from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack goes -- if that intro doesn't do something to you, you may already be dead, my friend...

Perhaps not as poignant or dazzling as "How Deep Is Your Love," "More Than a Woman," also from the hugely successful Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, is another example of the their talents. Credited to Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb:


The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack includes two versions of "More Than a Woman" - one by the Bee Gees and the other by Tavares. Both versions are featured in the film as well. Talk about getting lucky! I wonder if Tavares had a percentage of the soundtrack's profits. Probably not, but they do a pretty good version, nonetheless:

Some thoughts on the new Star Trek

First, some proof of my bona fides in this particular area:




Aight?

The new Star Trek has premiered, and the reviews seem to be very good (Thanks, Alex - whoever you were!). I'm trying not to read any of them beyond the first few sentences to avoid having the whole thing spoiled. Of course, over at Ain't It Cool News the reviews are predictably glowing, but I'll never be able to trust Harry Knowles and Co.'s opinion(s) ever again due to its initial, ridiculously stratospheric praise of each and every terrible Star Wars prequel. And they are just as likely to gush over something like Fast & Furious, so their judgment is highly questionable and completely unreliable.

I am still sort of excited, and definitely curious, about this movie. But as the various trailers have been slowly released over the last few months, I've increasingly cooled on it. Maybe it was when they stopped using the original theme in them. Maybe it's the fact that every time I see the guy who plays Sulu, I can only think of those idiotic Harold and Kumar movies. In fact, that particular bit of casting may have "ruined" the whole thing for me. Whatever. It's become clearer and clearer to me this Star Trek may not be intended for the die hard, old school, TOS, Trekkies such as myself. No, I think it may be for the same audience responsible for making the Fast & Furious premiere last weekend a record debut. And that's okay. The makers of this film should be trying to appeal to the widest audience possible. I suppose the bottom is line is no matter what "new Trek" is like, it'll never be able to replace the original and what it meant to me, or make me twelve-years-old again. I learned that with those retched Star Wars prequels. And besides, who wants to be twelve-years-old again?? Not me, nosirreebob.

My "City on the Edge of Forever" post.

The Balinese Room

A bit from the Wikipedia entry:

The Balinese Room was a well-known nightclub in Galveston, Texas, built on a pier stretching 600 feet from the Galveston Seawall over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. For decades a dance hall and illegal casino, the Balinese Room was remodeled and reopened in 2001 without the gambling.

Salvatore "Big Sam" Maceo with pianist Carmen Cavallaro and Galveston Mayor Herbie Cartwright

Operated by Sicilian immigrant barbers-turned-bootleggers Sam and Rosario Maceo, the Balinese Room was an elite spot during the 1940s and 1950s, featuring entertainment by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns, The Marx Brothers and other top acts of the day. Patrons of the private club included Howard Hughes, Sophie Tucker and wealthy oil barons from nearby Houston. In 1997, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The following historical data is largely paraphrased from information provided by the library of my childhood, a place I spent many hours, the Rosenberg Library:

pic source
Before it became known as the Balinese Room, it was the 21st Street fishing pier, the Original Mexican Restaurant, and the first of two Pleasure Piers. Salvatore (Sam) Maceo and his older brother Rosario (Rose) Maceo invested in the restaurant, Chop Suey, in 1923. In May of 1928, the former restaurant opened as Maceo's Grotto.

The structure was damaged by a storm in 1932. It was remodeled with Oriental décor and a new 200 foot pier, and reopened as the Sui Jen Café. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the decor was modified.

On January 17th, 1942, the Maceos opened the Balinese Room. The interior had been remodeled in a South Seas motif, and the pier was again expanded, this time to 600 feet. Its private back room was equipped with the most modern gaming equipment, and long before Vegas attracted the big names, the Maceos lured high rollers to "Play on Galveston Island." Keep in mind this was before there even was a "Vegas Strip."

When this photograph was taken in April 1947, Sinatra was in Texas to perform at Houston's Shamrock Hotel at a benefit for victims of the Texas City Disaster. At the invitation of Sam Maceo, the singer made a visit to Galveston and the Balinese. Seated from left to right are, Anthony Fertitta, Jimmy Van Heusen, Frankie, and Sam Maceo.

In its heyday, the Balinese Room drew crowds from all over the country. The showroom featured stars such as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, and Jayne Mansfield among others. There is a story that the Balinese Room's bartender invented a new drink for singer Peggy Lee in 1948. He supposedly named it after the Spanish version of her name, Margarita.

