50 mo

So nobody significant died in the last 24 hours, might be a good time to celebrate Motown's 50th. It was the week of January 12th, 1958 that Berry Gordy Jr. founded Tamla records on less than a thousand dollars. The sound he was to inspire became known as Motown, short for Motor Town, recognizing the influence the automobile making industry had on Detroit.

The hits that came out of Motown crossed a huge cultural divide with black and white youth dancing and romancing to the steady stream of pop, soul, r&b and ballads.

Can anyone not get down with these tunes?

- Stop! In the Name of Love - The Supremes. produced by his house gang, Holland-Dozier-Holland and backed by The Funk Brothers.

- The Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson

- Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops

- War -Edwin Starr version (not the Temptations one)

and finally the ultra smooth What's Going On by Marvin Gaye.

Get down. Pictured above is an early Funk Brothers lineup.

Kinda beer related.

Music and beer have long been willing bed mates so I think its fitting to
stray a little bit from the path and shine a light on some long
forgotten music. I speak of that wonderful Klesmer / Mambo hybrid, Bagels and Bongos.

Created by pianist Irving Fields in 1959, the music became an instant hit.
Fields was born in 1915 in New York and started playing piano
professionally from his teens onwards. He had to dress "old" to play at
bars and union gigs, and would sport a painted on mustache and a large
hat pulled down to hide his youth. His repertoire included hits of the day from Cole Porter and Gershwin to the classics.

At 17 he got a gig as a pianist for cruise ship on a run to Cuba and Puerto Rico (what a great job for a teenager!!) In Havana he fit right in with the local musicians. So much so he was often mistaken for a native Latin musician. Whilst sitting in with a local band one night he met Xavier Cugat, who, so the story goes, came up and just talked to him in Spanish, totally convinced he was the real deal. He had the genuine Latin feel in his playing.

Back in New York he played the Crest Room at the Waldorf Astoria and added the Latin sound to his New York roots. The place was packed every night and became the hip spot to be for celebs like Ava Gardner. RCA Vistor signed him and in 1946 he had his first big hit with Miami Beach Rhumba. The combination of well known, comfortable Jewish melodies set to swinging Latin beats was a recipe for success. Everyone wanted it.

He worked steadily for years playing the swankiest venues in the world. In 1959 he sealed his place in music history with the release of Bagels and Bongos. He said in an interview for the Montreal Mirror "Bagels and Bongos was Jewish music with Latin rhythms, and the wonderful thing about this music, this unique idea, was that it had no language barrier."

The concept was so succesful that RCA Victor had him do the same treatment to other ethnic sounds. Although commercially successful, I'm not sure about Pizza and Bongos or Bikinis and Bongos.

As with any trend, the pendulum swings both ways and as Vietnam and acid rock started to seep into muisc culture, the appetite fro Jewish/ Latin fusion wained. Fields kept working and returnd to the lounge circuit and has been playing ever since.

Old music I'm listening to.

Had a chance to listen to Art Tatum tonight. Its a recording with Benny Carter on sax and Louis Bellson on drums. He worked with many trios and they all were exceptional. From a Pablo recording called Group Masterpieces Volume 1. I'll get more info on this and where to buy later on. I'm a big Louis Bellson fan so this too cool.