Month: September 2005

Mail Re Techno-Stuff

After my Interview Process: Technicalities post last week, Mr. Rifftides wrote that he, too, recorded to minidiscs when conducting interviews for his Desmond book.

I have the Sony MZ-B100. Great invention. I use the Sony ECM-MS907 microphone and, for phone interviews, a JK Audio QuickTap, the same sort of gizzmo as your Radio Shack mini recorder control. I transferred some of the interviews to CD through my sound system, but it was cumbersome and time-consuming and I decided that for archive purposes, I didn’t really need to. … I ended up doing all of the transcribing. It’s a great, if laborious, way to get to know your material. I found that some of my best ideas came to me while I was transcribing. I think that if I were starting over, I’d go solid state digital with something like the Marantz PMD660, but the minidisc system is fine.

Then Ted Panken, a fellow jazz writer and terrific interviewer whose byline you can find in The Village Voice, Downbeat, and other notable publications, chimed in to tell me about WavPedal.

It’s software that allows you to connect a foot pedal (it’s part of the package) to your USB outlet, and transforms your computer into a virtual transcription machine.

You know I’ve got to check that out. If it works well, bye bye cassettes! I’ll be able to take Ted to lunch and still save money.

I also heard from Lynn whose Reflections in d minor blog subhead reads “Music, art, culture, Web-surfing, backwoods living and arrogant opinions” — you know it’s the arrogant opinions that keep me coming back. She had an excellent suggestion:

To protect your email address from spam-bots put it in a non-clickable graphic.

I have taken a chance and put a clickable email button in the left panel of this blog, see it? It says “To Email Me click here.” If I end up getting spammed, I’ll have to remove it and use Lynn’s solution. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll avail yourself of the easy-to-use button and write to me.

Doesn’t Anyone Remember The Magnificent Obsession?

Boos: I am so sick, sick, sick of every celebrity and every wannabe-famous-artist who is exploiting the Katrina catastrophe for his or her own publicity value – this applies as much to Dr. Phil (visiting refugees at the Houston Astrodome) and Michael Jackson (coming out of seclusion to say he’s now inspired to write or record a new song), and Harry Connick, and Wynton Marsalis, and, and, and… as it does to relatively unknown singers and musicians who are pledging to send money to help Katrina victims if you buy their CDs. I have nothing against Dr. Phil trying to help, but I’d have been more impressed if he had done so quietly, without attendant cameras to record his good deeds and broadcast his goodness to the world. Ditto for the others.

Perhaps in the above list I should include Oprah Winfrey. Her show yesterday spotlighed the aid efforts of Jamie Foxx and Faith Hill, but as a piece in The New York Times pointed out today:

“…unlike the politicians, musicians and movie stars who toured relief facilities and the news networks whose reporters were bound to let officials defend their relief efforts, Ms. Winfrey was able to turn her own cameras on the suffering, to have a celebrity physician tour medical facilities and diagnose injuries, to orchestrate family reunions…

For those of you too young to remember, The Magnificent Obsession was a 1954 remake of a 1935 movie based on a book of the same title by Lloyd C. Douglas. It starred Jane Wyman, who received a “best actress” Oscar nomination for her performance; Rock Hudson, for whom the movie was his vehicle to stardom; and Agnes Moorehead. Hudson’s role in this melodrama is that of a playboy turned philanthropist who learns that the greatest gifts are those given selflessly and in secret.

Bravos: I came across a website hurricanehousing.org, where individuals, ordinary folks, are offering free shelter to those in need. When last I looked, the site claimed “185,331 beds volunteered so far!” And the offers are coming from everywhere – New York City, Buffalo, Anchorage, Honolulu, Omaha, Providence, Seattle — the list goes on and covers the map. And many are offering more than place to sleep. I read descriptions that offered to help people find a job, enroll their children in the local school, buy clothing and food, and even take in pets. These are not wealthy people, and many make it clear that even though quarters might be tight, they want to help. This is true giving.

Discoveries

A while back, Mr. Rifftides sent me an email in response to my post about Brick Fleagle. He was disappointed that Brick’s entry had been dropped from the last edition of the Encyclopedia of Jazz. “A name like that should be kept alive. It’s right up there with Fud Livingston.”

Okay, I admit it, I had never heard of Fud Livingston. Google led me to the American Big Bands Database web site where, under a heading The Big Band Arrangers, I found this:

Fud Livingston (né: Anthony Joseph Livingston). Born April 10, 1906, in Charleston, S.C., USA, he died on March 25, 1957, in New York, NY. USA. Fud originally studied Piano, Clarinet and Sax. His first professional experience came as a member of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, where for five years he played sax and did arranging. After Whiteman, he worked with Freddie Rich and with Andre Kostelanetz, and others.

