Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Musical World of Sarah Carpenter

Sarah Carpenter joined us as our special guest co-host and guest producer. Sarah shared songs that just absolutely tickle her, with lyrics, and performances from American popular music from before the Rock and Roll era began.

1. Walter Cole – “Mama Keep Your Yes Ma’am Clean”
from: Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows 1926-1937 / Old Hat / Oct 4, 05

2. Ruth Brown – “Wild Wild Young Men” (CD #2) (2:32)
from: Atlantic Rhythm And Blues 1947-1974 [Box Set] / Atlantic Records / Oct. 15, 1991
[Originally released as a single in 1953. Ruth Brown (January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress also known as “Queen of R&B” noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as “So Long”, “Teardrops from My Eyes” and “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean”. For these contributions, Atlantic became known as “The house that Ruth built.” Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the 1980s, Brown used her influence to press for musicians’ rights regarding royalties and contracts, which led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Her performances in the Broadway musical Black and Blue earned Brown a Tony Award, and the original cast recording won a Grammy Award.]

3. Louis Prima & Keely Smith – “Baby, Wont You Please Come Home”
from: Capitol Collector’s Series: Louis Prima / Capitol Records / May 13, 1991
[Louis Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, songwriter, and trumpeter. He rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his 7-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the 1950s, and a pop-rock band in the 1960s. Keely Smith was 17 when Louis Prima met her. Her hometown was Norfolk, Virginia. In August 1948, she made a point to stop by the Surf Club in Virginia Beach to visit one of her favorite artists, Louis Prima. To her surprise, he was looking for a new female vocalist to replace Lily Ann Carol. Keely had a bathing suit on and was not allowed into the club until she had proper attire on. Luckily, someone was able to lend her some acceptable clothing and she auditioned. She landed the part and travelled with the band. Louis signed with Columbia records in the fall of 1951 to keep up with the rapid changes in the marketing industry.Throughout the sixteen-month contract his top hits consisted of “Chop Suey, Chow Mein,” “Ooh-Dahdily-Dah,” and “Chili Sauce”. To manage his expenses, he had to drop his big band and play in low-grade clubs to support his horses. On top of it all, he divorced his third wife Tracelene on June 18, 1953. Less than a month later he married Keely, who was half his age. She was open to criticism and he wanted to make her a star. He had to find the style that fit her correctly, especially since rock and roll was emerging. Prima was not against rock’n’roll like some other artists, such as Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. He accepted that the kids had “an instinct for the kind of music that’s fun to listen to and dance to.”

10:15

4. Dinah Washington – “So In Love”
from: I Get A Kick Out Of You: Cole Porter Songbook Vol. 2 / Verve / October 22, 1991
[Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963), was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as “the most popular black female recording artist of the ’50s”. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of “Queen of the Blues”. She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Washington was married seven times. Her husbands were John Young (1942–43), George Jenkins (1946), Robert Grayson (1947), bassist and bandleader Walter Buchanan (1950), saxophonist Eddie Chamblee (1957), Rafael Campos (1961), and pro-football player Dick “Night Train” Lane (1963). She had two sons: George Kenneth Jenkins and Robert Grayson. Washington was an outspoken unapologetic liberal Democrat. She once said, “I am who I am and I know what I know. I’m a Democrat plain and simple, always have been. I’d never vote for a Republican because in my opinion they don’t have what it takes to run any kind of private or public office. That’s all.”Early on the morning of December 14, 1963, Washington’s seventh husband Lane went to sleep with his wife, and awoke later to find her slumped over and not responsive. An autopsy later showed a lethal combination of secobarbital and amobarbital, which contributed to her death at the age of 39. She is buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.]

