tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29752105147882605102024-03-19T01:37:33.483-04:00Old Mon MusicPittsburgh soundsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger302125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-14474518807219838912016-09-25T00:25:00.000-04:002016-09-25T09:37:18.605-04:00Laurels Reunion Nov 12Circle the date and don't be late...<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-8482833770074293482015-06-04T13:33:00.002-04:002015-06-11T18:09:47.697-04:00The Summer Slate of Free Concerts...<div style="text-align: center;">
Summertime - hot jams, hot bands, and free!</div>
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June 4 - Hawaiian Entertainment Inc (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
June 4 - Walk of Shame (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
June 5 - Who's Bad (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater) <br />
June 5 - Jenny Lewis (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 5 - Jenkins & Crum (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 5 - Donna Groom (7:30, South Park Amphitheater) <br />
June 6 - Railroad Earth (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 6 - Poogie Bell Band (7, Riverview Park) <br />
June 7 - Alvvays (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 7 - Pittsburgh Opera (7:30, Hartwood Acres) <br />
June 8 - PSO and Opera in concert (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 9 - The Felice Brothers, Hurray for the Riff Raff (7-9:30, Point State Park)<br />
June 10 - Milo Greene (8:30-9:30, Point State Park)<br />
June 10 - Shinizyn (7, Flagstaff Hill) <br />
June 11 - Rachel B (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
June 11 - Wolves in Sheeps Clothing (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
June 11 - Rhiannon Giddens (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 12 - Richard Thompson (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 12 - Corey James (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 12 - Field Report w/Andre Costell & The Cool Minors (7:30, South Park Amphitheater) <br />
June 13 - Neko Case (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 13 - The Charlie Barath/Jason Born Blues Duo (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 13 - Max Leake (7, Riverview Park) <br />
June 14 - Benjamin Booker (7:30-9, Point State Park)<br />
June 14 - Randy Baumann's Hartwood Ramble w/Scott Blasey, Rob James, Casey Hanner & More (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
June 17 - Ferla-Marcinizyn Band (7, Flagstaff Hill) <br />
June 18 - Tony Barge (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
June 18 - Scheer Element (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
June 19 - Head Games (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
June 19 - Michael Christopher (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 19 - Stella Jamesw/Sydney Hutchko (7:30, South Park Amphitheater)<br />
June 20 - Nightly Standard (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 20 - Yoko Suzuki (7, Riverview Park)<br />
June 21 - Joel Lindsay Trio (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 21 - Steel City Harmonizers (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park) <br />
June 21 - Billy Price Band (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
June 24 - Bobby Short Band (7, Flagstaff Hill)<br />
June 25 - The Navy Band Northeast (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
June 25 - Mia Z (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
June 25 - The Squirrel Hillbillies (5-7, Shady Side School, Braddock Avenue) <br />
June 26 - Good Guys Acoustic Duo (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 26 - Eve 6 (7:30, South Park Amphitheater) <br />
June 27 - Blues Brotherhood (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
June 27 - Martin Sexton, Lone Bellow, Kopecky, Brightside (6, Schenley Plaza)<br />
June 27 - Mark Ferrari (6-9, South Side Works Town Square) <br />
June 27 - Chris Higbee (7, Walnut Street)<br />
June 27 - Roger Humphries (7, Riverview Park)<br />
June 27 - <span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 21.466667175293px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Allegheny Drifters & Shelf Life String Band (7:30 - Chatham's Eden Hall Campus)</span></span><br />
June 28 - Quinta Voce Wind Quartet (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park) <br />
June 28 - Bastard Bearded Irishmen & The Hawkeyes (7:30, Hartwood Acres) <br />
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July 1 - Gypsy Jazz Trio (7, Flagstaff Hill)<br />
July 2 - Barbershop Harmony Groups (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
July 3 - Pure Gold (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
July 3 - PSO (7:30, South Park Amphitheater) <br />
July 4 - No Bad Juju (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
July 5 - River City Brass (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park) <br />
July 5 - PSO (8, Hartwood Acres)<br />
July 8 - L'Lamint (7, Flagstaff Hill)<br />
July 9 - Jeff Jimerson (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
July 9 - Lions in America (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
July 10 - Blue Oyster Cult (7:30, South Park Amphitheater) <br />
July 11 - Deutschtown Music festival (7-11; 100 bands, 15 venues, E. Ohio St.)<br />
July 11 - Kenia (7, Riverview Park) <br />
July 12 - Aoelian Winds (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park) <br />
July 12 - Matt Kearney (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
July 15 - Muddy Kreek Blues Band (7, Flagstaff Hill)<br />
July 16 - Pittsburgh Blues Festival (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
July 16 - The Nied's Hotel Band (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
July 16 - Melinda Colaizzi (5-7, Shady Side School, Braddock Avenue) <br />
July 17 - Chris Higbee & The Hobbs Sisters (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
July 17 - Chris Smither w/Rusty Belle (7:30, South Park Amphitheater) <br />
July 18 - Good Vibrations (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
July 18 - Thomas Wendt (7, Riverview Park)<br />
July 19 - Timbeleza, Tim Tembo, The Hills & Rivers, PARTY (noon-9, Polish Hills Art Festival) <br />
July 19 - West Hills Symphonic Band (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park) <br />
July 19 - Spanish Harlem Orchestra tribute to Billy Strayhorn (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
July 22 - Center Stage Band (7, Flagstaff Hill) <br />
July 23 - Verdict (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
July 24 - Joe Lagnese Swingtet 8, Johnny Nagel, Debbie Zugates (7:30, South Park Amphitheater)<br />
July 25 - Dancing Queen (7, Walnut Street) <br />
July 25 - Velvet Heat (7, Riverview Park) <br />
July 26 - Trillium Ensemble (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park)<br />
July 29 - Justin Fabus Band (7, Flagstaff Hill)<br />
July 30 - Christmas in July entertainment (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
July 30 - Skinny Tie Club (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
July 31 - Asbury Fever Heat w/Vince Lopez (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
July 31 - Red Baraat w/Rachel B (7:30, South Park Amphitheater) <br />
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August 1 - Full Moon Fever (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
August 1 - John Hall (7, Riverview Park)<br />
August 1 - Robert Randolph & the Family, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Pandemic, The Commonheart, AFROHEAT, Clock reads (3-9, "Feastival" McKees Rocks Muni Bldg Lot) <br />
August 2 - Tom Roberts (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park)<br />
August 2 - Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra (5, Highland Park) <br />
August 2 - Bootsy's Rubber Band (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
August 5 - Bridgette Perdue (7, Flagstaff Hill)<br />
August 6 - Andy's Jazz (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
August 6 - The Annajames Band (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
August 6 - The Squirrel Hillbillies (7-8:45, Mt. Lebanon Library)<br />
August 6 - SSA Jazz Combo (5-7, Shady Side School, Braddock Avenue) <br />
August 7 - Paul Luc & The Commonheart (7:30, South Park Amphitheater)<br />
August 8 - Donna Davis (7, Riverview Park) <br />
August 9 - Klezlectic (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park)<br />
August 9 - Boilermaker Jazz Band (5, Highland Park) <br />
August 9 - Eileen Ivers (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
August 12 - Maria Wilson Music (7, Flagstaff Hill) <br />
August 13 - Kid Icarus (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
August 13 - Steel City Ukulele (7-8:45, Mt. Lebanon Library)<br />
August 14 - Johnny Angel & the Halos; Melvin Steals (7, Rivers Casino Outdoor Amphitheater)<br />
August 14 - Southside Johnny & the Asbury Dukes w/Joe Grushecky (7:30, South Park Amphitheater)<br />
August 15 - Kevin Howard (7, Riverview Park) <br />
August 16 - East Hills Symphonic Band (10:30-12:30, Mellon Park)<br />
August 16 - Blink (5, Highland Park)<br />
August 19 - The Grid (7, Flagstaff Hill)<br />
August 20 - Irish Day (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
August 20 - Amber Alexis (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
August 20 - RML Jazz (7-8:45, Mt. Lebanon Library)<br />
August 21 - Dirty Dozen Brass Band (7:30, South Park Amphitheater)<br />
August 22 - Radio Tokyo (7, Walnut Street) <br />
August 22 - Reggie Watkins (7, Riverview Park)<br />
August 23 - Elevations (5, Highland Park) <br />
August 23 - Howard Jones (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
August 26 - GumBand (7, Flagstaff Hill) <br />
August 27 - The House Band (12-1, Mellon Square Park)<br />
August 27 - Mt. Lebanon HS String Quartet (7-8:45, Mt. Lebanon Library)<br />
August 28 - Tamburitzans (7:30, South Park Amphitheater)<br />
August 29 - Dwayne Dolphin (7, Riverview Park)<br />
August 30 - Wilson/Barnes/Throckmorton Trio (5, Highland Park) <br />
August 30 - River City Brass Band (7:30, Hartwood Acres)<br />
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September 3 - PSO (11:30-1:30, Market Square) <br />
September 4 - Dancing Queen (7:30, South Park Amphitheater)<br />
September 6 - Etta Cox (5, Highland Park)<br />
September 17 - JD Eichler (11:30-1:30, Market Square)<br />
September 24 - Pittsburgh Opera (11:30-1:30, Market Square)<br />
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October 1 - Pittsburgh Opera (11:30-1:30, Market Square)<br />
October 8 - Andy's Jazz (11:30-1:30, Market Square)<br />
October 15 - Tori Plack (11:30-1:30, Market Square)<br />
October 22 - Bridgette Perdue (11:30-1:30, Market Square) Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-55146200678968871162015-04-18T22:01:00.000-04:002015-04-19T08:09:47.338-04:00Ed Salamon's Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_oTzSRiPbvo/VTMJ8zuAJvI/AAAAAAAAMIY/WG66zS8awbo/s1600/Ed_Salamon_DonnyIris_JimmyRoss_BennyFaiello-RRReunion-JaggerzPaulMartello.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_oTzSRiPbvo/VTMJ8zuAJvI/AAAAAAAAMIY/WG66zS8awbo/s1600/Ed_Salamon_DonnyIris_JimmyRoss_BennyFaiello-RRReunion-JaggerzPaulMartello.jpg" height="281" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: blue;">Donny Iris, Ed Salamon, Jimmy Ross & Benny Faiello (Credit: Paul Martello)</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Ed Salamon has followed up his 2010 "Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Radio" with a new book titled "Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Rock and Roll" (Archer Books) that recalls the city's bands and the deejays that worked with them from the 1950s through the 1970s.<br />
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Dedicated to Porky Chedwick, Lou Christie wrote the foreword for "Rock and Roll," which was just released this month. The book features more than 325 photos of the artists who rocked the area during its heyday jammed into its 256 pages. You'll get all the big names you'd expect, from the Del Vikings to the Silencers, and quite a few that you'll have to dig deep into the memory banks to recall, like Frankie Czuri, Johnny Jack, the Fenways, the Mon-Vales, Donnybrooks, Blenders, Windsors, Royaltones and Baldwin's Four Seasons among many more acts.<br />
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Ed explained the spectrum by telling Scott Mervis of the <i>Post Gazette </i>that “Rock ’n’ roll was not just made by major artists. It was made by the artists that played at the school dances, that played locally in clubs, that had records on the radio stations in Pittsburgh side by side with the Beatles and Elvis. They were just as important to people in Pittsburgh as those artists who made it nationally.”<br />
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Salamon comes by his love of Pittsburgh music honestly. He grew up in Brookline, and like many kids of his his era, had his radio tuned to Porky and hit all the teen clubs and hops. Ed was even a guitarist for a local band, the Headliners. He started in the music profession at KDKA radio in 1970 and moved on to WEEP before his career took him to New York. He formed The United Stations Radio Network in 1981 with Dick Clark and became the president of programming for Westwood One in 1993. Today, he's based in Nashville with several industry irons in the fire.<br />
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We'd be a little surprised if you missed the release; Ed was here for the "Pittsburgh Rockin' Reunion," had a story in the <i>Post Gazette</i> and has been interviewed by just about all the local radio stations. But the next couple of promotions may be worth circling on the calendar.<br />
Ed is turning his book signings into events; along with his John Hancock, there will be an opening band and panel of 'Burg music elite, free and open to the public:<br />
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<b>Wednesday, April 22, 6:00 PM @ Barnes and Noble, 800 Settlers Ridge Center</b> - Panel discussion with Jimmie Ross, Billy Price and Jack Stanizzo, followed by a book signing.<br />
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<b>Monday, April 27, 7:00 PM Mt. Lebanon Library, 16 Castle Shannon Boulevard</b> - Panel discussion with Jimmy Beaumont, Joe Gruschecky and Johnny Angel followed by a book signing.<br />
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Before each meeting of the minds, the event will kick off with be an acapella performance by the Dantes, whose “Top Down Time” and "How Many Times" were local hits in the mid-sixties, and just maybe a mystery guest or two featured in the book will pop up.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_qcR6MMtIOI/VTMJpR9U6UI/AAAAAAAAMIQ/2LXt_lhiImE/s1600/golden_age_of_RnR_cover-salamon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_qcR6MMtIOI/VTMJpR9U6UI/AAAAAAAAMIQ/2LXt_lhiImE/s1600/golden_age_of_RnR_cover-salamon.jpg" height="400" width="338" /></a></div>
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Ed told us that the book is available on Amazon.com and other online book sellers, including BarnesandNoble.com. If you can't wait, Barnes and Noble at Settlers Ridge, Attic Records in Millvale, Johnny Angel’s Ginchy Stuff in Brighton Heights and the University of Pittsburgh Book Store in Oakland have the paperback in stock.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-56451176134764668242014-11-27T11:24:00.003-05:002014-11-27T11:24:52.564-05:00Slim and the Gang - Live From Neids Hotel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8yyp24uY8tc/VHdMyRTPk3I/AAAAAAAAGRI/OCbrwPTEM6Y/s1600/slim_forsythe-rich-coda-photography.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8yyp24uY8tc/VHdMyRTPk3I/AAAAAAAAGRI/OCbrwPTEM6Y/s1600/slim_forsythe-rich-coda-photography.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Slim Forsythe (photo by <a href="http://codaphoto.com/jim-krenn-alive/">Rich of Coda Photography</a>)</span></i></div>
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Kevin "Slim" Forsythe, Lawrenceville's country institution based out of Nied's Hotel on Butler Street, has released his first pilot for what he hopes will become a televised musical series "Live From Nied's Hotel."<br />
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Forsythe may be strumming and singing to one of America's oldest genres, but he raised funds (and awareness) for the show in a decidedly 21st century manner - he started a Kickstarter campaign in the spring, raising over $10,000 to shoot the first episode.<br />
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With the seed money in hand, he brought in the <a href="http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/meet-the-beagles/Content?oid=1535753">Beagle Brothers</a> and <a href="http://mollyalphabet.com/">Molly Alphabet</a>, a pair of the area's better known country acts, to share the Nied's stage this summer. Just as importantly, a crew directed by Dino DiStefano, a Grammy-winning music producer who has recorded as the sound engineer on WQED TV's "Live from Studio A" and at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild, captured the show on tape. It's a first-class effort all around.<br />
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The performances are all top shelf, with mostly original songs with some distinctive lyricism and local name-dropping. The show is nicely paced thanks to the round table vignettes between melodies.<br />
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The Beagle Brothers ("The Architects of the Bloomfield Sound") reminisce about their start from St. Mary's, from getting their name from some backyard pooches and progressing from punk to rock (Slim himself started with ATS) to country. Molly explains how her typically Lawrenceville name of Molly Szramowski was transformed into the more user-friendly Molly Alphabet by an old country singer from the Great Plains.<br />
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Slim goes through his changes - fittingly for a country singer, he's been everything from a bus driver to attorney, with a couple of City Hall stops thrown in, and lives over a bar. He picked up his name to commemorate Pittsburgh's country legend <a href="http://oldmonmusic.blogspot.com/2008/04/eeny-meeny-dixie-deeny.html">Slim Bryant</a>, who led the Wildcats and traces his roots back to Jimmy Rodgers. Slim's dad Frank was a big band singer, working with another seminal Pittsburgh Sound personality, <a href="http://oldmonmusic.blogspot.com/2013/02/lennie-martin.html">Lennie Martin</a>.</div>
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So come for the show and stay for the stories; it's an entertaining and tightly played opening act for the dream of a long run.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-91471332402362099152014-06-20T23:01:00.000-04:002014-06-20T23:11:04.629-04:00Tuesday Musical Club<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WDB_9cGUr-A/U6Tqs9ez3uI/AAAAAAAABX8/Dv0QqrizDVM/s1600/stephen_foster_tuesday-club-prez-dedication.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WDB_9cGUr-A/U6Tqs9ez3uI/AAAAAAAABX8/Dv0QqrizDVM/s1600/stephen_foster_tuesday-club-prez-dedication.jpg" height="247" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;"><i>The living presidents of the TMC at the Stephen Foster Memorial dedication in 1937</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;"><i>(Photo credit: The Pittsburgh Tuesday Musical Club)</i></span></span></div>
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The Tuesday Musical Club is a non-profit, small arts group that provides free concerts of classical, chamber and contemporary music, music scholarships and stage opportunities for members. They're one of the many long-running and dedicated but under-the-radar organizations that keep Southwest PA a vibrant cultural region.<br />
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In 1889, the year Schenley Park was born, Andrew Carnegie was revolutionizing the steel industry and Gustav Mahler's First Symphony premiered in Budapest, a handful of prominent women in Pittsburgh formed a musical club. These female musicians, whose social status shut them out from doing anything professionally in a male-dominated age (this was way before Madonna), organized private recitals of classical music.<br />
