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News from the darkest corners of the
musical universe:
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 ◦
Rock-a-billy artist Hasil Adkins, a one-man band whose screaming vocals and freestyle approach to rhythm landed a cult following, has died. He was 67.
Adkins' body was found yesterday at his Madison home, where he lived alone. The cause of death has not been determined but it does not appear suspicious.
Guitar, harmonica, drums, foot-rhythm instruments -- Adkins played them all.
Known to his fans as The Haze, Adkins struggled for decades to get noticed. In a 2002 interview, he said he mailed out thousands of tapes and records over a 30-year period while fishing for a record deal.
Adkins was the original star of Norton Records, a label built around the primal recordings he produced beginning in the Eisenhower era.
Adkins claimed to have written more than seven-thousand songs. He first emerged in the 1950s, only to disappear again. European fans kept the rock-a-billy rage alive, and when the Cramps did an early 1980s remake of "She Said," Adkins' records suddenly became hot again.
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Monday, April 25, 2005 ◦
"Minimum Maximum", a new live cd by legendary German band Kraftwerk, will be released
on 6th June by Astralwerks, USA. The double audio CD includes the whole Kraftwerk live perfomance selected from the world-tour 2004, with 22 tracks recorded in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Paris, and other locations. The CD will be available in both English and German versions. A DVD version of the album is also scheduled.
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Sunday, April 24, 2005 ◦
There's a nice article about our site at Allaboutjazz.com:
"This site isn't about filling in historical gaps in a music collection as much as it is about viewing that history through a distorted lens. It's an amusing time-killer - and not impossible to imagine samples being further twisted by some modern experimental group - but no substitute for Billie Holiday on a romantic evening unless your date classifies William Shatner's albums as music. Of course, there's a lot to be said for something so suitable in such unique occasions."
Read the full text here.
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Saturday, April 23, 2005 ◦
Composer, trumpeter and arranger Robert Farnon has died at the age of 87, his former manager said today. The Canadian-born star, regarded as one of the greatest composers of light orchestral music, died at a hospice near to his home in Guernsey last night.
Former manager Derek Boulton, said the world has lost "a musical genius". Farnon wrote the music for more than 40 films including Spring In Park Lane, Maytime in Mayfair and Captain Horatio Hornblower RN.
He won four Ivor Novello awards including one for Outstanding Services to British Music in 1991 and a Grammy award in 1995. As conductor of the Canadian Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces Farnon came to England in 1944 and made it is home at the end of the war.
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 ◦
Salvador "Tutti" Camarata, a musician, composer and arranger during the big-band era, has died. He was 91. Camarata, who was also a leading record industry figure, died Wednesday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank after a short illness.
In his diverse career, Camarata arranged music and played trumpet for a wide range of artists, including Bing Crosby, Jimmy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday.
While living in Britain, Camarata worked on films for producer J. Arthur Rank, and while living in Los Angeles, he headed Disneyland Records, where he supervised the recording of more than 300 albums featuring such Disney stars as Annette Funicello and Hayley Mills.
He also started Sunset Sound Recorders, one of the leading recording studios in Hollywood, which has been used by artists as diverse as Miles Davis, Van Halen, Prince and the Rolling Stones.
The youngest of eight children, Camarata was born in Glen Ridge, N.J., on May 11, 1913. He studied at the Juilliard School and Columbia University in New York and found work as a trumpeter in studio bands. In the early '30s, he worked as an arranger for saxophonist and bandleader Charlie Barnet before joining the Dorsey band as lead trumpeter. He is credited with arranging the Dorsey hits "Tangerine," "Green Eyes" and "Yours." Dorsey gave him the nickname "Tutti."
In the early 1940s, Camarata left Dorsey and was an arranger for Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra and Goodman's band.
While living in London after the war, he formed the Kingston Symphony and co-founded London Records, with Sir Edward Lewis, making classical and pop recordings for U.S. distribution. London Records eventually became the home to leading rock bands, including the Rolling Stones.
