Oh. My. God.
My crotch hurts after watching that...
I gotta lay down, in the face of greatness.
I think that's why people can always - if unconsciously - identify and admire the REAL.
Can't be faked, and you know who you are...
Damn...the sequence with them jumping into splits coming down the stairs...
OUCH! That might be more real than I would ever want to experience.
look at all that joy!
but when, oh when, did they breathe!? (speaking as an asthmatic - and jealous)
I first saw the Nicholas Brothers in "Stormy Weather" at the Castro Theatre in 1979. After that, I haunted the revival moviehouses, seeing anything I could with them in it. Still #1, although Honey Coles with his slow-tap routine came close.
Check out "No Maps On My Taps" if you've never seen it. And thanks SO MUCH for posting these.
My god....
And they're artists, you could actually see them hand off the "line" from person to person--they weren't dancing doubles, they were artists handing the "line" back and forth.
Jesus....Bloody geniuses.
it happens outside of the arts too folks...any where that people still take pride in what they do. I got a coffe shop near me that the owner travles to the plantations to select the beans then hand roast them.
I think thats what LM is talking about, that extral level of eing a pro and haveing respect in what you do...not many folks lke that running around.
It's called Mastery. Don't see that around much any more. A Master.
I am a HUGE sherlock holmes fan, and for me Jeremy Brett was the real deal. This video just shows stills- be he really was Holmes come to life. If you have never seen the series I highly recommend it.
Yup, I agree, nowadays' computer tricks substitute much of yesterdays' craftmanship, and not necessarily for the better. Well maybe it's already possible to recreate Powell's dancing by a completely computer generated 3D "character", but would it really show the same kind of magic? Or take Fred Astairs famous ceiling dance, for instance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y...h?
v=YzdYsxfIJLQ
What makes this so special is that we know that an encridibly gifted artist really did that dancing. Watching a "virtual" dancer simply wouldn't be the same.
Have to agree with the littlest gator above - Jeremy Brett's Holmes performance was masterful.
In another 'learn from a master' moment, the introductions to the Babylon 5 script books are a great insight into what really went into writing most of a TV show singlehandedly. I wouldn't know a great screenplay from Rush Hour 3, but the insights into how they're written are the definite gem in this set.
Yup, Hubris, true that they seem to not get the attention they should these days...
more mastery:
Bruce Lee
Wakayama Tomisaburo
Ella Fitzgerald
Leonard Bernstein
James Cagney
Miles Davis
so many, many gone, but thankfully the records are still there...
Yeah, there are a lot of masters gone, and we are right to mourn them. However, we have our own.
It's important to realize that, despite the passing of old masters, there are still people capable of sublime beauty, athleticism, professionalism, and so forth.
Masters are always an exceedingly rare quality in any time period. That's why their passing hurts so, and is so worthy of note. It's also why we should recognize and cherish quality in the present.
I have no experience in entertainment of any sort, but I have known masters of mechanical things--people who can fix any damn machine in the world. It's truly inspiring to see, and a privilege to work with them.
From my youth, this scene from "Singing in the rain", Make 'em laugh, always made me laugh.
2 of the best guitar pickers in the world, Chet and Doc. And speaking of guitar Gods, one can't forget Les Paul, who still plays (played?) every week at the Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway in New York City.
about ten years ago i was fortunate enough to work on a show with gregory hines. it was a dumb cops and killers buddy movie. in a scene set in a strip club, one of the girls was limping after turning her ankle in a set of crazy tall shoes. between takes, he made sure she was okay, got some tape for her and helped tape her up and then climbed up on stage and showed her a way to make her move, matching the previous shot and without over stressing her leg. i've never been on set with a more gracious performer. the fact that he could replicate all of her choreography (such as it was) spoke to the complete understanding of his craft and his instrument. i was very sad when he passed away. he treated all of us little folks on set with total respect.
Ronnie Lott of the 1980's Forty Niners was and is the real deal. He more than even Joe Montana was the reason the Niners won their first four Super Bowls. His intuitive sense of what needed to happen on the field for his team to win and then doing it at the precise moment makes him special. His ooh lick on Ickey Woods in the 2nd half of the 1989 Super Bowl set up the comeback by Joe and John. Cinci was kicking their ass up to that point. Ronnie hurls his 200 pound body at the 240 lb beast. Ickey never again squares up off tackle with confidence in the second half and Cinci's momentum is lost.