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First calling their group Tuesday Afternoon Musicale (The Tuesday Afternoon Club concept was common back in the day; at least a dozen other cities had groups with the same, or very similar, names), their first performances were held in the rooms of the Mozart Club in the Hostetter Building on Fourth Avenue, by permission of Henry Clay Frick, a trustee. After a year, the performances were moved to the music room of Eleanor & Christopher Magee's mansion in Oakland, "The Maples," on the site of today's UPMC Magee Hospital.<br />
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In 1902, the club admitted non-musicians as associate members, resulting in larger audiences and more presentations. They played in top flight halls like the Schenley Hotel, Soldiers and Sailors Hall, the Masonic Club, and the Fort Pitt Hotel. <br />
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The hall-to-hall existence led to their most notable achievement, a collaboration among themselves, Pitt and a well-to-do Stephen Foster collector from Indiana.<br />
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They naturally wanted their own hall, and wanted it dedicated to Pittsburgh's own Stephen Collins Foster. TMC worked together with Chancellor John G. Bowman of Pitt and Josiah Lilly of Indianapolis for ten long years to achieve their goal. Bowman gave them some land and helped with fundraising while Lilly donated 10,000 pieces of Foster memorabilia and wads of cash. The building cost $550,000 in depression-era money, and Lilly and his son Eli (does Eli Lilly & Company ring a bell?) came up with nearly half the cost.<br />
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The result was the Stephen C. Foster Memorial, dedicated in 1937 on the lawn of the Cathedral of Learning. In a nice touch, ground for it was broken on January 13th, 1935, the 71st anniversary of Foster's death.<br />
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<i>The Stephen Foster memorial from All Posters.com</i></div>
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The club didn't stop there. TMC members are credited with forming the Pittsburgh Opera Society in 1939, as well as the Pittsburgh Concert Society and The Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh.<br />
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And though it took a few decades, TMC broached the final frontier and began admitting men in 1976.<br />
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More than a century after its inception, TMC remains on the go. Their first scholarship was awarded in 1928, and auditions for the scholarships are held biannually, with $40,000 in tuition money going to young musicians in the latest round. TMC also has a community outreach program called Musicare, which provides recitals for residents of nursing homes, subsidized housing, and senior centers throughout Allegheny County. The club musicians often perform at public and city events as well.<br />
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Many club activities are in-house and take place during their meetings in member's homes or churches (which are awesome venues in their own right), with musical performances as well as coaching sessions provided by PSO musicians and university faculty.<br />
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This year, they'll present eight free public Tuesday afternoon concerts, three Saturday afternoon recitals and one Sunday afternoon concert to showcase current TMC scholarship winners. 125 years and still going strong...<br />
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<i>(The info on this post was shamelessly swiped almost verbatim from Anne Marie DeGeorge's TMC history on their <a href="http://www.tuesdaymusicalclub.org/history">website</a>.</i> <i>Check them out; they're one of the oldest-running and quietly active musical groups in the region and handily headquartered at the Stephen Foster Memorial in Oakland.)</i>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-38770562110723721252014-05-22T10:42:00.003-04:002014-07-23T12:39:04.331-04:00More Concerts...And here are some more shows to help pass your summer...<br />
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May 29 - Mia Z (Mellon Square, 11:00) <br />
June 5 - Angel Blue & the Prophets (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
June 6 - MOIP (First Friday - Frick Lawn, 7:00 - $5) <br />
June 6 - Jeff Tweedy (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 7 - Sam Bush (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 7 - Roger Humphries (Riverview Jazz - 7:00) <br />
June 8 - Trampled By Turtles (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 9 - PSO (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:00)<br />
June 10 - Kaiser Chiefs (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 11 - Center Stage Band (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00) <br />
June 11 - Amos Lee (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 12 - Lyndsey Smith & Soul Distribution (Mellon Square, 11:00) <br />
June 12 - The Smithereens (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 13 - Curtis Harding (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 14 - Reggie Watkins (Riverview Jazz - 7:00) <br />
June 14 - Lucinda Williams (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 15 - Allegheny Brass Band (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30) <br />
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June 15 - Jake Bugg (3 Rivers Arts Festival - Point Park, 7:30)<br />
June 18 - Gramsci Melodic (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
June 19 - Charm & Chain (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
June 20 - Buzz Poets/Gene the Werewolf (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
June 21 - Paul Thompson (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
June 22 - Pittsburgh Philharmonic (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
June 25 - Justin Fabus Band (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00) <br />
June 26 - The Bill Ali Band (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
June 27 - Ten/One Sweet Burgh (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
June 28 - Sam Roberts Band, Valerie June, Elizabeth & the Catapult, The Red Western (WYEP Festival - Schenley Plaza 2:00) <br />
June 28 - The Tania Grubbs Quartet (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
June 28 - Chris Higbee (Jam on Walnut - 7:00)<br />
June 29 - Edgewood Symphony Orchestra (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
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July 2 - Darryl & Kim (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
July 3 - Holiday (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
July 4 - Joe Grushecky/Time Tested (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
July 5 - Thomas Wendt (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
July 6 - West Hills Symphonic Band (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
July 9 - L'Lamint Dance Band (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
July 10 - Kiersten Kelly (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
July 11 - Marshall Tucker Band/Sick Sense (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
July 12 - The Brydge (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
July 13 - Tom Roberts "Harlem Slide" Piano (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
July 16 - Shinizyn (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
July 17 - The Nied's Hotel Band (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
July 18 - Bastard Bearded Irishmen/Good Brother Earl (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
July 19 - Stacia Abbott (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
July 20 - The Matt Murchison Mutiny (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
July 23 - Frank Sinatra tribute (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00) <br />
July 24 - Trigger Happy (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
July 25 - Molly Hatchet/River Trail (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
July 26 - Sean Jones (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
July 26 - Donora & Dancing Queen (Jam on Walnut - 7:00)<br />
July 27 - The Amadeus Trio (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
July 30 - Bruce Katz (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
July 31 - Shannon & the Merger (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
<br />
Aug. 1 - Bruce in the USA/Traffic Jam (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
Aug. 1 - Jerry Groevich Tamburitza Orchestra (First Friday - Frick Lawn, 7:00 - $5) <br />
Aug. 2 - Poogie Bell (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 3 - Carnegie Brass (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
Aug. 3 - Maureen Budway (Reservoir of Jazz - Highland Park 5:00) <br />
Aug. 6 - The Grid (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 7 - Highland Brothers Band (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
Aug. 8 - Classic Rock Experience/Lily Wine Affair (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
Aug. 9 - Salamba Latin Jazz Group (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 10 - Klezlectic (BB&B - Mellon Park, 10:30)<br />
Aug. 10 - Salsamba Latin Jazz Group (Reservoir of Jazz - Highland Park 5:00)<br />
Aug. 13 - Muddy Krrek Blues Band (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 15 - JillWest & the Blues Attack/Silent Partner (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
Aug. 16 - Benny Benack III (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 16 - Kelsey Friday & Radio Tokyo (Jam on Walnut - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 17 - Dr. Alton Merrell & Impact (Reservoir of Jazz - Highland Park 5:00)<br />
Aug. 20 - Ferla-Marcinizyn Guitar Duo (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 21 - Kung Fu Radio (Mellon Square, 11:00)<br />
Aug. 22 - Gathering Field/Mercury (Summer Jam - Station Square 6:30) <br />
Aug. 23 - Jevon Rushton (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 24 - The Horn Guyz (Reservoir of Jazz - Highland Park 5:00)<br />
Aug. 27 - Bridgette Perdue (Flagstaff Hill - 7:00) <br />
Aug. 30 - Roby Edwards (Riverview Jazz - 7:00)<br />
Aug. 31 - Cross Currents (Reservoir of Jazz - Highland Park 5:00)<br />
Sept. 5 - Sean Jones Quartet (First Friday - Frick Lawn, 7:00 - $5) Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-60408696020210263712014-05-01T15:57:00.001-04:002014-05-01T15:57:06.033-04:00Allegheny County Concert SeriesIt's time to head out to Hartwood or South Park - the pools are almost open and the Concert Series is will kick off at the end of the month; Joe Grishecky will lead the charge:<br />
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May 30: Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers (South Park - 7:30)<br />
June 1: The Abby Lee Dance Company's Kick-Off to Summer (Hartwood Acres - 7:30) <br />
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June 6: Lil' Ed and the Imperials with Jill West & Blues Attack (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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June 8: 28 North with 7Horse (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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June 13: Pittsburgh Opera (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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June 15: Father's Day Car Cruise followed by Pure Gold (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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June 20: Buckwheat Zydeco (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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June 22: Sonny Landreth with Kevin Garrett (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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June 27: The Stickers with Christian Beck Band (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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June 29: Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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July 5: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (South Park - 8) </div>
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July 6: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Hartwood Acres - 8) </div>
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July 11: Ha Ha Tonka with Townsppl (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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July 13: BNY Mellon Jazz Presents Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra with Paquito D'Rivera (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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July 18: Sister Hazel (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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July 20: Lake Street Dive with Brooke Annibale (Hartwood Acres - 7:30) </div>
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July 25: Gospel Music Night (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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July 25-27: Pittsburgh Blues Festival featuring Dr. John, Bernard Allison, J.J. Gray & Mofro, Spin Doctors and other acts (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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Aug. 1: Serena Ryder with the Harlan Twins (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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Aug. 3: Jerry Douglas with Nameless in August (Hartwood Acres - 7:30) </div>
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Aug. 8: The Hitmen featuring original members of Tommy James and the Shondells, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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Aug. 10: Macy Gray (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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Aug. 15: Lovebettie (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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Aug. 17: Pittsburgh Ballet Theater (Hartwood Acres - 7:30) </div>
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Aug. 22: BNY Mellon Jazz presents Gloria Reuben and Caribbean Jazz Ensemble (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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Aug. 24: Duquesne Tamburitzans (Hartwood Acres - 7:30) </div>
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Aug. 29: River City Brass Band (South Park - 7:30)</div>
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Aug. 31: Allegheny County Music Festival; acts TBD (Hartwood Acres - 7:30)</div>
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All the shows are free, except for festivals (tho the Friday 7/25 opening of the Blues Festival is free of cost).</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-58464989483993315172014-04-24T09:24:00.000-04:002014-04-24T09:24:02.948-04:00Mountain Top Festival Makes Its Debut In June At Grandview parkThe Mountain Top Music Festival, an all-day indy music blast, will hold its inauguration on June 8th, 2014. The show will feature mostly Pittsburgh groups with a little eastern flavor added in.<br />
<br />
This all-ages festival will be held at Grandview Park in Mt. Washington with a $10 suggested admission on the day of the festival; the gates will open at noon. No food or alcohol will be served to the public during the event. We suppose that means you're on your own for munchies and drink, although we're not betting that the City will look kindly on bringing in your own hootch. Caveat emptor, as they say.<br />
<br />
The schedule is:<br />
<ul>
<li>1:00 – 1:30 Unraveler (Pittsburgh, PA) </li>
<li>1:45 – 2:15 Bat Zuppel (Pittsburgh, PA) </li>
<li>2:30 – 3:00 Skull Kid (Pittsburgh, PA)</li>
<li>3:15 – 3:45 INFLUX (Pittsburgh, PA) </li>
<li>4:00 – 4:30 Partly Sunny (Pittsburgh, PA) </li>
<li>4:45 – 5:15 Gypsy and His Band of Ghosts (Pittsburgh, PA) </li>
<li>5:30 – 6:00 White Like Fire (Pittsburgh, PA)</li>
<li>6:15 – 6:45 Kevin Garrett (Pittsburgh/Brooklyn, NY) </li>
<li>7:00 – 7:30 DRGN King (Philadelphia, PA)</li>
<li>7:45 – 8:15 Nevada Color (Pittsburgh, PA) </li>
<li>8:30 – 9:15 Legs Like Tree Trunks (Pittsburgh, PA)</li>
<li>9:30 – 10:15 Cold Fronts (Philadelphia, PA) </li>
</ul>
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For more information about the festival, visit the official <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/330468097109458/">Facebook</a> event page. <br />
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<i>Nevada Color "Painted Dogs" from the WPTS Live Show
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-11179058395266852792013-07-12T17:33:00.000-04:002013-08-23T20:37:06.577-04:00El Reys<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eJAngkMjJGw/Udn9SSq2YHI/AAAAAAAAATk/jRGyiwZNNqI/s1600/elreysold-copy-e1320175543537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eJAngkMjJGw/Udn9SSq2YHI/AAAAAAAAATk/jRGyiwZNNqI/s320/elreysold-copy-e1320175543537.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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El Reys from <span class="irc_hd irc_iis"><a class="irc_hol irc_itl" data-ved="0CAQQjB0" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=G4LisR4DUZO3oM&tbnid=q779nrTuCSTq6M:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.el-reys.com%2Fhistory%2F&ei=_PzZUeSTLI2I0QHfpIDwCw&bvm=bv.48705608,d.dmQ&psig=AFQjCNHkshru0jLkOo87j4Cea3yaxO3v5g&ust=1373326964359462"><span class="irc_ho">www.el-reys.com</span></a><span class="irc_dim"></span></span></div>
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In 1961, Bishop Canevin HS was the foundry for a band called the “El Reys” (Spanish for “The Kings”), a name that lead vocalist Stan Bogdan came up with to christen the group.<br />
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The sextet consisted of West End's Stanley "Stush" Bogdan, along with Chuck Black (co-founder), Randy Riddle, Westwood's Tim Eyermann (sax - jazz fusion artist, did couple dozen albums, two Grammy nominations, East Coast Offering), Green Tree's Rick Jablonski (drums), and Glendale's Bill Marszalek (guitar), who started out by performing at their own high school dances. They added a manager, local DJ Jack Schieffer. <br />
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The El Reys had a pretty good sound. They played with both both harmony and a beat, an on-time segue from the vocal era to the Liverpool scene, and pretty soon were doing shows all up and down the Chartiers Valley. They played at other schools, some college gigs, hops, talent shows and, as befitting a band from a Catholic school backed by Sister Maria Goretti and Father Armand, did more than their fair share of benefits.<br />
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Ed Salamon, who wrote "<i>Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Radio</i>," remembers the band as "...one of the wildest acts I had ever seen." Bill Marszalek agreed. He and the instrumentalists got a front row seat for the performances of vocalists Stush, Chuck and Randy, who would banter with the audience, dance, flip their jackets and generally get the joint hoppin'. Ed added that he thought they claimed to be on the verge of landing a contract with music giant Capitol, but Marszalek shot that down, believing it was just some wishful jiving by the front men. But they did get on a label, albeit a local one.<br />
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One night during this period, they were performing at a talent show/hop at the CIO Hall in Aliquippa, where they made a couple of notable industry acquaintances. One was Pittsburgh favorite Bo Diddley, lurking and listening in the back of the hall before his show as the headliner at the nearby Villa Lounge. He liked what he heard and invited the El Reys to catch his act that night. That was cool, but the next intro was better.<br />
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Augie Bernardo, owner of local label Ideal Records (the Stereos, John Harrison & the Hustlers, Vibra-Sonics), who was also was in the crowd. That unplanned audition won the El Reys' a record contract worth a couple of slabs that were big locally. DJ Porky Chedwick was spinning all four of their sides -
"Diamonds and Pearls," "Angalie," "Beverly" and "Rocket of Love" - on WAMO in 1965.<br />
