hey louis, is young and sexy louis armstrong the ultimate blackface in this crazy minstrel show?

à celui qui vous demande: C'EST QUOI UN BLACK MINSTREL?, montrez ces images sublimes d'évidence sensuelle et théorique à la fois, où un très jeune armstrong joue au BLACK MINSTREL et au TRAVESTI: no use quoting nick tosches or jacques lacan, all is here: this is black minstrelsy in itself, as well as "travestissement" and queer theory...



louis armstrong/SHINE (1930), one of the best examples of BLACK MINSTREL VAUDEVILLE PARODY (he's at the same time a blackminstrel and a transgenre queen)...



here's where young sinatra learnt how to sing shine ... and other songs

hey louis, who's the best music writer, will friedwald or peter guralnick?

as far as music goes -be it jazz, blues, rock, pop-, i've never needed anybody's help in any way.
it's been more complicated with soul music, country music ... ... ...and with the infinite variety of jazz singers and crooners.two persons have helped me on the way.
the best writer on country music and soul music has always been peter guralnick (he's also the best on sam cooke, and he'll be soon the greatest authority ... on sam philips). he's taught me a lot.
all that peter guralnick loves, i have come to love and respect. there's not much i love that he doesn't love himself.
the best writer on jazz singing is will friedwald (the expression "jazz singing" is used because i haven't found any better one, but i could have called it light jazz, crooning, whatever ....)
all that i did not find out by myself on al bowlly, whispering jack smith, billie holiday, dean martin, dick haymes ... ... .... or frank sinatra, i have to admit i learnt from him, from his books and liner notes to be precise.
all that he loves, i have come to love and respect. without him, i may have ignored the great singing of jack teagarden, david allyn, mildred bailey, ukulele ike, connee boswell, ... .... ... or the only good ella fitzgerald record, let no man write my epitaph (now known as "the intimate ella")
but will friedwald has a problem: he only loves "strong" styles, and "big" voices, this is why he despises such great artists as sylvia syms, beverly kenney, jeri southern, irene kral, shirley horn, blossom dearie, or bobby troup.
he doesn't seem to know that less is more.
here's to bobby troup.

bobby troup/their hearts were full of spring (1958)

hey louis, from first black minstrel, emmett miller (1929) to last minstrel movie, rio bravo (1959), this here is transgenre territory....

emmett miller/dusky stevedore (1929)
emmett miller, a white man singing as a black minstrel as early as 1913, invented burlesque jazz, transvestite blues, second degree country music, ironic rock 'n roll ... as well as transgenre pop music of the 21st century: he was at the same time the beginning and the end of a great commercial art form ....

rio bravo/the ultimate minstrel show?
emmett miller was the beginning and the end of a great commercial expression (country, rock, pop, transvestite factory art, whatever ....) .... and the same goes for rio bravo: beginning and end of a great "art d'usine" called cinema ... in which john wayne is allegorically transforming himself into a fake woman, while angie dickinson goes for male position and male domination and impersonation ....
bert williams (the mississippi stoker, nov 1906), first black minstrel ever to record (beautifully remastered thanks to ARCHEOPHONE records), a black man disguised as a ... black man

emmett miller/sweet mamma (1929)
emmett miller est le début et la fin de la country, du rock, de la pop (comme rio bravo est le chef d'oeuvre ultime de l'art d'usine/cinéma et sa catastrophe annoncée)
tout ça, c'est juste une histoire des travestis ....

hey louis, did you produce these beverly kenney videos (and the two johnny hartman clips too)?

frank sinatra/beverly kenney/why try to change me now?
two splendid versions by sinatra (1952 and 1959 ) and before that, an even greater one by beverly kenney (1956)













johnny hartman/while we're young (1956)


... Je suis né en à Gurs à côté de Pau. Quand j’y suis né, en 1943, c’était un camp de concentration. Un camp de concentration en France, tu te fous de notre gueule, Skorecki ? Vous ne me croyez pas ? Cherchez sur Google, vous verrez si j’affabule. Cette histoire, la plus perso, la plus secrète, la plus intime, je ne vous en reparlerais plus jamais. Une fois, ça suffit.
Pourquoi Gurs, USA ? Pas à cause de Springsteen, que j’ai toujours trouvé lourdaud, mais à cause des USA. Tout mon paysage mental, depuis toujours, a toujours été américain. L’Amérique de Charlie Chaplin et de John Ford, l’Amérique de Jimmie Rodgers et de Bob Dylan. De ça aussi, du fait d’avoir été « born in the USA », je ne vous reparlerais plus jamais. Une fois, ça suffit.

beverly kenney/more than you know (one of the last songs, 1959)
On va parler de quoi alors? De crooners, de country, de Dylan. Beaucoup de Dylan. Cette chronique, j’avais d’abord pensé l’appeler LIKE A ROLLING STONE. C’est qu’une nuit de juillet 1965, figurez-vous, j’étais dans un studio d’enregistrement à New York, un studio où Dylan enregistrait le disque où allait figurer Like A Rolling Stone (qui venait de sortir en 45 tours, et faisait déjà figure d’hymne électrique et poétique pour une jeunesse déboussolée à la recherche d’un nouveau prophète). Ce disque sublime que j’ai vu se faire presque en entier en un jour et une nuit de défonce musicale, c’était Highway 61 Revisited. Vous ne me croyez pas ? Demandez à Dylan, il vous dira.

