Podcasts about Dinah Washington

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TABLE READ: My Lady's SongWritten by Dan LauriaNew York. Late-night Eighth Avenue. Strip clubs, limos, politicians, porn stars, and ghosts of the old neighborhood.My Lady's Song drops you straight into the smoky, blood-soaked underbelly of a city that doesn't forgive and never forgets.Sal “The Barber” Marino is an aging ex-soldier of the streets — a limo driver who once did twelve years without talking. Now he drives high-end clients and keeps his head down. But when a powerful senator, a pair of porn stars, and a blackmail tape collide during sensitive union negotiations, Sal is pulled back into a world he thought he left behind.This is not a nostalgia piece.This is loyalty versus survival.Old code versus new money.Family versus leverage.Set against a soundtrack style of Billie Holiday, Etta James, Dinah Washington, and Bessie Smith, My Lady's Song moves like Goodfellas at midnight and feels like The Sopranos when the jokes stop being funny.What starts as a simple drive to Los Angeles turns into a reckoning — with betrayal, with memory, and with the cost of keeping your mouth shut.Nobody in podcasting is bringing this level of writing, performance, and cinematic scope.This is prestige drama.Performed. Not narrated.Hollywood caliber. Start to finish.___________________________________

[REBROADCAST FROM Oct. 29, 2025] R&B, jazz and soul singer Ledisi started 2025 with the spring release of The Crown, an album of original music. She ended the year with a new album in tribute to the Queen of the Blues, Dinah Washington, titled For Dinah. She plays some excerpts and talk about the new record, which is nominated for Outstanding Jazz Album at this year's NAACP Image Awards.

#235 Broadcast 235 - Episode 235 - The Crooners - 20260221 - 3 in 1 = Dinah Washington by Jim Reeves

We're setting the time machine back 20 years to a snowy Saturday night in Charleston.The Flood was on stage at the West Virginia Cultural Center for a FOOTMAD (“Friends of Old-Time Music and Dance”) concert, sharing the bill with another great band, Stewed Mulligan.As reported here earlier, it had been a fun evening of jug band songs and general silliness, blues and fiddle tunes and old-time string band music, so when Michelle Hoge started a classic 1940s jazz standard, a hush fell over the audience.In seconds, people were softly humming along, then they smiled so much during Doug Chaffin's sweet mandolin solo that he had to take a second chorus. Finally, by the time Michelle got to the end of the number, people were on the feet to cheer her. What a sweet memory.About the SongA celebrated ballad that successfully bridged the gap between 1940s R&B and 1960s pop, “Since I Fell for You” evolved from a modest hit into a timeless standard.Pianist/bandleader Buddy Johnson in late 1945 wrote the song that his publisher categorized as a “jump blues.”Johnson famously had a passion for classical music but played to the tastes of his Southern audiences andc composed the song for his sister, Ella Johnson, to sing. While their original recording had some impact, it was Annie Laurie's 1947 version — recorded with Paul Gayten — that attracted serious attention, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard “Race Records” chart.The song found its definitive voice, though, in 1963 thanks to singer Lenny Welch, who was familiar with the song through a 1954 doo-wop cover by The Harptones and suggested it to Archie Bleyer, the president of Cadence Records.When Bleyer bought the original sheet music, Welch was surprised to find a distinct piano introduction that had been omitted from the versions he had heard previously. This recovered intro became a highlight of Welch's recording. Recorded on Aug. 13, 1963, Welch's version broke out in California markets before sweeping across the U.S. It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Easy Listening chart, selling over a million copies.Welch's smooth, middle-of-the-road vocals cemented the song's status as a pop classic. Since then, the song has attracted covers across the genres, including jazz greats like Dinah Washington, country stars like Charlie Rich and Ronnie Milsap and contemporary icons like Bonnie Raitt.Further Floodifying the SongWhile the Feb. 11, 2006, show featured in the audio at the start of this report was The Flood's first public performance of the song, “Since I Fell for You” stayed in the band's repertoire for years. However, its title didn't always come readily to mind. Click the button below for a funny exchange at a rehearsal a few years later:Meanwhile, a dozen years after the song's Flood debut at FOOTMAD, the band was back in Charleston, this time at Taylor Books, where Pamela Bowen shot this video:Framing Michelle's vocals were solos by Floodster Emeritus Paul Martin and guest artist Jim Rumbaugh. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

Sintonía: (instrumental) - Freddy King"Margarita" - Chuck Rio; "Pretty-Eyed Baby" - Margaret Whitling; "Soulville" - Dinah Washington; "Don´t Wait Too Long" - Erma Franklin; "San-To-Zay" - Freddy King; "Zindy Lou" - The Mariners; "Turkish Coffee" - Laguestra & His Orchestra; "Lookoum" - Kemal Rachid; "Morocco" - Navel Maneuver; "Ole Mambo" - Edmundo Ross & His Orchestra; "The Jay Hawk" - Johnny and The Debonaires; Dick Dale aned The Del-Tones; "Don´t Let It Happen" - Jimmy Breedlove; "Limbo Drum" (part 1) - Young William and The Jamaicans; "Little Annie" - Anna Belle Caesar; "Don´t Freeze On Me" - Jessie Mae; "Yabba" - Hully Gully Boys; "Hi Fi Baby" - Teddy (Mr.Bear) McRae; "Lovey Dovey Lovely One" - Junior Wells; "I´m Movin´" - Matt Lucas; "Living Too Fast" - Ray Anderson; "Stop Jivin´ Start Drivin´ " - Burt Keyes with Teddy McRae; "Shake Shake Sonora" - Lord FleaEscuchar audio

Celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday by looking back at Thanksgiving night concerts and dances held on Indiana Avenue. For some Avenue residents, Thanksgiving didn't end at the dinner table. Holiday gatherings often continued late into the night at neighborhood ballrooms and clubs, where music was as important as turkey and pumpkin pie.  From the 1940s, to the 1960s, the Avenue's Thanksgiving stages drew some of the biggest names in American music — including Dinah Washington, Lionel Hampton, Roy Hamilton, and Earl Bostic — along with local favorites, including The Presidents. Join us on this episode, as we revisit those Thanksgiving nights when music, dancing and community were as important as the holiday feast.

From her living room in Romulus, 94-year-old Ardena Vaughn takes us from Black Bottom to the “tracks” in Romulus, weaving a lifetime of memories that tell the story of Legacy Black Detroit's past and its unfinished future. Born at Herman Kiefer and raised on Cameron Street, Ardena remembers marching in the alley when “Joe Louis would win” with tin tubs and cans, feeling the whole block erupt when the Brown Bomber put Detroit on the map. She recalls walking past the Chesterfield Lounge, hearing Dinah Washington and the hum of Black nightlife she was “too young to understand, but old enough to feel.” In this conversation she breaks down what it meant to move from the heart of the city to Romulus in the 1940s, where “the tracks” literally divided Black and white neighborhoods. Ardena shares how she became the first Black supervisor at a micro-measurements plant supplying airplanes and automobiles—“I don't even know how I got that job.” She talks about Saturdays riding back into the city for piano lessons, eating hot waffles with ice cream Kresge, and then coming home to build a life rooted in AME church, choir, and family. Still, her wisdom for future generations is simple: “Love everybody… try to be a good example… stay busy.” She still drives her 20-year-old Grand Am, still hosts the holidays, and still plays weekly Scrabble. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

En esta entrega os voy a contar la historia de Dinah Washington, una de las reinas del jazz y blues, cuya estela se ha ido desvaneciendo con el tiempo pero que bien merece avivar la llama de su recuerdo. Playlist: * What a Diff'rence a Day Makes, Ike Quebec; * Precious Lord, Take My Hand, Mavis Staples; * Evil Gal Blues, Dinah Washington; * Baby Get Lost, Dinah Washington; * Am I Asking Too Much, Dinah Washington; * Long John Blues, Dinah Washington; * Teach Me Tonight, Dinah Washington; * You Go To My Head (feat. Clifford Brown), Dinah Washington; * Cold Cold Heart (feat. Nook Shrier Orchestra), Dinah Washington; * What a Diff'rence a Day Makes, Dinah Washington; * Baby, You've Got What It Takes, Dinah Washington and Brook Benton; * September in the Rain, Dinah Washington; * This Bitter Earth, Dinah Washington; * Mad About the Boy, Dinah Washington; * This Bitter Earth / On The Nature Of Daylight, Dinah Washington and Max Richter.

Dos holandeses, la cantante Femke Smit y el pianista Mike del Ferro, con 'Casaco marrom', 'Folhetim' de Chico Buarque, ''Olha Maria' de Jobim, Vinicius y Chico y 'É doce morrer no mar' de Dorival Caymmi, ensu disco 'Sintonía. songs from Brazil'. La cantante estadounidense Ledisi rinde homenaje a Dinah Washington en el disco 'For Dinah' con grabaciones de 'What a difference a day made', 'You go to my head', 'You don´t know what love is' o 'This bitter earth'. El guitarrista brasileño Daniel Santiago aborda composiciones de otro guitarrista, Kurt Rosenwinkel, en 'Love in the modern world' con 'Dream of the old', 'Spirit kiss', 'The cross' o 'Summer song'. Cierre con el sexteto del pianista Amedeo Tommasi ('Brasilia') adelanto del disco 'Nicola Conte presents Viagio'. Escuchar audio

Ledisi, de Nueva Orleans, rinde homenaje a la cantante Dinah Washington en el disco 'For Dinah' con grabaciones de 'What a difference a day made', 'Let´s do it', 'You don´t know what love is' o 'You go to my head'. Del nuevo disco del guitarrista brasileño Daniel Santiago, que se publica mañana, la pieza que le da título 'Love in the modern world' y 'Dream of the old'. La cantante rusa residente en Estados Unidos, Masha Campagne, con 'Bahia com H', 'Samba carioca', 'Estrada do sol' y 'Alegre menina'. Y el disco rescatado de la cantante brasileña Luísa con 'Lenha na fogueira' y 'Romântico'. El acordeonista francés Vincent Peirani abre ('Le cabinet des énigmes') y cierra ('Physical attraction'). Escuchar audio

R&B, jazz and soul singer Ledisi started the year off with the spring release of The Crown, an album of original music. She's wrapping the year up with a new album in tribute to the Queen of the Blues, Dinah Washington, titled For Dinah. She plays some excerpts and talk about the new record for a Listening Party.

