Photographer Bert Stern was born on October 3, 1929. Although his most famous images seem to be Marilyn Monroe's Last Sitting, he has an incredible body of work, and I especially love the way he photographed ice cold cocktails in print ads.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Happy Birthday Bert Stern 10-03-1929
Photographer Bert Stern was born on October 3, 1929. Although his most famous images seem to be Marilyn Monroe's Last Sitting, he has an incredible body of work, and I especially love the way he photographed ice cold cocktails in print ads.
Richard Avedon
I'm not sure what publication this Richard Avedon photo is from, or who the model is. Does anyone out there have any further info?
Phnom Penh Central Market ~ Cambodia
In 2000, I was brought to Phnom Penn on an music production assignment for the film "City Of Ghosts", starring Matt Dillon. Unfortunately, I was unable to visit Angkor Wat while I was there, but I was still quite awestruck by a lot of the French Colonial architecture, and most in particularly the art deco central market building. Although not viewable in this photo, there is a strange weathered, almost mildew-like patina covering the exterior that makes the entire structure appear haunted and alien, like some sort of abandoned space station from a 1930's Buck Rogers movie.
Fellini & Secchiaroli
I'm not sure what film set this was from, although I did see another photo from this series, with Marcello Mastroianni holding the cello.
Does anyone out there have any further info? I don't believe this was a Fellini film, yet I could be wrong. The photo was from Tazio Secchiaroli (Fellini's still photographer, also the person who inspired the character of Paparazzo in "La Dolce Vita").
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Dean Arnold's Thunderflite
Here's an amazing example of modern traditional custom cars. Dean Arnold's Thunderflite, created from what looks to be a 62/63 T-Bird.
Fake Chinese Phonograph, Rare Authentic Chinese Victor Label (1904)
During my first visit to Shanghai, I was delighted to discover the antiques row in the old section of town (Fang Bang Road & Zhizhong Lu) while out for an afternnon bicycle ride. At first glimpse, it appeared to be a motherlode of curios and collectibles, ranging from fifty to thousands of years old. Needless to say, it didn't take much time to figure out that a great many of these items were "genuine fake antiques", yet Very convincing to the layperson. There seemed to be an abundancy of turn of the century wind up Victrola phonographs with morning glory horns, obviously fake to the trained eye. I have seen these before, usually in bad antique mall places in the U.S., where it is common for even the vendor to believe it is the genuine article. My phonograph collector buddies refer to these machines as Frankenphones, because they are slapped together out of some original parts, mixed with bad reproduction parts, and cabinetry built by children in India. Some of these machines are complete reproductions altogether.
When I returned from my bike ride, I got on the internet and began researching Chinese Victrolas, just to see if there were any authentic examples. What I found was a site page (My Old Phonograph Site) dedicated to these counterfeit machines and how to properly recognize the flaws as to avoid being suckered.
My research led me further , to a site (The Mainspring Press) where I found this rare Chinese Victor Label circa 1904, depicting an indigenous Chinese man listening to a phonograph, rather than the traditional logo with company mascot Nipper The Dog. This was a very short lived series, and the content was not actually recorded by the Victor company, but rather licensed from the Zonophone record/phonograph company.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Happy Birthday Ted Cassidy 7-31-1932
Actor Ted Cassidy, best remembered as Lurch on original the Addams Family television series, was born on July 31,1932.
Norman Parkinson-Icon Of Fashion Photography.
Another fine example by Norman Parkinson, icon of Fashion photography. Can anyone out there identify the model???
Don Byas By David Stone Martin
Somehow Don Byas hasn't ranked high as far as the value of his records are concerned, probably because he isn't thought of as a bebop/post war player like Dexter Gordon per se (even though he helped create the idiom), and also because he didn't record for Blue Note Records (as far as I know). Nevertheless, he was an outstanding tenor player-up there with Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and the like. This David Stone Martin illustration has always been one of my favorites, and this particular piece is not found as frequently as other releases such as the Jazz At The Philharmonic series.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Happy Birthday Sid Kroft 7-30-1929
Puppeteer (and co-creator of many children’s shows of the 1960’s & 70’s) Sid Krofft was born on July 30, 1929.
R.I.P. George Russell
To say George Russell was a profound musician and thinker is a great understatement. At the age of twenty six years old he penned the classic “Cubana Be Cubana Bop” for Dizzy Gillespie feauturing Chano Pozo (RCA Victor). Then came Ezzthetic, which was recorded by Miles Davis circa 1953. Russell was a disciple of pianist Lennie Tristano, who’s otherworldly music influenced what would become The Lydian Chromatic Concepts Of Tonal Organization. I was fortunate to have studied this theory with David Wheat (aka Buckwheat) back in 1985. It was a bit too advanced for me at the time, but over the years I have been able to understand and apply more and more of it. The Lydian Concept actually helped open my ears, enabling me to hear and write music in a whole new way. Wheat once told me that he and George Russell were at the bedside of Lennie Tristano (as he lay dying in the hospital), taking dictation and transcribing musical information that had never written in books. Russell’s music had a wonderful magic all it’s own, and one of my favorite of all his work is a big band album entitled New York, New York (1959) featuring Jon Hendricks, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane (among other star solists).
This was released the same year as Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Miles’ Kind Of Blue (in fact, without the influence of Russell, there might’ve never been a Kind Of anything). NYNY should’ve ranked as an equally groundbreaking album, but unfortunately it got buried due to the fact it was released on Decca Records which was not known as a Jazz label. In recent years it has been re-released through the Impulse label.
I owe a huge debt to George Russell for having such a profound influence on my musical studies and some of my more sophisticated compositions. He deserves to be more of a household name like Dizzy, Bird, Monk, Miles, Trane, Russell etc etc etc.
George Russell Obituary
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Visions Of Shanghai # 14
A nice example of some of the 1920's Bauhaus architecture commonly found in the French Concession of Shanghai.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Happy Birthday Darlene Love 7-26-1938
Soul diva Darlene Love was born on July 26, 1938. One of her most noted hits was as lead singer of The Crystals for Phil Spector’s “He’s A Rebel”.
I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Darlene when I was producing music for “Shake, Rattle & Rock”(directed by Allan Arkush). I’ll never forget being in the studio, listening to her warming up with wordless “mmm…mmm…mmms…”. Something about her voice struck me as a thumbprint from my collective childhood memory, then it hit me. I turned and asked if she had recorded the theme song and ending credits from The Jeffersons in the early 70’s. She stopped momentarily, smiling and said, “You’ve got a good ear Joey.”
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