Vatican forgives John Lennon for Jesus remark

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Vatican forgives John Lennon for Jesus remark 11/22/2008 3:00 PM, Reuters I always thought that the Vatican was a little slow to react to things. VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican’s newspaper has finally forgiven John Lennon for declaring that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, calling the remark a “boast” by a young man grappling with sudden fame. The comment by Lennon to a London newspaper in 1966 infuriated Christians, particularly in the United States, some of whom burned Beatles’ albums in … Continue reading →

It’s a Beautiful Day

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It’s A Beautiful Day” was a band formed in San Francisco in 1967, and was the brainchild of violinist and vocalist David LaFlamme. He was a former soloist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. The other members of the band were his wife, Linda (keyboards), Pattie Santos (vocals), Hal Wagenet (guitar), Mitchell Holman (bass), and Val Fuentes (drums). Although they were one of the earliest and most important San Francisco bands to emerge from the Summer of Love, they never quite saw the success that so … Continue reading →

The best jazz radio station

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While I was driving around town in my car, I kept turning the radio dial to find some music to listen to. Found it. WBGO. 88.3 FM on your dial. It’s a jazz (and blues) station. In fact, It’s the best jazz station in the country. They are publically sponsored, so they occasionally run their little marathons between shows. That’s the only annoying part, but I guess they have to do it to stay on the air.  They also do live interviews with jazz artists, … Continue reading →

Woodstock revisited 2010

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Here I am standing at the official site of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival which  was held on August of 1969 in Bethel, New York. This year was the 41st anniversary of this gigantic concert. The place is so well kept with its beautiful rolling hills and lush green grass. The monument was difficult for me to photograph in its entirety, so I took individual shots of all parts. This image of me was taken by another visitor. You are looking at what was the back of the … Continue reading →

In The Studio: Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks

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Dan Hicks, (born December 9, 1941, in Little Rock, Arkansas), was the son of a career military man. At age five, Hicks moved with his family to California, eventually settling north of San Francisco in Santa Rosa, where he was a drummer in grade school and played the snare drum in his school marching band. At 14, he was performing with area dance bands. While in high school, he had a rotating spot on Time Out for Teens, a daily 15-minute local radio program, and … Continue reading →

Poetry Wednesday 06/17/09: Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz

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Link: www.ronmccurdy.com Jazz Montage: A Multimedia Concert Performance of Langston Hughes’s Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz The Langston Hughes Project is a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes’s kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite. Ask Your Mama is Hughes’s homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s. It is a twelve-part epic poem which Hughes scored with musical cues drawn from blues and Dixieland, gospel songs, boogie woogie, bebop and … Continue reading →

Mary Travers

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BOSTON – Mary Travers, one-third of the popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary who were perhaps best known for their hit “Puff (The Magic Dragon),” died in a Connecticut hospital after battling leukemia for several years. She was 72. The band’s publicist, Heather Lylis, said Travers died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital. Bandmate Peter Yarrow said that in her final months, Travers handled her declining health with bravery and generosity, showing her love to friends and family “with great dignity and without restraint.” “It … Continue reading →

The Incredible String Band

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One of the most engaging groups to emerge from the esoteric ’60s was the Incredible String Band. Basically the duo of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, its sound was comprised of haunting Celtic folk melodies augmented by a variety of Middle Eastern and Asian instruments. Heron was a member of several rock bands in England in the early ’60s, while Williamson and Clive Palmer played as a bluegrass and Scottish folk duo. Heron was asked to join as rhythm guitarist, and the trio named itself … Continue reading →

The Planets by Gustav Holst

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I have never been interested in classical music. Most of it puts me to sleep. I find it boring even if the instruments sound beautiful. You could play it on the most sophisticated audio equipment known to man for me, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I could appreciate it, of course, but I could never really get into it. I don’t remember how I got a hold of a C/D called, The Planets by Gustav Holst. Maybe my sister, Sans Souci, gave … Continue reading →

The Fillmore East

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When I was growing up in the sixties, I lived a few blocks from the shabbiest neighborhood you could imagine. It was on 2nd avenue and east 6th street in New York City. If you look at the picture left, you could see that there didn’t seem to be anything special about it. But there was. On that street was a theater that was the most historical in rock history. It was the Fillmore East. At the time, I was too young to hang out … Continue reading →