Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun. Well I am anyway and I hope you are too… It has been a busy week offline with various projects and also taking advantage of the cold but sunny weather. It is hard to believe that it is January 20th already but it is great that the evenings are growing lighter by a few minutes each day.
My thanks as always to you for dropping in so often and keeping me motivated and here are some of the posts you might have missed..
This week Linda shares the delightful!! coat that her Grandmother managed to find at the charity shop for her..
The title of this series came about as I dipped into a Thesaurus to find some words for a poem I was writing. I noticed that a great many words that reflected (see what I mean) key elements in our lives began with the letter ‘R’. In this first post quite a bit about what I think about RESPECT
Chapter one of the sequel to my first book written 20 years ago which followed my 18 month challenge to lose 150lbs. I am told at 42 that I am unlikely to make 45!
I have chosen ‘Secret and Draw’ for my key words this week and I am also trying my hand at a Haibun… here is the link where you will find a description of this form which is a combination of prose and poetry.
Rejuvenation
I have discovered the secret to eternal youth. I stand before the mirror. With eyes almost closed the image blurs. Wrinkles disappear. Hair regains its colour. The extra pounds fall away. I am tall and strong. A reflection of how I used to be. I draw the image towards me absorbing its essence.
Do not be deceived Challenge the silver backed mirror Remain young at heart.
It is 1997 and after 18 months in Belgium, David was asked to head up a cable television company in Ireland and by the October he was back in Dublin. I remained behind for a few weeks to finish out our rental for our house, pack everything up and deal with the rather rigorous final inspection by our landlord who was to be accompanied by his lawyer.
In Belgium at that time, not sure if it is still as draconian, landlords will make every effort to retain your deposit, usually a month in advance, to the extent of bringing legal backup. We have even filled the tiny holes left when removing pictures off the wall and the place had been cleaned from top to bottom. In my own defence my neighbour whose French was fluent accompanied us on our inspection. Everything was passed as acceptable until we went into one of the single guest bedrooms. Having checked under the beds, the lawyer noticed that there was a brown patch the size of a walnut smack in the middle of the back of the white door to the room.
There was much tsking and tutting.. and notes were made. I explained that I had not made that brown mark on the door and that it must have been there before our tenancy. We had little occasion to use the room and had never inspected the back of the door. I was looked at as if I had committed the most heinous of crimes and the landlord declared that it could not be possible as the house was perfect when handed over.
This resulted in me expressing my own opinion on the matter in more French than I realised I had at my disposal. “Monsieur, do I look stupid to you? If I was going to paint a patch on the back of a white door, I would not have used brown paint, that would have taken a moron.’
With much glowering and conversations held to one side, they told me that there would be a deduction of about the equivalent of 70 Euro made to repair the door. There was a very frosty adieu from both injured parties.
I had decided to bring my car back with me. For those of you who have been following these memories you will remember that I shipped my Mercury Topaz back to the UK from Texas in early 1987. My car in Belgium was a BMW convertible 316i, and I drove across to the ferry in Holland over to England then onwards to North Wales and the ferry to Dublin. A fine adventure and gave me plenty of practice with a left hand drive car on the other side of the road.
On arrival in Dublin our worldly belongings went into storage and we stayed with my father-in-law for a few weeks and looked for a house to rent closer to David’s office. We settled on a lovely Georgian house in Sandymount, close to the sea and settled in for six months as we house hunted.
It was the start of the Celtic tiger years and house prices in Dublin itself were prohibitive. But we had the time to find just the right place.
Our social life was busy and we met a lot of very interesting people at company functions. We had our first Christmas back in Ireland and it was great to reconnect with the family again.
1997 was also the year that we completed the Anthony Robbins Life Mastery with two trips, one to Aspen and the other to St. Thomas. Following on from the Firewalk weekend, I never did cross the burning coals, although David walked across 40 feet of them!
I did however lose 80lbs of my 150lbs by early summer 1997, enough to be allowed to climb to the top of a 60 foot telegraph pole and jump from the there towards a trapeze… We were on safety ropes but when I stood on the top of the pole and balanced carefully, I looked down to see just one puny man holding onto the end of way below me.. I shouted down to add another man to the rope which they did. I then shouted ‘Geronimo’ and jumped. I missed the trapeze and ended up being lowered to the ground and I am sure that I met those two men on their way up as I descended!
It spurred me on to lose another 60lbs by the time we left for Ireland with just the last 20lbs to lose when I got there.
Size Matters which had begun life as a journal to record my return to a healthy weight and the programme that I designed to lose the excess pounds, was now in manuscript form and during 1998 I would begin the process of finding an agent in Dublin which would lead me down dead end alleys for the next two years.