Two examples of the anti-real deal are Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. While Roger tagged along with the Yanks on a couple of World Series neither man could elevate nor inspire their team mates to win it all. My lasting impression is of Roger getting tossed out of a ALCS game in the first or second inning because he was not getting the calls from the ump. Rhymes with chump. Dave Stewart, another Real Deal, owned Roger and the Sox in the mid to late eighties. As for Barry, need I say more. I am a Giants fan. The chump never once sacrificed his ego for the good of his team. The Giants had a good run of winning teams in the nineties and early aughts but never got over the hump of the chump in left field.
Although I'm usually the oldest person there, I attend many music festivals where mostly younger musicians perform live, the true test of musical mastery. And, as you say, it's simply inspirational.
I guess it must be the idea of "magic movie moments" in this post that made me think of them, but two of my favorites are:
In "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", Jim Carrey's acting out of a tape rewind and slow-motion replay of a football catch, and:
In "Top Secret", the scene in the bookstore w/ the Swedish (?) bookstore owner, shot so that it could be shown in reverse.
Two little gems of comedic genius in otherwise largely unremembered and unmemorable movies.
Thanks, LM. I lost a great friend and mentor this week. He was he Real Deal, no bullshit. I owe a lot to the man, not only for his friendship, but also for his candor. He knew what was good and what was crap, and would not let me or anyone else pass off the latter for the former. People like that are rare. Maybe you know one or two in your life, and that's it. He will be missed.
Oh, and that dance routine didn't just leave them sore, it took a couple of years off their lives. Now I'm gonna pick my jaw up off the floor and get back to work.
Don't forget HK era Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh doing all their own stunts. In particular there's the motorcycle jump onto the moving train in Supercop. They explained the stunt to Michelle Yeoh and she immediately agreed to do it, but then noted that she didn't know how to ride a motorcycle! She learned and pulled off the stunt.
Also having caught up on some classic old school anime movies recently particulary "Angel's Egg", "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Wings of Honneamise" it's truly astounding what can be done with ink and cel alone.
Actually the real part is 'easy', it's making things look impossible yet look easy that's hard. Basically the reverse of suspension of disbelief. We know (or at least think we know) the limits of the human body. Thus when somebody does something near the limits of the human frame it's impressive, and when they make it look easy it's incredible. Of course if it is blatantly impossible, then it becomes trivial. In essence, a 'real' internally consistent limit must placed on the action and slightly exceeded.
As we add levels of artifice, it becomes more and more difficult to make things seem impossible. For example, it is obvious that neither the chase scene from Bullitt nor The Seven-Ups didn't actually happen in real time but was an incredible collection of filming, stunts, and editing. Despite this, it looked real yet nearly impossible.
In the presence of "anything is possible" CG it is incredibly difficult to establish consistent limits and exceed them. The two cases that come to mind are "The Matrix" and "Sin City", impossible things happen but self consistent limits establish what is impossible within the internal context of the film.
On a slight tangent, if you want a truly astounding example of "keeping it real" in pure CG check out Voices of a Distant Star. And keep in mind that it was done on a mac, by one unemployed man.
Fearguth has it right.
Live music is where it HAS to be real. Forget stadium shows; bars and clubs and small theaters where the performer SWEATS on you, and the audience will sweat right back.
I'm an old duffer in the club scene too, but the kids are alright, as another old duffer once said.
LM, I love reading your stuff. It really reminds me of Steve's, but wonderfully different as well. I meant to write after your terrific piece about your stylish father. But this one, with the wonderful Eleanor Powell, and the Nicholas Brothers, is a keeper. R.I.P., Roy.
And thanks, LM. This 63/yo leftie appreciates your take on things.
SteveK, I too immediately thought of Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh. Like Fred Astaire (one of his idols), Jackie at his best isn't just about being real, but about perfectionism.
Thanks LM for appreciating the ol' song and dance cine. I didn't realize you were a fan until now. Those human dynamos teamed with the stage cameras tracking and booming and zooming and panning everywhere are a film maker's delight and a dance fan's delirium.
Having come out of that business I do want to remind the readers that although the computer era is new, the answer in the past was the film optical, an art and a science that seems to me now to be quite possibly completely dead.
I built the last optical lab {a very tiny space compared to its size in its heyday} in Manhattan around 1986 for clients {my memory fades I built so many things} and the game was almost over then.
But pre-computer optical effects were a very impressive means of doing the impossible. Yet another wonderful trade killed by digitalized info.
A wonderfully interesting post and comments.