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They were big for a minute. They had records on the radio, a fan club, opened for some traveling rock shows during their local stops, made an appearance on Clark Race's Dance Party and played a few of the bigger clubs like the Coach Lounge, although the majority of their shows were at hops and smaller halls.<br />
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Their biggest moment was when they were part of the card during The Rolling Stones first American tour, which made a KQV sponsored stop at West View's Danceland on Wednesday, June 17th, 1964. The El Reys dressing room was next to the Stones (they shared space with The Shadows).<br />
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The El Reys weren't laying a foundation for a show biz future, though, just taking things pretty much as they came. And in 1965 came graduation for the group that had formed when most of the guys were freshmen. Stush was drafted, the other guys moved on to college, and the El Reys were no more.<br />
<br />
But after five decades off, Stush Bogdan reformed the El Rays as an acappella group. <br />
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The new El Reys include Paul Durham of Monroeville, Bill Leverette of Wilkinsburg (The Cameos, Del Vikings, and The New Marcels), Tim Steele of Greensburg and J.D. Merkle of Baden. They're performing at high school reunions, birthdays and weddings. Once a month, you can find them singing at Atria's, and they've had bookings in clubs like the Johnny Angel Lounge, the Hophouse and the Obey House.<br />
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Stush is the only original member in the group. Bill Marszalek works for the City and spent 10 years serving as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Pittsburgh Musician's Union. Tim Eyermann earned national acclaim as the saxman of the East Coast Offering before he died in 2007. Chuck Black and Randy Riddle have also passed away. We couldn't track down Rick Jablonski, so if any of you know what became of him, please give us a yell.<br />
<br />
<i>(Local doo-wop historian Carl Janusek,
who writes for the quarterly music magazine "Echoes of the Past" penned
an article that is the definitive El Reys bio. The address is Echoes of
the Past, PO Box 40, Agawam, MA 01001-0040 if you'd like more info on the band or the magazine.)</i> <br />
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<u>Discography:</u><br />
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1965 - Rocket Of Love b/w Diamonds And Pearls (Ideal 94706)<br />
1965 - Angalie /Beverly (Ideal 95388)<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-29307231975175668622013-06-19T09:15:00.001-04:002013-06-19T09:15:12.755-04:00Free Summer Concerts 2013Hey - don't be bored this summer. Here's the list of some <a href="http://oldmonmusic.blogspot.com/2013/05/free-summer-concerts.html">the free acts</a> served up in the City this summer.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-8723518328660358082013-06-16T11:19:00.001-04:002013-06-19T12:59:32.419-04:00Chapel Boys/Chapelaires/Softwinds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The Chapelaires (photo from <a href="http://whitedoowopcollector.blogspot.com/2009/04/chapelaires-aka-softwinds.html">White Doo-Wop Collector</a>)</i></div>
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In 1955, a small posse of eighth graders from Troy Hill were members of Saint Anthony's Chapel choir. It wasn't a far leap for teens of the era to segue from hymns to street corner doo wop once mass was done and four of the guys - Tony Rausch, Paul Young, Ross Melodia and Fred Ferketic - became the Chapel Boys.<br />
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The quartet worked the local hops circuit, with one change: in 1957, Young was replaced by Bob Bubarth. The Chapel Boys cut some demos of tunes they had written: "A Tear," "Scarlet Scarf," "Swing Loose" and "Walla Walla Bong Bong" (none ever made vinyl, but are on the "Cross My Heart" compilation). They picked up a manager and a new name in 1958 when Bob Ross, a local promoter, took the group's reins and they became The Chapelaires.<br />
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DJ Mark Flanagan (Bob Pappas) of WEEP, then a top-40 station, took over the business end for the group from Ross and landed a contract for them with start-up HAC Records. Good timing; Flanagan left the station in late 1960, and presumably the group also, but left behind studio time.<br />
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Ferketic went off to college and was replaced by Bill Schmidt. The Chapelaires lineup that recorded for HAC in 1961 was Schmidt (first tenor), Tony Rausch (second tenor), Ross Melodia (baritone) and Bob Bubarth (bass). They produced two records, "Not Good Enough" b/w "I'm Still In Love With You" (HAC 101) and "Gloria" b/w "Under Hawaiian Skies (HAC 102), with "Gloria" in particular becoming a popular tune locally.<br />
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Schmidt had his stay cut short by Uncle Sam when he was drafted, and the Chapelaires added John Lajzo and Wayne Goldie from acappella group The Suburbans to bring the group up to five voices strong.<br />
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The Chapelaires became the Softwinds, and recorded one more slab for HAC, "Cross My Heart" b/w "Oh Baby" (HAC 105). It would be the last song recorded by the label; it went belly-up after releasing five 45s in 1961. Goldie left, and the Softwinds reclaimed The Chapelaires brand once again, performing on the local dance club circuit. <br />
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Music impresario Elmer Willett (he managed acts, had a label and ran a club) eventually got the group back in the studio with some backing gigs for Gateway Records. 1965 was the last recording date we could find, so we suppose they went their separate ways about then.<br />
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But doo-woppers never go gently into the night, and the Softwinds are back in action. They're now a bigger ensemble, with four vocalists and a four man band: Craig Bodenlos, James Satterwhite, Bob Gally, and John Lajzo (original Softwind member) provide the harmony with Tony Zottola (bass, keyboards, and vocals), John Voegtly (sax, flute, and vocals), John Clark (guitar) and John "Boom Boom" Kuhn (drums) backing them. <br />
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Their biggest gig to date was as the opening act at the Consol Energy Center for the 2012 Holiday Reunion Show in December, along with Johnny Angel and the Halos. The Softwinds perform around tri-state area, and worked with the Skyliners, Marvelettes, & DelVikings, at the Meadows & Mountaineer casinos, resorts, community days, and car cruises, nary missing a stop on the local oldies circuit. <br />
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While known for tight harmonies befitting their background, they don't limit the playlist except by era, easily slipping from "In the Still of the Night" into "Run Around Sue." They even released a CD in 2008, "Let Us Turn Back the Years," with three original songs along with nine covers from the day.<br />
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From a Troy Hill street corner in 1957 to Consol's stage in 2012, the Softwinds nee Chapelaires are still singin' and swingin' sweet. <br />
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<b>Discography :</b><br />
<br />
<u>The Chapelaires</u><br />
1961 - Not Good Enough b/w I'm Still In Love With You (HAC 101)<br />
1961 - Gloria b/w Under Hawaiian Skies (HAC 102)<br />
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<u>The Softwinds (Original)</u><br />
1961 - Cross My Heart b/w Oh Baby (HAC 105)<br />
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<u>John Ivey backed by the Chapelaires</u><br />
1963-64? - Own A Real Live Clown b/w Far Far Far Away (Scotty 615) <br />
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<u>Marie LaDonna & the Chapelaires</u><br />
1964 - How Can I Let You Know b/w Georgie Porgie (Gateway 730; backed A Side only)<br />
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<u>Chuck Johnston and the Jaycees</u><br />
1964 <b>- </b>Forever Is A Long Long Time b/w Goodnight Irene (Gateway 738 - this is iffy, but it's likely the Jaycees were the Chapelaires) <br />
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<u>Joni Kay & The Chapelaires</u><br />
1964 - Lonely Star b/w Happy Memories (Gateway 744)<br />
1965 - It's Impossible, Why Try b/w Vacation Time (Gateway 746)<br />
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<u>Chapelaires/Softwinds</u><br />
1978 - Cross My Heart; The Best of 1956-66 (Crystal Ball CD 1087 - the disk includes 17 unreleased titles)<br />
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<u>The Softwinds (Current) </u><br />
2008 - Let Us Turn Back the Years (Victory CD)<br />
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The group also has tracks on "They Sang In Pittsburgh Volume 1" and various "Pittsburgh's Greatest Hits" issues.<br />
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<i>Thanks to Ed Engel of Crystal Ball Records for providing much of the early information on the act.</i><br />
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The Softwinds - "Cross My Heart" 1961</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-83076577692983508102013-06-09T03:02:00.000-04:002013-06-09T03:11:37.202-04:00Joey Covington<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6TbPFPziPzI/UbQmvt3jZXI/AAAAAAAAATA/DfVdvKShALw/s1600/Covington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6TbPFPziPzI/UbQmvt3jZXI/AAAAAAAAATA/DfVdvKShALw/s320/Covington.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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<i>Image from <a href="http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2013/06/passings-joey-covington-of-hot-tuna-and.html">Vintage Vinyl News</a></i></div>
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Joseph Edward Michno, later to be known as Joey Covington, was born in East Conemaugh, near Johnstown, on June 27th, 1945, the third of six children of teamster Lou and aspiring country singer Betty. He began teaching himself to play the drums when he was 10 by listening to Joe Morello, Cozy Cole, Sandy Nelson, Candido and Preston Epps. Learned pretty quick, too.<br />
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13 year old Joey played with polka bands at local halls like the VFW with mom and dad chaperoning. When he was 14, he played the drums at a strip joint in Johnstown, The Airway Club. Mom and dad didn't drive him there; that gig was his little secret.<br />
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Then it was off to East Conemaugh High (he was class of '63) and the marching band, later followed by his first real rock group. He joined what he called a "hot rod band," The Vibra Sonics. They were pretty popular locally - they won a few battles of the bands, played dance clubs around Western and Central PA, and opened for a Simon and Garfunkel show. The Vibra Sonics even released a 45, Drag Race b/w Thunderstorm, in 1964 on full time florist and part time music producer Augie Bernardo's Ideal label.<br />
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The band had a run of wretched luck. At the Cowsill in Conneaut Lake, a fire destroyed their instruments. Later, a wreck while touring laid up Covington up for six months with a broken pelvis and some other snapped bones. <br />
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He recovered and got the itch to go to every East Coast musician's Mecca, New York City. He introduced himself out of the blue to Joey Dee, who sent him to a manager for possible work. The guy was ready to buy Joey a ticket back home when fate intervened. On short notice, a drummer was needed for the Danny Apollinar Trio, and the very available Covington landed some show tune dates in Florida.<br />
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Afterward, Covington went back home and scored some gigs from the union hall. He played for shows like the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars and backed the Shangri Las, Billy Stewart, the Supremes, Donald Jenkins & the Delighters and the Shirelles as a hired gun.<br />
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Then in 1966, he got a call from Sonny DiNunzio of the Fenways, who told him he knew of him from the Vibra Sonics and wondered if he was interested in coming to Pittsburgh to play with his band. He was; the Fenways had been turning out hot local singles since 1964 and were the big fish in the Steel City pond.<br />
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He cut a couple of 45s with the Fenways, played seven nights a week at clubs like Mancini's Lounge, and opened shows for the Rolling Stones, Dave Clark 5, Shangri Las, Lee Dorsey, Lou Christie, Chad & Jeremy, and Jimmy Beaumont & the Skyliners.<br />
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Covington hung around until 1967 as the Fenways, rolling with the rock tide, transitioned themselves from a pop group into the psychedelic Racket Squad. He doesn't mention playing for the Squad in his Pittsburgh years, but is credited on the album notes as being part of the band for awhile, so he likely stayed long enough to record a track or three.<br />
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It was the summer of love, and at age 22 he headed west with a bud for San Francisco in 1967. He would never look back. Right around this time is when he became Joey Covington; it's said that he thought Michno sounded negative, and that era, if you recall it, was all about the vibes.<br />
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He got some work from the hall (union cards are a good thing for a traveling minstrel) and played in several early Bay Area bands, including Pacific Gas and Electric. Joey ran across an electric violinist born in Beaver Falls, Papa John Creach, who he would later introduce to the San Francisco scene and played with Covington in several of his bands. <br />
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Covington hit it big when he helped form Hot Tuna in 1969, with Jefferson Airplane players Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen. While the tracks he cut were never released, the association with the Airplane members would prove big time.<br />
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Later that year, he joined Casady and Kaukonen in the studio with the Airplane, replacing drummer Spencer Dryden midway through the recording of <i>Volunteers</i>, and became a full time member in 1970 when the Airplane voted the erratic Dryden off the island.<br />
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He recorded with the band on the 1971 album <i>Bark</i>. Covington sang and wrote their last big track “Pretty as You Feel.” After the <i>Long John Silver</i> album in
1972, he left for a solo career as the band spun apart, with only one disappointment. He wasn't inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the other Jefferson Airplane members in 1996, because the Hall would only recognize the original members; Dryden got that honor.<br />
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During the Airplane era, he also appeared on Paul Kantner's 1970 concept album <i>Blows Against The Empire</i> and Grace Slick's 1971 <i>Sunfighter</i> LP. <br />
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Covington released his own LP <i>Fat Fandango</i> in 1973. He wrote all the songs, and though it was received well by the critics, it never sold. He also performed on 1976's <i>Spitfire</i> by Jefferson Starship and co-wrote the hit single "With Your Love." In 1978, he founded the San Francisco All Stars with Steve Love of New Riders of the Purple Sage and Quicksilver Messenger Service's John Cipollina, and they toured nationally during the eighties and nineties; one of his band mates was old bud Papa John Creach.<br />
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After that gig, he went into semi-retirement in Palm Springs, not a bad way to chill after decades in the hectic Bay Area music scene. Covington would gig as the spirit moved him, performing for free during community events, and he continued writing songs for local artists. His last show was gratis at a Marilyn Monroe memorial on June 1st, ending with him telling war stories and signing autographs.<br />
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On June 4th, 2013, the car he was driving slammed into a retaining wall at a curve in the road and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Joey Covington was 67.<br />
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Drag Race by the Vibra Sonics - 1964</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-36102726877328636112013-05-24T10:16:00.001-04:002013-06-16T11:34:58.337-04:00Kaz: Rockin' Brownie Mary to Jericho Theory<div style="text-align: center;">
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Jericho Theory from the band's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jerichotheory">Facebook page</a></div>
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Steve "Kaz" Kaczynski Sr. became a guitar man back in his Fox Chapel HS days (he still lives in Cheswick). The only problem was that he couldn't land a gig for any of the school ensembles because he was a second banana behind a couple of other Fox axeman. So he went with the flow, took up drums and joined the school band. He must of been pretty good at pounding the skins. Around graduation time, he landed his first regular date when he toured with Al Latta (formerly of the Duprees).<br />
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Kaz first made his mark in the City in the nineties. He was Brownie Mary's original drummer, and that 'Burgh group was hot - they recorded, were club headliners and opened for local performances by the Smithereens & Hootie and the Blowfish, and were the big thing in the region for fifteen minutes before spinning their separate ways.<br />
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He was part of their debut 1994 "That's Me" album, writing a handful of the songs. The cover photo of the CD was a picture of Kaz's tyke Aaron. But Mary drifted from rock toward pop, and Steve, along with bassist Mike Marks, left the band to form the hard driving group PUSH. They won the 1997 Grafitti Rock Challenge and released a couple of CDs. After a three year run, he joined forces with 11th Hour. Originally, they had the Clarks open for them, but it wasn't long before those roles were reversed.<br />
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After that, it was a series of gigs with area acts like Carny Stomp, Vern's Winnebago, Cloud, Heartbeat, Tempis Fugit, The Strangers, In Time, LoFiDELUX, Shari Richards Group, Ron Obvious, The Abominable Honkies, and 13/thirteen. <br />
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Kaz never took to the touring, full-time band life; he had a day job and family. But he teamed with son Aaron a couple of years ago to form the metal/punk band Jericho Theory, with the self description of a "prog rock bassist, a metal guitarist, and a punk rock singer, stirred up by whomever we can get to play drums for us on a given night." Don't expect Brownie Mary stuff; try thinking along the lines of the Code Orange Kids.<br />
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The members are: Lead Vocals/Guitar/Writer- Aaron Kaczynski (who also plays with Meth Quarry); Guitars/Vocals - Steve Kaczynski Sr.; Bass Guitar - Ken Walzer; Drums - Randy Thomson/Steve Kaczynski Jr./Joshua Kane Hobaugh were/are the usual suspects. Asa and Ira Kaczynski also contribute with vids and editing. The band mostly plays original stuff, with a cover or two of their favs.<br />
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They still aren't touring or regular gig guys; sometimes JT has trouble finding bodies to fill a weekend date. But they've done a lap of the club circuit, performing at Diesel, Hambone's, the 31st Street Pub, Smiling Moose, Inn-Termission Lounge, Kopecs, Bloomfield Bridge Cafe and The Hideout. They've done street shows for Little Italy Days in Bloomfield, Art All Night in Lawrenceville, and Live on Liberty, with a live jam on WPTS. <br />
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If you're looking for some nineties metal with a punkish snarl, Jericho Theory is your band.<br />