Then a surprise from Belgium, when a letter and a cheque arrived from our former landlord. It was most apologetic and stated that on questioning, his wife admitted to having removed a hook from the back of the bedroom door in question, and forgetting to paint it over! I can only imagine that he had returned home, outraged at my assumption that he or someone entrusted to the care of his property would be so moronic to paint a brown patch on a white door…oops.
To be honest the music of 1997 passed me by as I relied on my albums and tapes rather than the French and Dutch radio programmes. And when I look back at the charts of the year they seemed to be filled with one hit wonders and people that I have never heard of since. There were obviously artists such as Elton John, Puff Daddy and Faith Adams, The Spice Girls and Will Smith with Men in Black. But who were No Doubt with Don’t Speak, Chumbawamba with Tubhumping, Hanson with MmmBop, and No Money with Where do you go? Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion did well with Tell Him and I have selected that track to share today. Courtesy of skv90s
Next time we find the perfect house in the Meath countryside, I would meet Sam our lovely collie when he was 3 weeks old and we would settle in for the next five years in our new home.
Welcome to the weekly round up of posts you might have missed.
This week I got back into the swing of things and began the 2019 book promotions and the first of the Sunday Interviews. It was a terrific break but very happy being back to normal.
As always a huge thank you to my regular contributors and guests as well as the support on social media. Whilst managing the various platforms is time consuming and sometimes distracting, it was interesting to see, when I looked at the year’s analytic data, where the most referrals were generated from.
At the top end of the list and accounting for approximately 50% of the referrals out of 221,000 views:
WordPress Reader.
Facebook
Twitter
Yahoo.com
Other search engines.
The other 50% were referrals from individual bloggers.
This confirms a few things to me:
That WordPress Reader is a very powerful promotional tool for promoting not just our own posts but also when we reblog and ‘press’ posts we enjoy by other bloggers. Since people browse the Reader looking for posts that are interesting, it is well worth making sure you titles and the short summary at the top of your post catch their eye.
That my time spent on Twitter and Facebook is not wasted!
That using key words and tags on blog posts gets results from search engines. (but need to do better)
That connecting and becoming part of asupportive community is essential to the success of a blog.
A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to share the posts this year directly to their own blogs which resulted in referrals and to all of you who took the time to like, share on social media and comment.
This week William Price King shared the life and music of the legendary Duke Ellington.
Welcome to the first of a new season of Getting to Know You and my first guest for 2019 is Australian author Frank Prem who has recently released a collection of poems and short stories about his childhood – Small Town Kid.
I wrote the original Size Mattersin 1998 about my 150lb weight loss… I did update when the book went digital but that was several years ago. After working as a nutritional therapist for the last 20 years, and having continued to research and study food and its role in our health, I decided that it was time to write the sequel.
It is now 1986 and both David and my father have their birthdays back to back. We are also making plans for a day trip and a much longer road trip over to New Mexico.
As part of a gentle detox it is useful to employ the power of nature as a cleanser for your liver and kidneys. Dandelion is powerful and has many health benefits.
It is a good idea to complete a gentle detox to find out what food triggers or environmental contaminants might be causing you to suffer from allergies or health issues.
Welcome to 1996 and huge year of change for both of us as a couple and as a family. My father’s health continued to deteriorate but he was determined to make his 80th birthday on January 12th and we celebrated with a lunch at the Queen’s Hotel in Southsea. I had come to the end of my contract in Peterborough and Norwich and was able to pop down from London three times a week to Portsmouth to help out along with my sister and her husband.
Sadly on April 5th which was Good Friday that year, my father died in hospital after a very brave fight, and even the week before he was convinced that he was going to beat this thing!
David was head hunted for a job in Brussels and we decided to put the house in South Woodford on the market rather than let it. It was sad to leave the house, as we had enjoyed nine years there, making lots of friends both locally and through our respective jobs. But we both felt that a new adventure would be good for us and it would prove to be just that.
As I mentioned in the last post my weight had blossomed! I was now in the process of losing that weight and was down a stone (only 10 stone to go). David had heard that Anthony Robbins the American motivational speaker was coming to Birmingham and had signed us up for his Fire Walk Weekend.
I had no idea what to expect and to be honest when we had attended this motivational event I was very fat and self-conscious. However, we met some very interesting people, many who were also looking for a kick up the backside and it would be the start of me getting back control of my body and willpower. David actually walked across 25 foot of burning coals but I was far too heavy to attempt it!