5. Blossom Dearie – “Give Him The Ooh-La-la”
from: Verve Jazz Masters 51: Blossom Dearie / Verve / March 19, 1996
[Margrethe Blossom Dearie (April 28, 1924–February 7, 2009) was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her light and girlish voice. One of the last supper club performers, she performed regular engagements in London and NYC over many years. In the 1970s after a period of inactivity, Dearie recorded the album “That’s Just the Way I Want to Be” (containing the cult song “Dusty Springfield”, an ode to the British pop star co-written by Dearie with Norma Tanega), which was released in 1970. In 1974, Dearie established her own label, Daffodil Records, which allowed her to have full control of the recording and distribution of her albums. Dearie appeared on TV throughout her career, most notably giving her voice to the children’s educational series Schoolhouse Rock! Some of her pieces in this series were written by her good friend Bob Dorough, the jazz singer and composer. Her voice can be heard on “Mother Necessity”, “Figure Eight”, and “Unpack Your Adjectives”. Songwriter Johnny Mercer, gave one of his final compositions to Dearie for the title song of her 1976 Daffodil album, My New Celebrity is You. In 1983, Dearie was awarded the first Mabel Mercer Foundation Award. Her voice and songs have been featured on the soundtracks of several films, including Kissing Jessica Stein, My Life Without Me, The Squid and the Whale, The Adventures of Felix, and The Artist. She continued to perform in clubs until 2006. Dearie died “after a long illness” on February 7, 2009, at her apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City. She was survived by her older brother as well as a nephew and a niece.]

6. Nat King Cole – “When I Grow Too Old To Dream”
from: Northern Exposure: Music From The Television Series (1990-95) / MCA / Sept. 15, 1992
[Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer and musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He was widely noted for his soft, baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. Cole was one of the first African Americans to host a television variety show, The Nat King Cole Show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death from lung cancer in February 1965.]

10:27 – Underwriting

10:28

7. Mel Torme’- “It’s All Right With Me”
from: Mel Torme Collection 1944-1985 [Box Set] / Rhino WEA / June 4, 1996
[Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, best known as a singer of jazz standards. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, drummer, pianist, and actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books. He composed the music for the classic holiday song “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”) and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells.]

8. Louis Prima & Keely Smith – “That Old Black Magic”
from: One For My Baby – Selections From The Great American Songbook / Starbucks / 2009
[Many know bandleader Louis Prima from the 1967 Disney movie, “The Jungle Book.” Prima played the voice of the cartoon ape named King Louie. Tom Clavin, author of That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas, was quoted in an NPR interview saying…”Well, Louis Prima and Keely Smith divorced and the act broke up, and Keely Smith then seemed to come into her own as a singer. She had been doing some solo things. She received a Grammy nomination for, actually, her debut solo album in 1958, but Louis Prima played a part in that. But in 1999, she received another Grammy nomination for an album called “Keely Sings Sinatra.”]

9. Mel Torme’ with The Mel-Tones – “It Happened in Monterrey”
from: Mel Torme Collection 1944-1985 [Box Set] / Rhino WEA / June 4, 1996

10:40

10. Shirley Horn – “Get Out Of Town”
from: I Get A Kick Out Of You: Cole Porter Songbook Vol. 2 / Verve / Oct. 22, 1991
[Shirley Valerie Horn (May 1, 1934 in Washington, D.C. – October 20, 2005) was an American jazz singer, pianist. Horn collaborated with jazz greats Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Carmen McRae, Wynton Marsalis and others. She was most noted for her ability to accompany herself with nearly incomparable independence and ability on the piano while singing, something described by arranger Johnny Mandel as “like having two heads”, and for her rich, lush voice, a smoky contralto, which was described by noted producer and arranger Quincy Jones as “like clothing, as she seduces you with her voice”.]

11. Shirley Horn – “Makin’ Whoopie”
from: Light Out Of Darkness (A Tribute To Ray Charles) / UMG / September 21, 1993

12. Fred Astaire – “Night and Day”
from: I Get A Kick Out Of You: Cole Porter Songbook Vol. 2 / Verve / October 22, 1991
[Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer, musician and actor. His stage and subsequent film and television careers spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films, several award winning television specials, and issued numerous recordings. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films. Gene Kelly, another major innovator in filmed dance, said that “the history of dance on film begins with Astaire”. Classical dancers and choreographers, Rudolf Nureyev, Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Jackson, Gregory Hines, Mikhail Baryshnikov, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins among them, also acknowledged his influence.]