Fud was one of the important figures in the early “White” Jazz genre, playing clarinet and writing many arrangements. During 1927-’29, he was working with Red Nichols, then with Frankie Trumbauer, In 1928, the Red Nichols group recorded (under the name of “Miff Mole and The Little Molers”) one of Fud’s original compositions “Imagination”, Fud can also be heard playing his clarinet on this tune.

Here’s what R. G. V. Venables, wrote in an English publication [Melody Maker Mag. Jan. 5, 1940]: “Fud Livingston — a composer of infinitely greater range and harmonic sophistication than [Jelly Roll] Morton — had reached, by 1928, a degree of accomplishment in scoring unmatched by Duke Ellington and Don Redman.”

Apparently, when recording for the Okeh Company, Red Nichols Five Pennies used the pseudonym Miff Mole and his Molers. Now the Five Pennies does ring a bell for me, not because I ever heard them in person, but because of an old (1959) Danny Kaye/Louis Armstrong movie with Barbara Bel Geddes. I saw Five Pennies many times as a small child, and wore out my mother’s soundtrack LP. I also had a five pennies charm bracelet, and would sing the song on request.

This little penny is to wish on
To make your wishes come true
This little penny is to dream on
To dream of all you can do
This little penny is a dancing penny
See how it glitters and it glows
Bright as a whistle
Light as a thistle
Quick, quick as a wink
Up on it’s twinkling toes
This little penny is to laugh on
To see that tears never fall
This this little penny
Is the last little penny
And the most important of all
For this penny is to love on
And where love is, heaven is there
So with just five pennies, if they’re these five pennies
You’ll be a millionaire

About ten years ago, I was trying to get my husband to remember the movie, and especially the three songs that were sung in tandem — “Good Night, Sleep Tight,” “Lullabye in Ragtime,” and “Five Pennies.” He didn’t remember the movie or the song titles, so I thought maybe an aural reminder would help. We were walking down a street, no audio equipment handy, so I started to sing. Now I may not be Nancy Wilson, but I can carry a tune. I don’t think I got more than eight bars out when John was laughing so hard he had to wipe his eyes. I was mortified, confused. What on earth could be so funny? It turns out that unwittingly, in reaching back to my childhood, I remembered not only the lyrics, but unconsciously employed the little-girl voice with which I used to sing the song.

Anyway, the nicest off-shoot of this little trip down memory lane is that I have now discovered that just last year The Five Pennies soundtrack was finally released on CD. I haven’t yet found a DVD of the movie, but it is available on VHS.

More Jazz Help Resources

Rifftides has already posted a note about The Chicago Jazz Archive’s list of New Orleans musicians found safe. To that I add two more online musician information lists:

WWOZ radio’s List of New Orleans Musicians Who Survived the Hurricane — you can communicate with the station via email at wwoz@wwoz.org or by leaving messages on their message board

and

JazzAscona’s News About Our Musician Friends — If you have information to contribute, end an email to info@jazzascona.ch

The Jazz Educators’ website has information about how to help musicians and music teachers. Go here and click on Hurricane Relief Zone. That takes you to the Hurricane Assistance and Relief Efforts page where, after brief paragraphs about How To Help and How To Ask For Help, you’ll see a green Enter Community button; click on it and and then click on Guest (no registration required) to read the postings in the Conference area under Hurricane Assistance. (If you want to post a message yourself, you will need to register.)

Among the messages I saw there, which included individuals offering support and refuge, and a statement from Recording Academy President Neil Portnow about NARAS/Music Cares Hurricane Relief, was this posting from Jazz Foundation of America:

We will be addressing the longer term needs of these jazz and blues artists who will have just lost everything.

We will be raising funds and distributing money for the musicians to get a new apartment or room for rent: by giving a first month’s rent, possibly more, for them to start over, a place to live. (This is what we normally do on a daily basis for musicians across the country who become sick and can’t pay their rent, we also keep food on the table and get employment to hundreds of elderly musicians through our Jazz in the Schools program. Our operations normally assist 35 musicians a week.)

As well, we will be attempting to help New Orleans musicians by replacing the thing that matters most and the only way they can ever work again: their instruments.
To those who lost their instruments, like drummers and bassists who could not carry their heavy equipment, and guitarist with their amps, we will be making an effort to work with manufacturers and music stores to replace those instruments for as many as we possibly can.