Over the next two years we attended Tony Robbins Life Mastery series in America, Hawaii and the Caribbean and it certainly helped keep me motivated as I lost the rest of the ten stone in weight.
David went ahead of me to Brussels and we eventually found a very nice house in Rhodes -Saint- Genese which was very close to the town of Waterloo and the battleground. We would spend 18 months there and were very happy exploring Brussels and the wonderful surrounding countryside.
I took the opportunity to continue my nutritional studies and I began the daily journal that would later become my first book Size Matters.
It was during this time in Brussels that we also made another emotional journey. My mother’s father had been killed on November 2nd, 1918 only nine days before peace was declared when she was just over a year old. My sister researched his whereabouts through the War Graves Commission and had discovered that he was buried in a small military cemetery close to the village of Poix du Nord just across the border into Northern France. She and her husband Robert had taken my mother to see her father’s grave a couple of years before our time in Belgium but both she and my mother came to stay with us in November 1996 so that we could lay a wreath on his grave on Remembrance Sunday.
To be honest there was little time for music in the first few months of 1996 and when I look back at the charts there are many artists that I did not remember and who seem to have been one hit wonders. It was the start of Spice Girl fever and they had two hits in the charts with Wannabe and Say You’ll Be There, George Michael with Fast Love, Los Del Rio with Macarena (love dancing to that), Take That with How Deep Is Your Love, Michael Jackson and Earth Song, Boyzone and Words, Celine Dion and Because You Loved Me and It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, Dunblane and Knocking on Heaven’s Door and Gina G and Ooh Aah, Just a Little Bit.
Because my father was a huge fan of Celine Dion, here is It’s All Coming Back To Me Now courtesy of CelineDionVEVO
Welcome to the first of William Price King’s music columns for 2019. And today he is sharing the work of the iconic Duke Ellington, composer, pianist and Jazz orchestra leader for over 50 years.
Edward ‘Duke’ Ellington was born in 1899 in Washington D.C. to James and Daisy who were both pianists. At the age of seven, Edward began taking piano lessons and with his mother’s guidance began to adopt an elegant and well-mannered approach to life. Daisy dressed him with style, which resulted in his childhood friends calling him ‘Duke’, a nickname that stuck with him throughout his career. Despite Daisy’s efforts, Duke preferred baseball over the piano… and whilst at high school is first job was selling peanuts at the Washington Senators baseball games.
At age 15 and working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Duke wrote his first composition “Soda Fountain Rag”… also known as “Poodle Dog Rag”.
“I would play the ‘Soda Fountain Rag’ as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango and fox-trot”, Ellington recalled. “Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire.” In his autobiography, Music is my Mistress (1973), Ellington wrote that he missed more lessons than he attended, feeling at the time that playing the piano was not his talent.
Ellington started sneaking into Frank Holiday’s Poolroom at the age of fourteen. Hearing the poolroom pianists play ignited Ellington’s love for the instrument, and he began to take his piano studies seriously. Duke began listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, not only in Washington, D.C., but in Philadelphia and Atlantic City,where he vacationed with his mother during the summer months.
To improve his technique he took private lessons and he was also inspired by his first encounters with James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. Eventually he began playing in cafes and clubs around Washington and it became his focus and he turned down a scholarship in 1916 to the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York. To pay the bills Duke worked as a freelance sign-painter and began assembling groups to play for dances. In 1919 he met drummer Sonny Greer from New Jersey, who encouraged Duke to become a professional musician. His career was helped by his growing sign-writing business as he would offer his services to anyone who asked him to make a sign for a party or an event.
He formed his first group “The Duke’s Serenaders” in 1917 and from the mid- 1920s he was based in New York City where he gained a national profile through his orchestra’s appearances at the world famous “Cotton Club”.
Although widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase “beyond category” as a liberating principle and referred to his music as part of the more general category of American Music rather than to a musical genre such as jazz.
Some of the jazz musicians who were members of Ellington’s orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered to be among the best players in the idiom. Ellington melded them into the best-known orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stayed with the orchestra for several decades. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, with many of his pieces having become standards. Ellington also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, for example Juan Tizol’s “Caravan”, and “Perdido”, which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. In the early 1940s,
Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or suites, as well as additional short pieces.
Following an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, in July 1956, Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed a major revival and embarked on world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in several films, scored several, and composed a handful of stage musicals.
Ellington was noted for his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and for his eloquence and charisma. His reputation continued to rise after he died, and he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Award for music in 1999.
Here are some of only a few of the exceptional pieces written by Duke Ellington.