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Thursday, April 14, 2005 ◦
Johnnie Johnson, the pianist on Chuck Berry's 1950s and '60s classics and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree in his own right, died Wednesday in St. Louis of unknown causes. He was 80.
Born in Fairmont, W.Va., in 1924, Johnson began playing piano as a child; he was influenced by such jazzmen as Art Tatum, Earl "Fatha" Hines and Count Basie.
He served in the Marines during World War II and was a member of the Special Services Band. After the war, he played the Chicago clubs in the blues bands of Muddy Waters and Albert King.
In St. Louis in 1952, Johnson began a musical partnership with Berry that ran for two decades. He can be heard on "Maybellene," which became the singer-guitarist's first national hit for Chess Records in 1957.
The pianist's rolling, playful accompaniment, redolent of Basie's influence, ornamented such later teen-savvy Berry hits as "Sweet Little Sixteen," "School Days," "Roll Over Beethoven," "No Particular Place to Go" and "Johnny B. Goode," which was dedicated to Johnson.
Berry and Johnson split in 1973, but they reunited in 1986 for Berry's 60th birthday concert in St. Louis, captured in Taylor Hackford's acerbic documentary "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll." In the early '90s, the pianist recorded a pair of well-received albums for Elektra's American Explorer series.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2005 ◦
Jerry Byrd, a legendary country music steel guitarist in Nashville of the 1960s and a fixture on the Hawaiian music scene since the 1970s when he relocated here, died yesterday in Honolulu. He was 85.
Byrd was widely respected and acknowledged as one of the pioneers of steel guitar, in both the country and Hawaiian music genres. He performed with some of the greatest country headliners of his generation, including Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, Marty Robbins, Hank Snow, Burl Ives and Chet Atkins. When he was head of a publishing firm, he was the first to sign on Dolly Parton, who would - years later - hire Byrd to play steel guitar for her set-in-Hawai'i TV series.
Byrd was born March 9, 1920, in Lima, Ohio, the oldest of five siblings.
He is often credited for defining the steel guitar sound of early Nashville - the twang that characterized many recordings - as well as the lush tunings he incorporated in Hawaiian music renderings.
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Sunday, April 10, 2005 ◦
Bruce Haack - The king of Techno DVD out now:
"Bruce Haack was one of the most musically and lyrically inventive, but unknown artists in American history. Despite - or perhaps because of - his audience, his music was unusually expressive, combining homemade analog synths, classical, country, pop and acid rock elements with surreal lyrics. His music evolved from his passion and creation of numerous children's albums but today his work has inspired the likes of world renowned musicians such as Beck and Beastie Boys' Money Mark. One can only wish they had a mentor like Bruce Haack, a dude so cool his swan song was a rap collaboration with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Packed with mind-blowing visuals, wild music and far out stories, Haack follows the King of Techno as he drops in on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and golden game show host Garry Moore."
NTSC format DVD video, Running time: 70 minutes. Audio: Dolby Digital; Aspect Ratio: 4 x 3; 5.1 surround sound."
Buy from Amazon.com
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Monday, April 04, 2005 ◦
WAITIKI: Exotic Tiki Entertainment From Polynesia & Beyond Presents...
An evening of the wacky & exotic sounds of Polynesian lounge.
Featuring the music of tiki lounge chief Martin Denny.
Friday, April 15, 2005 at The Shadow Lounge
5972 Baum Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA
All ages ($5 students - $7 general)
Doors open at 6pm. Hawaiian/"aloha" wear encouraged (coconuts & skirt optional). For more information, visit www.WAITIKI.com
The WAITIKI Experience is:
Jared "Chief Tupu" Laufou - woodwinds & watermelon
Brian "Mr. HO" O'Neill - vibraphone, piano, & percussion
Abe "Space Kadet" Lagrimas Jr. - drums & ukulele
Randy "Prof. Humming Flower" Wong - bass & bananas
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