From: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com (exotica-digest) To: exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: exotica-digest V2 #883 Reply-To: exotica-digest Sender: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes exotica-digest Tuesday, February 6 2001 Volume 02 : Number 883 In This Digest: (exotica) Fwd: Danger Diabolik Soundtrack (exotica) Kitten With A Whip Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip Re: (exotica) Rosemary Brown - A musical =?iso-8859-1?Q?s=E9ance?= REVIEW (exotica) love letter to a mailing list Re: (exotica) love letter to a mailing list Re: (exotica) Fwd: Danger Diabolik Soundtrack (exotica) [obuts] "Fast Eddie" Parker, Rito Romero Loza (exotica) Raymond Scott and other forgotten scores (exotica) [obit] Iannis Xenakis Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip (exotica) Scopitones in NYC (exotica) [obit] J.J.Johnson Re: (exotica) Playlists?? (exotica) Beatsploitation! (exotica) top 10 or 50 Exotica/Lounge records... Re: (exotica) Beatsploitation! (exotica) top 10 or 50 Exotica/Lounge records... (exotica) Magnus ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2001 11:43:01 -0500 From: "Br. Cleve" Subject: (exotica) Fwd: Danger Diabolik Soundtrack just got this from a friend - >In case anyone is interested... > >I bought a CD claiming to be the soundtrack to Danger Diabolik (for >about $30.00 I might add) >and got pretty much what I expected, semi-unfortunately. > >The CD is just excerpts from the actual movie and has that pre hi-fi >stereo tinny character. > >It's kind of a nifty little collector's package, but be warned, it is >not a "real" soundtrack album. br cleve # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 11:18:05 -0600 From: Matt Marchese Subject: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip Yesterday evening, I had the guilty pleasure of catching Ann-Margaret chew the scenery down to toothpicks in this classic JD film shown on AMC. It was pretty hilarious watching her smirk, grit her teeth, and scrunch her eyebrows to convey "bad girl" -- a method actress A-M wasn't -- she was about as threatening as a hyperactive prom queen with hemmorhoids. The beatnik bad guys were a veritable fount of classic Hollywood hipster dialogue ("Now cool it and co-exist!") and equally laughable threats. I was pleasantly surprised to see Doodles Weaver pop up. Anyway, I had missed the opening credits, so I waited patiently to catch the end in order to find out who had composed that groovy soundtrack of cool crimejazz, crazed bongo beats, and south-of-the-border sleaze, to no avail. A search of the 'Web came up empty as well. So therefore Exotica pals, I turn to you in my hour of need. Who scored this little gem of cheesy exploitation and is there a soundtrack LP out there hiding in a cardboard box in someone's garage just waiting to be found? - -- Matt Marchese "I've been havin' this nightmare.......a real swinger of a nightmare, too." -Frank Sinatra (The Manchurian Candidate) *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2001 13:01:45 -0500 From: "Br. Cleve" Subject: Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip At 11:18 AM -0600 2/4/01, Matt Marchese wrote: >Who scored this >little gem of cheesy exploitation and is there a soundtrack LP out there >hiding >in a cardboard box in someone's garage just waiting to be found? The score is comprised of music from the Universal library - chunks of it are from Mancini's score to "Touch of Evil". I recall the credit read "music supervised by Joseph Gershenson", who was the music super at Universal at the time. I've never seen a soundtrack listed anywhere. br cleve # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2001 13:17:15 -0500 (EST) From: Brett Leveridge Subject: Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip On Sun, 4 Feb 2001, Br. Cleve wrote: > The score is comprised of music from the Universal > library - chunks of it are from Mancini's score to > "Touch of Evil". I recall the credit read "music > supervised by Joseph Gershenson", who was the music > super at Universal at the time. I've never seen a > soundtrack listed anywhere. IMDB.com offers the following: Original music by William Loose (uncredited) Henry Mancini (uncredited) Carl W. Stalling (uncredited) Non-original music by Hans J. Salter (uncredited) Frank Skinner (uncredited) Herman Stein (uncredited) Brett ************************************************** Brett Leveridge's "Men My Mother Dated and Other Mostly True Tales" is now in a bookstore near you. Order signed copies at: http://www.menmymotherdated.com # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 21:41:10 +0100 From: Moritz R Subject: Re: (exotica) Rosemary Brown - A musical =?iso-8859-1?Q?s=E9ance?