Santos Cruz
That bartender's name was Santos Cruz. He later went on to become the night bartender at the Old Galveston Club (now a parking lot) in 1983. This is where my group of friends and I met him. We simply called him "Santos." He was a great guy and a very nice man to us. Of course, this perception was helped along by the fact he didn't hassle us too much for things like, say, oh, driver's licenses to insure we were of drinking age (which we weren't). Had I known way back then he had served Frank Sinatra drinks and invented the Margarita for Peggy Lee, I would have been waaay more reverential. He waited on us at the bar as if we were Sinatra, instead of what we were, i.e., the privileged, snot-nosed, wise-ass kids of Galveston's upper-middle class. R.I.P., Santos. We loved ya!

The Balinese Room was raided on 64 consecutive nights during the 1950s – without one charge ever made. When Texas Rangers would raid the establishment, a buzzer would sound in the back room, all gambling devices would disappear into secret floor and wall compartments, and tables would instantly be set with linens and silver. By the time the Rangers would reach the end of the pier, guests would stand and the band would strike up "The Eyes of Texas." On May 30, 1957, Sheriff Paul Hopkins raided the Balinese Room. With two undercover detectives already inside the casino, he demanded entrance. The charges stuck, and the gaming devices were confiscated and destroyed. This marked the end of the Maceos and the illegal gaming era in Galveston.

Around the time of its reopening
And so the Balinese sat, largely empty and unused, until a local attorney reopened it in late 2001, early 2002. Much of the original structure and decor had been either modified or destroyed over the years, but the South Seas interior decor of the large ballroom survived and was restored to match its 1940s appearance. The hallway of the long pier was lined with autographed photos of past performers and other memorabilia.

September 12, 2008
A bit more from the Wikipedia entry:

As Hurricane Ike approached Galveston on Friday, September 12, 2008, the storm surge raised the water level to a point where waves were occasionally topping the Galveston Seawall, sending water and debris onto Seawall Boulevard.

Later that night and early Saturday morning, Hurricane Ike barreled ashore, with the eye of the storm tracking into Galveston Bay. Although the pier was higher than the seawall, Ike's storm surge, waves and wind were more than the seventy-nine year old pier could handle. The Balinese Room, after having survived hurricanes Carla, Alicia, and numerous smaller storms, was completely destroyed. Only plywood, rubble, metal and the club's famed red door were left after the hurricane passed through.

October 2008
Deep in the South of Texas
not so long ago,
there on a crowded island
in the Gulf of Mexico.
It didn't take too much money,
man, but it sure was nice.
You could dance all night if you felt all right,
drinking whiskey and throwing dice.
And everybody knows
it was hard to leave.
And everybody knows
it was down at the Balinese.

-lyrics to "Balinese," from Z.Z. Top's album Fandango! (1975)
My photo from August 2009:

"I Couldn't Care Less"

Sinatra listening to a playback at Capitol Records, late 50s
For some reason, this Frank Sinatra tune is fairly obscure. There's no Wikipedia entry, for example. And there is no mention of it in one of my primary Sinatra reference texts I sometimes use when I do these Sinatra posts, Will Friedwald's marvelous Sinatra! The Song Is You (I learned so much about him in that book). That's really unusual. I find this very hard to believe, because not only is the melody pretty good, the singer's performance of it is about perfect. He just nails it. I heard "I Couldn't Care Less" for the first time on the The Capitol Years "Best Of" CD set. His performance is particularly moving during the repeat of the lyric "For without the warmth or your caress, it's a cold and dreary world I guess" -- that's athleticism in singing is what that is. The tune is one of many written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen Sinatra recorded over his long career. The internal rhyme in this one is particularly nice, so thank you Sammy Cahn. I like it, I like it a lot. Recorded on October 15, 1958, but not released commercially until 1973 (even then with a limited release), here's "I Couldn't Care Less":


Based on the heavy use of flutes, I'd say this is a Nelson Riddle arrangement.

A candy-colored clown they call the sandman

One of the more bizarre scenes from a very bizarre film:

A bit from the Wikipedia entry:

Perhaps the most famous use of "In Dreams" in media was prominently in David Lynch's landmark cult thriller Blue Velvet (1986). The sadistic villain of the film, Frank Booth (played by Dennis Hopper), seems to be obsessed with the tune (along with the Bobby Vinton song "Blue Velvet").