“It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” written in 1931 by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills was characterized as a legendary, prophetic piece with a prophetic title, by historian Gunther Schiller. Critic Spike Hughes called Ellington a prophet. Nonetheless, Ellington was not a fan of reading too much into a song.
However, this song took Ellington out of the category of being simply a ‘bandleader’ and elevated him to the league of ‘composers’. According to trumpetist Bubber Miley, this song was the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at that time and has since been covered by practically all of the jazz greats, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Nina Simone, and Lionel Hampton.
“Sophisticated Lady”, composed as an instrumental mood piece by Duke Ellington in 1932, featured solos by Toby Hardwick on alto sax, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Lawrence Brown on trombone, and Ellington on piano. This recording entered the charts in May 1933 and peaked at number three. The tune was actually a composite musical sketch of three women, three of young Ellington’s grade school teachers in the U Street neighborhood of Washington D.C. Ellington said: “They taught all winter and toured Europe in the summer. To me that spelled sophistication.”
Tin Pan Alley lyricist Mitchell Parish (Stardust, Ruby, Moonlight Serenade ) added words to Ellington’s melody, telling a story of a wealthy, love-lost socialite. Ellington accepted Parish’s lyrics, though they did not entirely fit his original conception. “Sophisticated Lady “ was featured in the musical revue “Sophisticated Ladies” on Broadway in 1981 which celebrated the work of Duke Ellington. This song also appeared on the soundtrack of the 1989/90 documentary “Sophisticated Lady”, celebrating the life of singer Adelaide Hall, who recorded with Ellington in 1927, 1932, and 1933.
“ Prelude to a Kiss” Ellington’s success allowed him the privilege of becoming more ambitious and experimental in his compositions, thus abandoning the « Tin Pan Alley »* style hooks and dance tempos for melodic lines and harmonies mostly found in classical music. The result was « Prelude To a Kiss. » Its blending of classical and jazz sensibilities contributed to the song’s originality and splendor. This song was originally recorded as an instrumental in 1938. Weeks later, Ellington recorded it again, adding lyrics by Irving Gordon and Irving Mills.
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century – a reference to the sound of pianos, comparing them to the banging of tin pans, coming from songwriters modifying their pianos to produce a more percussive sound.
“Take the ‘A’ Train” is a 1939 composition by Billy Strayhorn which referred to the ‘A’ subway service that ran through NYC, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn, on the Fulton Street Line (opened in 1936) up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using the Eighth Avenue Line which was opened in 1932. Strayhorn wrote this piece after Ellington offered him a job in his organization. Ellington sent him directions to get to his house by subway, directions that began with “Take the ‘A’ Train… “. Strayhorn initially wrote the lyrics to this song which was recorded by the Delta Rhythm Boys. Later, Joya Sherrill, 20 years old at the time, wrote new lyrics for the instrumental version of this piece. Thanks to her poise, vocal ability and her unique take on the song, Ellington hired her as a vocalist and adopted her lyrics which became the main stay.
“Satin Doll” was written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in 1953, with lyrics added after the song was a hit in its instrumental version, by Johnny Mercer. According to Mercer Ellington, the Duke’s son, his father wrote “ Satin Doll “ for his longtime mistress Bea ‘Evie’ Ellis. Capitol Records released this song in 1953, peaking at #27 on Billboard’s Pop chart. This piece is well known in musical circles for its unusual use of chords, and its opening with a turnaround.* Ellington used “Satin Doll” as the closing number in most of his concerts.
In jazz, a turnaround is usually the two measures at the end of a section of music whose function is to help you segue into the next section of music creating a strong sense of forward motion, harmonically.
William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.
His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.
While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.
His debut jazz album was entitled “Home,” and was a collection of contemporary compositions he composed, with lyrics written by his wife Jeanne King. His second album was a Duo (Voice and Guitar) with Eric Sempé on the guitar. This album included original songs as well as well known standards from contemporary jazz and pop artists. The “King-Sempé” duo toured France and thrilled audiences for more than three years before going their separate ways. King has formed a new duo with French/Greek guitarist Manolis, and is now exploring new ideas, in a smooth jazz/soul/folk direction.
In addition to singing and composing, King has been collaborating with author Sally Cronin over the past few years on her blog “Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life,” with the series “A Man And His Music – Jazz, Contemporary, Classical, and Legends” and now, the “William Price King Music Column.” Working with author Sally Cronin has been an exhilarating experience in many ways and has brought a new dimension to King’s creative life. King has also created a micro blog, “Improvisation,” which features and introduces mostly jazz artists from across the jazz spectrum who have made considerable contributions in the world of jazz; and also artwork from painters who have made their mark in the world of art. This micro blog can be found on Tumblr.