beverly kenney/dipsy doodle
very early pre-rock and roll song (1952)

beverly kenney/a woman's intuition (ellis larkins, piano, 1957)
En ce moment, je fais des efforts, j’écoute une chanteuse vivante. Elle s’appelle Shelby Lynne, son nouveau disque (Just A Little Lovin’/Lost Highway) est un hommage à Dusty Springfield, et surtout à son célébrissime lp enregistré à Memphis. Ce n’est pas une débutante...
..
shelby lynne/i only want to be with you (from new cd, just a little lovin'
. ... j’aime cent fois mieux la grande Melba Montgomery, connue pour ses beaux duos avec l’homme à la voix de miel, George Jones. Cherchez ses disques, ils sont difficiles à trouver mais vous ne le regretterez pas.

here's the great melba montgomrey that i compare in my article with "newcomer" shelby lynne (unfortunaly, melba's mosty dramatic video, NO CHARGE, has now been removed by youtube ....)
(à suivre dans ROLLING STONE)


beverly kenney/it only happens when i dance with you

hey skorecki, is it true you're writing again?
yes, every month i'll have my column in the new french edition of ROLLING STONE, i've found a title, BORN IN GURS, USA

frank sinatra/send in the clowns (carnegie hall, 1980)

sinatra, with strings (1958)/close to you





beverly kenney//i walk a little faster (1958)

hey louis, don't you think bob dylan never sang as well as in Melbourne, in 1966 (all these clips are produced by LES FILMS D'OCCASION)?

bob dylan/just like tom thumb's blues/melbourne, 19/20 april 1966



bob dylan/just like a woman/melbourne, 19/20 april 1966

melbourne 1966, one of the very best concerts of dylan's "career": drunk, stoned, or both ...whatever ...but greater and more poetic versions than the originals, most of them recorded just a few weeks earlier for the BLONDE ON BLONDE ALBUM (some tracks are from 1965's HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, an album almost done as a live improvised concert -i know, i was there in summer 1965, as a young french journalist, for more than half of the recording .. ampaings souvenirs of an incredibly creative artist, although high on rhum and coke/and cocaïne or heroin, or so it seemed... only charlie parker could do that)

POUR VOIR LA TOTALITé DU CONCERT MELBOURNE 66 DE DYLAN aller sur
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=106DE5C71D3F1FD5




bob dylan/on a rainy afternoon (1966)

bob dylan/i can't leave her behind (1966)
two beautiful unfinished songs from eat the document (1966),first film that dylan directed, or sort of directed (il a renié le film plus tard)
....
....
if you go to youtube and ask for eat the document, you'll be able to see a great part of the film.
span class="Apple-style-span" style="">if you want to see renaldo and clara (1975/76), go to
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=20FAA92D7E0D7344
it's divided in 54 parts, you'll see the whole of it

renaldo and clara (part 53, just like a waman/knockin' on heaven's door)

renaldo and clara is a masterpiece of images and music, with an idea of schizo-cinematography and split characters that dylan invented more than 30 years before todd haynes had his idea on a film on him.
here's what dylan had to say in 1976 about different actors playing bob dylan:
-in the movie, ronnie hawkins, a 300-pound canadian rock singer, goes by the name of bob dylan. so is there a real bob Dylan?
-dylan: in the movie, no. he doesn't even appear in the movie. his voice is there, his songs are used, but bob's not in the movie. it would be silly. did you ever see a picasso painting with picasso in the picture? you only see his work. now, i'm not interested in putting a picture of myself on the screen, because that's not going to do anybody any good, including me.
...the persona of bob dylan is in the movie so we could get rid of it. there should no longer be any mystery as to who or what he is-he's there, speaking in all kinds of tongues, and there's even someone else claiming to be him, so he's covered. this movie is obvious, you know. nobody's hiding anything. it's all right there. the rabbits are falling out of the hat before the movie begins.
-...but bob dylan and mrs. bob dylan are played by different people....
-oh, yeah.
-and you don't know for sure which one he is?
-sure. we could make a movie and you could be bob dylan, it wouldn't matter...
-but if there are two bob dylans in the film and renaldo is always changing....
-well, it could be worse, it could be three or four ...

...
...
...
look dow, look down, and seek your maker: CHECK CARDIFF 2000, best concert since MELBOURNE 1966
(see at april 8) or
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=96AA3B2855A55E6C

hey louis, why is johnny smith so underrated?

...
OF THESE THREE FABULOUS SINGERS OF THE MID FIFTIES, WITH THE GREAT JOHNNY SMITH playing his delicate guitar, who do you love best: the ever so shy jeri southern, the eternally young beverly kenney ... or the mysterious ruth price?

jeri southern/johnny smith/without a word of warning (1956)
un chef d'oeuvre d'équilibre entre la voix timidement sexy de jeri southern et le minimalisme cristallin de johnny smith, guitariste aux doigts d'eau, qui se glisse, timide lui aussi, derrière le piano de bob pancoast


ruth price/johnny smith/until the real thing comes along (1956)
une sublime ballade sentimentale signée cahn/chaplin, susurrée par la très méconnue ruth price, sur un lit de notes cristallines du grand johnny smith