13. Eartha Kitt – “Je Cherche Un Homme (I Want A Man)”
from: Excellent and Dangerous / BMG International / September 10, 2001 IMPORT
[Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of “C’est Si Bon” and the enduring Christmas novelty smash “Santa Baby”. Orson Welles once called her the “most exciting woman in the world”. She took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable due to other commitments. She also voiced Yzma on Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove and its television spinoff, The Emperor’s New School, earning five Emmy Awards in the process, the last shortly before her death.]

11:00 – Station ID

14. Louis Jordan – “Look Out Sister, Look Out”
from: Five Guys Named Moe / Decca – MCA / 1992
[Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as “The King of the Jukebox.” In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him no. 59 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful African-American bandleader of his day. Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who played all forms of the saxophone, but specialized in the alto, in addition to playing piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, he wrote or co-wrote many songs that became influential classics of 20th-century popular music. Although Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of “jump blues”, a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan’s band also pioneered the use of electric organ. In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging “Saturday Night Fish Fry” (one of the earliest and most powerful contenders for the title of “First rock and roll record”).]

15. John Lee Hooker – “Good Rockin’ Mama”
from: The Big Soul Of John Lee Hooker / Vee-Jay Ltd. / September 21, 1964
[John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was a highly influential American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally a unique brand of country blues. He developed a ‘talking blues’ style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his blues guitar playing and singing. His best known songs include “Boogie Chillen'” (1948), “I’m in the Mood” (1951) and “Boom Boom” (1962), the first two reaching #1 on the Billboard R&B chart.]

16. Shirley Horn – “Hard Harded Hannah”
from: Light Out Of Darkness (A Tribute To Ray Charles) / UMG / September 21, 1993

17. Eartha Kitt – “Let’s Do It”
from: Excellent and Dangerous / BMG International / September 10, 2001 IMPORT

11:15

18. Louis Jordan – “Safe, Sane And Single”
from: Five Guys Named Moe / Decca – MCA / 1992

11:18 – Underwriting

11:19

19. The Mourning After – “This is Why”
from: Unreleased recordings / Independent / 2007
[The Mourning After: Amy Farrand, Mark Smeltzer, Chris Devictor, and Sarah Carpenter]

20. The Columns – “Allies”
from: The Columns / Split Oak Records / 2010
[The Columns: Bill Sundahl, Andy Money, Nick Howell, Matt Richey & Sarah Carpenter]

[Bill Sundahl is now playing with The Starhaven Rounders who perform Friday, August 16, 7:00 to 9:00 at the recordBar, 1020 westport Road.]

[Bill Sundahl he is the founder of Spice of Life Productions, The Spring Dance, and The Crossroads Music Festival, and annual event that is scheduled for Saturday, September 14. For more information about the Crossroads Music Festival as tickets become available at noon today, and you can get information at: cmfkc.com]

11:30

21. Mark Smeltzer – “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” (CD #21) (4:05)
from: Rural Grit: Last of 04 Before the F4 / Rural Grit / 2005

22. Dirty Mae – “Factory Girl”
from: Unreleased recordings / Independent / 2007
[Song originally recorded by The Rolling Stones. Dirty Mae: David Regnier, Chris Devictor and Sarah Carpenter]

23. The Afterparty – “Girl With All The Cool Names”
from: Under The Rainbow / Independent / August 24, 2006
[David Regnier, Danny Fischer, Josh Mobley, Chris Devictor, Paul Andrews, Sonya Andrews, Amy Nelson, and Sarah Carpenter.]

11:50

24. High and Dry – “Spanish Pipe Dream”
from: High and Dry / Independent / August 16, 2013
[Song written by John Prine. High and Dry is a KC based band made up of: Greg Connally on accordian and vocals; Sam Zech on guitar and vocals; Cathy Hawes on mandolin and vocals; and John Yingst on dobro, banjo and vocals.]

[High and Dry is playing a special CD release show, at Mike Kelly’s Westsider, on Westport Road, Friday, August 16, at 8:00 pm.]

You can learn more about Sarah Carpenter’s business at http://www.thecluttermaven.com


11:59:30

25. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Sources for notes on tracks: artist’s websites and wikipedia.org

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Show #486