March 2021 - Page 6 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Paul Whiteman and the hits of 1921

Van and Schenck

Paul Whiteman had five of the 12 #1 hits for the year 1921, all instrumentals. Who WAS this guy? “Whiteman’s skill at the viola resulted in a place in the Denver Symphony Orchestra by 1907, joining the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 1914.

In 1918, Whiteman conducted a 12-piece U.S. Navy band, the Mare Island Naval Training Camp Symphony Orchestra (NTCSO). After the war, he formed the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.”

Here’s some info from the Syncopated Times. “Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra was the most popular band of the 1920s and represented the apex of jazz to the general public.

“Over the years, critics and some musicians like Eddie Condon, have not had kind words to say about the band and have tended to represent Whiteman as a bad influence on the music in his attempts to ‘Make a lady out of Jazz.'” What the heck does THAT mean?

“In the 1920s he dominated the scene and hired the best White hot musicians like Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, Jack Teagarden, and many more to play in his band.

The standards

“So, what was it that has led Whiteman’s name to be dragged through the mud in the annals of jazz history? Paul Whiteman being the most popular Jazz band leader of the Jazz Age is blamed for the racism in America that denied African-American musicians the credit that they deserved in the history of Jazz.”

On the other hand, he made it palatable for the (white) masses. That said, by all measures, he was very good at it. Here’s a pathfinder from the University at Albany about Whiteman.

“The Paul Whiteman Orchestra introduced many jazz standards in the 1920s, including ‘From Monday On,’ written by Harry Barris and sung by the Rhythm Boys featuring Bing Crosby and Irene Taylor; and ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ composed by George Gershwin who played piano on the Paul Whiteman recording in 1924.”

They’re #1

Again, I used the Discography of American Historical Recordings, which I discussed here. I found all of the tracks except Wabash Blues and Margie.

Wang Wang Blues – Whiteman (Victor), six weeks at #1, gold record.
Wabash Blues – Isham Jones (Brunswick), six weeks at #1, gold record.
Cherie – Whiteman (Victor), six weeks at #1.

Song of India – Whiteman (Victor), five weeks at #1.
Say It With Music – Whiteman (Victor), five weeks at #1.
My Mammy – Whiteman (Victor), five weeks at #1.
Margie – Eddie Cantor (Emerson), five weeks at #1. “After all is said and done, there is really only one. Oh! Margie, Margie, it’s you.” This is VERY familiar. I have a Ray Charles version of this, but that’s not where I first heard it.

All By Myself – Ted Lewis Jazz Band (Columbia), four weeks at #1.
O-H-I-O (Oh-My!-O) – Al Jolson (Columbia), four weeks at #1.

Make Believe – Nora Bayes (Columbia), three weeks at #1.
Look For The Silver Lining – Marion Harris (Columbia), three weeks at #1.

Ain’t We Got Fun – Van and Schenck (Columbia), two weeks at #1. Related to Arthur?

I remember what I owe

Albany Savings Bank

Best f Traffic When Albany Savings Bank became a public company named Albank in the early 1990s, I was working in a temp job processing these huge checks of companies wanting to buy the stock.

Separately, as a customer of ASB since 1978, I was allowed to purchase said stock, actually in a favored position versus the raw investor. They couldn’t necessarily buy all of the $1.3 million – the ceiling – they wanted.

(If I were totally unethical, I would have reached out to some of those companies with the large wallets and say, “Hey, I have a better status as an existing ASB customer…” I’m sure the Securities and Exchange Commission would want to know how a temp worker could come up with that kind of money.)

As it was, my then-wife and I didn’t even have the $250 minimum purchase price. So I went in with two of my co-workers and bought the stock. And I would get periodic dividends until Albank got bought by Charter One, which then got purchased by Citizens Bank.

One of my fellow investors was named Mona, and I even had her address for a time. But my attempts to reach her failed. And now I don’t even remember her last name except it began with a U. I figure I must owe her, and the other person, whose name I don’t remember at all, a few hundred dollars each.

Books and music

Many years ago, obviously, I borrowed an LP called Best of Traffic from someone at a party on Washington Avenue in Albany. You know the band with Steve Winwood and Dave Mason. I’ve lost track of who I borrowed it from, although I’m pretty sure it was a female. But I still have the album, and I’d give it back if I could remember and find the person.

There are a couple of books on my shelves I borrowed. One must have been at least seven years ago. The other was from 2018 or so. I have started both but have finished neither. One is comics-related and the other one concerns the law. I will get them back to you folks next time I see you, which, given the pandemic, won’t likely be until NEXT year.