= REVIEW apart from the incredible strange liner notes.... is the record any good? Mo - -- studio R senses for a senseless world http://moritzR.de exotica@web.de # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 17:13:03 -0500 From: alan zweig Subject: (exotica) love letter to a mailing list Dear List I'm on this other mailing list. On that list, my posts have been censored, refused and edited. In addition I've received posts from the administration asking me to find a way to post without offending the sensibilities of other listmembers. Even while they told me this, they were quick to point out that I wasn't violating any of the rules or guidelines for posting. In fact I had already censored myself on that list, toned down my rhetoric. And I'd never flamed anyone (though there is one I'd like to flame.) But that's not good enough. Apparently my style of writing jumps off the page and offends "several" members there. It doesn't really surprise me that someone can be offended by an opinion or by the style in which that opinion is expressed. What surprises me is that people on an internet mailing list complain to the administration when they experience that offense. "Hey I didn't join this list to be assaulted by opinions!!!!" They want everything to be like a form letter. "Dear List, Can someone tell me about - fill in name of recording artist - ? I'm particular interested in the year and catalogue number of - fill in title of song - ?" It's richly ironic since I'm in the middle of proposing a new film which is basically about what it's like to live in a world where people are afraid to express an opinion. A world where you ask their opinion and they take a step backwards and then try to figure out the right answer. Anyway that's just an introduction to say that THIS list is pretty amazing. I've been here three years now. It has its ups and downs and long long dry spells. But it somehow manages to take care of itself and deal with people's personalities and differences. I would have thought that was the norm. I would have thought that any internet mailing list would acknowledge the beauty and the danger of the internet, namely the wide, wild range of uncontrollable opinions. For a long time I assumed that all lists were like this one because this was the first one I joined and the only one I was on for a long time. But sadly that isn't the norm. This list is quite atypical as it turns out. So congratulate yourselves. I especially want to thank those members who were on this list when I joined and are still on it. But I thank everyone. And the adminstration too. And if you run into BJ tell her we miss her. Same thing goes for Jack who I assume is lurking. You can be wrong all the time and still have a place on this list. Sylvester Stallone is on that Actors Studio interview show right now. I understand that next week it's going to be O.J. AZ AZ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2001 23:58:10 +0100 (CET) From: "Magnus Sandberg" Subject: Re: (exotica) love letter to a mailing list I thank you and join you. Last year was just movies for me (I bought a DVD player which resulted in a very expensive habit) but I just felt around christmas how much I missed exotica. I had lived a whole year away from my records (well not Eden Ahbez and a couple more). And I missed the list too with all its nice people. I am glad to be back. Magnus # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2001 20:20:10 -0800 From: "basic hip" Subject: Re: (exotica) Fwd: Danger Diabolik Soundtrack I picked up Diabolik just the other day from Intrada. I don't buy many CD's - about 1 to every 25 records - especially pricey imports! Or is this "limited edition" a bootleg? Probably. Anyway, I had heard alot of good things about this movie, and I love 60s soundtracks so I got it. Now it's up for grabs on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1408332247 Not because of poor sound quality which i really did not notice. sound quality is never very important to me, unless it is really bad, like borderline defective. about 10 minutes of the 48:00 minute disc are dialogue, which I can do without. Unless they are original trailers or spots! There are a number of variations on the main theme, Deep Down, some with vocals by Christy, some instrumental. I'm not sure about the reference to the nifty collector's package, as the front booklet is a single insert, there are no liner notes at all. Very similar in packaging quality to the exotica bootlegs that hit the shelves a few years back. I regret getting it now mainly because I'd rather put that kind of money toward vinyl originals and I'm not as thrilled as I should be. So, off to the auction block it goes... > just got this from a friend - > > >In case anyone is interested... > > > >I bought a CD claiming to be the soundtrack to Danger Diabolik (for > >about $30.00 I might add) > >and got pretty much what I expected, semi-unfortunately. > > > >The CD is just excerpts from the actual movie and has that pre hi-fi > >stereo tinny character. > > > >It's kind of a nifty little collector's package, but be warned, it is > >not a "real" soundtrack album. > > br cleve # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 00:33:32 -0500 From: Lou Smith Subject: (exotica) [obuts] "Fast Eddie" Parker, Rito Romero Loza HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) - Eddie Parker, the pool shark whose life was said to