His vocal mentors are two of the greatest giants in jazz, Nat King Cole and Mel Tormé. King has a distinctive wide-ranging voice which displays a remarkable technical facility and emotional depth.
Another quietish week for us after a very peaceful New Year’s Eve which we spent watching the final Die Hard movie of our binge session. Seeing them back to back over five days was great, and brought back memories of where we were in the years we saw them the first time around, starting in 1988. It is amazing how you remember the overall plot but forget detail. We are making a start on Mission Impossible and then The Bourne series next. Keep us out of trouble for a bit anyway.
Over the next few weeks there will be some new series beginning that I hope you will find interesting… in the meantime…here are the posts from the week in case you missed any.
A look back at 2018 and a thank you to the regular contributors who write such amazing posts for the blog. Also a look at what is to come in 2019.
Paul Andruss gave us a New Year’s Gift of a four part story The Legend of the Golden Flower, set in ancient Japan and filled with wonderfully researched detail. You can read the complete story and also follow the link to a follow up post on the background to the tale.
I was delighted to welcome Annette Rochelle Aben to the team with the first of her monthly Numerology posts. The first looking at our universal energy for 2019 and the month of January.
The new season of the Sunday Interview – Getting to Know You.
Delighted to welcome new interviewees to the interview series, and if you have participated before.. no worries, just pick a different five questions to answer..
I want to share this post again for any authors who are new to the blog – The Cafe and Bookstore is a FREE promotional opportunity to showcase your work on a regular basis here on the blog and across my social media.
The first step is a ‘New Book on the Shelves‘ promotion, followed by regular updates in the twice weekly posts. Any new releases will also have their own individual post.
To get the New Year off to a good start (for your body anyway) I began a short series – The Gentle Detox.
I don’t approve of starving a body into submission, especially after a period of indulgence. I especially do not recommend ‘crash diets’ as this can cause a great deal of stress physically and mentally. Here are the posts so far….
A series that is worth repeating for the benefit of those who missed the first time around –Cook from Scratch.
In this post I share an alternative breakfast that I ate several time a week in the 17 years I lived in Madrid… Spanish style tomato cocktail on toast..
I try my hand at a new format that Colleen Chesebro has introduced us to in the first of her Tuesday Poetry challenge No. 117 – Poets choice. A Shadorma… if you have not participated in this challenge, I do recommend as it stretches both our poetic muscles and your creativity.
Welcome to the series where I explore the music that I was listening to each year and that still has pride of place on my playlist today.
It is 1995 and our lives continued to rattle along with our jobs taking a priority but with some welcome breaks during the year, and of course our weekend cinema going tradition.
I was heading for a job change and moved from my role as director of customer services in the London franchise to director of operations for the two East Anglia franchises based in Norwich and Peterborough. I would drive between the two, living in hotels for the first few weeks, returning to London for the weekends.
A lot of mileage but I eventually rented a flat in Peterborough and a vicarage in Norwich so that the other managers who also commuted between the two operations could stay, saving a lot of money on hotel bills for all of us.
Both systems were growing rapidly and with the travel and being away from home my expanding waistline increased at a rapid rate. I was now almost 24 stone (330lbs) and my health was also becoming affected. Still we still managed to have some fun and games and the whole company at the Peterborough end, turned out for an evening’s entertainment at a local venue where a mechanical bull was installed.
There was a balcony overlooking the dance floor and it was lined with staff all waiting to see which muggins would ride the bull first. I felt it was important to motivate them all so headed off to tackle the beast. The owner of the bull looked a little wary as I approached, sneaking glances between me and the bull who also looked a little terrified. But undaunted I insisted on mounting the beast and gripping the rope handles firmly requested that the operator click the on switch.
I stayed in the saddle for over a minute but only because the poor animal was struggling to buck me off. There was also a rather disturbing grinding noise as the bull attempted to gyrate and kick and finally I took pity and fell off onto the inflated surrounds. With this sudden release from my weight the bull took off in an exuberant whirling and bucking performance that was applauded mightily from the balcony.
However, my efforts encouraged others to come forward and I have the photos which provide all the incentive to keep the weight off FOREVER. Mortification that will haunt me always and as will the look of relief on that bull’s face. It spurred me on in 1996 to lose over 150lbs in 18 months, so I have a lot to thank that bull for!
In the charts.