My "real deals" were opportunities to discuss things in depths with people I consider geniuses, one on one, no barriers, I'd almost say "as equals" except of course it'd be preposterous.
So my "real deal" moments were:
Talking to Spike Milligan about the Goons and Jacques Tati (in '76).
Talking to George Lucas about THX-1138 (in '86).
Talking to Will Eisner about age, art and line drawing (often).
These are moments I utterly cherish because getting a front seat glimpse into a genius is like peeking behind the curtain of reality.
(apologies if the above comes across as name dropping; I didn't mean to.)
“Oh, and that dance routine didn't just leave them sore, it took a couple of years off their lives.”
That's not hyperbole. In the meeting with Fayard Nicholas as my class (We would also meet tap greats Honi Coles and Bunny Briggs the same semester), I remember him responding to questions about their work.
“No...we didn't wear knee pads or cushons. It messed with the way our tuxes fit. We were little fellas. We didn't want to look bulky.”
“Those were hard floors. We couldn't use a cushioned floor if we wanted to. How would you hear the taps?”
“Much as I'd love to dance a little for you today, I can't. I'm just glad I can get out of bed nowadays—hard as we worked.”.
And Fayard had a stiff, swinging little gait. This was in early 80'—the Meszoic era of knee replacement surgery. He commented that all old dancers legs break down—the knees and hips of course, but that he and Harold (his brother) paid a special price for all that head-down-through-the-wall-artistry.
Constant pain in their golden years.
He mentioned waking in tears after decades of those “no hands” splits (“And we didn't cheat on 'em.”), blood clots in their legs and joked about having a pretty girl around to help you “get your pants on”. He also cited the only other group that “did what they do“ was the frightening and fantastic “Berry Brothers”, led by the hyper-athletic Ananias “Nyas” Berry, and how the damage they did to their bodies as the only thing that made him and his brother Harold “blink”
“We did splits, but we never did 'em off fifteen foot balconies like they did. Oh my Lord!”
The Berrys and the Nicholas Brothers did battle at a NY nightclub around the time of the “Lady Be Good” clip and the Nicholas' won out as they were a bit more razor-fine with their tap work and not quite the “wild man” act the Berrys were. But according to Fayard, they were amazing and WOULD DO ANYTHING to top you. Here are two clips of them (there are verrrry few of them at work) doing their eye-popping brand of crazy.
The first is also from “Lady Be Good” and is the lead-in to Powell's dance above. It's tap, capoiera, gymnastics and sideshow work all rolled into one.
But the second bit is the one that'll leave you breathless. It's capped off with a legendary piece of dance/stunt work you will NEVER see done again in your life.
Here it is.
They may not have had the same “polish” as little Harold and Fayard, but Fayard himself spoke of them breathlessly. The “Real Deal” chain grows ever longer. 
“Talking to Will Eisner about age, art and line drawing (often).”
Lupin...I studied cartooning with Will for two years at SVA in the 80's and had the EC Comics legend Bernie Krigstein as an instructor (pen and ink studies) at my art high school just before that.
And I'm damned thankful for every “Real Deal” moment I've had.
Our performing arts series has Haitian-American violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain in residence this year. Not only is he a brilliant, extraordinary violinist who literally plays by his own rules, he has found a way to incorporate multiple forms of up-to-the-minute technology into his act without surrendering any of his old-school live virtuosity. And he's a humble, generous teacher who shares his experiences and his knowledge with any person who wants to learn, regardless of their talent. The real deal.
Great stuff LM. I've got a few music examples:
- In 2006 I had the chance to see Dave Brubeck at Massey Hall in Toronto. Though he's in his mid-80s and he shuffles across the stage to get to the piano - once there his hands still glide like silk on the keyboard
- Speaking of Brubeck - I'm still enamoured with the 1963 "At Carnegie Hall" album. My favourite song off the album is "Castilian Drums" - with a jaw-dropping solo.
And a favourite of mine has to be Oscar Peterson (RIP). Here are a couple piano shreddings:
- From 1975 "Eight Bar Boogie Blues" http://youtube.com/watch?v=XhQjwPI6H0k
- From 1977 "Sweet Georgia Brown" - featuring both Niels Pedersen and Ray Brown on bass http://youtube.com/watch?v=wMzFqmctbww
RC: Optical Printers! Oh man. I'm in the motion graphics/animation world where just about everything is digital.