have inspired the movie ``The Hustler,'' has died of an apparent heart attack on South Padre Island. He was 69. Parker, known as ``Fast Eddie,'' died Friday night at the U.S. Classic Billiards Eight-ball Showdown, officials said. He is credited with inspiring Walter Tevis to write the book and screenplay for ``The Hustler,'' a 1959 film starring Paul Newman. Parker was born in Springfield, Mo. He mostly taught himself to play pool beginning at age 9, when his father bought a used table. Survivors include his wife, Peg. Funeral arrangements are pending. ================= info from Jose Fernandez at La Arena http://www.highspots.com/arena/ Rito Romero Loza was born on March 19, 1927 in a town near Acatic, Jalisco. He started out training at age 12. Around that time, they didn't let him into the gym "La Mutualista" because he had to be at least 15, but he became friends with a soccer player called Felipe Zetter, who talked to the owners so they let the kid join the gym. With him being from Guadalajara, lucha fans won't have a lot of trouble to figure out that the legendary Diablo Velasco trained him. He started out competing in Mexico, and then moved to Texas. Later on he moved to Los Angeles where he didn't get any titles but he became more popular to the point of even appearing on the cover of popular cinema magazines due to his work in Mexico as an actor of the lucha film genre. Romero also wrestled in New York, France, Egypt and other countries. He toured all over Europe with his friend Lou Thesz and there was was nicknamed "Rayo Mexicano". His biggest claim to fame is that he created the hold La Tapatia (The one from Jalisco), also known as the Romero Special. Rito was a technical master with an strong personality and he had a reputation as a tough guy that could handle himself very well in and out of the ring. He was a great performer and Lou Thesz himself considers him one of the best Mexican wrestlers he has ever seen along with Gory Guerrero and El Canek. Around 1960 he suffered a broken leg during a match in Houston against The Destroyer and he decided to quit wrestling. He retired without a lot of fanfare, and unlike other luchadores, he didn't leave in a bitter way as he kept being a fan. He, however, didn't like the way the business was changing as in his own words "nowadays any kid gets masked and believes he's a wrestler". He was checked into a Guadalajara hospital on January 16 because he had a high level of blood sugar. It was later discovered that he had an appendicitis so he had surgery. A day later, he was bored of being in bed at hospital so he unplugged himself and left. Five hospital workers tried to get him back in bed but he refused and during the "fight" he suffered a fatal heart attack. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2001 13:52:42 -0800 From: Kev Subject: (exotica) Raymond Scott and other forgotten scores Well, I'm at the parental abode today, and finally got a chance to dig up my stack o' vinyl and play some of it (yay Dad for scoring a turntable!). Found two bits of interest so far, that I'd forgotten about. First: "A Yank In Europe" by Ted Heath and his Orchestra subtitled: "The Music Of Raymond Scott" London ffrr LL1676 Interesting orchestrations of Scott tunes: Lady On The Riviera Garden In Versailles Nightfall In Venice Supper At The Savoy Visibility Limited English Channel Palma Majorca Talking Turkey Night Club In Sorrento Opening Chorus-Folies Bergere Train Ride In The Alps Blue Grotto In Capri London Airport One rather interesting bit about this album is, my copy has a mislabelded b-side. The label claims that side B is actually "Waltzes To Remember" by Frank Chacksfield. Fortunately, the B side is in fact the Ted Heath / Raymond Scott stuff. The other interesting bit o' vinyl I found is "Futura" by Bernie Green and his Orchestra. manic early stereo record with lots of bits travelling from left to right. Favorite bit in the liner notes: "What will popular music sound like in 1970?" This album was recorded in 1961, and has some interesting tape cut-up experimentation in it, anticipating sampling. Fun stuff. Off to go see what else I forgot I had... - -Kev. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 11:18:22 -0500 From: nytab@pipeline.com Subject: (exotica) [obit] Iannis Xenakis http://allclassical.com/cg/x.dll?p=acg&sql=1:8133 http://www.google.com/search?q=iannis+xenakis&btnG=Google+Search February 5, 2001 Iannis Xenakis, Composer Who Built Music on Mathematics, Dies at 78 By PAUL GRIFFITHS Iannis Xenakis, the Greek-French composer who often used highly sophisticated scientific and mathematical theories to arrive at music of primitive power, died yesterday at his home in Paris. He was 78. He had been in poor health for several years and lapsed into a coma several days ago, said Charles Zacharie Bornstein, a conductor who has championed his music. By training, Mr. Xenakis was an engineer and architect; his musical education came late. This enabled him largely to ignore conventional techniques of composition. He rejected the idea of intuitive or unreasoning