Певица, актриса, писательница, учитель, активистка и предпринимательница Ledisi добавила ещё один бриллиант в свою корону, выпустив альбом For Dinah. Это глубоко личное посвящение от обладательницы премии GRAMMY её кумиру всей жизни, легендарной, но слишком часто упускаемой из виду Dinah Washington. Продюсером альбома выступил джазовый тяжеловес Christian McBride, который помогает таким музыкантам, как она, процветать и быть в центре внимания. Этот страстный проект передает гламур и чувства, которые определялись наследием Дины и пропущены через уникальный голос Ледиси. Альбом включает в себя выдающиеся совместные работы, включая дуэты с известными вокалистами Gregory Porter и Paul Jackson Jr., а также с восходящей звездой Michael King. Альбом Для Дины - это не просто музыкальное приветствие, это благодарственное письмо от одной влиятельной темнокожей женщины другой - дань уважения артистке, которая проложила путь, по которому Ледиси прошла всю свою жизнь.Слушать альбом - значит слышать не только отголоски Дины Вашингтона, но и преемственность традиции: чернокожие артистки настаивают на своем законном месте в центре американской культуры. Вашингтон пела в эпоху, когда такая настойчивость сама по себе была радикальной. Ледиси поёт сегодня, в момент, когда борьба принимает новые формы, но остаётся незавершённой.В результате возникает портрет двух женщин, связанных во времени: одна, которая сломала барьеры в эпоху сегрегации, другая, которая продолжает борьбу за равенство в эпоху представительства и институциональных реформ. Для Дины это не просто сборник песен, а размышление о том, что значит нести наследие вперёд, не как подражание, а как трансформацию.В этом смысле дань уважения Ледиси - это также заявление о её собственном месте в родословной. Подобно тому, как Дина Вашингтон когда-то расширила определения джаза и блюза, Ледиси расширяет понятие артиста в XXI веке: не только голос, но и учитель, лидер, писатель и строитель будущего. В конечном счёте, альбом - это произведение памяти, обновления и почтения, мост между поколениями, несущий голос, который настаивает на ясности, щедрости и изяществе.Результат - не ностальгия, а обновление, напоминание о том, что прошлое живо полнее, когда переосмыслено в настоящем.СЛУШАТЬ АЛЬБОМ - https://album.link/i/1821304064Лучший трек альбома в плей-листе JAZZ по-русски 9 на AppleMusic и SpotifyПоставь лайк ❤️ и подпишись на канал JAZZ по-русски https://t.me/discor

This is the final episode in our three-part series celebrating the work of the bass player Leonard Wilson Swain Jr., better known as “Heavy” Swain, an unsung hero of the Avenue music scene. During his career, Swain performed with many legendary jazz and R&B musicians, including Dinah Washington, Cootie Williams and more.  On this edition, we'll focus on Swain's work with Tiny Bradshaw, Willis Jackson, T.N.T Tribble, and Frank Motley.  Swain was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1916. By the 1930s, he was living in Indianapolis. The 1940 census listed his address as 2039 North Capitol. Swain began working professionally in music as a teenager, performing at Avenue venues like the Cotton Club, and Mitchellyne. In 1942, Heavy left Naptown, with the bandleader Tiny Bradshaw. Swain died in Washington D.C., in August of 1964. His body was brought back to his hometown of Indianapolis, and he was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery.

Con Supertramp, Pete Dello, Dinah Washington ft Quincy Jones and his Orchestra, Pecos, Family, Fetén Fetén ft Depedro, Dúo Dinámico, Neil Sedaka, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Tillotson, los Columbus, Louis Jordan, Bad Bunny, Charles Aznavour y Xavier Cugat.

This is the second episode in our three-part series celebrating the work of the bass player Leonard Wilson Swain Jr., better known as “Heavy” Swain, an unsung hero of the Avenue music scene. During his career, Swain performed with many legendary jazz and R&B musicians, including Dinah Washington, Cootie Williams, Willis Jackson, Tiny Bradshaw and more. On this week's show, we'll focus on his recordings with “Champion” Jack Dupree and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. On this edition, we'll focus on Swain's work with the legendary jazz trumpeter and bandleader Cootie Williams. Swain was a member of Williams' orchestra from 1947 to 1949. Swain was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1916. By the 1930s, he was living in Indianapolis. The 1940 census listed his address as 2039 North Capitol. Swain began working professionally in music as a teenager, performing at Avenue venues like the Cotton Club, and Mitchellyne. During his time in Naptown, Swain worked with the city's best musicians, including Jerry Daniels of the Ink Spots, Step Wharton, Bessie Moore, Baggie Hardiman, Eldridge Morrison, Fred Wisdom, Cleve Bottoms and many others.

For the next three weeks, we'll celebrate the work of the bass player Leonard Wilson Swain Jr., better known as “Heavy” Swain, an unsung hero of the Avenue music scene. During his career, Swain performed with many legendary jazz and R&B musicians, including Dinah Washington, Cootie Williams, Willis Jackson, Tiny Bradshaw and more. On this week's show, we'll focus on his recordings with “Champion” Jack Dupree and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. Swain was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1916. By the 1930s, he was living in Indianapolis. The 1940 census listed his address as 2039 North Capitol. Swain began working professionally in music as a teenager, performing at Avenue venues like the Cotton Club, and Mitchellyne. During his time in Naptown, Swain worked with the city's best musicians, including Jerry Daniels of the Ink Spots, Step Wharton, Bessie Moore, Baggie Hardiman, Eldridge Morrison, Fred Wisdom, Cleve Bottoms and many others.  Swain first gained notoriety on the six-string guitar. A 1936 article in the Indianapolis Recorder called him the “best six-string player in town.” By 1940, Swain had switched to the upright bass. He made his first recordings that set year, cutting a series of sessions with “Champion” Jack Dupree in Chicago.

Sintonía: "Rockin Time" - The Dalmatians"Little Demon" - Screamin´ Jay Hawkins; "Pretty-Eyed Baby" - Margaret Whiting; "We´re Gonna´ Party" - The Portraits; "Don´t Let It Happen" - Jimmy Breedlove; "Soulville" - Dinah Washington; "The Twich" - Danny White; "Livin´ High" - Vince Everett; "Don´t Wait Too Long" - Erma Franklin; "The Jay Hawk" - Johnny And The DebonairesTodas las músicas extraídas de la recopilación (1xLP + CD de regalo) "Shake-O-Rama Volume 2" (Jukebox Music Factory, 2018)"Little Annie" - Anna Bell Caesar; "Black Pepper Will Make You Sneeze" - Roy Lee Johnson; "She´s Mine" - John Lee Hooker; "Shake Shake Sonora" - Lord Flea; "Same Thing" - Gino Parks; "Don´t Freeze On Me" - Jessie Mae; "Bye Bye Baby" - Betty Renne; "Stop!" - Red (Hot) Russell; "I´m Movin" - Matt Lucas; "Castroes Beat" - Tasso (The Great) KainTodas las músicas extraídas de la recopilación (1xLP + CD de regalo) "Shake-O-Rama Volume 3" (Jukebox Music Factory, 2018)Escuchar audio

Songs include: Tico Tico by Ethel Smith, Jitterbug Waltz by Fats Waller, St Louis Blues by Bessie Smith, Twilight Time by The Three Suns, TV Is the Thing by Dinah Washington and Fuzzy Wuzzy by the Milt Hearth Trio. 