I happened upon 2001: A Space Odyssey on the tube last week. Hadn't seen it for probably 10 years. That stuff all still looks damn fine to my eyes, and I'm pretty sure all the effects were done with optical printers (or maybe HAL?).
Don't get me wrong, there are great digital FX people around today. True artists. And I'm not going to walk away from my Mac/After Effects/FinalCut and take up the "Old Ways." But when you consider what the old FX masters accomplished with the tools they had, well, you have to be just a bit in awe.
Some serious craft there. It may be gone, but it's not forgotten.
Thanks to the invaluable TMC, two movies featuring dance routines by the Nicholas Brothers -- Orchestra Wives and Sun Valley Serenade -- are shown periodically.
Also, every now and again, TMC shows the 50's musical version of My Sister Eileen -- which features the choreography and the dancing of a young Bob Fosse.
Three sublime experiences by The Real Deals. Highly Recommended.
LM,
Have you heard of Frankie Manning? Frankie was one of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers back in the 20s. Today he's 94 with two artificial hips but he's still travelig the world dancing and teaching... in fact I'll be taking a class or two from him next month down in Houston at the Great Southwest Lindyfest. His son, Chaz, also teaches, but Chaz is a youngster who is only in his 60s.
Every year for his birthday he dances with a different woman for each year...
Check out Whitey's Lindy Hoppers in this YouTube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R...h?
v=R0BHxhUnokU
i first met harry "the hipster" gibson back when my dad was playing bass for him. later, i worked with harry. as far as piano players go, he was the real, incredible deal. he was one of the first piano men who would play a music that came to be called "jazz." he began playing professionally in his mother's whore house in storyville. later, he played with all the greats, including a long period where he was the piano player, and arranger for billie holiday who he adored.
harry is most known these days as a novelty performer on dr. demento and stuff. but he was a killer piano man. once in the studio we were doing harry's arrangement of the maple leaf rag. we reached a place toward the end of the song were we started "swapping twos." (for the unmusical that's where everybody stops and you have two beats to solo strut your shit and then, right back into another chorus)
harry's turn came and he started at the very bottom bass notes and ran a perfectly spaced chromatic run all the way up the entire keyboard. he ran all 88 in two beats. evenly, perfectly timed. one.and.two.and. 88 notes. we were paralyzed. the entire band just stopped cold. another beat or two passed and harry began to giggle and say "shit, i just did that didn't i?"
real deal.
One more piece of trivia: If you watch that link from the Seven-Ups' chase scene, see if the "bad guy" driver looks familiar. Yes, its the same guy who drove the bad-guy car in Bullitt. His name was Bill Hickman, a stunt car driver turned part time actor. He also did the driving for Gene hackman's car in the French Connection. No CGI or speeded up film, just crazy-ass 90-100+ mph stunt driving. Old school.
My real deal is a bit different.
It was watching Richard Feynman during the Rogers hearings on the Challenger disaster.
Just a little thing, that o-ring not being resilient, just a glass of ice water and a cheap clamp. That to me remains a real deal. A man at the top of his field, showing a truth in a way any rube in the cheap seats could appreciate.
As for the Nicolas brothers, I don't want their hands or their feet but I would give everything there is to just have those knees. The pounding they took is amazing. ( mine were shot to hell in 1969 in a fall off a stage while mangling a bass riff )
recent political real deal moment had to have been Dodd's fisa floor speech. I, for one, will not forget his standing up on this one. And the fight is not over yet.
Rob Rose;
Met Frankie too at that class I mentioned. It was taught by a former dance critic at the Village Voice Sally Sommer and she had amazing connections in the jazz and tap dance community. She'd bring these legends in and they'd sit and spill their knowledge for two hours at a time—and those of us who were into it (after all, it was an elective course) were just sponges to all those secrets and history being poured out.
He did lament that he was unable to appear with his co-horts in “Whitey's Hoppers” in their amazing appearance in the Marx Bros. “A Day At The Races”. It was a scheduling/contract dispute with another troupe he was doing work for and he couldn't make the trip west for the shoot. The movie was on earlier this week and I saw that sequence—just eye-popping!
I saw Solas live once in Nashville. At one point the guitar player said, "I apologize but if i don't sound right, it's because my own guitar got lost in flight. This is a loaner and I'm not used to it."
Then the bass player jumped in, "I apologize too, but I just met these people, they picked me up at the greyhound station because their real bassist couldn't make it."
Everyone laughed, of course, but then Winfred Horan, the fiddle player stepped up to the mic and said "I'm not going to mess up."