randomness in composition, for example, and by constructing his works on laws and formulas of the physical sciences, he sought to control his music at every instant. He once said, "This is my definition of an artist, or of a man: to control." At first he depended on the use of mathematical models of disorder. By using calculations derived from, say, the numbers of different-sized pebbles on a shore, Mr. Xenakis could determine the pitches of notes or their placements in time. In this way he could create music with chaotic inner detail but a decisive shape or impulse. Typical examples of such partly randomized effects in a Xenakis composition might include a bundle of nonaligned upward slides on orchestral strings. Once computers became available to him in the early 1960's, Mr. Xenakis was able to work much faster. And however far removed he was from the tradition of Western classical music, he inevitably began to create a tradition of his own in composing so abundantly. Iannis Xenakis (pronounced YAHN-nis zen-NAHK-ess) was born into a prosperous family of Greek origin on May 29, 1922, in the Romanian town of Braila. His mother died when he was 6, and he was sent to the Greek island of Spetsai to be educated at a British-style boarding school. His musical studies began at the age of 12, and even then he intended to study both science and music. In 1938 he moved to Athens to prepare for admission to the Polytechnic School, where he enrolled in 1940 and graduated in 1947 as a civil engineer. He lived in Athens during the Italian and German occupations of World War II. For much of this time he was a member of the Communist resistance, which was directed at first against the Germans and Italians and then, when they were defeated, against the British. In 1945 he was struck by a shell fragment from a British tank and lost an eye and part of his cheek, leaving the left side of his face deeply scarred. "In Greece, the resistance lost, so I left in 1947," he once recalled. He moved to Paris ("In France, the resistance won"), where he found a job in architecture at Le Corbusier's studio. He was there from 1947 to 1959, and contributed to some of the studio's most important projects, including the pavilion for the Philips electronics company at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. He always maintained that the Philips Pavilion was entirely his own design, and certainly its simple but strikingly original geometry of curves and planes is worked out on principles very similar to those he had used in his first published composition, "Metastasis" for orchestra (1953-4). "Metastasis" came at the end of a period in which he studied with some of the leading composers in Paris. But he was a mature student, and perhaps all he could learn at this stage was how to avoid banality. His alternative was the extraordinary busy textures and clean shapes of "Metastasis." He showed this score to the conductor Hermann Scherchen, who became a fervent supporter. The first performance of "Metastasis," however, was led by Hans Rosbaud at the 1955 festival in Donaueschingen, Germany, one of the important meeting places of the European musical avant-garde. "Metastasis," largely built on glissandi of rising volume that could recall an airplane rising during takeoff, caused a sensation. Many young composers were impressed by Mr. Xenakis's sense of music as pure sound, but other musicians, notably Pierre Boulez, detected a lack of craftsmanship. Mr. Boulez was eventually persuaded to commission a score from Mr. Xenakis for his Domaine Musical concerts in 1963. He was rewarded by one of Mr. Xenakis's strongest pieces, "Eonta" for brass quintet and piano. But the antipathy between the two remained. Mr. Xenakis did not lack champions, however. Mr. Scherchen conducted the premiere of "Pithoprakta" for trombones, percussion and strings in 1957 and the premiere of "Achoripsis" for small orchestra the next year. A little later Gunther Schuller gave the composer his first American performance. George Balanchine stiched together two of his scores to create the ballet "Metastasis and Pithoprakta." Like other of his works, "Metastasis" and "Pithoprakta" were regulated by Poisson's Law of Large Numbers, which implies that the more numerous the phenomena, the more they tend toward a determinate end — as in flipping a coin. "I have tried to inject determinism into what we call chance," said Mr. Xenakis, who used the scientific word "stochastic" to give a name to this idea of probability in music. As the 1950's drew to an end, Mr. Xenakis started working in the electronic music studio of French radio, producing "Concret PH" for the Philips Pavilion. In 1961 he visited Tokyo for the first time and met the pianist Yuji Takahashi, for whom he wrote "Herma," a work of cascading complexity for solo piano. In 1963 came his first trip to the United States, to teach at Tanglewood. A Ford Foundation scholarship enabled him to spend 1964-65 in Berlin, and in 1966 he founded his own studio in Paris, the Équipe de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales. After that