China MosesNascida em Los Angeles, Califórnia, China Moses é filha da cantora de jazz Dee Dee Bridgewater e do diretor Gilbert Moses. Ela lançou seu primeiro single, "Time" (1996), aos 18 anos. Seguindo com três álbuns: China (1997),On Tourne en Rond (2000)  Good Lovin (2004). De outubro de 2011 a dezembro de 2012, apresentou o programa diário Made in China da Jazz Radio. Para administrar suas atividades como artista, China lançou sua própria produtora, a Made In China Productions, em 2008. Moses e o pianista francês Raphaël Lemonnier criaram um show chamado Gardenias for Dinah, uma homenagem ao ídolo mútuo Dinah Washington, que também foi a inspiração para o álbum This One's for Dinah, lançado em 2009 pela Blue Note. Após sua turnê mundial, que incluiu Europa, Índia, Líbano, Canadá e Japão, o próximo trabalho de Moses e Lemonnier foi uma homenagem às grandes cantoras de blues e jazz que inspiraram ou os influenciaram. Entre elas, estão Dinah Washington Mamie Smith, Lil Green, Além de estrelas como: Nina Simone, Etta James, Janis Joplin,Donna Summer,Bessie Smith,Helen Humes,Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday.  Moses disse:"Nossas apresentações no palco são organizadas como um espetáculo. Adoro contar histórias, me vejo como um contador de histórias do jazz e gosto de garantir que as pessoas sorriam entre as músicasEm 2012 lança mais uma bolacha: Crazy Blues Em 2013, tornou-se consultora musical da fornecedora francesa de eletricidade ERDF. Também apresentou o documentário Soul Power como parte da série de verão "Summer of Soul". Além de sua participação no álbum So in Love 2010, Blue Note, de André Manoukian, Moses apresentou um novo show no outono de 2013, com canções como " Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood ", " Lullaby of Birdland " e " I've GotYou Under My Skin ". Além disso, ela se apresenta no Cafe Society Swing, um show escrito e produzido por Alex Webb que revive os bons tempos da lendária boate nova-iorquina dos anos 1940. Lá " Strange Fruit " foi cantada pela primeira vez por Billie Holiday . Moses coapresentou e cantou no primeiro Dia Internacional do Jazz da UNESCO, em Paris, França, em 2012, e se apresentou inúmeras vezes para a UNESCO dos EUA.Ela iniciou um documentário sobre o primeiro e o segundo Dia Internacional do Jazz em Paris.  Em diversas ocasiões, Moses dividiu o palco com sua mãe, Dee Dee Bridgewater, e foi acompanhada por orquestras como a Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg e a conhecidaWDR Big Band que recomendo. Em 2017, Moses lançou pela gravadora MPS o álbum Nightintales , escrito em cinco dias com o multi-instrumentista negro britânico Anthony Marshall.A dupla gravou o álbum em Londres, no estúdio analógico Snap Studios. O álbum contou com Luke Smith nopiano, Neville Malcolm no baixo e Jerome Brownna bateria, três dos principais músicos negros britânicos da cena soul-jazz do Reino Unido.Sempre foi acompanhada na carreira por excelentes músicos, escolhidos com muito critério, prestem atenção na playlist. Se apresentou com Archie Shepp, Pee Wee Ellis, Theo Croker, John Beasley,Nils Landgren, John Patitucci, Magnus Lindgren, Jamie Cullum,Terence Blanchard, Terri Lyne Carrington, Aloe Blacc, Lakecia Benjamin e Ian Shaw, dividindo o palco com lendas como: Roy Hargrove,George Benson, Metropole Orkest Big Band, Inúmeras filarmônicas, incluindo Bogotá, Trier, Dresden, Potsdam, Bilbao, Paris e Szczecin, WDR Big Band,HR Big Band, Metropole Orkest Big Band e a New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.  Esteve no Brasil em 2017, onde passou pelo Bourbon Street, Sesc, Piracicaba, Jundiaí e em Bauru. DISCOGRAFIA: 1997: China 2000: On Tourne en Rond 2004: Good Lovin 2009: This One's for Dinah 2012: Crazy Blues 2016: Watherver2017: Nightintales 2021: &The Vibe Tribe

Listen to the final episode in our three-part series exploring the music of Reunald Jones, a legendary Indiana trumpet player with deep connections to the Avenue scene. During his remarkable career, Jones performed with the biggest stars in American music. Hear music featuring Jones' work with Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, Quincy Jones, Nat King Cole and more.

Listen to the second episode in our three-part series exploring the music of Reunald Jones, a legendary Indiana trumpet player with deep connections to the Avenue scene.  During his remarkable career, Jones performed with the biggest stars in American music, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, Quincy Jones, and Nat King Cole. But he's best known for his work with Count Basie. Jones was a member of the Count Basie band from 1952, to 1957. During that time, he led the band's trumpet section, and he became known for playing the trumpet with one hand.  Jones was a member of Basie's orchestra during a high point with the band. During the years Jones played with Basie, the band played their first dates in Europe and recorded classic albums like “Live at Newport”, “April in Paris”, and “Basie in London”. Listen to this program for music featuring Reunald Jones' recordings with Count Basie.

Listen to the first episode in our three-part series exploring the music of Reunald Jones, an important jazz trumpet player with deep connections to the Avenue neighborhood. During his legendary career, Jones performed with the biggest stars in American music, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, Quincy Jones, Nat King Cole and many others.  Jones was born in Indianapolis in 1922. Music was part of his family legacy, his father John Wesley Jones was a musician, and his cousin Roy Eldridge, was a famous jazz trumpet star. Jones' family had strong ties to the Avenue neighborhood. During the early 1900s, his father was a choral director for the Bethe A.M.E. church and a bandleader, for the Senate Avenue YMCA. In the 1930s, his sister, Louise Fields, was an editor for the Indianapolis Recorder.  After spending the first decade of his life in Indianapolis, Jones moved with his family to Muncie, Indiana. By age 15, Jones was playing trumpet in a local Muncie band that included Doc Wheeler on trombone. Wheeler became a star on the Avenue scene during the 1930s. In the early 1940s, Jones and Wheeler reunited for a series of recordings with Bluebird Records.  By age 20, Jones left Muncie to pursue a life in music. He performed with a variety of regional territory bands, including Speed Webb's Hoosier Melody Lads, where he had the chance to play with his cousin Roy Eldridge. By the mid 1930s, Jones was in New York, where he began his recording career.  Join us this week to hear Jones' early recordings with Mezz Mezzrow, Lil Hardin, Don Redman, Jimmie Lunceford and more.

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Today's show features music performed by Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, and Albert Kingv

Celebrating Classic Soul, Hip-Hop,New R&B and Southern Soul music on A Bowl of Soul and finally Spring showing up in New York City.  On this broadcast we are celebrating a little bit of Jazz, in the work of Dinah Washington and TS Monk Jr. the son of Thelonius Monk. But we definitely have to sprinkle some Classic Soul and New R&B in between. April is Jazz Appreciation Month. An accomplished Pop artist has gone on to be with ancestors, Mr. Lenny Welch, singer of the million selling pop hit written by Jazz musician, Buddy Johnson called "Since I Fell For You".  On A Bowl of Soul we  celebrate the accomplishments of African-American Singers, Songwriters, Producers and Arrangers from the past and present as well as the accomplishments of African-Americans in the diaspora and through out the world.   #dinahwashington, #marywells #marvingaye #kimweston #tammiterrell #ledgends #luthervandross #quincyjones #pattiaustin #tsmonkjr #brandy #brandnubian #maryjblige #fabulous #jordanayanna #jenniferwatts #lennywelch Get up to 2 months free podcasting service with our Libsyn code=ABOS. Sign up & bring your  podcast to life! Get on Apple & Spotify, get critical stats & all the support you need to sound your best and grow your show!! Sign up here: https://signup.libsyn.com/?promo_code=ABOS You can listen to the A Bowl of Soul Radio Network on Live365.com giving you 24/7/365 days of Soul Music. Stop on by and listen:  A Bowl of Soul Radio Network on Live365 You can support A Bowl of Soul and Buy Me A Coffee. Just click: Buy A Bowl of Soul A Cup of Coffee Purchase your A Bowl of Soul T-Shirt and other merchandise. Just click: Get Your A Bowl of Soul Merch Follow me: @proftlove on Threads                   @proftlove on Instagram                   @abowlofsoul.bsky.social - Bluesky                                  @A Bowl of Soul A Mixed Stew of Soul Music on Facebook Promote your product or service on the podcast and the radio network. You can sponsor A Bowl of Soul by getting your product or service in front of listeners. Email us at: abowlofsoul@gmail.com  Thank you for your Support!!! Promote your product or service on the podcast and the radio network. You can sponsor A Bowl of Soul by getting your product or service in front of listeners. Email us at: abowlofsoul@gmail.com  Thank you for your Support!!!  

On tonight's show: Benny Goodman, Let's Dance Chick Webb, I Ain't Got Nobody John Coltrane w Dinah Washington, Fast Movin' Mama Ahmad Jamal, Poinciana Stuff Smith, Dizzy Gillespie & Oscar Peterson, It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) Johnny Hodges, Early Morning Rock Clark Terry, C-Jam Blues Cal Tjader,  Descarga Cubana Ben Webster & Teddy Wilson, Stardust Ella Fitzgerald, Fine and Mellow Johnny Hodges & Gerry Mulligan, Back Beat Abbey Lincoln, Throw It Away Clark Terry and Bobby Brookmeyer, Bye Bye Blackbird

Een uitbundige Dinah Washington en een ingetogen Stacey Kent vormen het 'hart' van deze uitzending van All That Jazzz @1Twente Enschede.

Een All That Jazzz met veel aandacht voor de menselijke stem.... Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Nolly Cole, Melody Gardot en natuurlijk Stacey Kent, de wereldster die binnenkort naar Nederland (èn Enschede) komt...

Songs include: You Don't Know What Love Is by Dinah Washington, You Don't Have To Know the Language by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, It's Too Soon To Know by the Orioles, Ask Anyone Who Knows by the Ink Spots and I'll Know by Georgia Gibbs. 