And she didn't.
LM,
Last year I went to the Lindyfest in Houston for the first time and it was wild to see all these mostly college aged kids (and nontrivial of people in my 30-something range) taking classes from Frankie, Chazz, Dawn Hampton and Sugar Sullivan. Maybe it's because I grew up in Florida where the vast number of senior citizens were of the "Damn kids need to get off my yard" variety, but it was great to see "Real Deals" trying to encourage a whole new generation of "Real Deals".
Frankie did a talk describing life in Harlem when he was growing up and it was fascinating. Forget about being an incredible dancer, he also is an amazingly gifted storyteller.
A little late to the conversation but you have to see the Challenge scene from the movie "Tap" featuring Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., Sandman Sims, Bunny Briggs, Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, Pat Rico, Arthur Duncan, and Harold Nicholas. Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A...h?
v=AjXl5tkmvIo
My real deal is Ted Williams. Not what he did on the field, but for something he did before getting on the field. Last day of the 1941 season he had an average of .3995 - just shy of the magic .400. His manager gave him the option of sitting it out because the record books would round it up to .400, but Williams refused. If he couldn't have it for REAL, he didn't want it. (He hit 6 for 8, by the way, and finished at 406.)
He was ornery and difficult and spoke his mind, and he could be a rude pain in the ass. But he spent five of his peak years as an athlete serving in the Marines and never once complained publicly. He accepted entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame with a call for the admittance of Negro League players, something no one had ever done from that podium. And when offered the chance to take credit for a major accomplishment he hadn't quite earned, he refused.
The man knew Real from Bogus, and where it counted he picked Real.
I'm going to keep my "real deal" offering a bit along the same lines as CK's (especially since I don't want to have to add an anti-name dropping qualifier at the end, ala my old friend Loopy aka Lupin). When I was a student at Brown I had the great pleasure and honor of studying physics under the tutelage of Prof. Leon N. Cooper, 1972 Nobel Prize Laureate for Physics (the theory of superconductivity). The time I spent with this giant of a man was one of the happiest, most enlightening and most fulfilling periods of my life. He told me once, when I was struggling with some personal life issues and our conversation turned towards the question of the existence of a supreme being, that if I really sought evidence of the existence of God I could find him through the study of the science of physics. He believed, as did Einstein, that physics was the "language" that God used to reveal himself to those who knew the right questions and where to look for the answers. To this very day that has been the best "spiritual" guidance and advice I have ever been given - and he has been proven right, in my mind, repeatedly over the passing years.
He was the first of many surrogate fathers I would have through those emotionally troubling times as my academic career, and aspirations for personal success, moved me inexorably away from my family and its repellant core - my embittered and increasingly rageful alcoholic father. For someone of such towering intellect and majestic accomplishment, he was and remains so, one of the most down to earth, humble, considerate and sharing human beings I have ever known. On discovering that we shared a common surname he immediately adopted me as a "son". He was a godsend to me, a true mensch, in every sense of the word. The real deal...
Ah, the divine Nicholas Brothers! I saw the PBS program on them back when I was doing database work for the Ice Theatre of New York in the 1980's. I wondered why more skaters didn't try to use their medium to do something similar. The only one who had come close at that time was Gary Beacom, particularly in this program, which is for my money one of the greatest pieces of ice choreography ever done. Then there's this note-for-note re-creation by Kurt Browning of Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain". And since I'm talking about skating, and the topic is "keeping it real", I can't finish without linking to the late, great Christopher Bowman's giant "fuck you" to the figure skating powers that be in his 1992 Olympics exhibition program. Now of course we know that much of his "bad boy" stuff was then-undiagnosed bipolar disorder. But no one in skating has been that real since.
Continuing on the figure skating topic, don't forget Surya Bonaly's giant "fuck you" to the figure skating powers that be (lovely turn of the phrase there Jill) when Surya threw in an illegal back flip during the olympics. (It's 3:30 minutes into the video.)
Anyone who directed Rowan N Martin's show is a hoss. *G*
Sammy D JR, I paid tribute to above.
LM, the talent . . . the pure get it done, pre dumbed down cost saving cost cutting technology?
Do I have any?
Yeah, any hoofer and dancer, singer, actor or actress in the past.
Bill Robinson.
Charlie Chaplin.
Shirley Temple.
Vaudeville.
Broadway.
Patti Lupone, GOD Patti Lupone.