These are the things I remember at 2 a.m.

Edgar exercise: slavery, BLM, Obama

black people are not a monolith

For my last Times Union blog post this month, even after my goodbye piece, I reposted the first part of my February 5 piece from this blog, about asking three different people (living or dead, famous or not) ONE question.

Edgar, a contrarian who most TU bloggers became familiar with, wrote:

I’d ask Antonio Johnson how it felt to be an African American AND the first American owner of a slave (John Casor).

This actually did happen. “John Casor, a servant in Northampton County in the Virginia Colony, in 1655 became the first person of African descent in the Thirteen Colonies to be declared as a slave for life as a result of a civil suit.”

This predated the large-scale codification of slavery in the future United States by race, in the 1670s and later. Would Johnson’s singular act cause him distress over what became mass enslavement of black people in the years to come? Interesting question and of course unanswerable.

I’d ask Republican President Lincoln how it felt to free Democrats slaves.

Since formerly enslaved people had not yet received the right to suffrage, I don’t know what “Democratic slaves” means. That said, I’ve been recently helping my daughter with American history. It’s clear that Lincoln wanted the states of the Confederacy to rejoin the Union as soon as was feasible. His second Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, WAS a Democrat.

Black Lives Matter

I’d ask Martin Luther King if he approved of the violence perpetrated by members of the “some lives matter, depending on skin color” movement which has abandoned his highly effective peaceful protests against racism.

As is his wont, Edgar has twisted the meaning of Black Lives Matter. That said, he asks a legitimate question about tactics. Yes, there were non-violent actions on the part of demonstrators back in the 1950s and 1960s. The other side – i.e., law enforcement – was often not as pleasant. See Selma, March 7, 1965, e.g. And when America saw the actions of Southern police, the nation was outraged.

“Some 2,000 people set out from Selma on March 21, protected by U.S. Army troops and Alabama National Guard forces that [Lyndon] Johnson had ordered under federal control.’

The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956 took over a year, and it involved legal maneuvering. The Little Rock Nine integrated the high school in 1957 with the help of federal troops. In other words, the force of law and/or people with weapons.

MLK’s nonviolent campaign was much less successful when he moved North. And he died by violence.

Black Lives Matter started in 2013 and was largely ignored. It wasn’t until America could finally be ready to see for itself a black man being murdered by a white cop that people seriously started saying, “Oh, THAT’S what they’ve been talking about!” A whole lot of people of various races demonstrated for BLM in 2020. Most of them were peaceful.

Some folks were not. They may have calculated that it was 65 years since Rosa refused to give up her seat, and over half a century since Martin was murdered. How long, and by which tactics, will we be free?

King said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.” What do you do when you keep saying it, and they’re still not hearing it? I suspect MLK would understand, even if he disapproved of the tactic.

Barack

And of you, I’d ask, do you think that, in your lifetime, we’ll have had a black president… as a bonus question.

When Barack Obama walked the streets of Chicago, people saw a black man. From the NIH: “African Americans in the US typically carry segments of DNA shaped by contributions from peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas.” Obama’s racial profile is different from most black Americans. But to suggest he isn’t black is disingenuous. And a boringly divisive trope.

It’s been my theory that some thought that he, as a child of a white mother, wouldn’t be too black. But he kept disappointing them by doing “black” things such as singing Al Green and promoting Hamilton, a musical with a mostly black cast.

Know that many white parents – Halle Berry’s white mom, for one – made sure their children would know how to negotiate this country as black persons, if only because that’s how they’d be perceived in America anyway.

Ibram X. Kendi said recently on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah that black people are not a monolith. We have a diversity of experiences. Barack Obama’s is one experience. And Edgar doubting his “legitimacy” as a black person does not make it less so.

Call and response antiphonal pop songs

You, then you.

One of my oldest friends, Carol in Texas, wrote: In your thousands of blog posts you may have covered this, but I’m wondering what your favorite call and response songs are.

We happened to be listening to classic vinyl on Sirius radio when they played Pinball Wizard. I hadn’t recalled that it included that lyric “how do you think he does it’… ‘I don’t know.'” Led me to wonder what other songs with that device I love and the obvious With a Little Help from My Friends popped up, and Jefferson Starship’s Miracles, sort of, and… such fun, especially when you sing along.

Well, Carol, I had NOT put together a list of pop songs with call and response. I started going down a rabbit hole in noting that what is called the antiphon existed in 5th century Christianity. Classical composers as early as Handel and Bach used it. In jazz, the call and response might be instrumental.