Anyway travelling hundreds of miles a week did mean that I listened to a great deal of music in 1995 and the charts were full of great tracks from artists, many of which are still going strong today. However, there are some that I do not remember from that year and have never heard of since and perhaps you can enlighten me if they ring a bell with you. At #3 and #4 were a group called Theouthere Brothers! Ini Kantoze at #18, further down the charts Perez ‘Prez’ Prado & his Orchestra and John Scatmanwho sounds more like an animal tracker than a popstar.
Anyway the more established artists of the day included my two favourites from the TV series Soldier, Soldier– Robson Green and Jerome Flynn who had two hits with Unchained Melody and I Believe, Michael Jacksonwith You Are Not Alone and Earth Song, Take That– Back For Good and Never Forget, Simply Red – Fairground, Pulp – Common People, Oasis – Some Might Say and Roll With It, Boyzone – Love Me For A Reason and Wet, Wet, Wetwith Julia Says. I have chosen Annie Lennox with one of my all-time favourites – No More I Love You’s – Annie Lennox.
Welcome to the last music column of the year with William Price King who will return in the New Year with more Jazz instrumentalists.
Today, William shares the life and music of pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane (née McLeod, August 27, 1937 – January 12, 2007), also known by her adopted Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane, was an American jazz musician and composer, and in her later years a swamini. One of the few harpists in the history of jazz, she recorded many albums as a bandleader, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Impulse! and other major record labels. She was the second wife and the widow of jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane.
Alice McLeod was born on August 27, 1937, in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in a musical household. Her mother, Anna McLeod, was a member of the choir at her church, and her half brother, Ernest Farrow became a jazz bassist. With the motivation of Ernest, Alice pursued music and started to perform in various clubs around Detroit, until moving to Paris in the late 1950s. Alice studied classical music, and also jazz with Bud Powell in Paris, where she worked as the intermission pianist at the Blue Note Jazz Club in 1960. Following the breakdown of her marriage to Kenny Hagood Alice moved back to Detroit with her daughter.
She continued playing jazz as a professional in Detroit, with her own trio and as a duo with vibist Terry Pollard. In 1962–63 she played with Terry Gibbs’ quartet, during which time she met John Coltrane. In 1965 they were married in Juárez, Mexico. John Coltrane became stepfather to Alice’s daughter Michelle, and the couple had three children together.
In January 1966, Alice Coltrane replaced McCoy Tyner as pianist with John Coltrane’s group. She subsequently recorded with him and continued playing with the band until his death on July 17, 1967. After her husband’s death, she continued to forward the musical and spiritual vision, and started to release records as a composer and bandleader.
“Ptah, the El Daoud” recorded and released in 1970 is the third solo album by Alice Coltrane and her first album with horns. All of the compositions were written by her. This is a great album consisting of four tracks featuring an all-star cast including Ben Riley, Ron Carter, Pharaoh Sanders, and Joe Henderson. From the first moments of the title track to the last moments of « Mantra, » the album resonates with beauty, clarity, and emotion and demonstrates that Alice was a strong composer and performer in her own right, with a unique ability to impregnate her music with spirituality and gentleness without losing its edges or depth.
From 1968 to 1977, she released thirteen full-length records. As the years passed, her musical direction moved further from standard jazz into the more cosmic, spiritual world.
“Journey in Satchidananda”, a transcendental blend of modal experimental Jazz and Eastern spirituality, is Alice Coltrane’s fourth solo album whose title and title track reflect the inspiration she received from Swami Satchidananda, with whom she had a special relationship while, at the same time, being one of his followers. In the liner notes for this album, Mensah Demary wrote “listening to Alice play is to hear what love, and the love of life, sounds like—it is a love that is for John, but is also clearly a love for something higher, something far less flawed and temporary than another human being.” Though the arrangements are pared down, there is a myriad of bells, oud, tamboura, and other exotic instrumentation and she shares the spotlight with a group of legendary musicians such as Pharaoh Sanders, Charlie Haden, Cecil McBee, and Rashied Ali. This album was recorded at the Coltrane studio in New York and released on the label Impulse in 1971.
Albums like Universal Consciousness (1971), and World Galaxy (1972), show a progression from a four-piece lineup to a more orchestral approach, with lush string arrangements and cascading harps.
“Universal Consciousness,” Coltrane’s fifth solo album, is a tribute to her spiritual principles. Ornette Coleman did the arrangements, featuring guest stars Jimmy Garrison, Rashied Ali, Jack DeJohnette and Leroy Jenkins. The avant garde “Universal Consciousness “ transcends free jazz by its reliance on deeply thematic harmonic material. The music, whether composed or improvised, perfectly unites the kingdoms of body, speech, and mind for the listener to take into his/her own experience.