Ya know? They all paid dues. Each and every thousands of them. They remain my heroes, like The Mick who taped up, like The Iron Man who played till he know it was time to hang it up.
Like Cobb, spikes up, and a fuckin terror of a bastid.
They played to win, to be the best they could be, with the game they had on any given day.
Course, from here, I gotta segue into every mother and father who ever raised good kids.
Tell ME they didn't suit up every day and give what they had.
Every mentor, every coach, every teacher.
Anyone who inspired SOMEONE to be good, or better, or the best they could be.
LM, you I would put on that list, too. Cuz yer a hoss, and yer inspiring, and yer sharing history, and educating and making me remember things I've long forgotten.
Like Josh Gibson.
Like Satch.
Like Bill Robinson. 3
Don't Look Back. Something Might Be Catching Up With You.
Never run when you can walk.
Never walk when you can sit.
Never sit when you can lie down.
When you walk, shake. Jangle up the blood.
Avoid fried foods that angry the blood.
Avoid the social ramble, it ain't healthful.
Go dancing, a lot. It keeps you young.
(loosely recalled)
I may have to go reread Satch's book . . . he's got 13 steps to being a better human . . . I think. *G*
*G*
Thanks, LM. Love your stuff.
It always moves me.
Frank Zappa, in concert, back in the early 80s. God, the acoustics sucked in that venue, but Frank was ... astounding.
Then there's Sam Youd, an old-school British sf author (under the pseudonym John Christopher). He wrote one of the seminal eco-catastrophe books, No Blade of Grass (an incredible book -- which was made into a not very good movie). He's better known for his Tripods trilogy of "juvie" sf, which was made into a popular BBC series back in the 70s.
Though I'm afraid age and illness have now curtailed it, we struck up a correspondence several years back; I was privileged to have him share with me some insights on the literary life (and its horrors), and some wonderful stories about his close friend John Beynon Harris (John Wyndham) and other lights of the post-WWII British sf community.
Which I imagine is of interest only to sf antiquarians with an Anglophilic streak like me, but he wrote with great style, and a clear-eyed but ultimately sympathetic view of humanity, not to mention that dry, self-deprecating wit the Brits seem to have a lock on.
Once, in the 80's, I dragged some friends of mine over to the East Bay to hear Stephen Grappelli. They'd never heard of him, and it wasn't like me to be so insistent-- but they went. He totally blew their minds (and they couldn't understand how I had heard of him and they hadn't. I have no idea how I knew about him....) Stephen was 86 at that point, playing with a couple of guys who looked like they were in their 20s or maybe 30s -- who spent the whole concert watching Stephen and grinning with delight.
I'm so glad I got to see him once more before he died.
I don't know how to work UTube, but there's got to be some of his stuff there.
--Kim
P.S. drbopper -- I'm a Cooper too!
Too many to name really, and certainly including about everyone named, but since he's currently on a much-deserved roll, Andy Bey at the East in Brooklyn, mid-1970s (definitely) with Gary Bartz's quartet, singing with power as he still does today. This clip is his portion of "Stella by Starlight" at a recent benefit for George Cables (I hope whatever it is improves for him), who was the main pianist with Bartz the time I saw them. And here he is back in 1965 with his sisters Geraldine and Salome, singing "Feeling Good", a song by another real Real Dealer.
By the way, if you've never checked out Robert Glasper, you might want to get that on your list.
“Too many to name really, and certainly including about everyone named, but since he's currently on a much-deserved roll, Andy Bey at the East in Brooklyn, mid-1970s (definitely)”
Me and a buch of friends were at a lousy party in Jersey City in the mid-eighties and just decided to ditch it. All dressed up with no place to go. We ran into an acquaintance while walking around and followed him to a club called “The Peppermint Lounge” where we saw...
Pharoah Sanders with a full seven piece ensemble...with Andy Bey at the mic on vocals.
It was a small place and at moments Pharoah was blowing no less than five feet from me, and Andy wandered the floor, crooning, trilling and ululating with such a magical level of mastery that God as my witness, I think I got high. I 'd had exactly half a drink when those two transported me somewhere beautiful with their artistry.
For years, I wondered if someone had spiked my drink—I was so delirious with enjoyment, but no—it was just me, absorbing the art of some really powerful, talented people giving heir all.
Never forgot that.
That's the “Real Deal”.
P.S. drbopper -- I'm a Cooper too!
Kim C
Hey Cuz!!!!
She Who Must Be Obeyed is a violinist and worshiped the ground that Stephane Grappelli walked on.
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