Funny how some songs capture a time and a moment. Late 1982, Merlin was in town and though he was subletting the Trockadero Loft in Chelsea on Sixth Avenue, we had checked into the Chelsea Hotel – why did it have to close? – for a romantic weekend. The Chelsea had always been Merlin’s favourite New York Hotel. Merlin chose a suite on the third floor. The first night as we staked a passionate claim on each other’s hearts, from the suite above, one of Hotel Chelsea’s many tenants played this song over and over and over and over through the night. The room was too hot and it wasn’t too cold that night; so, we left the window opened a crack whilst we loved, sinned and forged our bond anew in this lifetime to Frank Sinatra’s stellar magic.
Photo: Promotional studio portrait of Frank Sinatra, 1950s. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol. On this the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s birth, I thought to pay tribute to one of the most inspiring creative geniuses to have ever graced this world. This is a work by Andy Warhol which is part of the Revolver Gallery’s Andy Warhol: Revisited – A Pop Art Exhibition in Yorkville at 77 Bloor Street West, Toronto. One of the truly fantastic shows to have graced Toronto in long ages.
I finally got to attend a couple of weeks ago with my brother and my only nephew – in town for the summer from the Bahamas. We had a good visit and the show was the most spectacular show I have seen in long ages. Beautifully curated and just intimate enough that it doesn’t end up being overwhelming or, more importantly, underwhelming.
Michael Jackson: August 29, 1958 [-O-] June 25, 2009.
Here’s a dream, previously shared in this unique and utterly unrivalled blog of mine, of Michael Jackson being his marvellously shamanic wonderful self. I love you more, Michael – sweet and blissful dreams.
Happy 148th Canada – for more than half my life, I have had some truly remarkable, uplifting experiences whilst living here. Too, I shared a great love with my Canadian-born task companion, Merlin.
Regrettably, I could neither find the dimensions nor year of creation for the masterful Charles Pachter flag which I would presume is an Oil on Canvas.
Happy Canada Day – my life experience has been immensely enriched for having remained focussed here in this great land.
The most soulful laugh and there was never anything that you could ask Archie about music playing at the Underground Railroad Restaurant that he didn’t know and could provide some wickedly funny anecdote about said piece of music and the artists associated.
Archie playing during the Cabbagetown Festival a couple of years ago.
Goodnight and the sweetest dreams be yours dear, noble Sir.
Composition: Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog Jr. c. 1939
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Fine and Mellow
Written: Billie Holiday c. 1939
Live TV recording 1957.
Voice: Billie Holiday
Piano: Mal Waldon
Double Bass: Milt Hinton
Guitar: Danny Barker
Tenor Saxophone: BenWebster & Lester Young & Coleman Hawkins
Baritone Saxophone: Gerry Mulligan
Trombone: Vic Dickenson
Trumpet: Doc Cheatham & Roy Eldridge
Drums: Osie Johnson
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Strange Fruit
Written: Abel Meeropol c. 1937
Composition: Billie Holiday c. 1939
Voice: Billie Holiday.
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Lover Man, Oh Where Can You Be.
Written: Jimmy Davis & Roger Ramirez & James Sherman c. 1941
Live performance 1958, Oakdale Music Theater, Wallingford, Connecticut.
Voice: Billie Holiday
Piano: Mal Waldron
Bass: Milt Hinton
Trumpet: Buck Clayton
Drums: Don Lamond
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One of my all-time favourite Billie Holiday tunes. I first fell in love with it whilst working at the Underground Railroad Restaurant on King Street East just west of Sherbourne Street back in the late 1970s – all whilst finding time to run around the city taking ballet class and studying in high school then later at York University – when Salome Bey was doing her Cabaret show and her husband, Howard Matthews was part owner, along with Jazz drummer, Archie Alleyne. There was an intense and wonderful Jazz education!
Too, there was that memorable Sunday Brunch in late 1982 at the actress, Patricia Neal’s grand Upper West Side apartment which Merlin took on a short-term sublet. Frederick Jones and his Puerto Rican-born lover were there, along with a couple of dancer friends of mine and, of course, fellow dancer and friend of Merlin’s, Miguel Godreau.
Merlin the night we met, Friday, October 1, 1982, had excused himself from dinner at the Afro-Cuban restaurant, around from my West 49th Street apartment, on 9th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen. He had gone to make a phone call – ah yes, there was an age before the cellphone’s ubiquity – and cancelled getting together with Miguel. They had been dating after Miguel had appeared in Ken Russell’s 1980 film, Altered States starring, William Hurt and who at that time was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Just in case, I had proven an utter bore, Merlin had made alternate plans; however, after I had passed most of dinner to the groovy music massaging his burgeoning lap across the deuce from me with my nimbly dexterous pointed feet, Miguel did not stand a chance.
Besides, one does not exactly say no to one’s task companion when first meeting on the physical plane… again, especially when it was planned. In any event, after fruit-filled pancakes drowned in Canadian maple syrup, Merlin and I – who by then had had multiple ménage-à-trois with Miguel – blew each other soft kisses whilst he sat admiringly looking at Miguel and me slow dance to this truly haunting tune.
Merlin almost never danced; however, our pas de deux between the sheets has left Merlin an unsurpassed lover of magical skills.
Happy Birthday Billie Holiday and, wherever you are, may your current incarnation be a most blessed lucid dream. You know, I really ought to do her overleaves…
Various artists. I dare you listen to this without hitting the repeat button at least twice. Music is life – what in the hell do you know about living talking jive ’bout “Jazz has its roots in klezmer.” Shit is so not cool!
Dreams are the poetic expression of the soul. 