Show #1086 More Good Music 01. Dennis Spencer - Cheap Entertainment (4:00) (Bluesman From Jupiter, self-release, 2024) 02. Piney Woods - You Got Me Where You Want Me (2:34) (The Piney Woods Record, self-release, 2024) 03. Heavydrunk & Watermelon Slim - Little Bighorn (3:26) (Bluesland Theme Park, Heavydrunk Records, 2025) 04. Jennifer Porter - Stop Your Talkin' (4:12) (Sun Come And Shine Redux, Overton Music, 2025) 05. Steve Howell & the Mighty Men - One Mint Julep (2:38) (Yeah Man, Out Of The Past Music, 2025) 06. Sunny Bleau & the Moons - S-H-E-E-E W-O-M-A-N (5:21) (Passion & Regrets, Endless Blues Records, 2025) 07. Mark Muleman Massey - She's Married To The Streets (3:28) (Been A Long Long Time, MuleTone Records, 2025) 08. Giles Robson & John Primer - Let Me Explain (2:43) (Ten Chicago Blues Classics, self-release, 2024) 09. Ed Alstrom - Fruitcake (4:00) (Flee Though None Pursue, Haywire Records, 2025) 10. Ollee Owens - Solid Ground (2:47) (Nowhere To Hide, Ollee Owens Music, 2024) 11. Hitman Blues Band - Back To The Blues (3:22) (Calling Long Distance, Nerus Records, 2024) 12. Robbert Duijf - First Train Out (3:30) (Silver Spoon, Naked Productions, 2025) 13. Reckoners - Woman's Woman (3:34) (Reckoners, Vintage League Music/Uptown Sound, 2024) 14. Greg Nagy - Never Mine (2:48) (The Real You, self-release, 2024) 15. Carly Harvey - Worth Waiting For (2:55) (Kamama, self-release, 2024) 16. The Band - Chest Fever (5:15) (Music From Big Pink, Capitol Records, 1968) 17. Dinah Washington (with Eddie Chamblee Orchestra) - Trouble In Mind (2:26) (45 RPM Single, Mercury Records, 1952) 18. Thelma La Vizzo - Trouble In Mind (3:01) (78 RPM Shellac, Paramount Records, 1924) 19. Bertha "Chippie" Hill - Trouble In Mind (2:51) (78 RPM Shellac, Okeh Records, 1926) 20. Georgia White - Trouble In Mind (2:35) (78 RPM Shellac, Decca Records, 1936) 21. Richard M. Jones - Trouble In Mind (2:40) (78 RPM Shellac, Bluebird Records, 1936) 22. Nina Simone - Trouble in Mind (2:45) (Pastel Blues, Philips Records, 1965) 23. Big Bill Broonzy - Trouble In Mind [1957] (2:36) (Black Brown And White, Mercury Records, 1991) 24. Two Men From Earth - Trouble In Mind (3:30) (Walkin' To New Orleans, self-release, 2009) 25. Misses Satchmo - Trouble In Mind (2:35) (The Sun Will Shine, Disques Bros Records, 2011) 26. Mose Allison - Trouble In Mind (3:15) (Local Color, Prestige Records, 1958) Bandana Blues is and will always be a labor of love. Please help Spinner deal with the costs of hosting & bandwidth. Visit www.bandanablues.com and hit the tipjar. Any amount is much appreciated, no matter how small. Thank you.

Explore the life and music of saxophonist Eddie Chamblee, best known for his work in jazz and R&B music. Chamblee worked with many legendary performers, including Lionel Hampton, T-Bone Walker, Memphis Slim, and Dinah Washington. In fact, Chamblee was married to Dinah Washington in 1957. Eddie Chamblee was born, in Atlanta, Georgia in 1920. By 1928, he was living in Indianapolis. His father, Robert Chamblee, was president of the Citizens Life Insurance Company. Their offices were located at 229 Indiana Avenue. After spending several years in Indianapolis, Chamblee's family moved to Chicago. But Chamblee would eventually return to Indianapolis.  From 1953, to 1955, Chamblee held down a series of steady gigs at the Indiana Avenue club George's Bar, where he became famous for playing his sax while swinging from the club's rafters. During the 1950s, Chamblee performed at many Indiana Avenue venues, including Sunset Terrace, the Walker Theatre, and Ferguson Hotel.

#hiphop #rap #bluesguitar #snoopdogg #pimp While cruising and performing on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, Mark sits down with Fillmore Slim the legendary bluesman, and grandfather of HIP HOP. He has toured the greatest blues, soul, R&B, and jazz artists including Sly and the Family Stone, BB.King, Dinah Washington, Ike and Tina Turner, T-Bone Walker, Holly Maxwell, Sista Monica, Guitar Shorty, Etta James, Frankie Lee, J.J. Malone, Johnny Guitar Watson, Joe Louis Walker, Rick Estrin, Bonnie Rait, the Allman Brothers Band, and Chris Cain. Rappers such as Snoop Dogg, Too Short, Ice Cube, Ice-T, and Frank Stickemz pay homage to him in the lyrics their songs. He has influenced an entire generation of young artists with his music & lyrics, and trend setting fashionable style. In 2017 he was crowned the Godfather of Hip Hop at the West Coast Hip Hop Awards, Oakland, CA. and inducted into the Black Music Hall of Fame as a music icon.

A few years ago, Australian musician Jasper Leak found himself collaborating with the world's most legendary producer – the late Quincy Jones.  Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian's app. This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced and edited by Jasper Leak. Our team includes Kristen Amiet, Lia Tsamoglou, Tiffany Dimmack and Joshua Burton. Original music is composed by Jasper Leak.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fans of classic Vegas lounge comics rejoice, one of your idols awaits this week and we guarantee a "slap-happy" time. We refer, of course, to Slappy White -- a legendary standup who opened for (among others) Dean Martin and Dinah Washington as well as headlining the big rooms himself. A veteran of the "chitlin' circuit" Slappy also became a frequent guest star in 1970s movies and tv shows with a particularly juicy role as Melvin White (Slappy's real name) on Sanford and Sons (courtesy of Redd Foxx, another chitlin' circuit graduate). Later in his career, Slappy teamed up with Steve Rossi when Marty Allen bowed out of that team, but he eventually returned to solo standup as well as frequent appearances on Friar's Club and Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. As always, find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows! Want more Slappy? Here's Slappy with a fun bit from Redd Foxx's variety show -- dig the hair!https://youtu.be/e0NSxAhgMqk?si=Q3sZ3CyyROU2qfEy Slappy became friends with Redd Foxx when they both toured as comics with the Billy Eckstine band and that friendship was repaid with a key role in Sanford and Son, with Slappy playing Melvin White (his real name), a pal of Fred's. https://youtu.be/SjFcpNsC3hQ?si=4c8V_S4KX4OtBgCQ Like the Love Boat, the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts became a "must do" show for celebs on their way up and (mostly) on their way down. The "roasting" bits could be lame in the hands of regular actors, but in the hands of a pro like Slappy they came to life. Here's a time capsule for you -- Slappy's bit starts at 25 minutes in. https://youtu.be/BJrOzV5UrTQ?si=UpA9HusPYkRIm2un

Musicians include: Perry Como, Lightnin Hopkins, Lydia Mendoza, Peggy Lee, Bo Diddley, Slim Whitman, Charley Parker, Dinah Washington and Horace Silver.  Music includes: Mal Hombre, Solo Flight, Bandera Waltz, Hank's Tune, Bloomdido, Riders In the Sky and You don't Know What Love Is. 

Clyde Otis nació el 11 de septiembre de 1924. Con motivo de su cien cumpleaños dedicamos nuestro tiempo de radio a picotear en el inabarcable legado de uno de los grandes compositores del siglo XX. Más de 800 canciones registradas a su nombre que han sido interpretadas por muchas de las grandes voces del jazz, el soul o el R&B. Esto es tan solo una pequeña porción de la punta del iceberg de la obra que nos dejó.Playlist;(sintonía) CLYDE OTIS and HIS ORCHESTRA “Jungle drums” (1961)NAT “KING” COLE and THE FOUR KNIGHTS “That’s all there is to that” (1956)ELVIS PRESLEY “Dontcha think it’s time” (1958)THE DIAMONDS “The stroll” (1957)JACK SCOTT “Patsy” (1960)EDDIE RIFF “Ain’t that lovin’ you baby” (1956)THE DEL VIKINS “Flat tire” (1958)THE ELLIS BROTHERS “Sneaky alligator” (1958)LAVERN BAKER “Substitute” (1958)IVORY JOE HUNTER “I just want to love you” (1959)BROOK BENTON “Kiddio” (1960)BROOK BENTON and DINAH WASHINGTON “Baby (You've got what it takes)” (1960)PRISCILLA BOWMAN feat THE SPANIELS “A rockin' good way (to mess around and fall in love)” (1958)ROOSEVELT GRIER “Lover set me free” (1963)SARAH VAUGHAN “Smooth operator” (1959)TIMI YURO “What’s a matter baby (Is it hurtin’ you)” (1962)ARETHA FRANKLIN “A change” (1968)TOM JONES “Endlessly” (1965)CONWAY TWITTY “Looking back” (1963)Escuchar audio

We continue our Classic Films and Movie Icons series and feature archival interviews with Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini. They co-starred in the movie Blue Velvet, and after it became a hit, both of their careers were redefined. Later, on the centennial of singer Dinah Washington's birth, jazz historian Kevin Whitehead has appreciation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Redd Foxx was one funny motherfucker. And, hell on wheels. Apparently, he was the scourge of taxi drivers in Las Vegas, where he lived, worked, and is buried - because he would either throw up in the backseat of their cabs, or refuse to pay his fare, or both. As the “King of the Party Records”, Redd made 50 dirty albums (I have a few on 8 track) - before hitting national gold on Sanford and Son, that show about a junkman and his boy that ran for six seasons, starting in 1972. I just found out that Foxx's birth name actually WAS Sanford - a factoid that makes me smile. If fact everything about him made me smile. I loved it each time he'd clutch his chest feigning a heart attack, and groaning “Elizabeth, I'm comin' to join you, honey!” And, now, hearing Quincy Jone's theme song again, I'm sporting a broad grin again in remembrance.Q was a master of innumerable musical genres, coming up as he did as Dinah Washington's arranger, Sinatra's band leader, Film scorer par excellence, and Michael Jackson's record producer, etc, etc. Here he's channelling Herbie Hancock's “Watermelon Man” - and the funky clavinet makes me want to bob my head along with the syncopation.Although the character of Fred Sanford was supposed to be in his sixties, Redd was only in his 40s when he made Sanford and Son, and he was only 68 when he died in 1991, having exhausted himself through a jam-packed roller-coaster existence. Rumor has it he died broke because the IRS has seized his assets two years earlier, so Eddie Murphy footed the bill to pay for his funeral.  As Arthur Miller once wrote: “Attention must be paid!”