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<i>Jericho Theory performs one of its quieter songs, a live cover of the Plimsoll's "A Million Miles Away."</i></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-28972486903409723372013-05-20T10:03:00.000-04:002013-07-25T11:56:17.228-04:00Free Summer Concerts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cw2I46-sYiY/UZosIoOTX1I/AAAAAAAAASQ/YIOzznY2lcw/s1600/11-Mellon-Square-560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cw2I46-sYiY/UZosIoOTX1I/AAAAAAAAASQ/YIOzznY2lcw/s320/11-Mellon-Square-560.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Citiparks Market Square Summer Concert Series</i></div>
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Got some time to spare, but not the change? No worries. Rock, pop, blues, indie, americana, jazz, classical, broadway - the City, County and some civic groups have put together a summer-wide schedule of free musical events to please just about every ear, and they're beginning to crank up the amps now:<br />
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<b><u>May:</u> </b><br />
May 23: Y108's 8-Man Jam (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
May 23: Joel Lindsey (11:30 - Market Square) <br />
May 24: Almost Journey & Rockin the Paradise (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
May 25: Green River Band & Who Are You (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
May 26: New York Disco Review & Abba Girlz (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater) <br />
May 30: Nick Marzock (11:30 - Market Square)<br />
May 31: Pittsburgh CLO "A Gleeful Evening" (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater) <br />
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<u><b>June:</b></u><br />
June 1: Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra Junior (2 - South Hills Village)<br />
June 1: Max Leake w/Maureen Budway (2 - Ross Mall)<br />
June 1: Thomas Wendt (2 - Robinson Mall)<br />
June 1: Dennis Garner Band (2 - Monroeville Mall)<br />
June 2: Pittsburgh Opera (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
June 6: Andy's Jazz (11:30 - Market Square) <br />
June 6: Finally Free (6 - South Side Works Amphitheater)<br />
June 7: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 7: Pittsburgh Jazz Crawl (5:30-9, Cultural District - Pgh. Jazz Live) <br />
June 7: Italian Night w/ We Three, Vito DiSalvo & Giorgia Fumanti (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater)<br />
June 8: Ralph Stanley w/Allegheny Drifters, Mon River Ramblers & Great American Taxi (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 8: Orrin Evans (1:15 - Penn Ave Stage 2 - Pgh Jazz Live)<br />
June 8: Sarah Elizabeth Quartet (1:45 - 9th St Stage - Pgh Jazz Live) <br />
June 8: Rudresh Mahanthappa Gamak (3 - Penn Ave Stage 2 - Pgh Live Jazz)<br />
June 8: Gerald Clayton (4:15 - Penn Ave Stage 1 - Pgh Jazz Live)<br />
June 8: Pat Martino Trio (5:30 - Penn Ave Stage 2 - Pgh Jazz Live)<br />
June 8: Charles Wallace Band (7 - Riverview Park) <br />
June 9: Cello Fury w/ Joy Ike and Scott Blasey (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 9: Sean Jones Quartet (1:15 - Penn Ave Stage 2 - Pgh Jazz Live)<br />
June 9: Gregory Porter (3 - Penn Ave Stage 2 - Pgh Jazz Live)<br />
June 9: Marcus Miller (4 - Penn Ave Stage 1 - Pgh Jazz Live)<br />
June 9: Roger Humphries & RH Factor (4:45 - Penn Ave Stage 2 - Pgh Jazz Live)<br />
June 9: Allison Miller & Boom Tic Boom (4:45 - 9th St Stage - Pgh Jazz Live) <br />
June 9: Ralph Peterson Sextet (5:30 - Penn Ave Stage 2 - Pgh Jazz Live) <br />
June 9: Bob Mould (7:30 - Hartwood Acres) <br />
June 10: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 11: Grupo Fantasma (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 12: Glen Hansard (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 12: Jeff Bush (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
June 13: Lucius (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 14: Red Baraat (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 14: Tommy Castro & the Painkillers (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater)<br />
June 14: Shotgun Blues Brotherhood (2 - Ford City Community Park) <br />
June 15: The Airborne Toxic Event (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 15: Mark Lucas (7 - Riverview Park) <br />
June 16: Blind Boys of Alabama (7:30 - Point State Park - Arts Festival)<br />
June 16: The Pittsburgh Philharmonic (10:30 - Mellon Park) <br />
June 16: The Vogues (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
June 19: L'Lamint (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
June 20: Second Empire (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
June 20: Gregory Macklin (11:30 - Market Square) <br />
June 21: The Wailers (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater)<br />
June 22: Colter Harper (7 - Riverview Park) <br />
June 23: River City Brass (10:30 - Mellon Park)<br />
June 23: Langhorne Slim & the Law (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
June 26: Patti Spadaro Band (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
June 27: Lyndsey Smith & Soul Distribution (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
June 27: Joey Molland of Badfinger (6:30 - Bessemer Court, Station Square) <br />
June 28: Anders Osborne, Jason Isbell & The
400 Unit, Jesse Dee, Neighbours (6 - Schenley Plaza/WYEP Summer Music Festival) <br />
June 28: BNY Mellon Jazz presents Monty Alexander (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater)<br />
June 28: Leanne Regalla & the Lost Marbles (St. Joesph's Festival, Coraopolis) <br />
June 29: Dancing Queen/Kelsey Friday (7- Walnut Street) <br />
June 29: Roger Humphries (7 - Riverview Park) <br />
June 30: Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra (10:30 - Mellon Park)<br />
June 30: Sara Watkins (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
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<b><u>July:</u></b><br />
July 2: Decoldest3 (4 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 2: Dancing Queen<b> </b>(6 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 2: Jersey Four (8 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 3: Decoldest 3<b> </b>(4 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 3: The Chain (6 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 3: Kenny Blake<b> </b>(7 - Point State Park - Regatta)<b> </b> <br />
July 3: Paul Kantner & Jefferson Starship (8 - Point State Park - Regatta)<b> </b><br />
July 3: Beatlemania Magic (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
July 3: Muddy Kreek Blues Band (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
July 4: Holiday (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
July 4: Decoldest 3<b> </b>(4 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 4: The Chain (7 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 4: 4th of July (Heinz Field - 5: Sydney Hutchen; 6:30 The Stickers; 8:15 Florida-Georgia Line)<br />
July 4: Air National Guard Band (8 - Point State Park - Regatta)<br />
July 4: Rich Larrimore (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
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July 6: Eric Johnson (7 - Riverview Park)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (Foreland & Middle - 2 Ishtar; 3 autobahn; 4 Chet Vincent & the Big Bend; 5 Locks & Dams; 6 Round Black Ghosts; 7 Bastard Bearded Irishmen)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (Bistro To Go 415 E Ohio - 2:30 Tyree Morgan; 3 Ike Mississippi; 3:45 Dan Pritchard; 4:30 Faithful Sinners; 5:15 Blue X Baxter; 6 The Wreckids)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (Elks 400 Cedar - 8 Sleep Experiments; 9:15 The Harlan Twins; 10:30 MOIP)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (James Street 422 Moreland - 8 Dave O'Brien Trio; 9 Brewers Row; 10 The Red Western; 11 Big Gypsy; midnite Grand Piano)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (Max's Allegheny Tavern 537 Suisman - 8 Lonesome Bob & the Socially Inept; 9 The FED; 10 Legs Like Tree Trunks; 11 Sun Ray Shining Light; midnite Triggers)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (Stedeford Record 517 E Ohio - 8 Gene Stovall; 9 Nerve Ending; 10 Neighbours; 11 Nic Lawless & His Young Criminales)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (AIR 518 Foreland - 8 DJ Harry Lurker; 9:30 Chrome Baby Jesus; 10 DJ Three; 11;15 Tracksploitation/Mega Def)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (Key West 719 East - 8 The Dressed Frets; 9 Adadsdad; 10 Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo; 11 Blue Redshift)<br />
July 6: Deutschtown Music Festival (Penutz - 8 Household Stories; 9 Western Pennsylvania) <br />
July 6: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (8:15 - South Park Amphitheater) <br />
July 7: Allegheny Brass Band (10:30 - Mellon Park)<br />
July 7: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (8 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
July 10: Swing Nova (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie)<br />
July 11: English Beat (6:30 - Bessemer Court, Station Square) <br />
July 11: Ben Shannon (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
July 13: Jeff Grubbs (7 - Riverview Park) <br />
July 14: Aeolian Winds of Pittsburgh (10:30 - Mellon Park)<br />
July 14: Great Big Sea (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
July 17: Hot Metal Bridge (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
July 18: Mark Ferrari (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
July 19: The Stickers (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater) <br />
July 20: Chris Higbee w/Abacus Jones (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
July 20: Maddi George (6 - South Side Works Amphitheater) <br />
July 20: Spanky Wilson (7 - Riverview Park)<br />
July 21: West Hills Symphonic Band (10:30 - Mellon Park) <br />
July 24: theFIVE6 (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie)<br />
July 25: Joe Grushecky (6:30 - Bessemer Court, Station Square)<br />
July 25: The Loose Play Connection (6 - Penn Ave.Parklet, Wilkinsburg)<br />
July 25: Andy's Jazz (11:30 - Market Square) <br />
July 25: Big Fat Jazz (7 - Cranberry Community Park)<br />
July 25: Random Play (noon - Mellon Square) <br />
July 26: Maddi George (6 - South Side Works)<br />
July 26: Sixpence None the Richer (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater)<br />
July 26: Guggenheim Grotto (7 - St. Clair Park Amphitheater) <br />
July 26: Chris Vipond & the Stanley Street Band (6 - Sweetwater Center, Sewickley)<br />
July 27: Pure Gold (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
July 27: Radio Tokyo/Donora (7- Walnut Street) <br />
July 27: Chelsea Baratz (7 - Riverview Park)<br />
July 27: Any Way You Want It (6 - South Side Works) <br />
July 27: Ras (4 - Waterfront)<br />
July 28: Cello Fury (10:30 - Mellon Park)<br />
July 28: Wally Gingers Orchestra (4 - Cedar Creek Park)<br />
July 28: Clarks (6:30 - Irwin Park Amphitheater)<br />
July 28: Joy Ike w/ Johnny Miller (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
July 28: Ron D'Amico (4 - CCAC Boyce Auditorium) <br />
July 28: Powerplay (3 - Twin Lakes Park)<br />
July 28: Penn-Trafford Community Band (7 - Ligonier Town Square) <br />
July 29 : Nina Sainato (Noon - Market Square)<br />
July 30: Nick Marzock (Noon - Schenley Plaza) <br />
July 30: Salsamba (5 - Katz Plaza)<br />
July 31: Dan Bubien (Noon - Market Square)<br />
July 31: Shinizyn (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie)<br />
July 31: Mark Dingham (12:15 - Allegheny Square) <br />
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<u><b>August: </b></u><br />
Aug. 1: Mia Z (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
Aug. 1: Jill West and the Blues Attack (6:30 - Bessemer Court, Station Square) <br />
Aug. 2: The August Wilson Dance Ensemble (7:30 - South Park) <br />
Aug. 3: Kevin Howard (7 - Riverview Park)<br />
Aug. 4: Kenia (5 - Highland Park) <br />
Aug. 4: Cincopation (10:30 - Mellon Park) <br />
Aug. 4: BNY Mellon Jazz presents The Yellowjackets (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
Aug. 7: Bobby Short Band (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
Aug. 8: The East Enders (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
Aug. 8: Broadway at the Overlook (6 - West End Overlook Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 9: Finally Free (6 - South Side Works Amphitheater)<br />
Aug. 9: Broadway at the Overlook (6 - West End Overlook Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 9: Los Amigos Invisibles (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 10: Elevations (7 - Riverview Park)<br />
Aug. 10: Broadway at the Overlook (6 - West End Overlook Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 11: Joe Negri (5 - Highland Park) <br />
Aug. 11: East Winds Symphonic Band (10:30 - Mellon Park) <br />
Aug. 11: Galactic (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
Aug. 14: Bridgette Perdue (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
Aug. 15: Hugo Down (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
Aug. 15 - Jeff Jimerson and Airborne (6:30 - Bessemer Court, Station Square) <br />
Aug. 16: Broadway at the Overlook (6 - West End Overlook Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 16: James Hunter (7:30 - South Park)<br />
Aug. 17: Leanne Regalla & the Lost Marbles (6 - South Side Works Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 17: Chris Higbee/Abacus Jones (7- Walnut Street) <br />
Aug. 17: Marty Ashby Quartet (7 - Riverview Park)<br />
Aug. 17: Broadway at the Overlook (6 - West End Overlook Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 18: Flexure (5 - Highland Park) <br />
Aug. 18: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
Aug. 21: The Grid (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
Aug. 22: The Williams Band (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
Aug. 23: Duquesne Tamburitzans (7:30 - South Park Amphitheater) <br />
Aug. 24: Beach Bums & Beach Party Boys (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
Aug. 24: Salsamba (7 - Riverview Park) <br />
Aug. 25: Michele Bensen (5 - Highland Park)<br />
Aug. 25: Rickie Lee Jones (7:30 - Hartwood Acres)<br />
Aug. 28: Daniels & McClain (7- Flagstaff Hill followed by movie) <br />
Aug. 29: Highway 4 (noon - Mellon Square)<br />
Aug. 29: Starship (6:30 - Bessemer Court, Station Square) <br />
Aug. 30: Hometown Music Fest w/ JD Eicher, Caleb Lovely & Danielle Barbe (7:30 - South Park)<br />
Aug. 31: Kenny Blake (7 - Riverview Park) <br />
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Sept. 1: Shining Star & Beat It (7 - River's Casino Amphitheater)<br />
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<i>Spanky Wilson will be at Riverview on July 20th.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-71498452251340787262013-05-11T23:38:00.001-04:002013-05-20T18:16:41.937-04:00Stosh: Music From Madison To Greenfield...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GcsfEQlwTyY/UZqWhzZEp7I/AAAAAAAAASg/Xp3ZFVAHe0c/s1600/ClassicJonjak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GcsfEQlwTyY/UZqWhzZEp7I/AAAAAAAAASg/Xp3ZFVAHe0c/s320/ClassicJonjak.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Stosh Jonjak from his personal collection</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Stosh Jonjak moved from the hipster haven of Madison, Wisconsin to its Pittsburgh counterpart, Greenfield - yah, we're comin' after you, Larryville - and has moved on from his bassist days with the popular and hard traveling Midwestern band Clovis Mann to becoming a complete musical entity unto himself - band, producer, promoter and distributor.<br />
<br />
Jonjak, a native Wisconsinite, played for the blues and power rock trio for six years. In his paraphrased words "...we saw a lot of asphalt together, hanging out
in a van, and subsisting on beef jerky and Dio sing-alongs at 4 in the morning
after playing another roadside attraction. We averaged 60-100 shows a year around the Midwest, and did everything from hour-long showcases
in college towns to playing roadhouses in the middle of nowhere."<br />
<br />
"If you’re at some bar at the edge of civilization, you
need to be able to play everything, whether it be outlaw country, classic rock,
or even a polka or two, so that definitely stretched me as a
player, and taught me a lot about arrangement and songcraft (not that I plan on
writing any polkas anytime soon)."<br />
<br />
He's effusive in his praise of old bandmates Ethan Noordyk and Dan Walkner, and Clovis Mann, still going strong, recorded a couple of albums with enough material for another. Stosh learned about more than just laying down a bass line with Clovis, and began putting that business-end knowledge to good use here.<br />
<br />
Jonjak came to Pittsburgh three years
ago because of career opportunities for both his wife, a Pittsburgh native, and himself. He's a dad and has a day job to pay the bills. As for the music scene, he thinks Pittsburgh "...is the ideal size, big enough to support the local legends of the
area yet small enough to be inclusive of newer talent. There are great media outlets, a host of blogs and good coverage
in the press. And there are some really
strong venues for every slice of the musical pie."<br />
<br />
It's also where he found a chance to indulge his Euterpe. He explains "I spend too much time in my
basement in front of flickering computer screens while recording and
engineering away on <i>Pro Tools</i>. Assuredly, I’ve melted my mind, but that’s a
small price to pay because, of all aspects of music, I’ve found I am most
excited about writing and recording."<br />
<br />
He writes his songs by notebook jots and records by structuring a lead vocal with live guitar riffs, throwing in a beat with a drum machine, overlaying the whole thing and adding the background vocals, a process that makes him "an army of Stoshes." <br />
<br />
The result is his album <i>Stosh</i>. "This album is for people interested in sitting down and exploring 55
minutes of music straight," Jonjak said. "Unintentionally, in creating the songs, there
happened to be a theme (each song is about a close friend or a family member) that ran through the whole album, so it made sense to
put it all together and hope that people listen to the thing all the way through." (Just click on either this <a href="http://www.broadjam.com/transmit/index.php?id=4279bick">Broadjam</a> or <a href="http://www.stoshsounds.com/">Stoshsounds</a> link). It's definitely an olio of rock genres, described as "psychedelia, grunty, sludgy rock, and catchy electronic space sounds."<br />
<br />
So any chance of getting Stosh out of the basement and on the stage? Probably not for awhile, anyway. "I’m not sure I’m ready to play laptop live just yet,
which brings up the larger umbrella topic of what is the most
effective way of promoting music?" Jonjak's take is "Playing thirty minute showcases was essentially the only game in
town twenty years ago and I won’t disparage the value of a live show, but
so much of the musical landscape has changed. Once you have a product you now
have the potential to reach an unprecedented number of people via electronic
promotion."<br />
<br />
"With just a little legwork and at basically no
cost you can upload your album to streaming services, submit your album to
multiple, high-traffic marketplaces, and reach everyone you know via social
media. It’s an exciting time for
small, indie bands or musicians because of this access."<br />
<br />
Give "Stosh" a listen; <i>Old Mon</i> played the album through while writing the post and it does work well as a unified piece even with the mash of styles. And you can't beat the inspiration.<br />
<br />
The song “Life Intervenes” is about driving around with his bandmate buddies. For "Black Coffee" Stosh wonders if you've ever downed so much joe that you feel like your heart is going to explode? "See You In The Yucatan" is the tale of Evel Knievel meeting Metallica. "The End of the World" is based on an exchange held after the apocalypse. The tune "Grand Ambition" is a more traditional theme written after his daughter was born.<br />
<br />
So hit one of the links above and let the rock roll.<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F82374756" width="100%"></iframe>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-12081148998409246712013-02-24T17:16:00.000-05:002013-02-24T21:21:16.698-05:00Marcus Meston - Not Yet, But Soon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BIdMj6IAFkk/USqNB9g1XqI/AAAAAAAAARg/ge62oSc-qGY/s1600/marcusmeston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BIdMj6IAFkk/USqNB9g1XqI/AAAAAAAAARg/ge62oSc-qGY/s1600/marcusmeston.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Marcus Meston image by Billy Sukitch</i><span id="goog_41791534"></span><span id="goog_41791535"></span></div>