Antiphony

“The looser term antiphony is generally used for any call and response style of singing, such as the kirtan or the sea shanty and other work songs, and songs and worship in African and African-American culture.” I even found a dissertation on antiphony in hip hop. I associate it with both children’s songs, and Marines running and responding to the drill sergeant’s chants.

Any time the singer in a band asks the audience to echo what they sing, that’s antiphony. Think Freddie Mercury of Queen at Wembley Stadium. There’s a scene in One Night in Miami, where Sam Cooke is leading the audience in antiphony.

It is interesting that you noted Pinball Wizard. One of the most referenced antiphonies I found was another Who song, My Generation. Now, the FIRST piece I thought of was part 2 of What’d I Say by Ray Charles.

I was always fond of the bit by Diana Ross and the Supremes in Love Child. Most of the time the lyric by the backup singers, the Andantes would echo Diana. But in one case they had lyrics that propelled the message:
Love child, never meant to be
Love child, (scorned by) society

Songs

Here are some more, by no means a complete list, because there are zillions of them. Some of my favorite songs are here.

Going to the Mill – Chambers Brothers. This is for me, the epitome of call-and-response.
Oh, Happy Day – The Edwin Hawkins Singers, featuring Dorothy Combs Morrison. You may say this isn’t pop, but it went to #4 pop and #2 RB for two weeks in 1969.
Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) – Melanie with the Edwin Hawkins Singers. I seriously love this song.

Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Night and the Pips. In 1977, the Pips (minus Gladys) appeared on comedian Richard Pryor’s TV special that aired on NBC. They sang their normal backup verses for the song. During the parts where Gladys would sing, the camera panned on a lone-standing microphone.
A Girl Like You – Edwyn Collins. Note the response is instrumental, not vocal.
A Girl Like You – the Young Rascals.
Good Lovin’ – The Young Rascals, first recorded by Lemme B. Good.

Itchycoo Park – Small Faces.
It Hurts To Be In Love – Gene Pitney.

Come and Get Your Love – Redbone.
I’ll Take You There – The Staple Singers. I adore this song.
Mickey’s Monkey – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Motown is chockablock with call and response.
Jocko Homo – Devo.
Loves Me Like a Rock – Paul Simon with the Dixie Hummingbirds. My favorite PS solo song.
Respect – QoS.

Shout – The Isley Brothers.
Twist and Shout – The Beatles.
My Sweet Lord – George Harrison.
He’s So Fine – The Chiffons.
Once in a Lifetime – Talking Heads.

Night Time Is the Right Time – Ray Charles.
I Don’t Need No Doctor – Humble Pie.
Haul Away Joe – the Longest Johns.
The Banana Boat Song (Day-O) – Harry Belafonte. Of course.

Movie review: Blow The Man Down

Greek chorus

The movie Blow The Man Down begins with David Coffin and other men singing the title song. You may know the tune from Popeye cartoons. The singers are a Greek chorus of sorts, I suppose. I enjoyed them quite a lot.

The story proper begins with the funeral of Mary Margaret Connolly in Easter, Cove, Maine. She had two adult daughters, Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) and Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor). The mom had three good friends Susie (June Squibb), Doreen (Marceline Hugot), and Gail (Annette O’Toole) who say they’ll be there for the daughters.

Part of the trio’s mission is to change the profile of the local, er, B and B, run by their former colleague, Enid Nora Devlin (Margo Martindale). The proprietor seems disinclined.

Meanwhile, a murdered body washes up on the shore. Officer Coletti (Skipp Sudduth) and his younger, more eager colleague, Officer Justin Brennan (Will Brittain) are investigating the homicide.

That’s all I’ll say about the plot. The story was written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy.

Satisfaction

Leonard Maltin’s observations seem applicable. “Blow the Man Down hasn’t great ambitions but fulfills its modest goals nicely. It’s well worth streaming, especially if you have a cup of chowder handy.” In fact, 98% of the critics gave the film a thumbs up, ranking #29 on the Rotten Tomatoes list for 2020.

General audiences were a bit more critical, with 75% liking it. Some found it too slow, or too much like Fargo. A few complained about the resolution; I thought it was one of the best elements. Others didn’t like the singing fishermen, for which I say, FIE!

Maybe it is that I am particularly fascinated with family secrets, many of which do not come to light until after someone dies. This narrative felt emotionally true for me.

I’ve liked June Squibb ever since I saw her in the movie Nebraska back in 2014. But the scene-stealer in this film is Margo Martindale, who is the focus of every scene she’s in.

I watched Blow the Man Down on Amazon Prime.