En 1959, Washington grabó 'What a Difference a Day Makes!', un trabajo que la convirtió en una gran estrella y cambió su carrera. Ya en la cima se comió Nueva York con fiestas legendarias antes de abrir su propio club en Chicago, local frecuentado por la mafia. Para entonces ya era una mujer dependiente de las pastillas y con problemas con el alcohol. Su muerte, tremendamente joven, bien pudo servir de anticipo de lo que le sucedería décadas después a Winehouse. Dinah al menos tuvo tiempo para dejarnos sobradas muestras de su talento.Otros programas relacionadosEl ocaso de Billy HollidayLa guerra de Nina Simone

En 1959, Washington grabó 'What a Difference a Day Makes!', un trabajo que la convirtió en una gran estrella y cambió su carrera. Ya en la cima se comió Nueva York con fiestas legendarias antes de abrir su propio club en Chicago, local frecuentado por la mafia. Para entonces ya era una mujer dependiente de las pastillas y con problemas con el alcohol. Su muerte, tremendamente joven, bien pudo servir de anticipo de lo que le sucedería décadas después a Winehouse. Dinah al menos tuvo tiempo para dejarnos sobradas muestras de su talento.Otros programas relacionadosEl ocaso de Billy HollidayLa guerra de Nina Simone

Tonight's Jazz Feature is by a fine pianist who always seemed to have a bit of an undeserved low profile. His name is Jack Wilson and he was born in Chicago on August 3, 1936 and passed away at age 71 on October 5, 2007. He was a favorite of some great singers like Nancy Wilson and Dinah Washington and was sought after for his musicality and fine touch. Wilson performed in Chicago with all the great players from the Windy City then moved for a few years to New York and recorded several good albums for Atlantic Records then out to Los Angeles where he kept busy in the movie and TV studios and played a lot of Jazz too. He got a contract to record for Blue Note Records and did 3 albums for them and tonight's Jazz feature is his best of the 3. "Easterly Winds" displays Wilson's playing and his composing abilities and this band selected by Wilson sounds like a working band even though they were only assembled for this album. The people involved aside from Jack Wilson are Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto saxophone, Garnett brown on trombone, Bob Cranshaw on bass and the great Billy Higgins on drums. Wilson wrote 4 of the 6 tunes on the date and does the ballad "A Time for Love" as a trio and brings in a tune by saxophonist Frank Strozier called "Frank's Tune". "Easterly Winds" is an overlooked latter day classic and it tonight's Jazz Feature. Check it out!.

Join Captain Dan, Penny Lane and Hunter as they bring you an hour of music inspired by the Fallout franchise!Hear tracks by the likes of The Ink Spots, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, Dinah Washington and more!For more info and tracklisting, visit: https://thefaceradio.com/punks-in-parkasTune into new broadcasts of Punks In Parkas, Every Monday from Midday – 1 PM EST / 5 - 6 PM GMT//Dig this show? Please consider supporting The Face Radio: http://support.thefaceradio.com Support The Face Radio with PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/thefaceradio. Join the family at https://plus.acast.com/s/thefaceradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's show features music performed by Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, and Albert King

This Sunday's episode takes place in Trinidad & Tobago-and my guest, Troy Hadeed, was struggling. A yoga practitioner, he went to the beach to practice with the sunset and there, in a lifeguard hut, had an experience that changed him forever! Troy was so moved by the experience he quite literally had it tattooed on his body-to remind him forever that it had really happened. And I think we've all had these moments in our lives, of inescapable beauty. Things that stun us, catch us up short and gobsmack us with the irrefutable truth of the gorgeousness in the world. And Troy carries his experience with him and when he has hard times, goes back to it time and again to heal his heart. Troy is a magical human and besides for being a yoga practitioner has a book out that is transcendent: "My Name is Love, We're Not All That Different." To buy it click here. Troy shares how he views the world in this episode and really, much of it is colored by his colorful life. Here is his website for more about this delightful human being! And yes, your moment of beauty! It's right here!  This song by Dinah Washington is simply stunning and whenever I need to downshift or take some time to heal my heart I put it on repeat! I hope you enjoy! Thanks to everyone who listens and remember, share and subscribe to the pod!! See you all so very soon for the very next episode!

This Sunday's episode takes place in Trinidad & Tobago-and my guest, Troy Hadeed, was struggling. A yoga practitioner, he went to the beach to practice with the sunset and there, in a lifeguard hut, had an experience that changed him forever! Troy was so moved by the experience he quite literally had it tattooed on his body-to remind him forever that it had really happened. And I think we've all had these moments in our lives, of inescapable beauty. Things that stun us, catch us up short and gobsmack us with the irrefutable truth of the gorgeousness in the world. And Troy carries his experience with him and when he has hard times, goes back to it time and again to heal his heart. Troy is a magical human and besides for being a yoga practitioner has a book out that is transcendent: "My Name is Love, We're Not All That Different." To buy it click here. Troy shares how he views the world in this episode and really, much of it is colored by his colorful life. Here is his website for more about this delightful human being! And yes, your moment of beauty! It's right here!  This song by Dinah Washington is simply stunning and whenever I need to downshift or take some time to heal my heart I put it on repeat! I hope you enjoy! Thanks to everyone who listens and remember, share and subscribe to the pod!! See you all so very soon for the very next episode!

Air Week: February 5-11, 2024 R&B Influences: Lionel Hampton Lionel Hampton's big band was a training ground for so many of the all-time great musicians: Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, Joe Morris, Dinah Washington, Wes Montgomery, Little Jimmy Scott and Clifford Brown. His musical education began on drums and piano while attending the Holy […]

Celebrating performers born 100 years ago, this year, including, Dinah Washington, Bud Powell, Earl Scruggs, Roger Williams, Ella Mae Morse, Chet Atkins, Sarah Vaughn,Slim Whitman, Max Roach and Henry Mancini. Songs include: Cow Cow Boogie, Autumn Leaves, April In Paris, Baby, Get Back, Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Black Coffee. 