<br />
<a href="http://oldmonmusic.blogspot.com/2011/08/marcus-meston.html">Marcus Meston</a>, the teen multi-instrumentalist and song writer from Upper St. Clair, is following his 2011 LP "Everything Will be Fine" with the EP "Not Yet, But Soon." He'll be at the Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday, February 26th, opening for Aaron Carter and introducing the new tracks.<br />
<br />
He hooked up with Steve Soboslai, Punchline's frontman and owner of the label
Modern Short Stories, in February of last year. The eventual result was the song "Scissors," which they co-wrote, with another tune in hand that may be released as part of a future project.<br />
<br />
In May, Soboslai come to Meston's home
studio and did some pre-production work. Soboslai suggested laying down tracks with Mike Ofca of Innovation Studios in Steubenville, who had worked with Punchline, and so Meston went to Ohio last summer. In four sessions, they recorded three tracks ("Scissors" and "Today is the Day" made the EP), engineered by Ofca and mastered by Randy Leroy at Airshow's Takoma Park Studios in
Maryland.<br />
<br />
Veteran (Bill Deasy, Maynard Ferguson) Dave "Throck" Throckmorton did the drumming, Ofca provided bass, guitars,
and keys while Meston played guitars, shaker and did the vocal work. His dad,
Tom, who played for Stir Fry and is a popular sideman, overlaid keys from the home base in Pittsburgh for the sessions. <br />
<br />
The remaining songs were a virtuoso performance by Marcus. He wrote the songs, laid down all the vocal & instrumental tracks and mixed them. Who said one man bands are dead? Meston mastered the tracks "Before We
Begin", "Eventually" and "Time" while Harrison Wargo of the local Bad Boxes Studios (and former member of The Morning Light) mastered "Not Yet, But
Soon (Intro)" and "New." <br />
<br />
The tracklist for "Not Yet, But Soon" is:<br />
<ul>
<li>Not Yet, But Soon (Intro)</li>
<li>Scissors</li>
<li>Time</li>
<li>Today is the Day</li>
<li>Before We Begin</li>
<li>New</li>
<li>Eventually </li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
The stuff is a little New Wave, a little pop, and a little rock, and shows a growing maturity in Meston as a writer and performer. The EP will be available in all online stores on March 17th. So get down to Station Square Tuesday to get a preview. Hard Rock's doors open at 7:30 and the music starts at 8. <br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F80658069" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-56319415424752532222013-02-15T08:00:00.000-05:002013-02-18T13:13:21.498-05:00Lennie Martin <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Id3fXxLSrdA/URbQDms65GI/AAAAAAAAARA/p6pfUaHBj8g/s1600/lennie+martin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Id3fXxLSrdA/URbQDms65GI/AAAAAAAAARA/p6pfUaHBj8g/s1600/lennie+martin.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lennie Martin from <a href="http://keepkey.yochanan.net/robbeerecord.htm">Robbee Records</a></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Lennie Martin was one of the key players in mid-fifties to early-sixties Pittsburgh pop music scene. His JEM label broke the ice for local R&B artists in the City, he was the A&R man for and part owner of Calico Records who arranged the orchestration behind the Skyliners, and was co-owner of both Robbee Records and World Records, Pittsburgh's first label to push beyond regional acts.<br />
<br />
He was born Rinaldo Marino in 1916, and was educated at Duquesne University. He was a pianist, arranger and composer, and found work as a staff musician for KDKA and WCAE radio. Martin became an orchestra leader and highly sought after as a jingle writer for ads.<br />
<br />
Martin entered the industry side in 1955 when he formed JEM Records, based out of his Carlton House office. <br />
<br />
In 1955, the Smoothtones recorded two sides for Martin's JEM label, both written by Alfred Gaitwood, who would later hit it big with the Cuff Links' "Guided Missile." The 45 was “Bring Back Your Love” b/w “No Doubt About It” (JEM #412), backed by the Walt Harper Orchestra. The wax was released in June 1955. As a historical note, it's thought that slab of vinyl was the first song by a black R&B vocal group issued on a Pittsburgh
label.<br />
<br />
Also on the label were local artists The Wright Brothers and Patty Troy, who would record both separately and together for JEM. <br />
<br />
As the A&R man for Calico (he was also part owner), Martin took a trip to New York City's Capitol Studios with Bill Lawrence and Joe Rock for Skyliners "Since I Don't Have You" session. Martin arranged the lush chart, later cited by wall-of-sound producer Phil Spector as an early influence on his arrangements. He and band manager Rock shared the musical credits for all the early Skyliner songs released on Calico.<br />
<br />
Founded to promote Pittsburgh music, Calico was driven by the Skyliners success. They also recorded the Donnybrooks from Canonsburg, Chuck Johnson and Walt Maddox. After a two year run, Martin closed shop and moved on to a new venture after Rock took the Skyliners to Columbia Pictures Colpix label. <br />
<br />
Martin and Lou Guarino founded the Robbee Record Label in 1960, named after Martin's youngest son, Robert. He didn't forget the rest of the family; his Mary Jo Publishing company was named after his wife, and Jeff-Paul Music was named after his eldest, Jeffrey. The Robbee label even tried to break out the region with a distribution deal with Hollywood's Liberty Records, which had Henry Mancini among its artists.<br />
<br />
Robbee had one song that charted: Marcy Jo's "Ronnie" (#81 Billboard, #64 Cash Box/1961 R-110). The label, like Calico, was heavy with local artists - Lugee (Lou Christie) and the Lions, Holidays, La Rells, Chapelaires, Honorable Fats Wilson and the South Hills' Four Seasons recorded for Robbee.<br />
<br />
Martin catered to the sports crowd, too, with Benny Benack's "Beat 'Em Bucs" (1960/R-108) and Pirates' pitcher ElRoy Face (he fronted a small jazz club on Grant Street that as memory serves was called The Bandbox, a few doors away from Martin's offices at the Carlton House) and catcher Hal Smith as part of Robbee's stable of artists. Heck, Lennie even recorded "La Femme" with his Orchestra for the label.<br />
<br />
In 1963, Martin and Guarino formed a new label, World Records. They had some local talent, like Lou Christie, the Laurels & Joe Negri, and with Guarino's discovery of English act Chad and Jeremy, the duo hoped to finally make Pittsburgh a destination point in the industry. That never quite happened, though Guarino is still in the industry and running WAE Records, short for World Artists Entertainment, today's remnant of World Records.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, World Records and Pittsburgh didn't have Lennie Martin around long. He died at West Penn Hospital after a long illness in 1963 at the age of 46 and was buried at Mt. Carmel cemetery.<br />
<br />
Lennie Martin left behind quite a legacy for such a short spell - he owned parts of four labels, orchestrated the Skyliners, was a vocal coach to a lot of young area talent, and his jingles (he was said to have produced thousands of them) cemented media branding and moved lots of product on TV and radio.<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OfCAf8GYpTQ" width="420"></iframe><br />
Marcy Jo - "Ronnie" (1961)
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-71768541336156074732013-02-03T18:46:00.001-05:002013-02-16T11:59:14.729-05:00Bill Lawrence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oexYcHHVTnc/UQ702AFwD1I/AAAAAAAAAQY/-3L8wFnHUPo/s1600/alanna558.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oexYcHHVTnc/UQ702AFwD1I/AAAAAAAAAQY/-3L8wFnHUPo/s320/alanna558.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Image from the <a href="http://www.doowopshoobop.com/back.html">Doo Wop Shoo Bop</a>. </i></div>
<br />
Back in the early sixties, it was easy enough for local groups to get recorded; there were studios and labels galore. The labels may have been regional in reach, but getting on vinyl could at least get a band some local airtime, and that led to steady gigs.<br />
<br />
They could even launch chart-landing careers, like Joe Averbach's Fee Bee did with the Del Vikings, Herb Cohen and Nick Cenci's Co & Ce did with Lou Christie and the Vogues, Lou Guarino's World Artist did with Chad & Jeremy, and Lou Caposi & Bill Lawrence's Calico did with the Skyliners.<br />
<br />
Today we're gonna take a quick peep at Lawrence, who is often the forgotten guy among Pittsburgh's early rock entrepreneurs.<br />
<br />
Bill Lawrence was a South Side kid who came up when times were tough during the Depression, scuffling for nickels and dimes. Entertainment is often an economic driver out of the 'hood, and Bill had a voice that helped punch his ticket. He went from singing telegrams to a spot on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour in New York, taking first place on the nationally broadcast CBS Radio show.<br />
<br />
That led Lawrence on a barnstorming career as a big band leader, but making music wouldn't end up his calling card. As the curtain closed on the big band era, he moved on to the industry side of the business in the early fifties.<br />
<br />
He started out as the sales director of Chicago's United Record Distributors, then went on to become CBS/Columbia Records as a Promo and Sales exec, pushing acts like Johnny Ray and Guy Mitchell. Next, Lawrence jumped to the new Epic label, where he became an A&R guy, the National Director of Artists Relations and was in charge of pop single sales.<br />
<br />
But like many Pittsburgh guys, he discovered that the grass wasn't any greener in the outside world, and came back to the City in 1956. He converted partial ownership of Pittsburgh's Portal Distributorship into a company of his own, the One Stop Record Distribution Company. It had a pretty solid stable of labels to push, including Epic, ABC, London, Okeh, Vic, and Zephyr.<br />
<br />
About the same time, Lawrence and attorney Lou Caposi set up Calico Records, with Lenny Martin as A&R head, arranger and part owner. In 1958, they fell into a rose garden when Joe Rock brought in the Crescents, fresh off a baker's dozen rejections from national labels, for a knockout demo. They quickly took them to New York's Capitol Studios and recorded “Since I Don’t Have You.” Oh, they also changed the group's name while in the Big Apple, to the Skyliners.<br />
<br />
The Skyliners were the mainstays of the label, which also recorded local acts like Canonsburg's Donnybrooks and Walt Maddox. Then in late 1959, Lawrence pulled the plug on Calico after the Skyliners jumped to Columbia Pictures Colpix label and started Alanna Records, named after his wife. That label also focused on local performers like ElRoy (Leroy Grammer) & the Excitements, Chuck Edwards and Baldwin's Four Seasons. <br />
<br />
He also started up the Western World label and its subsidiary Super M in the seventies with Lou Gaurino, veering off the beaten path by recording funk artists BlackLove and George Bacasa's cutting edge jazz group The Silhouettes.<br />
<br />
While none of Lawrence's labels exactly sent shivers of fear up the spines of the national behemoths, there are two things that have to be remembered. His bread-and-butter was his distribution business, not the labels. And secondly, of all the labels that were jostling for acts in the sixties, Lawrence's Alanna is the only one that is still standing today.<br />
<br />
By the early sixties (“Alanna Records Presents - Pittsburgh Rhythm and Blues/Rock 1959-1963” was their last pop release), Lawrence transformed Alanna into an almost boutique label. He made the Fifth Avenue shop a home for the music he appreciated - jazz, big band, swing and adult contemporary with a limited catalog of some 60 titles. <br />
<br />
A niche market, to be sure, but one that supported itself. The label was even a pacesetter as a big fish in a small pond. Ed Salamon wrote that "Alanna’s success with The Spitfire Band and their Laurie Bower Singers almost single handedly reestablished the market for authentic Big Band music."<br />
<br />
The independent model has its supporters. In 2005, Lawrence finally handed over Alanna's reins to Digital Dynamics Audio Inc., a recording and design group that wants to establish a jazz/classical label. Thomas Kikta, Digital Dynamics president, <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2005/09/19/daily24.html">told</a> the <i>Pittsburgh Business Times</i> that the deal enabled his company to "cover the chain from studio to retailer."<br />
<br />
So when you look over your pile of old Pittsburgh-sound 45s, remember that Bill Lawrence not only was responsible for the music on a lot of those scratchy disks; his company was probably the one that got it to the store you bought it from. And of all those labels of yore, his is the only one left in the City.<br />
<br />
<i>We'd like to thank again Ed Salamon, whose <a href="http://shacodor.blogspot.com/">article</a> gave us a framework to built the post. Ed is a Brookline guy with a influential spot in radio broadcasting history and the author of "<a href="http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=12137147&matches=15&cm_sp=works*listing*title">Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Radio</a>."</i>
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ngZh6ZSRoYg" width="420"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-26443420995285062552012-11-16T17:30:00.000-05:002013-02-16T11:45:22.381-05:00Joe Kennedy Jr.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uAFVQSYCBJw/UJWxR8hOQ1I/AAAAAAAAAPU/o9jDzZHHN88/s1600/JKJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uAFVQSYCBJw/UJWxR8hOQ1I/AAAAAAAAAPU/o9jDzZHHN88/s320/JKJ.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Joe Kennedy Jr., photo from <a href="http://www2.timesdispatch.com/special_section/2009/feb/12/joe_kennedy_jr-ar-78913/">The Richmond Times Dispatch</a></i> <span id="goog_353582480"></span><span id="goog_353582481"></span></div>
<br />
You've seen the "most interesting man in the worl<span style="font-size: small;">d</span>" commercials, right?<br />
<br />
Well, what would you consider someone who has a masters degree, traveled the world, was on national TV, played for a pair of symphony orchestras, formed and fronted a jazz quartet that featured Ahmad Jamal and Ray Crawford, was a member of Benny Carter's All-Stars, performed with The Modern Jazz Quartet, was on the stages of national and international jazz festivals, has a sterling list of recording credits, led a marching band, was the director of both high school and college music programs and composed be-bop and classical scores? Well, even if he's not the most interesting man in the world, Joseph Jerome "Joe" Kennedy Jr. was surely its most interesting violinist<br />
<br />
Most of the references say he was born in Pittsburgh in 1923, but his childhood friend Ahmad Jamal said he was from McDonald. His self-taught musician grandfather Saunders Bennett (early jazz trumpeter Cuban Bennett was Joe's uncle) tutored young Kennedy on
the violin during the early thirties, and we know McDonald is where Bennett lived.<br />
<br />
But whether he was from the City or a bedroom community doesn't make much diff to us; he was raised a Western Pennsylvania boy either way. His ear was drawn to classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz pianist Art Tatum, and Kennedy would hold true to those seemingly opposite musical poles all his life.<br />
<br />
Kennedy served his stint with Uncle Sam as a member of the Camp Lee Symphony Orchestra in Petersburg, Virginia, during World War II, then he returned to
Pittsburgh. He played locally in small combos until 1946, when he formed the Four Strings, a jazz quartet.<br />
<br />
The original group consisted of Kennedy, violinist and leader; Ray Crawford, guitar;
Sam Johnson, piano and Edgar Willis, bass (who went on to play for Ray Charles & Sonny Stitt). Pianist Ahmad Jamal and bassist Tommy Sewell were later replacements for Johnson and Willis.<br />
<br />
The group was the house band at Local 471, the Black Musicians Union, for a year and were active in the Hill hall's renowned late night jams. Beside club dates, the Four Strings appeared at Carnegie Music Hall and earned some side money by taping background music for syndicated radio shows.<br />
<br />
While playing the local circuit, the band found a huge fan in East Liberty pianist, composer and arranger Mary Lou Williams. She arranged and produced a recording session for the Strings with Moses Asch in New York that resulted in the 1949 album "Trends" on his Disc label. <i>Down Beat</i> magazine gave it a strong review and called Kennedy's work "the cleanest violin we've ever heard."<br />
<br />
Asch, whose main label was Folkways, would later include a couple of Four Strings tracks ("Patches" and "Desert Sands") on the LP "Jazz Violins Of The Forties" in 1981, featuring Kennedy with other fiddle pioneers Stuff Smith and Paul Nero.<br />
<br />
But the group dissolved in 1950 "because of a lack of employment" as Jamal so delicately put it. Actually, it didn't put much a crimp in Jamal's future. He formed his Three Strings combo in 1951, taking Crawford with him. Jamal added that his breakout hit “Poinciana” was a part of the repertoire that bandleader Kennedy
had in the Four Strings play book.<br />
<br />
Kennedy would rejoin Jamal and Crawford in 1960 as a sideman on the "Listen to the Ahmad Jamal Quintet" album, and appears with his bud on 1995's "Big Byrd: The Essence Part II" and the following year's "Ahmad Jamal a Paris." He also helped Jamal with composition and arrangement chores on his early LPs, and played with him regularly throughout his career.<br />
<br />
But education, near and dear to Kennedy's heart, was the road he chose after the Four Strings. He studied applied music at Carnegie Tech (now CMU), headed back to Virginia to complete his BA at Virginia State College (now University) and planted his roots in the Old Dominion. <br />
<br />
After graduating, he joined the Richmond Public Schools system, eventually becoming the Supervisor of Secondary Arts and Humanities (tennis star Arthur Ashe was one of his students), and moonlighted as the Director of Band at Virginia Union University. During the summers, he returned to Pittsburgh to earn his Masters in Music Education from Duquesne University.<br />
<br />
He was as much an academic as a musical star. He became a faculty member of Virginia
Commonwealth University in 1973, developing coursework in African-American
music history until 1984, when Kennedy was chosen as the Director of Jazz Studies at Virginia Tech and retired as a Professor Emeritus.<br />
<br />
But never fear; he kept on his dual track musical career. In 1963, Kennedy became the first African-American member of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, along with Dr. Thomas Bridge, and remained their resident violinist for 18 years even with his scholastic workload. From 1993-94 he served as Composer In Residence for the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, for which he wrote a full-length jazz and gospel fantasia. One of his compositions, "Sketches for Solo Violin, Jazz Trio, and Symphony Orchestra," has been performed by several orchestras.<br />
<br />
Kennedy was considered the first violinist to fully buy into bebop, and you can bet all his academic endeavors and symphony work didn't diminish his jazz jones. Just to keep his hand in the pot, he was a board member of the Richmond Jazz Society, which eventually named the jazz performance stage used during the town's annual music festival after him.<br />
<br />
In 1962, Kennedy recorded the LP "Strings by Candlelight," with pianist Hank Jones, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and bassist Milt Hinton. In 1980, he recruited bassist Major Holley and drummer Oliver Jackson to join with him and Jones to record "Magnifique!," later reissued in the US in 2002 as "Falling in Love with Love." He was the bandleader for both albums.<br />
<br />
As a sideman, he can be heard on Toots Thieleman's "Accentuate the Positive" (1962); John Lewis' "Kansas City Breaks" (1982); The Heath Brothers' "Brothers and Others" (1984) and Billy Taylor's "Where've You Been?" (1989). <br />