Remember, New Orleans was only “New Orleans” because of the musicians…

Send donations to:

Jazz Foundation of America
322 West 48th Street 6th floor
NYC 10036

Director: Wendy Oxenhorn
Phone: 212-245-3999 Ext. 21

email contact: Joyce@jazzfoundation.org

website: www.jazzfoundation.org

To make an online CREDIT CARD DONATION OR PLEDGE:
go here and click bottom right corner of page where it says “instant pledge”

Thank you, from our hearts.

Straight Talk from the Mayor

I read it earlier, the mayor of New Orleans is pissed, and now I’ve heard him for myself. He is so desparate that he has called in to a radio station to tell it like it is. The language is unvarished as he vents about politicians spinning their bs while people are dying. What can we do the host asked – Nagin suggested keep talking about it, pressure your politicians, ban press conferences until they do something. “Don’t tell me 40,000 people are coming down here. They’re not here. Get off your asses.” Everyone needs to listen to this.

Help in the Trenches

Lazygal has posted a piece from the trenches, reportedly written on Tuesday by someone named Gregory S. Henderson MD, PhD.

“We have commandeered the world famous French Quarter Bar to turn into an makeshift clinic. There is a team of about 7 doctors and PA and pharmacists. We anticipate that this will be the major medical facility in the central business district and French Quarter. Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police escort…In a sort of cliche way, this is an edifying experience. One is rapidly focused away from the transient and material to the bare necessities of life. It has been challenging to me to learn how to be a primary care phyisican.”

A dubious reader has questioned its authenticity, based on his or her belief that “there aren’t that many practicing physicians who are MD, PhDs” and an inability to find a listing for the doc in the Louisana area. The doubter wonders “Is this just a well-intentioned blogger’s attempt to put a first person spin on the news?” By the doc’s own words, primary care is not his field — maybe he’s a pharmacologist — what difference does it make? Do I sound naive? Normally my zeal for “nonfiction means checking all the facts” would make me smile at the doubters questions and resourcefulness, but right now I am a little desparate myself, desparate to believe that someone somewhere is doing something to help those people who are in such dire straights. I know bad situations give rise to many scams, but there will be plenty of time when this is over to vet the reports and unmask the pretenders.

Meanwhile, let’s not flog the bloggers who are filling the communication void and providing an invaluable service. To see more blogs from the trenches, check out Terry Teachout’s site containing summary info and an amazing list of links to “bloggers who’ve been posting from/near/about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.”

Help Victims of Hurricane Katrina

From Terry Teachout’s aggregation of Katrina-related links and information I have learned that

Thursday is Blog for Relief Day, “a day of blogging focused on raising awareness of and funds for relief efforts to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina.” For information, go here.

Courtesy of Electric Mist blogging from Baton Rouge:

The Red Cross has started a fund that will be specifically for people in Louisiana / New Orleans area. If you haven’t yet made a donation to the Red Cross and you want the money to go specifically to this area, please put HURRICANE KATRINA in the memo section. If you want the money to be specifically for Louisiana (Katrina funds will be split among the three states), then put NOLA in the memo section.

Also in that spirit I direct you to a site that a DevraDoWrite reader called to my attention — Network For Good has a collection of links to online donation sites for the following charities:

    American Red Cross — Providing disaster services and relief.
    America’s Second Harvest — Providing food to victims.
    Catholic Charities USA — Providing relief and recovery assistance.
    Charity Hospital in New Orleans — Providing medical care to residents of Louisiana.
    Church World Service — Developing long-term recovery plans to assist with recovery.
    Convoy of Hope — Providing disaster relief and building supply lines.
    Episcopal Relief & Development — Mobilizing to support residents affected by this disaster.
    Heart of Florida United Way — Assisting with hurricane recovery efforts in Florida.
    Hearts with Hands — Activating response teams to assist in the Gulf Coast and locally.
    Humane Society of the U.S. — Rescuing animals and assisting their caregivers in the disaster areas.
    Lutheran Disaster Response — Providing emergency relief and recovery supplies.
    Mennonite Disaster Service — Providing relief to victims.
    New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity — Assisting victims of hurricane Katrina.
    Noah’s Wish — Helping to keep animals alive in face of the storm devastation.
    Operation Blessing — Transporting food, water, cleaning kits, and other emergency supplies.
    PETsMART Charities — Providing relief for the animals impacted by hurricanes.
    Salvation Army — Local, regional, and national disaster relief programs.
    Samaritan’s Purse — Helping victims of natural disasters.
    United Methodist Committee on Relief — Providing relief to victims.
    United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area — Helping victims of hurricanes locally.
    United Way of Miami-Dade — Helping victims of hurricanes locally.