The death of John Coltrane was devastating and led to Alice turning further towards a spiritual path. In 1975 she established the Vedantic Center in California and became the director or swamini of Shanti Anantam Ashram in 1983 near Malibu.
This Alice Coltrane recording of “Transfiguration“, featuring Reggie Workman and Roy Haynes in the rhythm section, was recorded live at UCLA in 1978. Here, her keyboard work is greatly influenced by African and Indian music. There is a strong resemblance with the organ playing of minimalist Terry Riley, who is also one of her devotional figures. “Transfiguration” highlights her virtuosity and improvisational prowess, which is particularly noticeable on John Coltrane’s “Leo”, divided into two parts, in which she uses twelve tones which play off each other to represent each sign of the zodiac. A powerful piece of music.
Alice would perform formal and informal devotional Vedic ceremonies at the ashram. She performed solo chants, known as bhajans, and group chants, or kirtans. She developed original melodies from the traditional chants, and started to experiment by including synthesizers and sophisticated song structures. This culminated in her first spiritual cassette, Turiya Sings, in 1982 and through the mid 1980s into the mid 1990s, she released three more cassettes, Divine Songs in 1987, Infinite Chants in 1990, and Glorious Chants in 1995. New York-based label Luaka Bop released a compilation of tracks from her ashram tapes as World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda in May 2017.
The 1990s saw renewed interest in her work, which led to the release of the compilation Astral Meditations, and in 2004 she released her comeback album Translinear Light. Following a 25-year break from major public performances, she returned to the stage for three U.S. appearances in the fall of 2006, culminating on November 4 with a concert for the San Francisco Jazz Festival with her son Ravi, drummer Roy Haynes, and bassist Charlie Haden.
“Translinear Light “, Alice’s last studio album, was produced by her son Ravi Coltrane who accompanies her on the saxophone and percussions. This was her big comeback album with a little help from her friends, Charlie Haden on double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. In addition to the original compositions, this album includes two works by John Coltrane and four covers, showcasing the many influences she had during her career as well as, from time to time, fusion. The tracks « Satya Sai Isha », “This Train”, “Triloka”, and “Leo” where there’s an awesome interplay with her son Ravi, are mind blowing.
Alice Coltrane died of respiratory failure at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in suburban Los Angeles in 2007, aged 69. She is buried alongside John Coltrane in Pinelawn Memorial Park, Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York.
William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.
His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.
While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.
His debut jazz album was entitled “Home,” and was a collection of contemporary compositions he composed, with lyrics written by his wife Jeanne King. His second album was a Duo (Voice and Guitar) with Eric Sempé on the guitar. This album included original songs as well as well known standards from contemporary jazz and pop artists. The “King-Sempé” duo toured France and thrilled audiences for more than three years before going their separate ways. King has formed a new duo with French/Greek guitarist Manolis, and is now exploring new ideas, in a smooth jazz/soul/folk direction.
In addition to singing and composing, King has been collaborating with author Sally Cronin over the past few years on her blog “Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life,” with the series “A Man And His Music – Jazz, Contemporary, Classical, and Legends” and now, the “William Price King Music Column.” Working with author Sally Cronin has been an exhilarating experience in many ways and has brought a new dimension to King’s creative life. King has also created a micro blog, “Improvisation,” which features and introduces mostly jazz artists from across the jazz spectrum who have made considerable contributions in the world of jazz; and also artwork from painters who have made their mark in the world of art. This micro blog can be found on Tumblr.
His vocal mentors are two of the greatest giants in jazz, Nat King Cole and Mel Tormé. King has a distinctive wide-ranging voice which displays a remarkable technical facility and emotional depth.
This week has certainly flown by with a few Mary Poppins moments with umbrellas in the rain and high winds. Just as well I have not got rid of that excess stone I was planning on misplacing before Christmas!
Do not take this as a free pass to do what you like eating wise over the festive season (well okay then . eat what you like)..but I am re-releasing my first book Size Matters in 2019 updated and revised to reflect new research and also my experience in the last 20 years as a nutritional therapist – I am going to do this via the blog by editing and updating each chapter on the blog in the first three months of the year. If you are thinking about getting fitter and eating healthier then you might like to take it one step at a time.
The first part of the book was my journal about how I got to the weight of 330lbs and the second part of the book is the programme that I designed to lose 150lbs. That is the bit that I will be revising and updating.
I have been featuring all the active authors in the Cafe and Bookstore since the middle of November with recent updates or first books in series. I have just scheduled the last one on 17th December… and there will be one more on 18th of December but that one will be my books and I have a couple of e-book giveaways on the day.