Episode 169 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Piece of My Heart" and the short, tragic life of Janis Joplin. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode available, on "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources There are two Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here — one, two . For information on Janis Joplin I used three biographies -- Scars of Sweet Paradise by Alice Echols, Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren, and Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. I also referred to the chapter '“Being Good Isn't Always Easy": Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Dusty Springfield, and the Color of Soul' in Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination by Jack Hamilton. Some information on Bessie Smith came from Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay, a book I can't really recommend given the lack of fact-checking, and Bessie by Chris Albertson. I also referred to Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis And the best place to start with Joplin's music is this five-CD box, which contains both Big Brother and the Holding Company albums she was involved in, plus her two studio albums and bonus tracks. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, this episode contains discussion of drug addiction and overdose, alcoholism, mental illness, domestic abuse, child abandonment, and racism. If those subjects are likely to cause you upset, you may want to check the transcript or skip this one rather than listen. Also, a subject I should probably say a little more about in this intro because I know I have inadvertently caused upset to at least one listener with this in the past. When it comes to Janis Joplin, it is *impossible* to talk about her without discussing her issues with her weight and self-image. The way I write often involves me paraphrasing the opinions of the people I'm writing about, in a mode known as close third person, and sometimes that means it can look like I am stating those opinions as my own, and sometimes things I say in that mode which *I* think are obviously meant in context to be critiques of those attitudes can appear to others to be replicating them. At least once, I have seriously upset a fat listener when talking about issues related to weight in this manner. I'm going to try to be more careful here, but just in case, I'm going to say before I begin that I think fatphobia is a pernicious form of bigotry, as bad as any other form of bigotry. I'm fat myself and well aware of how systemic discrimination affects fat people. I also think more generally that the pressure put on women to look a particular way is pernicious and disgusting in ways I can't even begin to verbalise, and causes untold harm. If *ANYTHING* I say in this episode comes across as sounding otherwise, that's because I haven't expressed myself clearly enough. Like all people, Janis Joplin had negative characteristics, and at times I'm going to say things that are critical of those. But when it comes to anything to do with her weight or her appearance, if *anything* I say sounds critical of her, rather than of a society that makes women feel awful for their appearance, it isn't meant to. Anyway, on with the show. On January the nineteenth, 1943, Seth Joplin typed up a letter to his wife Dorothy, which read “I wish to tender my congratulations on the anniversary of your successful completion of your production quota for the nine months ending January 19, 1943. I realize that you passed through a period of inflation such as you had never before known—yet, in spite of this, you met your goal by your supreme effort during the early hours of January 19, a good three weeks ahead of schedule.” As you can probably tell from that message, the Joplin family were a strange mixture of ultraconformism and eccentricity, and those two opposing forces would dominate the personality of their firstborn daughter for the whole of her life.  Seth Joplin was a respected engineer at Texaco, where he worked for forty years, but he had actually dropped out of engineering school before completing his degree. His favourite pastime when he wasn't at work was to read -- he was a voracious reader -- and to listen to classical music, which would often move him to tears, but he had also taught himself to make bathtub gin during prohibition, and smoked cannabis. Dorothy, meanwhile, had had the possibility of a singing career before deciding to settle down and become a housewife, and was known for having a particularly beautiful soprano voice. Both were, by all accounts, fiercely intelligent people, but they were also as committed as anyone to the ideals of the middle-class family even as they chafed against its restrictions. Like her mother, young Janis had a beautiful soprano voice, and she became a soloist in her church choir, but after the age of six, she was not encouraged to sing much. Dorothy had had a thyroid operation which destroyed her singing voice, and the family got rid of their piano soon after (different sources say that this was either because Dorothy found her daughter's singing painful now that she couldn't sing herself, or because Seth was upset that his wife could no longer sing. Either seems plausible.) Janis was pushed to be a high-achiever -- she was given a library card as soon as she could write her name, and encouraged to use it, and she was soon advanced in school, skipping a couple of grades. She was also by all accounts a fiercely talented painter, and her parents paid for art lessons. From everything one reads about her pre-teen years, she was a child prodigy who was loved by everyone and who was clearly going to be a success of some kind. Things started to change when she reached her teenage years. Partly, this was just her getting into rock and roll music, which her father thought a fad -- though even there, she differed from her peers. She loved Elvis, but when she heard "Hound Dog", she loved it so much that she tracked down a copy of Big Mama Thornton's original, and told her friends she preferred that: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog"] Despite this, she was still also an exemplary student and overachiever. But by the time she turned fourteen, things started to go very wrong for her. Partly this was just down to her relationship with her father changing -- she adored him, but he became more distant from his daughters as they grew into women. But also, puberty had an almost wholly negative effect on her, at least by the standards of that time and place. She put on weight (which, again, I do not think is a negative thing, but she did, and so did everyone around her), she got a bad case of acne which didn't ever really go away, and she also didn't develop breasts particularly quickly -- which, given that she was a couple of years younger than the other people in the same classes at school, meant she stood out even more. In the mid-sixties, a doctor apparently diagnosed her as having a "hormone imbalance" -- something that got to her as a possible explanation for why she was, to quote from a letter she wrote then, "not really a woman or enough of one or something." She wondered if "maybe something as simple as a pill could have helped out or even changed that part of me I call ME and has been so messed up.” I'm not a doctor and even if I were, diagnosing historical figures is an unethical thing to do, but certainly the acne, weight gain, and mental health problems she had are all consistent with PCOS, the most common endocrine disorder among women, and it seems likely given what the doctor told her that this was the cause. But at the time all she knew was that she was different, and that in the eyes of her fellow students she had gone from being pretty to being ugly. She seems to have been a very trusting, naive, person who was often the brunt of jokes but who desperately needed to be accepted, and it became clear that her appearance wasn't going to let her fit into the conformist society she was being brought up in, while her high intelligence, low impulse control, and curiosity meant she couldn't even fade into the background. This left her one other option, and she decided that she would deliberately try to look and act as different from everyone else as possible. That way, it would be a conscious choice on her part to reject the standards of her fellow pupils, rather than her being rejected by them. She started to admire rebels. She became a big fan of Jerry Lee Lewis, whose music combined the country music she'd grown up hearing in Texas, the R&B she liked now, and the rebellious nature she was trying to cultivate: [Excerpt: Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"] When Lewis' career was derailed by his marriage to his teenage cousin, Joplin wrote an angry letter to Time magazine complaining that they had mistreated him in their coverage. But as with so many people of her generation, her love of rock and roll music led her first to the blues and then to folk, and she soon found herself listening to Odetta: [Excerpt: Odetta, "Muleskinner Blues"] One of her first experiences of realising she could gain acceptance from her peers by singing was when she was hanging out with the small group of Bohemian teenagers she was friendly with, and sang an Odetta song, mimicking her voice exactly. But young Janis Joplin was listening to an eclectic range of folk music, and could mimic more than just Odetta. For all that her later vocal style was hugely influenced by Odetta and by other Black singers like Big Mama Thornton and Etta James, her friends in her late teens and early twenties remember her as a vocal chameleon with an achingly pure soprano, who would more often than Odetta be imitating the great Appalachian traditional folk singer Jean Ritchie: [Excerpt: Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall"] She was, in short, trying her best to become a Beatnik, despite not having any experience of that subculture other than what she read in books -- though she *did* read about them in books, devouring things like Kerouac's On The Road. She came into conflict with her mother, who didn't understand what was happening to her daughter, and who tried to get family counselling to understand what was going on. Her father, who seemed to relate more to Janis, but who was more quietly eccentric, put an end to that, but Janis would still for the rest of her life talk about how her mother had taken her to doctors who thought she was going to end up "either in jail or an insane asylum" to use her words. From this point on, and for the rest of her life, she was torn between a need for approval from her family and her peers, and a knowledge that no matter what she did she couldn't fit in with normal societal expectations. In high school she was a member of the Future Nurses of America, the Future Teachers of America, the Art Club, and Slide Rule Club, but she also had a reputation as a wild girl, and as sexually active (even though by all accounts at this point she was far less so than most of the so-called "good girls" – but her later activity was in part because she felt that if she was going to have that reputation anyway she might as well earn it). She also was known to express radical opinions, like that segregation was wrong, an opinion that the other students in her segregated Texan school didn't even think was wrong, but possibly some sort of sign of mental illness. Her final High School yearbook didn't contain a single other student's signature. And her initial choice of university, Lamar State College of Technology, was not much better. In the next town over, and attended by many of the same students, it had much the same attitudes as the school she'd left. Almost the only long-term effect her initial attendance at university had on her was a negative one -- she found there was another student at the college who was better at painting. Deciding that if she wasn't going to be the best at something she didn't want to do it at all, she more or less gave up on painting at that point. But there was one positive. One of the lecturers at Lamar was Francis Edward "Ab" Abernethy, who would in the early seventies go on to become the Secretary and Editor of the Texas Folklore Society, and was also a passionate folk musician, playing double bass in string bands. Abernethy had a great collection of blues 78s. and it was through this collection that Janis first discovered classic blues, and in particular Bessie Smith: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Black Mountain Blues"] A couple of episodes ago, we had a long look at the history of the music that now gets called "the blues" -- the music that's based around guitars, and generally involves a solo male vocalist, usually Black during its classic period. At the time that music was being made though it wouldn't have been thought of as "the blues" with no modifiers by most people who were aware of it. At the start, even the songs they were playing weren't thought of as blues by the male vocalist/guitarists who played them -- they called the songs they played "reels". The music released by people like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Robert Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and so on was thought of as blues music, and people would understand and agree with a phrase like "Lonnie Johnson is a blues singer", but it wasn't the first thing people thought of when they talked about "the blues". Until relatively late -- probably some time in the 1960s -- if you wanted to talk about blues music made by Black men with guitars and only that music, you talked about "country blues". If you thought about "the blues", with no qualifiers, you thought about a rather different style of music, one that white record collectors started later to refer to as "classic blues" to differentiate it from what they were now calling "the blues". Nowadays of course if you say "classic blues", most people will think you mean Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, people who were contemporary at the time those white record collectors were coming up with their labels, and so that style of music gets referred to as "vaudeville blues", or as "classic female blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] What we just heard was the first big blues hit performed by a Black person, from 1920, and as we discussed in the episode on "Crossroads" that revolutionised the whole record industry when it came out. The song was performed by Mamie Smith, a vaudeville performer, and was originally titled "Harlem Blues" by its writer, Perry Bradford, before he changed