<br />
He got his share of TV love, too. Kennedy was part of a BBC documentary
"Fiddlers Three," appeared in "A Salute to Duke Ellington" at the Kennedy Center, which was televised nationally on "Kennedy Center Tonight" and performed with Jon Faddis and the Great American Jazz Ensemble on PBS.<br />
<br />
Wax and vids are nice, but Joe Kennedy's milleau was the stage, where it was said that he could play his violin like a horn. He performed live primarily with Jamal and cousin Benny Carter's All-Stars, and appeared with John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet.<br />
<br />
Internationally, he toured Japan and played the North Sea Jazz Festival at the Hague, the Grande Parade du Jazz, Nice, France; and the Birmingham, England, International Jazz Festival. And he hit the US festival circuit hard, too, performing at the Concord, Monterey, San Francisco and Kool Jazz Festivals, the Aspen and Richmond Music Festivals and at Carnegie Hall.<br />
<br />
His honors include a City of Richmond "Joe Kennedy, Jr., Day" (1996), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Theresa Pollak Prizes for Excellence in the Arts (1999), the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation's Living Legacy Jazz Award (2001), and commendations from the Virginia General Assembly (2002 & 2005).<br />
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Joe Kennedy passed away in his adopted hometown of Richmond in 2004 at the age of 80.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fQm0vGxMXHk" width="420"></iframe><br />
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Joe Kennedy Jr. with John Lewis on "Django."</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-89758174479984926342012-11-09T17:32:00.000-05:002012-11-09T17:32:01.660-05:00Back To Normal...Sorry, guys, the blog was hijacked earlier this week and it took <i>Old Mon</i> a couple of days to root out the offending code. But we're back to normal, and we're sorry for the redirect.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-6100419398645425822012-11-01T17:39:00.000-04:002012-11-01T19:16:15.389-04:00Pittsburgh TV Dance Parties<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9y1GjW4cwg4/UJLq83Xn3kI/AAAAAAAAAO8/r3zyfQb4JAs/s1600/tl+come+alive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="294" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9y1GjW4cwg4/UJLq83Xn3kI/AAAAAAAAAO8/r3zyfQb4JAs/s320/tl+come+alive.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Terry Lee's "Come Alive" from <a href="http://www.tlsoundco.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=15758887">TL Sound Company</a></div>
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<br />
Back in the early days of TV, local channels used to churn out their own programming to supplement the shows that the networks provided. And one of easier, low-budget productions was a live teen dance party.<br />
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It was a great way to draw the kids from their transistors and car radios to the new medium for an hour, combining records with free live acts promoting tour and club dates. What high-schooler of the late fifties-to-mid sixties wasn't on a show, or at least tuned in to catch one of his buds going all herky-jerky to the latest dance craze on TV with his babe?<br />
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As far as we can trace, the first live TV dance show to reach the Pittsburgh market was from Steubenville, Ohio, when WSTV (now WTOV) aired "Nine Teen Time" with hosts Stan Scott, George Wilson and Del Curtis. The show was first broadcast in 1955 in glorious black and white, and lasted until the late sixties. Some local acts that played there that you may recall were soul man Johnny Daye, Canonsburg's Donnybrooks, and the Stereos, a Steubenville group with a big following in the 'Burg.<br />
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A couple of years later in 1957, the 800 pound gorilla, Dick Clark's "American Bandstand," roared out of the City of Brotherly Love, lasting into the late eighties. It started in Philly as a local show in 1956 after Clark had expanded his play list to include "race records" - R&B - inspired by Pittsburgh's top-rated WCAE DJ Jay Michael, who in fact hosted a Bandstand show in the summer of 1959 when Clark was on vacation.<br />
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Jay Bird began his TV career in late 1954 as a rotating host of Thrift Drug Store's "Lullabye In Rhythm" on station WDTV (the forerunner of KDKA-TV), along with WJAS' Barry Kaye, WWSW's Art Pallin, and maybe KQV's Joe Deane (we can't confirm him). The show was on Thursdays at 11:45 PM, and starred pop recording artists who were appearing in Pittsburgh area clubs. <br />
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Michael started his own show, the "Jay Michael Bandstand," in 1958 on WCAE-TV (now WTAE) and it ran throughout 1959. It aired from 3-to-5 PM every Saturday. Ricky Wertz, locally known as the hostess of the sixties Ricki and Copper show, began as Jay's on-air assistant on Bandstand. Del Taylor took over the hosting duties in 1960 when Michael left Pittsburgh for San Diego.<br />
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Among the performers Jay highlighted over the years were Fats Domino, Bobby Rydell, Sam Cooke, Brenda Lee, Johnny Preston, Desi Arnaz, Eddie Fisher, Andy Williams, Eydie Gorme, Debbie Reynolds, Jeff Hunter, Jerry Vale, Dorothy Collins, the Platters,
Vaughn Monroe, Julius La Rosa, Tab Hunter, Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, the Ames Brothers, Sophia Loren, Connie Francis and locals like Johnny Jack, the Skyliners, the Orlandos and Tomme Charles.<br />
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Another early TV dance show was the "6 O'Clock Hop"/"Daily Dance Party" that aired M-F on Channel 11, then WIIC, and had Chilly Billy Cardille as host. That Dance Party likely began sometime in 1957. Bobby Rydell and Connie Francis were among the acts that appeared on Cardille's card. Unfortunately, we can't dig out much on the program; it seems Cardille's incredibly diverse career is forever defined by "Studio Wrestling" and "Chiller Theater" to the exclusion of everything else he did - and the radio/TV pioneer did a lot.<br />
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The dance show that everyone remembers was Clark Race's KDKA "Dance Party." He took over the reins in 1963 from KD's Randy Hall, the original host, and the show went on until 1967. It aired on Saturday afternoons from 2:30 to 4:00 PM. "Back in those days, he was the biggest thing in town. He was the Dick Clark of Pittsburgh," Dance Party's director Victor Vrabel <a href="http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990728race9.asp">told</a> the <i>Post Gazette</i>'s Adrian McCoy.<br />
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The show opened with Race's familiar "String of Trumpets" radio theme by Billy Mure. Then local teens got down to the Twist, the Shimmy, the Mashed Potato, the Monkey, the Limbo, the Swim, the Boogaloo, the Frug, the Watusi, the Hitch-Hike...any sixties move that was hot was busted on "Dance Party." The program was held in what is now KDKA's evening news set (usually live, sometimes taped), fitting enough as the show was headline teenage news.<br />
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Among the acts that Race hosted were the Supremes, Buddy Holly, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Turtles, the Beach Boys, the Four Tops, the Hollies, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Tommy James and the Shondells, the Strangegloves and Neil Sedaka. Some local artists that appeared were Lou Christie & the Tammys, Bobby Vinton, the Vogues, the Donnybrooks, Buddy Sharpe & the Shakers and Johnny Daye.<br />
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Its successor on the Pittsburgh airwaves was "Come Alive" on WIIC (now WPXI), a show that began in 1966. Taped Fridays in the Channel 11 studios (the show aired Saturdays from 12:30-2 PM), it sometimes presented a timing conflict for original host Chuck Brinkman of KQV, who had a Friday night radio gig.<br />
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He thought he solved that problem the following year, when he switched to a Saturday afternoon radio slot, but instead ran into deeper doo-doo: His KQV show was sponsored by Coca-Cola, and "Come Alive" was backed by Pepsi Cola. *<a href="http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/RVSP/message/1736">Awkward</a>* So WMCK's Terry Lee became the host in 1967 until the show ended in 1970.<br />
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Whether Chuck Brinkman or TL hosted, the show drew some big acts: the Four Seasons, Moby Grape, Junior Walker, Tommy James & the Shondells, Gene Pitney, Paul Revere & Raiders, the Blues Magoos, the Association, the Animals, Iron Butterfly, the Turtles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the American Breed, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Shadows of Knight, the Monkees, the Temptations, the Human Beinz, ? and the Mysterians, the Easybeats, Canned Heat, Archie Bell & the Drells, the Four Tops, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Edwin Starr, Herman's Hermits, the Fenways, Racket Squad and the Electrons. <br />
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Lee returned to the tube on WPGH in 1976, when he hosted the “Terry Lee Show.” The program ran for two years on Channel 53 and then moved to KDKA where it aired until 1980. TL helped the action along, putting his featured TL dancers on a platform to get the dance floor hopping. Lee still has clips and slides of his TV show that he incorporates into his hop appearances to this day, and may be the only DJ with video existing of his show. Most of the tape reels of the various shows were erased and reused rather than archived.<br />
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He brought in acts like the Rolling Stones, Shazam, David Bowie, Boz Scaggs, Kool and the Gang, ConFunkShun, the Grateful Dead, the Rhythm Kings, and Sweet Breeze, playing between a heavy dose of dance tracks.<br />
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That was the last hurrah for Pittsburgh dance shows; local programming, once a cut-rate proposition, was now a drag on the bottom line. The music industry changed too, as national shows like Bandstand, Hullabaloo, Shindig and Soul Train all went off the air as dances were no longer the end-all of the biz.<br />
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But there was an era when the point of music was to make you grab a partner and move your feet. Pittsburgh teens from the late fifties through the sixties did just that, and made some memories on live TV that still linger.<br />
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<i>(Old Mon would like to recognize reader Craig for suggesting the topic, along with Ed Salamon and his book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pittsburghs-Golden-America-Arcadia-Publishing/dp/0738572233">Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Radio</a>" and Paul Carosi's web site "<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/">Pittsburgh Music History</a>" for providing us with some background stuff we'd otherwise have never found.)</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-48761371125577862262012-10-20T16:42:00.000-04:002012-10-20T16:42:01.328-04:00AFM 471 - The Black Musicians Union<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wPTQPoz3zHY/UGDTP_8DsEI/AAAAAAAAAOE/pZSF5glO_34/s1600/musiciansno.471anniversary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wPTQPoz3zHY/UGDTP_8DsEI/AAAAAAAAAOE/pZSF5glO_34/s320/musiciansno.471anniversary.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
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<i> Program from 1962 AFM Convention in Pittsburgh with Local #471 officers </i></div>
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<i> including Joe Westray, Ruby Younge & Walt Harper; from <a href="http://www.library.pitt.edu/labor_legacy/images/musiciansno.471anniversary.jpg">Pitt Labor Legacy</a></i></div>
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The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) was founded in October 1896 as a national, and soon to become international, labor union for the musical profession. The Pittsburgh Musical Society Local 60 was chartered in 1897 to represent the white musicians in the Pittsburgh area.<br />
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The Pittsburgh African American Musicians' Association was started in 1906, and in 1908, the American Federation of Labor granted the group a charter to form Local 471 of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), also known as the Musicians Protective Union. The locals became "separate but equal." <br />
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Locals 60 & 471, as were all locals in the AFM, were charged with the following duties: setting and enforcing scale for members' services, settling beefs between members or members and the venues, and to generally protect their members' professional interests. <br />
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The presidents of Local 471 were elected for a two year term, with no term limits. Sadly, the earliest leaders names have been lost in the mists of time. The first known president was Henry "Prez" Jackson, who held office from 1938 to the mid-forties when Stoney Gloster took the reins until 1954. Then Carl Arter held the post until 1958 when Joe Westray became the union's last president, heading the local until the 1965 merger with AFM 60. He then became one of the three reps from 471 to serve on the joint board, along with Carl Arter and Ruby Younge Hardy. <br />
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The unwritten but nevertheless fiercely protected boundary was above Grant Street. Black bands could play at clubs above Grant in the Hill and in parts of the North Side, Homewood and Wilkinsburg.<br />
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The union protected its members by confronting and, if need be, physically yanking performers from the bandstand who weren't dues-paying members to protect the $50 tor $60 per gig the players generally received. And Local 60 watched its clubs like a hawk too, picketing and more whenever a group from 471 or any other outsider infringed on one of their stages.<br />
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Local 471's hall and Musician's Club was located on 1213 Wylie Avenue by Crawford Street. The club had offices and a bar/restaurant on the first floor, with a piano bar and rehearsal space on the second floor. <br />
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The building came complete with a storied musical past. It had originally been the Collins Inn, an early Pittsburgh jazz club where Lois Deppe and His Serenaders started in 1919. Then numbers king Gus Greenlee bought the Collins and renamed it the Paramount Club in 1922.<br />
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The dance hall/speakeasy featured the Paramount Inn Orchestra, proclaimed by the <i>Pittsburgh Courier</i> to be the city's best band. The club was a bit rowdy; it was shut down by the police twice. And both were "Black and Tan" clubs, catering to an integrated crowd. Local 471 took over the building in the early-to-mid thirties after Greenlee left to open the Crawford Grill in 1931.<br />
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First and foremost, it was a hiring hall for black artists. The dressed to the nines musicians used to gather on Wednesday and Thursday on Wylie and Fullerton Streets - better known as "The Crossroads of the World" - as a cattle call location for club owners looking to fill a date. Now both the players and the bookers had a place to do business. The hall signed on players for not only concerts and gigs, but placed them in touring bands and shows, too. <br />
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Noted card carriers of Local 471 included George Benson, Mary Lou Williams, Erroll Garner, Art Blakey, James "Blood" Ulmer, Tommy & Stanley Turrentine, Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Ponder, Billy Strayhorn, Grover Mitchell, Ray Brown and Ahmad Jamal.<br />
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It also included local stalwarts like Leroy Brown, Walt Harper, Harold Betters, Ruby Younge Hardy, Joe Westray, Honey Boy Minor, Roger Humphries and Nelson Harrison, along with hundreds of meat-and-potato musicians. Common Pleas Judge Warren Watson, who was player in his younger days, served for a spell as legal counsel for Local 471.<br />
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It was also a general hang-out for the members, who loafed, shot the breeze, ate, drank, jammed, rehearsed and auditioned in the hall which served as a virtual home away from home. And then there was the Musician's Club.<br />
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Its renown as a music venue came about thanks to Prez Jackson, who had the foresight to add a liquor license and associate memberships (earned the same way as in most clubs: a hopeful was vouched for by a member and confirmed by the board, which then issued a card) in 1941, turning the union hall into one of the Hill's most popular - and legal - after hours clubs. And in keeping with the tradition, it was a "Black and Tan" building for both patrons and musicians.<br />
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In fact, much of Local 471's reputation came through its Musicians Club. Performers and fans mixed to drink, eat and be entertained in the bar and restaurant on the first floor, then catch the acts in the second floor Musician's Club. LeRoy Brown played Sunday nights, when the regular clubs were closed, other bands played contemporary sounds on the weekend to draw in the customers, and there were regularly scheduled "talent nights."<br />
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Wednesday's were "Celebrity Night" with musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Wynonie Harris, Gene Ammons, Illinois Jacquet, Ben Webster, Cab Calloway and Coleman Hawkins, with the shows sometimes running from ten at night to four in the morning. And you didn't want to miss the wee hour jams.<br />
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The headliners would join with locals like George Benson, Ahmad Jamal, and company to trade licks, especially those from the bebop school, which was pushed hard by Tommy Turrentine. Some of the guys that played downtown, like members of the Claude Thornill or Charlie Barnet bands, would head to the Hill after the show to jam with the Pittsbugh cats, as would artists after playing one of the Hill jazz houses. So would some of the more hep members of AFM 60, who eschewed the Dixieland style of jamming at their downtown hall (on 9th Street and Penn Avenue) and trooped to the Musician's Club.<br />
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The music created was enthralling, and it kept more than the customers on their toes. The locals would often play a number and switch keys to tweak the sound, and if you were asleep at the wheel when they did, well, your record contract wouldn't save you.<br />
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One famous story told by Joe Negri, related in "<a href="http://www.colterharper.com/PDF_Downloads/Harper_Dissertation_2011.pdf"><i>Crossroads of the World</i></a>" by Colter Harper, had a tipsy Stan Getz joining the stage to play with Jamal, who he had irritated by calling "kid" once or twice. Ahmad played “The Song is You” in an off key, and Getz tripped over a bridge, picked up his tenor and slunk out of the club, tail tucked between his legs. <br />
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But the jam sessions were much more than a chance to trade chops. The interaction between local musicians and touring band members also served as an introduction and sometimes an impromptu audition for a ticket out of Pittsburgh. The union also had a moment in the spotlight when it co-hosted the AFM International convention in Pittsburgh in 1962 with AFM 60.<br />
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Changes, though, were in the air, and they wouldn't be good ones for AFM 471. <br />
