Greyhound Station

Charles stepped away from the ticket window and walked toward the exit of the bus station. As he walked, he said "So Long Michigan!" in a loud voice to no one in particular. An elderly woman looked up from her Detroit Free Press for a moment but then went back to reading. As he neared the door, he said it again "So Long Michigan!" No one seemed to wonder what he was talking about. Then, he began his explanation. "I'm going down to work at my Uncle's tool and die shop in Atlanta". He looked around to see if anyone was paying attention. They were not. He went on. "I'm gonna get me a brand new gold wrist watch, and some Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix tapes. Then, I'll go back to the Pontiac rescue mission and tell them to look at me now!"
I imagined the faces of the people at mission once they saw his tapes. By this time, a tall thin southern guy was becoming interested in Charles' story. They began talking about how Detroit was the most horrible place. The southern guy took the lead. "You know, Detroit once had an excellent street car system and Henry Ford sent it off to Mexico". It was nice that these two people had found each other.

Edu Lobo

Here is a fantastic version of Na Carreira from a rare appearence by Edu in Rio.

Thelonius Monk hat found

It's a little tight. If I shaved my head it would fit better. I can hardly contain myself.

Andre Williams

My mom gave me a stack of about 50 records when I was 6 years old. I had a little RCA brown bakelite record player that only played 45s. There were a lot of great records in that stack. Muddy Waters/Got My Mojo Working, Little Richard/Lucille, Buddy Holly/That'll Be The Day, Chuck Berry/Maybelline and a lot more. The one that really caught my ear was Bacon Fat b/w Just Because Of A Kiss by Andre Williams. Bacon Fat was unlike anything I had ever heard up to that point. The lazy sound of his voice and the tenor sax were sounds I couldn't get enough of.

So in 2000 when he played at The Beat Kitchen I was excited finally to see him perform.
The odd thing to me is that now he mostly does X rated material. It is cool and everything but he didn't do Bacon Fat or The Greasy Chicken. These are important songs. We stayed to meet him and get some record sleeves signed. He signed Ian's "Andre Williams". I told him my name was Dan so he personalized mine very nicely. When Ian saw him doing this, he said "hey, you didn't do mine like that!" and Andre said "FUCK OFF!" in a real gruff voice. Everybody was on the floor with laughter. Andre's son was kind of like his manager and he invited us to a little after party which was upstairs. It was bleak at the party and we didn't stay long. We talked to Andre and he told us that it was the fans that made it all worthwhile. He shook my hand and gave Ian a hug and kissed him on the ear. That was the best. Then we left.

Now, he has written a book and will go see him again at the book release party on November 14 8pm at Phylis' Musical Inn in Chicago. We have some catching up to do.

Elizeth Cardoso-Cancao do Amor Demais

Is it possible that the tune Luciana(Jobim/DeMoraes) from this album is the only version from the first wave of Bossa Nova? Can't believe it is not more well known.

Halloween for army men

These guys were walking on Milwaukee ave. yesterday. Like something out of a crazy dream. They were friendly and posed until the last photo was shot.