he focused his activities on Paris, while returning to the Greek islands for summer holidays and traveling the world to lecture and attend performances. His work with electronic music continued, notably in "Bohor" (1962) and in various projects combining electronic sound with laser projections. One of these was "Polytope de Cluny" (1972), devised for the Roman bathhouse in Paris. It was a good match. Rugged in construction, his music went well with ruins. In other works, he combined his music with literary ruins — texts from the Greek plays or other classical sources. One powerful example is "Ais" for amplified baritone, percussion and orchestra (1979), on lines from Homer and Sappho. Another piece in the same mode, "The Goddess Athena" (1992), for baritone and chamber ensemble, was performed late last month by the Met Chamber Ensemble at Weill Recital Hall. But Mr. Xenakis could also create a feeling of ancient drama, ceremony and intensity when using voices without words, as in "Nuits" for chorus (1967). That same feeling often persisted in the instrumental works that form the bulk of Mr. Xenakis's output: solo pieces of extreme virtuosity, chamber music, compositions for the standard modern-music ensemble and works for symphony orchestra. Percussionists enjoyed Mr. Xenakis's music for its vitality and drama, and the solo pieces "Psappha" (1975) and "Rebonds" (1988), as well as the sextet "Pleiades" (1978), became classics of the genre. His last work was a piece for percussion and ensemble, "O—mega" (1997). Mr. Xenakis became a French citizen and married a Frenchwoman, the writer Françoise Xenakis, who had been decorated for saving the lives of resistance fighters. He is survived by his wife and by his daughter, Mâhki. He wrote several books and essays on mathematics, architecture, town planning and music. These writings show how deeply he based his music on mathematics and logic. He rejected criticism that he wrote "a species of desensitized music." Asked once if he composed without sentiment, he answered: "Yes, if you mean that kind of traditional sentimental effusion of sadness, gaiety or joy. I don't think that this is really admissible. In my music there is all the agony of my youth, of the resistance," as well as "the occasional mysterious, deathly sounds of those cold nights of December '44 in Athens." "From this," he added, "was born my conception of the massing of sound events." # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 16:00:26 -0600 From: Matt Marchese Subject: Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip Brett Leveridge wrote: > Carl W. Stalling (uncredited) Wow. Well, the film *was* kinda cartoonish in spots... - -- Matt # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 19:49:53 -0500 From: "m.ace" Subject: Re: (exotica) Kitten With A Whip > > Carl W. Stalling (uncredited) > >Wow. Well, the film *was* kinda cartoonish in spots... Probably due to the scene with the television on, juxtaposing wacky AM and a wacky cartoon (w/ a Stalling score). m.ace mace@ookworld.com http://ookworld.com # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 07:22:19 From: jschwart@voicenet.com Subject: (exotica) Scopitones in NYC SCOPITONE PARTY Presented by The Secret Cinema and the University Program Board Roone Arledge Cinema, Alfred Lerner Hall Columbia University, 115th and Broadway Saturday, February 17, 5pm Admission: $5.00 For information: 212-854-8200 On Saturday, February 17 at 5pm, The Secret Cinema from Philadelphia will present SCOPITONE PARTY, a unique collection of music films from the early and mid 1960s. They were originally made for a French film jukebox called Scopitone, which entertained patrons in bars, cafes and bus stations in both Europe and America. The film clips, which feature performers both famous and obscure--and are considered to be among the more important of the many predecessors to the modern rock video--are today quite scarce, and usually difficult to see. The program will include a large assortment of the precious 16mm prints (most of which were discovered by a film collector, in pristine, never-used condition, in the long-warehoused inventory of a retired Virginia jukebox dealer). But adding interest to the SCOPITONE PARTY program will be a special talk about the history of film jukeboxes (which date back to the 1940s), illustrated with color slides of rare photos and original advertising materials. Scopitone Party will include performances by such well-known names as Dion, Nancy Sinatra, Paul Anka and Procul Harum. Also on view will be many French pop performers, including currently in retro-vogue names like Francoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, rockabilly-belting Johnny Hallyday, and doomed chanteuse Dalida. And then there are mystifying, bizarre clips by the British Elvis imitator Vince Taylor, a quartet of singing Jerry Lewis-types named Les Brutos, and even a few songs by performers whose names were lost to history. While some Scopitone films were included at the Secret Cinema EXOTICA MUSIC FILMS programs at Fez, this is Secret Cinema's first all-Scopitone presentation in New York. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:27:15 -0500 From: nytab@pipeline.com Subject: (exotica) [obit] J.J.Johnson http://www.jjjohnson.org http://www.elvispelvis.com/jjjohnson.htm http://www.trombone.org/default.asp http://allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=Bmmegebeeeeeeheba Modern Jazz Architect J.J. Johnson Commits Suicide Feb 5, 2001, 3:30 pm PT J.J. Johnson J.J. Johnson, the most influential trombonist in jazz history, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Indianapolis on Sunday (Feb. 4). Johnson, who was 77, had been suffering from prostate cancer and other irreversible health problems. February 6, 2001 J. J. Johnson, Jazz Trombonist, Dies at 77 By BEN RATLIFF J. J. Johnson, the most influential trombonist in postwar jazz, died on Sunday at his home in Indianapolis. He was 77. The Marion County Sheriff's Department reported the death as a suicide. Mr. Johnson translated the fast, linear style of bebop to the trombone in the late 1940's. "He was the definitive trombonist of the bebop generation," said the saxophonist Jimmy Heath, who played with him in the early 1950's and remained a close friend. "He didn't use the trombone as it was usually played, with the slide being the important part; he could speak the language of bebop with such clarity and precision. And everybody wanted to play trombone like that afterward." Mr. Johnson, born James Louis Johnson, started his music studies on the piano. He began listening to jazz in his early teenage years and switched to trombone in high school. In 1941, instead of going to college, he left Indianapolis to travel with the midwestern bands led by Snookum Russell and Clarence Love. Most of his influences, he told the writer Ira Gitler in "The Masters of Bebop: A Listener's Guide" (Da Capo Press), were not trombonists but trumpeters and saxophonists like Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. In transferring bebop to the trombone, he used a clean, dry tone and short notes. He was often wrongly assumed to be playing the valve trombone, which allows easier articulation than the slide trombone. He did acknowledge the influence of Fred Beckett, a trombonist who played with Harlan Leonard and Lionel Hampton in the 1930's and 40's. Leonard, Mr. Johnson once explained, "was the first trombonist I ever heard play in a manner other than the usual sliding, slurring, lip-trilling or gutbucket style." Returning to Indianapolis for a time, he was hired by Benny Carter in 1942 and spent three years in Carter's big band. In 1945 he joined the Count Basie Orchestra for a short period before becoming a bandleader in his own right. For the next nine years Mr. Johnson balanced his bandleading career with jobs as a sideman, playing with Parker, Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Woody Herman, Miles Davis and others. But the work wasn't enough to support a family, so Mr. Johnson, ever curious about electronic equipment, took a two-year job with the Sperry Gyroscope Company as a blueprint inspector. In 1954 the Savoy label decided to record him and the trombonist Kai Winding in a double-trombone front line, a format that proved to be a hit. Jay & Kai, their band, allowed Mr. Johnson to quit his day job and was one of jazz's most popular acts until it disbanded in 1956. Mr. Johnson was an admirer of Hindemith, Stravinsky and Ravel, and after his part in the famous "Birth of the Cool" nonet recordings of 1949 with Davis and Gil Evans, he soon got involved in the new large- ensemble jazz as a composer. His first large-scale work was the four- part "Poem for Brass," included on Columbia's "Music for Brass" album of 1956, a sort of recorded manifesto of the Third Stream movement, conducted by Gunther Schuller. He wrote two pieces commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1959: "El Camino Real" and "Sketch for Trombone and Orchestra." And Gillespie, after hearing "Poem for Brass," asked Mr. Johnson to write him a whole album's worth of music in a similar style. The result was "Perceptions," a 1961 35- minute suite including six trumpets, four French horns and two harps. From 1967 to 1976, Mr. Johnson barely recorded, devoting his energy to composing. In 1967, through the help of the film composer Elmer Bernstein, he got a job as staff composer and conductor for M.B.A. Music in New York, a company that provided music for television commercials. He moved to Los Angeles in 1970, writing and orchestrating music for films like "Barefoot in the Park," "Scarface," "Trouble Man" and "Sea of Love." Despite his prolific career as a composer, Mr. Johnson's skill as a trombonist did not dull, even into his 60's and 70's. He was a firm believer in practicing every day, and his strength is fully evident in "Quintergy" and "Standards," albums recorded live at the Village Vanguard in 1988. In the 1990's, under contract with the Verve label, Mr. Johnson created some ambitious recordings, including "Tangence," a collaboration with the arranger and film composer Robert Farnon; "The Brass Orchestra," which presented music ranging from bebop to selections from "Perceptions"; and "Heroes," an innovative straight-ahead jazz sextet album. Mr. Johnson returned to Indianapolis with his first wife, Vivian, in 1987 and finally retired from public performance in 1997, refusing to play when he wasn't in top form. He had survived prostate cancer and spent much of his spare time in his home studio, mastering the new hard-drive technology for composing and recording. He is survived by his second wife, Carolyn; two sons, Kevin and William, both of Indianapolis; a stepdaughter, Mikita Sanders, of Indianapolis; a granddaughter; a stepgranddaughter; and a sister, Rosemary Belcher of Denver. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 15:28:51 From: "Robert McKenna" Subject: Re: (exotica) Playlists?? Nobody seems to answer this, and I've been away from the internet for a few days so... Some people don't like people posting lists, I do. Some people don't really care one way or another about tikis, but wouldn't dream of complaining about everyone else's right to talk about an exotica related topic of great interest to a large number of the list. I like to hear of new records I might want to listen to. I also like to read stimulating argument and robust exchanges of views rather than only lists of records as Nat might say. Sorry Alan. So send away and those people not appreciating it will press delete anyway. I'll read. Thanks for those interesting playlists Cheryl and Brian, always a source of interest to me. rob _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:19:21 -0600 From: "Phil Ford" Subject: (exotica) Beatsploitation! Someone recently mentioned lame Hollywood-style hipster dialogue in "Kitten with a Whip" ("Now cool it and co-exist!"), which got me thinking about one of my pet things -- mass-media depiction/exploitation of hipster/countercultural types. Think of all those crazed-murderer hippies (e.g. in Dirty Harry) that suddenly appeared after the Charles Manson case. Anyhow, I'm especially interested in film depictions of hip subcultures before the 1960s. Does anyone have any favorite Beatsploitation movies to recommend? (Or albums, I suppose. Is there such a thing as Beatsploitation music?) I just read a really horrible novel by Bernard Wolfe, probably best known as the ghost writer for Mezz Mezzrow's autobiography, which was maybe the first big work of hipster lit. The novel is called "The Magic of their Singing," and features Beatniks getting naked and smoking weed to the strains of "Muskrat Ramble". (Something wrong with that picture.) Very obscure, and for many good reasons . . . Phil # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 11:25:14 -0500 From: edowning@lightbridge.com Subject: (exotica) top 10 or 50 Exotica/Lounge records... Just wondering if anyone had done a top "whatever number" of Exotica/Lounge records, yet...I know certain web-related sites give there polls but just wondering about the listeners out there, if they have given their word... This is kinda cool for beginner Exotica listeners...like myself... Thanks... Eric # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 10:55:34 -0600 From: Matthew Marchese Subject: Re: (exotica) Beatsploitation! Phil Ford wrote: > > Does anyone have any favorite Beatsploitation movies to > recommend? (Or albums, I suppose. Is there such a thing as Beatsploitation > music?) Hi Phil, Sure, there are a bunch of stereotyped beatnik portrayals in film. Check out the following nicely done URL for a small cross-section: http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/0896August/Automedia/beatnik.html I'm quite partial to Roger Corman's low-budget beatnik flick "Bucket of Blood", myself. - -- Matt Marchese mattm@sgi.com http://reality.sgi.com/mattm_americas/ Service Publications and Training, Silicon Graphics, Inc. "If there's no ear then there's no sound if there's no tree then there's no ground" -Imperial Teen *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 12:52:08 -0500 From: Peter Gingerich Subject: (exotica) top 10 or 50 Exotica/Lounge records... Funny you should bring it up since I was thinking the same thing for awhile and hadn't broached the subject. It would be interesting to create it here with feedback from the listees. And I think a trick would be to avoid say, all of Esquivels albums, but a 'best of' of each artist..... On that note I would nominate 'Orienta' by the Marko Polo Adventurers. Another album someone here is into is 'Ports of Call' by Les Baxter. (this is from memory, so I might be a bit hazy on proper titles or spellings...) What say the rest of you? pg # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 19:36:59 +0100 From: Moritz R Subject: (exotica) Magnus Looks like Magnus already left the list again. Mo - -- studio R senses for a senseless world http://moritzR.de ......................................................................... n.e.u. Thierschstrasse 43 D 80538 Munchen Germany # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ End of exotica-digest V2 #883 *****************************