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The Musician’s Club building on Wylie Avenue was torn down in the fifties after 25 years of service for the Civic Arena project. Local 471 moved to a Centre Avenue storefront in 1954, then to a bar on Frankstown Avenue in East Liberty. It moved again in the late fifties to Westray Plaza on Lincoln Avenue in Larimer until the 1965 merger.<br />
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Yep, the merger. During the late fifties, the AFM international began to pressure white and African-American locals to consolidate. Simply put, the union realized
that regions could no longer operate separate locals on the basis of race alone. But it wasn't until 1966, as a result of the new AFL-CIO desegregation policy brought on by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and after a year of negotiations, that black Local 471 was merged with white Local 60. The two became AFM Local 60-471, aka the Pittsburgh Musical Society and then later the Pittsburgh Musicians Union.<br />
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Leadership positions remained for the most part in the hands of the white musicians. The numbers were stacked against the black musicians, with 2,000 AFM 60 members (it also represented groups like the PSO and CLO) compared to 300 card-carriers for AFM 471.<br />
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To make matters worse, many of 471's membership records were lost during the merger, and that cost many musicians their seniority rights and benefits. (Although it should be noted that the club moved four times in a decade, and that was probably part of the problem).<br />
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But there were so many SNAFUs during the transition that many African American musicians quit the union. The result was a virtually five year drought of black union musicians playing in the City following the merger. <br />
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In fact, a handful of black musicians took the merger to court in 1970. The initial five year plan insured black representation until then, but when it expired, no black members were elected to fill any union positions. The US Third Appeals Court ruled that the merger didn't discriminate against the black musicians on that basis, and the Supreme Court refused to act on the case, letting the decision stand, and that was that.<br />
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Things are better now, after nearly fifty years of operating under the AFM 60-471 banner. But the history of the Black Musician's Union was all hearsay until former member and trumpet player Charles Austin decided it was time to get it down in black and white as part of the mission of the African American Jazz Preservation Society of Pittsburgh, which he helped found.<br />
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Austin recorded seventy-four interviews of members regarding the lore of Local 471, preserved in the University of Pittsburgh Archives as part of the AAJPSOP Oral History Project. <br />
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This summer, members of the Society held a memorial for Austin, who passed away in May, while unveiling a state historical marker at Crawford Street between Wylie and Webster Avenues to commemorate AFM 471.<br />
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It reads "Organized in 1908, this local was one of the first African American musicians unions in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was at the forefront of the jazz world in the mid-20th century, & jazz greats Mary Lou Williams, Art Blakey, Ray Brown, & George Benson, among others, were members. A controversial merger with the white union local in the 1960s ended one of the oldest black union organizations in the US. Headquarters was nearby, 1940-1954."<br />
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And that, in a nutshell, contains the 65-year history of the Black Musicians Union, AFM Local 471. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-1541749309101767062012-10-07T13:03:00.001-04:002012-10-14T20:59:01.542-04:00The Record Mart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--q-l3znCyFo/UF1JQDyBThI/AAAAAAAAANY/e0kddABMZNQ/s1600/nrm+jitterbug+site.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--q-l3znCyFo/UF1JQDyBThI/AAAAAAAAANY/e0kddABMZNQ/s1600/nrm+jitterbug+site.JPG" /></a></div>
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<i> The birthplace of NRM on Wood Street from <a href="http://www.lifeinwesternpa.org/images/JM/MSP342-B01-F04-I01.JM.JPG">Life in Western PA</a></i></div>
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In 1937, the record industry was just beginning to sprout, and juke boxes were popping up all over town, spanning malt shops and night clubs that were spinning the music of Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Bing Crosby. East End brothers Howard and Sam Shapiro were in on the ground floor of the action, servicing the machines.<br />
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Then the bulb went on: why not make a buck off the used records they pulled from the music boxes? There was virtually no record sale competition at the time other than variety and department stores, and the cost was little-to-nothing for the second-hand shellac, which the owners considered warehouse clutter.<br />
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That year they opened the tiny Jitterbug Record Mart shop at 424 Wood Street on the corner of Diamond (now Forbes Avenue) and Wood in downtown Pittsburgh. They were backed by their dad Hyman and eventually brought in younger brother Jason, who was still at Peabody High at the time. The store started out selling used 78s: Bluebird, Decca and Vocilion labels sold for a dime/three-for-a-quarter, while Victor and Brunswick discs went two-for-a-quarter. <br />
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Business took off, and after the store became established, a distributor arranged for them to add new records to their offerings; they got up to 50 cents per disc for them. They gradually eased out the less profitable used discs and added foreign and classical record departments on the second floor to attract Pittsburgh's melting pot.<br />
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By the early forties, Hyman started two more locations in East Liberty and town (he ran the operation while his sons were in the service during WWII with the help of their wives and family) and changed the name from Jitterbug to the National Record Mart. When the boys returned to civilian life, they each had their own store. <br />
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During the postwar economic boom the business became a door-buster, and the stores began offering both 45s and LPs. They added a key and long-time staffer, Frank Fischer, to the payroll. He was a North Side kid from North Catholic High who started out with NRM by washing windows at the East Ohio Street store in 1951 and left the chain as president in 1994.<br />
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By 1958, they had at least 19 shops in their chain: Six were in town at 234 Forbes Avenue, 701 Smithfield Street, 930 Liberty Avenue, 100 Smithfield Street, 507 Market Street, and 540 Liberty Avenue, back in the day when Pittsburgh's center city didn't roll up the carpet after happy hour.<br />
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Others were at 1723 Murray Avenue (Squirrel Hill), Great Valley Shopping Center (E. McKeesport), 347 Fifth Avenue (New Kensington), McKnight-Siebert Shopping Plaza (North Hills), Banksville Plaza (Banksville), 5927 Penn Avenue (East Liberty), 500 East Ohio Street (North Side), 3715 Forbes Avenue (Oakland), Whitehall Terrace (Brentwood), 2889 West Liberty Avenue (Dormont), Heights Plaza (Natrona Heights), 300 Mt. Lebanon Boulevard (Mt. Lebanon) and on Chestnut Street in Washington.<br />
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More shops were added in quick order in places like McKeesport. NRM also operated a half dozen Gimbels'
music departments and managed the music sales at several other general retail outlets. Adapting to the times, many new NRM stores were opened in malls instead
of adhering to the old business district/shopping center model, setting up outlets first in
the partially enclosed Whitehall Terrace in 1952 and later at Eastland
(1963) while adding true mall shops at Northway (1962), South Hills
Village, Greengate and Shenango, the last three all in 1965.<br />
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And they learned how to protect their growing turf. The Shapiros cut back their
orders of records from the Columbia, RCA Victor and Capitol labels by nearly half in 1959 to protest their record clubs, which were undercutting NRM's prices. While not exactly sure that one thing led to the other, it was also the year that they began to discount albums at a dollar under suggested retail, approximating record club list prices. It eventually led to a meeting of the minds, peace in the valley and merrily ringing cash registers once again. <br />
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Entering the sixties, the National Record Mart chain operated 25 stores, all
located in and around Pittsburgh. They were headquartered in their 18,000 square foot Forbes Avenue flagstaff store (it even had listening booths for the customers) by Market Square. It also served as a retail site and storehouse, with Gateway Studios on the third floor.<br />
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In 1978, the offices and distribution facilities moved to 5607 Baum Boulevard - the building is now The Offices at Baum Boulevard, across from the old Day Auto lot - after a seventies record boom fueled by discomania overwhelmed the old downtown warehouse, and then to Carnegie in 1991 to take advantage of the new airport.<br />
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They pumped music throughout the store to help drive sales subliminally, and their sales list was widely distributed to the radio stations. They had their own label, which produced records like Jimmy Pol's "Pittsburgh Steelers Polka" and DJ Mike Metrovich's "Mad Mike's Moldies." (Mad Mike worked for NRM in the sixties, after Bob Mack's downtown Tri-State Record shop closed down.)<br />
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During this period, the chain hired another key North Side guy, Oliver High's George Balicky, as an oldies buyer. He would spend over 30 years with NRM, leaving in 1999 after serving as a senior VP of Marketing and Merchandising.<br />
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1964 was the year they entered the ticket sales business with promoter Tim Tormey. It was for a Civic Arena show featuring some Brit mop-tops called the Beatles, selling the tickets out of a cigar box. They were the first local outlet to move tickets outside a venue box office and the first to take mail orders.<br />
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In the sixties it was common to see lines forming outside a store the night before a sale, complete with sleeping bags. No, it didn't start with Black Friday midnight madness - it was a NRM phenomena first. And for years, they handled the duty without a service fee; NRM eventually added one when they realized the ticket crowd didn't often hang around the record store to browse and buy after they paid for their concert passes, starting at a quarter and going up to $1.25 during the Shapiro's tenure. <br />
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The chain expanded big time in the seventies, establishing locations in Roanoke, Buffalo and Chicago to become the first truly national music chain. Up until then, all the company's stores were within a four-hour drive of Pittsburgh, set up regionally like the other larger music outlets. The Shapiros grew NRM to a total of 57 stores by the end of the seventies.<br />
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The hot issue then was hot records. The bootlegging industry, working out of car trunks (always a thriving Pittsburgh underground option, then and today) was claimed to be cutting retail sales by a third. NRM survived that bump nicely, thank you, as did the record pirates.<br />
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In 1978, the Shapiros opened the company's first entertainment superstore in Pittsburgh, Oasis Records and Tapes, adding videos to the record stock and introducing the dollar-per-night movie rental when the going rate in other shops was $3.99. It got its name from its first location in Bloomfield, across from the bridge, when a NRM scout reported back to the office and said the site was "an oasis" (and it was for a while, between the '78 closing of the old Bloomfield Bridge and the 1986 opening of the new span.)<br />
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The impetus was a southern outlet called Peaches that was aggressively expanding, taking over old A&P markets and filling them with records sold off wooden pallets, along with vids and merchandise. Peaches moved one store into Bethel Park at 5253 Library Road (Route #88), and that got the Oasis ball rolling.<br />
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NRM opened superstores in Bloomfield and McKnight Road, eventually buying the Peaches store in Bethel Park, too. Oasis always had the biggest record selection and the most one-off merchandise like tees, posters, etc. to offer of all the NRM stores because of their size.<br />
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Shelly Berman, a Columbus adman whose firm now operates as SBC Advertising, undertook a study that was completed in 1978 and determined National Record Mart as a name was outdated and clunky (Records were being replaced by tapes and later CDs, and Mart was associated with big-box stores), but NRM was sleek and sexy, foreshadowing the Kentucky Fried Chicken conversion to KFC in 1991. So the National Record Mart became NRM. <br />
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The company remained a privately held family operation into the eighties, and store expansion was deliberate, usually limited to no more than a half dozen carefully vetted new sites annually. The chain had grown to 75 shops by 1986 with annual sales of $40 million.<br />
<br />
That's when the Shapiro brothers, then in their sixties, decided it was time to retire. By now, they were spending more and more time on near-to-the-heart community projects. Business required sharper pencils and longer hours, too. Mall expansion was becoming increasingly expensive to ramp up as square footage costs shot through the roof and discount retailers like Sam Goody were circling the boat like sharks, engaging in tactical price wars. Still, the brothers knew NRM was in good financial shape.<br />
<br />
They could pass the torch and keep the business bloodlines intact, but with various kids and cousins in the mix, they feared creating a family feud. So they put the business up for bid, and a group headed by Bear-Stearnes' Bill Teitelbaum put together the top offer of $10 million.<br />
<br />
The thirty-something Teitelbaum had little experience in the music industry, and had been unable to cobble together a package for the CBS music library in his first effort to break into the biz. But he still wanted in the door. Teitelbaum felt with the technology of CDs and laser discs on the horizon and some Big Apple marketing innovations that he could lead NRM to the top of the retail music food chain. His plan was to tap into the first wave of savvy music fans as they made the transition from tapes and wax to more modern media.<br />
<br />
Teitelbaum had several other irons in the fire in New York and so wasn't a day-to-day presence at HQ. In fact, it took him a couple of years to become a hands-on owner.<br />
<br />
He formed an executive committee of holdover NRM vets to help in the decision making. They were Fischer (President), Balicky (VP Marketing & Advertising), George Tunder (Merchandising director), Lori Winterburn (Operations manager) and newcomer Mary Ann Miller (VP Finance). Jason Shapiro stayed aboard as an adviser. Fischer and Balicky, with the ear of both the Shapiros and Teitelbaum (Fischer in real estate and new locations, Balicky in marketing and strategies), would be the only ones of the committee to make it into the nineties.<br />
<br />
His plans for growing the company included the expansion of NRM stores through the acquisition of other smaller chains, heavy advertising campaigns, personal & knowledgeable service (the staff bought into the concept, and many ended up NRM lifers, from floor help to managers) and the introduction of a new concept store called Waves, which eliminated record sales entirely in favor of CDs and cassettes.<br />
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The new NRM opened the upscale Waves Music, featuring “Tomorrow’s Sights and Sounds Today,” in Columbus in 1987 and eventually thirty shops marched under the banner. Waves later featured its "Wave Net," a computer that accessed the Muze record database and additional info on a company intranet. A decade later, the store was retasked to appeal to adult consumers as the boomers began to gray.<br />
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Teitelbaum's NRM had a solid financial return from 1986-88, but the following couple of years were almost his last. Teitelbaum left his New York sanctuary after two years of absentee ownership to visit Pittsburgh for weekly executive meetings beginning in 1989, but the company went tumbling downhill even during his more active watch - or maybe because of his presence; that's a topic of some debate, with good arguments made either way. <br />
<br />
The investors had incurred a heavy debt load from the leveraged purchase, and with the additional cost of its expansion, NRM was approaching a financial abyss. But Teitelbaum neatly sidestepped that approaching freight train. In 1991, facing predictions of bankruptcy, he sold 20 stores to WH Smith's record chain "The Wall" for about $12 million, generating enough cash for National Record Mart to go public.<br />
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In June 1993, NRM, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol NRMI, was infused with a fresh $10 million after its IPO, and that payed down the debt. The company negotiated a $17 million line of credit, and then purchased the Leonard Smith Inc.'s "Music For You," "One Stop Entertainment Center" and "Merle's Record Rack" shops located in New York and New England, increasing the number of NRM stores to 115. The turnaround was so dramatic that the chain was nominated for the "Retailer of the Year" award.<br />
<br />
Teitelbaum's expansion blueprint wasn't to enter new markets with NRM's bread-and-butter record stores and butting heads with the locals, but to buy up smaller competitors with an existing reputation, shops and customer base. And he did have some specialized concept projects in mind to target a now segmented customer profile as the market matured beyond kids buying records. Waves was the tip of the iceberg.<br />
<br />
NRM launched the Music Oasis in Canton the following year, a membership club featuring more than 30,000 CD titles with “The Coolest Prices in Town.” Its appeal was to cost-conscious customers as a response to the big box retailers. NRM also opened its college-oriented Vibes Music stores (so named from a meeting where an exec noted the idea gave him "good vibrations") at Princeton, Penn, Boston U and IUP, eventually serving 15 campuses.<br />
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The company joined forces in a cross-promotional venture with alternative radio station The X (WXDX). In 1994, NRM opened Music X stores in Monroeville Mall and on Forbes Avenue in Oakland near Pitt and CMU to cater to the grunge generation. Music X was a regional shop, mostly mall-based.<br />
<br />
The Record Mart had several other smaller brands in the marketplace, tailored to a narrow customer base. In fact, one of its sales pitches to potential operators was that NRM offered an outlet for every demographic.<br />
<br />
NRM even entered into the brave new world of online music starting during the Christmas sales season of 1998 when it launched two web sites: www.wavesmusic.com and www.nrmmusic.com. The Record Mart thought it could outperform pioneer e-tailers like Tower, K-TEL and CDNow, and that the web offered an untapped opportunity to cross promote with the existing shops.<br />
<br />