the title to "Crazy Blues" to get it to a wider audience. Bradford was an important figure in the vaudeville scene, though other than being the credited writer of "Keep A-Knockin'" he's little known these days. He was a Black musician and grew up playing in minstrel shows (the history of minstrelsy is a topic for another day, but it's more complicated than the simple image of blackface that we are aware of today -- though as with many "more complicated than that" things it is, also the simple image of blackface we're aware of). He was the person who persuaded OKeh records that there would be a market for music made by Black people that sounded Black (though as we're going to see in this episode, what "sounding Black" means is a rather loaded question). "Crazy Blues" was the result, and it was a massive hit, even though it was marketed specifically towards Black listeners: [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] The big stars of the early years of recorded blues were all making records in the shadow of "Crazy Blues", and in the case of its very biggest stars, they were working very much in the same mould. The two most important blues stars of the twenties both got their start in vaudeville, and were both women. Ma Rainey, like Mamie Smith, first performed in minstrel shows, but where Mamie Smith's early records had her largely backed by white musicians, Rainey was largely backed by Black musicians, including on several tracks Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider"] Rainey's band was initially led by Thomas Dorsey, one of the most important men in American music, who we've talked about before in several episodes, including the last one. He was possibly the single most important figure in two different genres -- hokum music, when he, under the name "Georgia Tom" recorded "It's Tight Like That" with Tampa Red: [Excerpt: Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "It's Tight Like That"] And of course gospel music, which to all intents and purposes he invented, and much of whose repertoire he wrote: [Excerpt: Mahalia Jackson, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"] When Dorsey left Rainey's band, as we discussed right back in episode five, he was replaced by a female pianist, Lil Henderson. The blues was a woman's genre. And Ma Rainey was, by preference, a woman's woman, though she was married to a man: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "Prove it on Me"] So was the biggest star of the classic blues era, who was originally mentored by Rainey. Bessie Smith, like Rainey, was a queer woman who had relationships with men but was far more interested in other women.  There were stories that Bessie Smith actually got her start in the business by being kidnapped by Ma Rainey, and forced into performing on the same bills as her in the vaudeville show she was touring in, and that Rainey taught Smith to sing blues in the process. In truth, Rainey mentored Smith more in stagecraft and the ways of the road than in singing, and neither woman was only a blues singer, though both had huge success with their blues records.  Indeed, since Rainey was already in the show, Smith was initially hired as a dancer rather than a singer, and she also worked as a male impersonator. But Smith soon branched out on her own -- from the beginning she was obviously a star. The great jazz clarinettist Sidney Bechet later said of her "She had this trouble in her, this thing that would not let her rest sometimes, a meanness that came and took her over. But what she had was alive … Bessie, she just wouldn't let herself be; it seemed she couldn't let herself be." Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923, as part of the rush to find and record as many Black women blues singers as possible. Her first recording session produced "Downhearted Blues", which became, depending on which sources you read, either the biggest-selling blues record since "Crazy Blues" or the biggest-selling blues record ever, full stop, selling three quarters of a million copies in the six months after its release: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Downhearted Blues"] Smith didn't make royalties off record sales, only making a flat fee, but she became the most popular Black performer of the 1920s. Columbia signed her to an exclusive contract, and she became so rich that she would literally travel between gigs on her own private train. She lived an extravagant life in every way, giving lavishly to her friends and family, but also drinking extraordinary amounts of liquor, having regular affairs, and also often physically or verbally attacking those around her. By all accounts she was not a comfortable person to be around, and she seemed to be trying to fit an entire lifetime into every moment. From 1923 through 1929 she had a string of massive hits. She recorded material in a variety of styles, including the dirty blues: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Empty Bed Blues] And with accompanists like Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, "Cold in Hand Blues"] But the music for which she became best known, and which sold the best, was when she sang about being mistreated by men, as on one of her biggest hits, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do" -- and a warning here, I'm going to play a clip of the song, which treats domestic violence in a way that may be upsetting: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do"] That kind of material can often seem horrifying to today's listeners -- and quite correctly so, as domestic violence is a horrifying thing -- and it sounds entirely too excusing of the man beating her up for anyone to find it comfortable listening. But the Black feminist scholar Angela Davis has made a convincing case that while these records, and others by Smith's contemporaries, can't reasonably be considered to be feminist, they *are* at the very least more progressive than they now seem, in that they were, even if excusing it, pointing to a real problem which was otherwise left unspoken. And that kind of domestic violence and abuse *was* a real problem, including in Smith's own life. By all accounts she was terrified of her husband, Jack Gee, who would frequently attack her because of her affairs with other people, mostly women. But she was still devastated when he left her for a younger woman, not only because he had left her, but also because he kidnapped their adopted son and had him put into a care home, falsely claiming she had abused him. Not only that, but before Jack left her closest friend had been Jack's niece Ruby and after the split she never saw Ruby again -- though after her death Ruby tried to have a blues career as "Ruby Smith", taking her aunt's surname and recording a few tracks with Sammy Price, the piano player who worked with Sister Rosetta Tharpe: [Excerpt: Ruby Smith with Sammy Price, "Make Me Love You"] The same month, May 1929, that Gee left her, Smith recorded what was to become her last big hit, and most well-known song, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out": [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] And that could have been the theme for the rest of her life. A few months after that record came out, the Depression hit, pretty much killing the market for blues records. She carried on recording until 1931, but the records weren't selling any more. And at the same time, the talkies came in in the film industry, which along with the Depression ended up devastating the vaudeville audience. Her earnings were still higher than most, but only a quarter of what they had been a year or two earlier. She had one last recording session in 1933, produced by John Hammond for OKeh Records, where she showed that her style had developed over the years -- it was now incorporating the newer swing style, and featured future swing stars Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden in the backing band: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Gimme a Pigfoot"] Hammond was not hugely impressed with the recordings, preferring her earlier records, and they would be the last she would ever make. She continued as a successful, though no longer record-breaking, live act until 1937, when she and her common-law husband, Lionel Hampton's uncle Richard Morgan, were in a car crash. Morgan escaped, but Smith died of her injuries and was buried on October the fourth 1937. Ten thousand people came to her funeral, but she was buried in an unmarked grave -- she was still legally married to Gee, even though they'd been separated for eight years, and while he supposedly later became rich from songwriting royalties from some of her songs (most of her songs were written by other people, but she wrote a few herself) he refused to pay for a headstone for her. Indeed on more than one occasion he embezzled money that had been raised by other people to provide a headstone. Bessie Smith soon became Joplin's favourite singer of all time, and she started trying to copy her vocals. But other than discovering Smith's music, Joplin seems to have had as terrible a time at university as at school, and soon dropped out and moved back in with her parents. She went to business school for a short while, where she learned some secretarial skills, and then she moved west, going to LA where two of her aunts lived, to see if she could thrive better in a big West Coast city than she did in small-town Texas. Soon she moved from LA to Venice Beach, and from there had a brief sojourn in San Francisco, where she tried to live out her beatnik fantasies at a time when the beatnik culture was starting to fall apart. She did, while she was there, start smoking cannabis, though she never got a taste for that drug, and took Benzedrine and started drinking much more heavily than she had before. She soon lost her job, moved back to Texas, and re-enrolled at the same college she'd been at before. But now she'd had a taste of real Bohemian life -- she'd been singing at coffee houses, and having affairs with both men and women -- and soon she decided to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin. At this point, Austin was very far from the cultural centre it has become in recent decades, and it was still a straitlaced Texan town, but it was far less so than Port Arthur, and she soon found herself in a folk group, the Waller Creek Boys. Janis would play autoharp and sing, sometimes Bessie Smith covers, but also the more commercial country and folk music that was popular at the time, like "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", a song that had originally been recorded by Wanda Jackson but at that time was a big hit for Dusty Springfield's group The Springfields: [Excerpt: The Waller Creek Boys, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"] But even there, Joplin didn't fit in comfortably. The venue where the folk jams were taking place was a segregated venue, as everywhere around Austin was. And she was enough of a misfit that the campus newspaper did an article on her headlined "She Dares to Be Different!", which read in part "She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levi's to class because they're more comfortable, and carries her Autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break out into song it will be handy." There was a small group of wannabe-Beatniks, including Chet Helms, who we've mentioned previously in the Grateful Dead episode, Gilbert Shelton, who went on to be a pioneer of alternative comics and create the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and Shelton's partner in Rip-Off Press, Dave Moriarty, but for the most part the atmosphere in Austin was only slightly better for Janis than it had been in Port Arthur. The final straw for her came when in an annual charity fundraiser joke competition to find the ugliest man on campus, someone nominated her for the "award". She'd had enough of Texas. She wanted to go back to California. She and Chet Helms, who had dropped out of the university earlier and who, like her, had already spent some time on the West Coast, decided to hitch-hike together to San Francisco. Before leaving, she made a recording for her ex-girlfriend Julie Paul, a country and western musician, of a song she'd written herself. It's recorded in what many say was Janis' natural voice -- a voice she deliberately altered in performance in later years because, she would tell people, she didn't think there was room for her singing like that in an industry that already had Joan Baez and Judy Collins. In her early years she would alternate between singing like this and doing her imitations of Black women, but the character of Janis Joplin who would become famous never sang like this. It may well be the most honest thing that she ever recorded, and the most revealing of who she really was: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, "So Sad to Be Alone"] Joplin and Helms made it to San Francisco, and she started performing at open-mic nights and folk clubs around the Bay Area, singing in her Bessie Smith and Odetta imitation voice, and sometimes making a great deal of money by sounding different from the wispier-voiced women who were the norm at those venues. The two friends parted ways, and she started performing with two other folk musicians, Larry Hanks and Roger Perkins, and she insisted that they would play at least one Bessie Smith song at every performance: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, Larry Hanks, and Roger Perkins, "Black Mountain Blues (live in San Francisco)"] Often the trio would be joined by Billy Roberts, who at that time had just started performing the song that would make his name, "Hey Joe", and Joplin was soon part of the folk scene in the Bay Area, and admired by Dino Valenti, David Crosby, and Jerry Garcia among others. She also sang a lot with Jorma Kaukonnen, and recordings of the two of them together have circulated for years: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonnen, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] Through 1963, 1964, and early 1965 Joplin ping-ponged from coast to coast, spending time in the Bay Area, then Greenwich Village, dropping in on her parents then back to the Bay Area, and she started taking vast quantities of methamphetamine. Even before moving to San Francisco she had been an occasional user of amphetamines – at the time they were regularly prescribed to students as study aids during exam periods, and she had also been taking them to try to lose some of the weight she always hated. But while she was living in San Francisco she became dependent on the drug. At one point her father was worried enough about her health to visit her in San Francisco, where she managed to fool him that she was more or less OK. But she looked to him for reassurance that things would get better for her, and he couldn't give it to her. He told her about a concept that he called the "Saturday night swindle", the idea that you work all week so you can go out and have fun on Saturday in the hope that that will make up for everything else, but that it never does. She had occasional misses with what would have been lucky breaks -- at one point she was in a motorcycle accident just as record labels were interested in signing her, and by the time she got out of the hospital the chance had gone. She became engaged to another speed freak, one who claimed to be an engineer and from a well-off background, but she was becoming severely ill from what was by now a dangerous amphetamine habit, and in May 1965 she decided to move back in with her parents, get clean, and have a normal life. Her new fiance was going to do the same, and they were going to have the conformist life her parents had always wanted, and which she had always wanted to want. Surely with a husband who loved her she could find a way to fit in and just be normal. She kicked the addiction, and wrote her fiance long letters describing everything about her family and the new normal life they were going to have together, and they show her painfully trying to be optimistic about the future, like one where she described her family to him: "My mother—Dorothy—worries so and loves her children dearly. Republican and Methodist, very sincere, speaks in clichés which she really means and is very good to people. (She thinks you have a lovely voice and is terribly prepared to like you.) My father—richer than when I knew him and kind of embarrassed about it—very well read—history his passion—quiet and very excited to have me home because I'm bright and we can talk (about antimatter yet—that impressed him)! I keep telling him how smart you are and how proud I am of you.