Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller was born on May 21, 1904, thus making today his 122nd birthday. Waller was a singular figure in the music world. Nobody had a career remotely like his–he was a brilliant composer, superb pianist, innovative jazz organist, swinging singer, delightful comic personality and purveyor of infectious joy
A week or so ago I posted a wonderful clip of crooner Russ Columbo from a 1934 film called ‘Wake Up and Dream’. Columbo had a meteoric rise and was riding high when he died after a gun he was cleaning discharged in his face. I tend to believe the
Of all the cool quasi-line dances that appeared in the 50s and 60s, there was one that stood out precisely because it was so uncool. ‘The Stroll’ was a song performed by the Diamonds and above are two examples of the dance step it inspired. The first is from a
Why did I wake up with the theme song of the old ‘Herman and Katnip’ cartoon series in my head this morning? Could I have revisited the series in my dreams? Highly unlikely–I don’t remember liking them all that much but I sure do seem to have liked the theme
Yesterday I posted an astoundingly cool video of Shari Lewis dancing up a storm on a 1964 TV variety show. It was a side of her I never knew, having grown up knowing her as a ventriloquist and nothing more. Here she is a few years earlier doing what we
Did you know that comedienne/puppeteer Shari Lewis was also a kick-ass dancer? I didn’t. Apparently, when Captain Kangaroo was looking the other way, Shari was busy dancing up a storm in secret. In 1964 she appeared on an unidentified TV variety show (I believe it’s ‘Broadway Tonight’ based on a
Russ Columbo was an enormously popular crooner of the early 1930s, rivaling Bing Crosby in his rise to stardom. Unfortunately he went to a friend’s house one afternoon in 1934, cleaned his friend’s gun and was the unfortunate recipient of a bullet that discharged by accident, thus ending his career
This slick, early 60s-ish, commercial for Rice Krispies puts to bed once and for all the myth that Rice Krispies weren’t hip and cool and that the folks who ran Kellogs were a pack of capital ‘S’ Squares. Who supplied the swinging voices and accompaniment for this abjectly cool ad?
The ‘Hottest Man in The Band’ was a gimmick number performed by Walt Roesner and the Capitolians, a west coast band inexplicably named for their long-standing gig at the Capitol Theater in New York. Don’t ask me why. That’s what slim information the internet produced regarding this very fine musical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb_HyDvUcGAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TrpjKelALc When I was a kid I was deeply involved with playing ragtime and stride piano, having learned how to do it by putting my fingers on our player piano while a roll played and seeing where the keys depressed and how the whole business of two-handed jazz piano worked.