They offered over 28,000 titles as downloads of current sounds. They sold used and overstocked CDs, taking a percentage of the sale for their cut. NRM even featured World Wrestling Federation products in a mutual back-scratching deal with Titan Sports, jumping the hits and sales from their site by 40%. While forward-looking, the site was too-little, too-late, and never really took off, earning $400,000 in 1999. <br />
<br />
In addition, Teitelbaum started a "frequent buyer" discount program, giving regular NRM customers a break on the prices as both a reward and an enticement for brand loyalty. But the storm clouds were beginning to gather.<br />
<br />
While some in the company felt it was time to retrench, cut stores and find focus, Teitelbaum instead expanded NRM to the West Coast and added eight stores, including four in Hawaii and another in Guam when it bought California's Tempo One Stop Records in 1998. National Record Mart operated 175 stores under its umbrella in 30 states that year. That expansion was funded by borrowed money, and within a very quick time, that debt would become a cash flow game breaker.<br />
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No matter how hard NRM tried to turn the tide, the era of the retail music store was ending, dying from a thousand cuts by the turn of the century. There was an industry-wide drop in record sales as the market flew into a million sub-genres. Discount retailers were selling CDs as a loss leader at prices the record retailers couldn't compete with, and at a volume that gave them favored nation status with the labels.<br />
<br />
Walmart became the world's largest music seller for years. It was a boomerang for the business, too, as the big boxes preferred to carry just a hot 100 titles during the "Top Forty" heyday. So the labels cranked out wax from a few chart-topping stars, but put developing new acts on the back burner, with the unintended consequence of torching their bridges to future sales. And the discount marts weren't the only retail interlopers.<br />
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There were superstores like Media Play and Best Buy to compete against. Borders and Barnes & Noble found CDs to be a cozy fit with their book and magazine business. Heck, within a handful of years, coffee houses like Starbucks would serve CDs with their lattes. Other entertainment media began to muscle into the leisure marketplace, from cable TV to video games.<br />
<br />
The final straw was piled on by the nascent downloading/streaming sites on the web. Everyone from Napster to Amazon took a bite out of the shops, and as of today, iTunes is the world's largest music retailer. Without major brick-and-mortar overhead or inventory/distribution logistics as headaches, the web took down the music retailers one by one. The overall result was that The Record Mart, like most record chains, was waist deep in red ink.<br />
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NRM was hounded by creditors, had too many shops over too wide an area, and lost some of its identity through all its niche stores, trying to be all things to all people. And it wasn't entirely the economy. Teitelbaum held what senior execs called "blame-storming" sessions, during which he would try to bully his staff by catching them off guard with loaded or leading questions at the weekly meetings, according to the<i> <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2002/02/04/story2.html">Pittsburgh Business Times</a></i>.<br />
<br />
He decided not only to add stores but also items like scooters, lava lamps and incense to the sales mix. The internal bone of contention was that NRM's local honchos wanted to consolidate and Teitelbaum wanted to expand. In hindsight, his managers may have been on the right side of that debate. So at a time when senior leadership needed to be on the same page, Teitelbaum and the investors were reading from a different book than the operational staff.<br />
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The turbulent climate of the music industry and within the company itself formed a perfect storm that roared over the retailer. Its stock was delisted in 2000 after dropping to under $1 per share and the company recorded losses of $10,000,000 in 1998-99. NRM went into bankruptcy, and while rumors of mergers, buyouts and white knights were swapped around the water cooler, there would be no cavalry charging down the hill to its rescue. In early 2002, they auctioned off their final assets and shut their doors forever.<br />
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Not only was the company shuttered, but its founders were gone, too. Hyman had went to his reward in the sixties, while Sam and Howard died within months of each other in 1998. Jason is the sole Shapiro remaining from the infancy of NRM, living in Santa Monica. But the Shapiros can rest easily with the legacy they left behind.<br />
<br />
National Record Mart stayed true to its roots as a Pittsburgh area company during its entire 1937-2002 life span, even as the first national music chain. NRM was also the first satellite ticket and mail order outlet. It peaked at 178 stores in 30 states with 1,200 full time employees, and was once the fourth largest music retailer in the nation. <br />
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Pittsburghers didn't go to the music store; they went to The Record Mart, where generations of music collectors flipped through NRM's racks of CDs and records, choosing from rock to rap to Rachmaninov.<br />
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RIP, National Record Mart. It was more than a fond memory; NRM was as much a part of Pittsburgh music history as were Mad Mike, The Skyliners, Groovy QV, the White Elephant, Syria Mosque, Civic Arena and all the other icons of the city's glory days as Hittsburgh.<br />
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<i>Main National Record Mart outlet by Market Square</i></div>
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<i>picture by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhondamarierose/4591622549/sizes/m/in/photostream/">rhondamarierose</a></i><br />
<br />
We've identified some local store sites, and our incomplete list is below. Please let us know if you're aware of any of the many area shops we've missed:<br />
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<i><i><i> * Altoona: Park Hills Plaza * Aspinwall: Waterworks Mall * Banksville Plaza * </i></i>Bethel Park: 5253 Library Rd., South Hills Village * Bloomfield (no address) * Brentwood: Whitehall Terrace * Bridgeville: Great Southern * Butler: 2800 Pullman Sq., Clearview Mall * Carnegie: 507 Forest Ave. * </i><i><i>Center Twp: Beaver Valley Mall * </i>Clarion Mall * Clearfield Mall * Cranberry Mall * Dormont: 2889 W. Liberty Ave. * Downtown: 234 Forbes Ave., 540 Liberty Ave., 930 Liberty Ave., 507 Market St., 100 Smithfield St., 701 Smithfield St., 424 Wood St. * East Liberty: 5927 Penn Ave. * </i><i><i>East McKeesport: Great Valley * Edgewood Towne Center * Erie: 5800 Peach St. * Greentree: Parkway Center * Harrison Twp: Highland Mall * Hempfield: Greengate Mall * Hill District: Centre Ave. * Indiana Mall * Johnstown: Galleria, Richland Mall * </i>Lower Burrell: Hillcrest * McKeesport: 211 Fifth Avenue, later relocated across street * Meadville Mall * Monroeville Mall * Mt. Lebanon: 300 Mt. Lebanon Blvd. * Natrona Heights: Heights Plaza * New Castle: 2553 W. State St. * New Kensington: 347 Fifth Ave. * North Side: 500 E. Ohio St. * North Versailles: Eastland * Oakland: 3715 Forbes Ave.* Penn Hills: East Hills * Ross: </i><i><i>McKnight-Siebert, </i>North Hills Village, Northway Mall, Ross Park Mall * Shadyside: 5524 Walnut St. * Sharon: Shenango Mall * South Strabane: Washington Mall * South Union: Uniontown Mall * Squirrel Hill: 1723 Murray Ave. * State College: 232 E. College Ave. * Washington: Chestnut St. * West Mifflin: Century III Mall *</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-44811493262734836262012-09-21T17:00:00.000-04:002012-09-22T00:06:41.133-04:00Pittsburgh's Silhouettes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PH-_q_UuSP8/UFaBlMlfJOI/AAAAAAAAANE/K999bs6BtsM/s1600/other-silhouettes-05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PH-_q_UuSP8/UFaBlMlfJOI/AAAAAAAAANE/K999bs6BtsM/s1600/other-silhouettes-05.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>From <a href="http://www.thesilhouettes.org/other-silhouettes.htm">The Silhouettes</a></i></div>
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George Bacasa, Ronnie Thomas and Al Secen were inseparable Lawrenceville buds. They went to high school together, and formed a polka trio during their senior year, practicing in George's basement. In 1953 they auditioned for Uncle Sam, and enlisted as members of the 536th Air Force Band.<br />
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In exchange for a four-year stint, they were stationed at Cape Canaveral, Florida (or maybe nearby Patrick AFB). When on-base, they showed VIPs around the rocket facility. But most of the time, they were out entertaining the troops, doing PR-type tours, performing on radio and TV and for recruitment drives. Their final year saw them recognized with the Roger Award, the Air Force's honor for its most talented airmen.<br />
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They came back home a little more sophisticated musically and morphed into a jazz group, with Bacasa on flute and reeds, Secen on vibes (he played the squeeze box when they were a polka band) and Thomas on bass. They eventually added jazz drummer Lenny Rogers (who went to Duquesne and later taught there) and vocalist Cathy Martin, though they would run through a number of singers over the years. <br />
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The band called itself the Silhouettes, sometimes messing with the minds of vocal fans who expected Bill Horton/John Wilson and the Philly harmonizers of "Get A Job" fame. Pittsburgh's Silhouettes were anything but doowoppers. <br />
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They had a funky, bossa-nova sort of sound with a mellow side. The group played the college and jazz circuits, and gigged at local clubs like the Red Door, Casa Di Monzo, Pilot House, Escapades, Encore, the Hilton and the Holiday House, going strong from the late fifties into the early seventies. While their Latin beat was infectious, they're remembered today because the Silhouettes left behind some great vinyl.<br />
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The first single was released on Bacasa's Bye George label (#1000). It was "St. Thomas," a remake of the Sonny Rollins piece, backed with a cover of John Phillip's song "Monday, Monday," released in 1967.<br />
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But their piece de resistance was the Segue release of 1969, their LP "Conversations With The Silhouettes." (SEG-1001) Segue was a local jazz label owned by WRS Labs and run by Basaca and Nathan Davis. (It would later fold when the owners switched from jazz to rock unsuccessfully.) Bacasa produced the imprint's first release, Davis' "Makatuka," and Davis produced the Silhouettes' "Conversations," their one and only album.<br />
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The band added Willy Smith on congas and percussion for the session, and tossed in a little lo-tech electronic trickery while recording. The tracks included on "Conversations" are <i>Young Blood</i>, <i>Time To Fall In Love</i>, <i>Norwegian Wood </i>(Lennon/McCartney), <i>Sally's Tomato</i> (Mancini), <i>Question: Why?</i>, <i>Fonky First</i>, <i>Hashi Baba</i>, <i>Conversation</i>, <i>Sesame</i>, <i>What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life</i> (Bergman/Bergman/Legrand) and <i>Lunar Invasion</i>, with most of the tracks written by Al Secen.<br />
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It was quite well received critically - Norwegian Wood was especially popular among affectionados - but as often happens, the wax didn't sell at the time though it's worth a small mint on today's collectors' market. Several of the tracks have been downloaded to youtube.com by funk fans, as have the 45s.<br />
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The last single by this group was 1969's "Oh What A Day," an upbeat pop tune sung by Carol Christian and produced by Bill Lawrence for his Canonsburg based Western World label (WWS-5503). The B-Side is "Red Snow," a composition penned by the band. The record companies at the time were trying to get the jazz guys to cross over by leading with a pop side in exchange for the flip being the group's choice. And as it ended up, "Red Snow" is the more remembered song.<br />
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Bacasa and Secens fronted a group called New Horizons into the early-to-mid eighties, playing clubs like Cunimondo's Keyboard in Verona. And that is about where <i>Old Mon</i>'s trail runs cold. George Bacasa suffered a heart attack in 1976 and passed on in 1988 while still in his early fifties. Ronnie Thomas met his maker in 1991, while he was in his late fifties. The last we heard, Al Secen is still hanging in there and soaking up the sunshine in Palm Beach.<br />
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If anyone can help us fill in the missing pieces of Pittsburgh's Silhouettes, give us a yell so we can finish the story.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2975210514788260510.post-8555901391702916242012-09-13T17:00:00.000-04:002012-09-25T14:17:57.934-04:00Loendi Club<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-26prXgE1URU/UFJH1D2ENaI/AAAAAAAAALw/RmAMyRAsuRU/s1600/loendi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-26prXgE1URU/UFJH1D2ENaI/AAAAAAAAALw/RmAMyRAsuRU/s1600/loendi.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>Loendi Club on Fullerton Street</i><br />
<i> from the <a href="http://www.cmoa.org/searchcollections/.%5CMedia%5C17%5C437%5C5025_standard.jpg">Carnegie Museum of Art</a></i> <i>Teenie Harris collection</i></div>
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The music never stopped in the Hill for most of the twentieth century, and one of its famed venues was The Loendi Social and Literary Club. But the Loendi wasn't an organ house or one of the famous "Black and Tan" clubs like the Crawford Grill or Hurricane Lounge. In fact, it was so exclusive that you and I probably couldn't get past the doorman.<br />
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The club dates back to August 13, 1897, when it was founded by George Hall, best remembered today as the father of one the City's best athletes, Sellers "Sell" Hall. Sell pitched for the Homestead Grays, was a standout in hoops (he played for the Loendi Five, which regularly whipped college teams), football and track, and eventually became a music promoter for black acts.<br />
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The Loendi was named for an East African river that flowed from Lake Nyassa until it joined the Ruvuma River, and was mentioned several times in David Livingstone's (As in "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?") 1872 journal.<br />
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It was the Duquesne Club for the black elite. Its membership included Pittsburgh’s African American doctors, profession folk, business owners, entrepreneurs and celebrities. The Loendi offered lectures, music, and sponsored athletic teams beside providing a refuge from the teeming masses and a quiet meeting place for the area's black movers and shakers to do business.<br />
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The Loendi's early presidents were William Maurice Randolph, Esq., George Hall, WH Patterson, William Stanton Esq., Eddie Johnson, Captain CW Posey (Posey Steamboat Company), Samuel Pangburn, Ollie Jones, James Peck, John Henry, John Anderson, Sylvester Jones, William Hance Sr., Eugene Lewis, and Robert Vann (lawyer and Courier editor), all well established luminaries in the City's black community. William Taliaferro, Teeny Harris' uncle and mentor, was a founding member.<br />
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The original building was a converted three-story structure on 83 Fullerton Street (erased by the Civic Arena project, on the same street that former City Councilman and stage actor Sala Udin, then known as Sam Howze, was raised) on the corner of Wylie Avenue, a block below Crawford Avenue. The members bought it in 1902 for $100,000.<br />
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It didn't look very special from the street, but the local kids used to hang around outside just to watch the limos pull up to the nondescript clubhouse. If they could only have seen the inside... It had an atrium, a rosewood piano, artwork by Henry O. Tanner, plush carpets, tapestries on the walls and a library/reading room, along with billiard and card rooms. Its dining room had a steward.<br />
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As a private hall, the Loendi didn't hold many public events. They would hire local bands, never larger than quartets, to play for the members during weekends, for dances or for special events. More often than not, they just brought in a solo pianist. The club never had a bandstand, and as an older building, its rooms weren't particularly spacious. And it was most certainly not a venue for hard bop or Mississippi blues; the musicians played or reworked standards and the classier contemporary pieces, as befit the club's image.<br />
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Outside groups with the right connections could rent the building, too. For example, the FROGS (Friendly Rivalry Often Generates Success) society had many members with ties to the Loendi. They held dances there until the Arena project nuked the neighborhood and the club moved. FROG events were front page news for all the local African-American press (they still are), and usually quite a bit livelier than Loendi acts. <br />
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While they may not have been on the cutting edge, the Loendi could roll out the carpet for the big-time performers, and that's how it earned its rep in the Pittsburgh music scene. An invite to one of their private artist parties was a guarantee for a night to remember. The club featured or honored musicians like Billy Eckstine, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Bennie Moten, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong. High brow or not, the members did enjoy their swing, and sometimes even shared the swag.<br />
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According to Colter Harpers 2011 <a href="http://www.colterharper.com/PDF_Downloads/Harper_Dissertation_2011.pdf">dissertation</a> "The Crossroads of the World," here's what they did to celebrate Billy Eckstine (a bit redacted): "In 1952, the Loendi sponsored a week of events for Pittsburgh vocalist and bandleader Billy Eckstine, who was returning to the city to perform in downtown’s Stanley Theater...The events included the Loendi Formal at the Fort Pitt Hotel honoring Billy Eckstine; open house for Billy at the Loendi Club; teen-age party for Mr. B; Loendi press, radio and TV party at the club, and the big salute to Eckstine at the Famous Door (in East Liberty).” It's a wonder Mr. B got to perform while he was here!<br />
<br />
But like everything else that got in the way of the Civic Arena, the Loendi's days in the Lower Hill were coming to an end. In 1958, they opened a new building at 841 Ledlie Street in the Upper Hill (off Bedford Avenue at the end of Cliff Street), an impressive and modern one story structure. It wasn't the same, though. Membership became easier to come by, and it eventually turned into more of a social club than haven for the elite.<br />
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Still, it had its moments. The biggest may have been on April 8, 1967, when 400 people elbowed into the Loendi to celebrate "Bill Powell Night," honoring the career of the WAMO/WILY DJ and <i>Courier</i> columnist. But as time went on, the club was suspected of harboring gambling and other illicit activities, and was sometimes even under police surveillance, who came to regard the Loendi as a party bar by the seventies.<br />
<br />
It soldiered on into the early eighties. The last band we could find to play the club was Jothan Callins and the Sounds of Togetherness, featuring saxman Kenny Powell, and they may have sounded taps on the Loendi era in Pittsburgh music history.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4