I did have an outing this week as the guest of Colleen Chesebro… and we had a lovely conversation about writing from the male perspective and inspirations.. if you have not been a guest of Colleen before.. it is well worth putting yourself forward. A great place to showcase your work and meet new people.
On Thursday the Christmas party season starts with the First Day of Christmas.. If you are still interesting in being a guest there are four spaces left for the 11th and 12th days of Christmas.. Want another chance to promote your books and take part.. here are the details.
I am heading out today with a stand at the local Christmas Fair.. and the first sight of Santa Claus who will be arriving at 4pm. to day courtesy of the Coast Guard and RNLI.. ……….
Time to get on with the posts from the week that you might have missed and as always thank you for popping in and lending your support. It keeps me motivated.
Paul Andruss has popped in to kick off party week… sharing his emotionally charged story of his most favourite Christmas gift ever….
Carol Taylor came back to the food column with a wonderful post this week. A full Vegetarian menu – with starters, mains, sides and desserts.. delicious.
Geoff Le Pard with a special rendition of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas…if this does not get you in the mood for the festive season…. then repeat several times.
It is the time of year when coughs are quite common.. but it is important to know the difference between one associated with a common cold and one that has become chronic bronchitis.
It is that time of week when we get our syllables in a row or more in a format requested by Colleen Chesebro Poetry Challenge no. 113 – being the first week of the month we get to choose our own prompts… Frost and Laughter.
I cannot believe that it is December and we are less than four weeks away from Christmas Day. I am on target to feature all the authors in the Cafe and Bookstore before the big day and I hope you will enjoy this week’s selection of gift ideas.. They will also be in the main menu in their directory and I will be sending that out on social media regularly.
Apart from that we have been sorting out our own Christmas. Usually David puts up our artificial tree which we have had for about 20 years, adds the lights and then I decorate. Last year because of getting ready for visitors, he actually decorated it and did such an amazing job, I have volunteered him to do it again. I will sit with a glass of Cava and admire his expertise.
Next week I have a Christmas fair locally and I am selling some of my books (not the weight loss one!) and homemade fudge. I am about to have a practice run… and will try not to eat too much of the first batch. I have downloaded a fail safe recipe from the Internet, which in my case usually just ends up as a fail….will keep you informed.
It is getting close to the wire for new books on the shelves but still have a couple of slots left for the week after next. So please let me know if you are in the Cafe and Bookstore and have a new release before Christmas.
Also I have 6spots left for the Christmas party – Twelve Days of Christmas so please think about sending your 100 words about your best Christmas Gift Ever ASAP.. here is the link… and don’t forget it is another opportunity to promote your blog and books, even if you have already been in one of the promotions.
There are a lot of posts to get through… so on with the show.
As always a huge thank you to my regular contributors William Price King, Carol Taylor and Jessica Norrie.
If you are new to book marketing… or would like to find out how to maximise your presence on social media.. you might like to pop over to Lisa Burton, whose author is Craig Boyack, and take advantage of some of the promotional opportunities offered by some seasoned bloggers. They include The Story Reading Ape, Colleen Chesebro, Sue Vincent, Annette Rochelle Aben and myself..
Cranberries have a wealth of health benefits which I share, and this is followed by some amazing recipes from Carol Taylor that will make your mouth water.
Jessica Norrieshares an interesting way to find some bestsellers: Ahem! Shortly I’ll have a significant birthday present from Transport for London of free travel on bus, tubes and some trains. If you’ve never tried people watching from the top deck of a London bus, put it on your bucket list. But I’ll need a book for those long underground rides. Where better to start a stockpile than rereading bestsellers published in the year of my birth? When I googled them I was surprised and rather moved to find how many I’d read and how they still resonate. (Do this for your own year of birth and see if the same thing happens. Obviously, I read them at appropriate stages in my life, not when they first appeared!)
The first of the two short stories this weekend was about Yves… a ladies man with a penchant for attracting the lost but loaded widows and divorcees in the South of France… but what happens when he falls in love for real?
This week a look at dairy which does have many nutrients that the body needs, and for most of us… there is no problem in eating moderately (too much cheese and butter, whilst good for you, can put weight on). But for some eating dairy results in a number of digestive problems.
The subject of eating fat has had us all going around in circles for years. One minute you need to dump it all and the next it is poor carbohydrates on the chopping block. I have written a number of posts on the subject. Unhealthy fats: Industrially produced fats and Healthy Fats: Essential Fatty Acids and Good fats
Get your short animated film showcased at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Get your animated screenplay perfromed by professional actors at the Writing Festival.