…" She went back to Lamar, her mother started sewing her a wedding dress, and for much of the year she believed her fiance was going to be her knight in shining armour. But as it happened, the fiance in question was described by everyone else who knew him as a compulsive liar and con man, who persuaded her father to give him money for supposed medical tests before the wedding, but in reality was apparently married to someone else and having a baby with a third woman. After the engagement was broken off, she started performing again around the coffeehouses in Austin and Houston, and she started to realise the possibilities of rock music for her kind of performance. The missing clue came from a group from Austin who she became very friendly with, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and the way their lead singer Roky Erickson would wail and yell: [Excerpt: The 13th Floor Elevators, "You're Gonna Miss Me (live)"] If, as now seemed inevitable, Janis was going to make a living as a performer, maybe she should start singing rock music, because it seemed like there was money in it. There was even some talk of her singing with the Elevators. But then an old friend came to Austin from San Francisco with word from Chet Helms. A blues band had formed, and were looking for a singer, and they remembered her from the coffee houses. Would she like to go back to San Francisco and sing with them? In the time she'd been away, Helms had become hugely prominent in the San Francisco music scene, which had changed radically. A band from the area called the Charlatans had been playing a fake-Victorian saloon called the Red Dog in nearby Nevada, and had become massive with the people who a few years earlier had been beatniks: [Excerpt: The Charlatans, "32-20"] When their residency at the Red Dog had finished, several of the crowd who had been regulars there had become a collective of sorts called the Family Dog, and Helms had become their unofficial leader. And there's actually a lot packed into that choice of name. As we'll see in a few future episodes, a lot of West Coast hippies eventually started calling their collectives and communes families. This started as a way to get round bureaucracy -- if a helpful welfare officer put down that the unrelated people living in a house together were a family, suddenly they could get food stamps. As with many things, of course, the label then affected how people thought about themselves, and one thing that's very notable about the San Francisco scene hippies in particular is that they are some of the first people to make a big deal about what we now  call "found family" or "family of choice". But it's also notable how often the hippie found families took their model from the only families these largely middle-class dropouts had ever known, and structured themselves around men going out and doing the work -- selling dope or panhandling or being rock musicians or shoplifting -- with the women staying at home doing the housework. The Family Dog started promoting shows, with the intention of turning San Francisco into "the American Liverpool", and soon Helms was rivalled only by Bill Graham as the major promoter of rock shows in the Bay Area. And now he wanted Janis to come back and join this new band. But Janis was worried. She was clean now. She drank far too much, but she wasn't doing any other drugs. She couldn't go back to San Francisco and risk getting back on methamphetamine. She needn't worry about that, she was told, nobody in San Francisco did speed any more, they were all on LSD -- a drug she hated and so wasn't in any danger from. Reassured, she made the trip back to San Francisco, to join Big Brother and the Holding Company. Big Brother and the Holding Company were the epitome of San Francisco acid rock at the time. They were the house band at the Avalon Ballroom, which Helms ran, and their first ever gig had been at the Trips Festival, which we talked about briefly in the Grateful Dead episode. They were known for being more imaginative than competent -- lead guitarist James Gurley was often described as playing parts that were influenced by John Cage, but was equally often, and equally accurately, described as not actually being able to keep his guitar in tune because he was too stoned. But they were drawing massive crowds with their instrumental freak-out rock music. Helms thought they needed a singer, and he had remembered Joplin, who a few of the group had seen playing the coffee houses. He decided she would be perfect for them, though Joplin wasn't so sure. She thought it was worth a shot, but as she wrote to her parents before meeting the group "Supposed to rehearse w/ the band this afternoon, after that I guess I'll know whether I want to stay & do that for awhile. Right now my position is ambivalent—I'm glad I came, nice to see the city, a few friends, but I'm not at all sold on the idea of becoming the poor man's Cher.” In that letter she also wrote "I'm awfully sorry to be such a disappointment to you. I understand your fears at my coming here & must admit I share them, but I really do think there's an awfully good chance I won't blow it this time." The band she met up with consisted of lead guitarist James Gurley, bass player Peter Albin, rhythm player Sam Andrew, and drummer David Getz.  To start with, Peter Albin sang lead on most songs, with Joplin adding yelps and screams modelled on those of Roky Erickson, but in her first gig with the band she bowled everyone over with her lead vocal on the traditional spiritual "Down on Me", which would remain a staple of their live act, as in this live recording from 1968: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me (Live 1968)"] After that first gig in June 1966, it was obvious that Joplin was going to be a star, and was going to be the group's main lead vocalist. She had developed a whole new stage persona a million miles away from her folk performances. As Chet Helms said “Suddenly this person who would stand upright with her fists clenched was all over the stage. Roky Erickson had modeled himself after the screaming style of Little Richard, and Janis's initial stage presence came from Roky, and ultimately Little Richard. It was a very different Janis.” Joplin would always claim to journalists that her stage persona was just her being herself and natural, but she worked hard on every aspect of her performance, and far from the untrained emotional outpouring she always suggested, her vocal performances were carefully calculated pastiches of her influences -- mostly Bessie Smith, but also Big Mama Thornton, Odetta, Etta James, Tina Turner, and Otis Redding. That's not to say that those performances weren't an authentic expression of part of herself -- they absolutely were. But the ethos that dominated San Francisco in the mid-sixties prized self-expression over technical craft, and so Joplin had to portray herself as a freak of nature who just had to let all her emotions out, a wild woman, rather than someone who carefully worked out every nuance of her performances. Joplin actually got the chance to meet one of her idols when she discovered that Willie Mae Thornton was now living and regularly performing in the Bay Area. She and some of her bandmates saw Big Mama play a small jazz club, where she performed a song she wouldn't release on a record for another two years: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Ball 'n' Chain"] Janis loved the song and scribbled down the lyrics, then went backstage to ask Big Mama if Big Brother could cover the song. She gave them her blessing, but told them "don't" -- and here she used a word I can't use with a clean rating -- "it up". The group all moved in together, communally, with their partners -- those who had them. Janis was currently single, having dumped her most recent boyfriend after discovering him shooting speed, as she was still determined to stay clean. But she was rapidly discovering that the claim that San Franciscans no longer used much speed had perhaps not been entirely true, as for example Sam Andrew's girlfriend went by the nickname Speedfreak Rita. For now, Janis was still largely clean, but she did start drinking more. Partly this was because of a brief fling with Pigpen from the Grateful Dead, who lived nearby. Janis liked Pigpen as someone else on the scene who didn't much like psychedelics or cannabis -- she didn't like drugs that made her think more, but only drugs that made her able to *stop* thinking (her love of amphetamines doesn't seem to fit this pattern, but a small percentage of people have a different reaction to amphetamine-type stimulants, perhaps she was one of those). Pigpen was a big drinker of Southern Comfort -- so much so that it would kill him within a few years -- and Janis started joining him. Her relationship with Pigpen didn't last long, but the two would remain close, and she would often join the Grateful Dead on stage over the years to duet with him on "Turn On Your Lovelight": [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, "Turn on Your Lovelight"] But within two months of joining the band, Janis nearly left. Paul Rothchild of Elektra Records came to see the group live, and was impressed by their singer, but not by the rest of the band. This was something that would happen again and again over the group's career. The group were all imaginative and creative -- they worked together on their arrangements and their long instrumental jams and often brought in very good ideas -- but they were not the most disciplined or technically skilled of musicians, even when you factored in their heavy drug use, and often lacked the skill to pull off their better ideas. They were hugely popular among the crowds at the Avalon Ballroom, who were on the group's chemical wavelength, but Rothchild was not impressed -- as he was, in general, unimpressed with psychedelic freakouts. He was already of the belief in summer 1966 that the fashion for extended experimental freak-outs would soon come to an end and that there would be a pendulum swing back towards more structured and melodic music. As we saw in the episode on The Band, he would be proved right in a little over a year, but being ahead of the curve he wanted to put together a supergroup that would be able to ride that coming wave, a group that would play old-fashioned blues. He'd got together Stefan Grossman, Steve Mann, and Taj Mahal, and he wanted Joplin to be the female vocalist for the group, dueting with Mahal. She attended one rehearsal, and the new group sounded great. Elektra Records offered to sign them, pay their rent while they rehearsed, and have a major promotional campaign for their first release. Joplin was very, very, tempted, and brought the subject up to her bandmates in Big Brother. They were devastated. They were a family! You don't leave your family! She was meant to be with them forever! They eventually got her to agree to put off the decision at least until after a residency they'd been booked for in Chicago, and she decided to give them the chance, writing to her parents "I decided to stay w/the group but still like to think about the other thing. Trying to figure out which is musically more marketable because my being good isn't enough, I've got to be in a good vehicle.” The trip to Chicago was a disaster. They found that the people of Chicago weren't hugely interested in seeing a bunch of white Californians play the blues, and that the Midwest didn't have the same Bohemian crowds that the coastal cities they were used to had, and so their freak-outs didn't go down well either. After two weeks of their four-week residency, the club owner stopped paying them because they were so unpopular, and they had no money to get home. And then they were approached by Bob Shad. (For those who know the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the Bob Shad in that film is named after this one -- Judd Apatow, the film's director, is Shad's grandson) This Shad was a record producer, who had worked with people like Big Bill Broonzy, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Billy Eckstine over an eighteen-year career, and had recently set up a new label, Mainstream Records. He wanted to sign Big Brother and the Holding Company. They needed money and... well, it was a record contract! It was a contract that took half their publishing, paid them a five percent royalty on sales, and gave them no advance, but it was still a contract, and they'd get union scale for the first session. In that first session in Chicago, they recorded four songs, and strangely only one, "Down on Me", had a solo Janis vocal. Of the other three songs, Sam Andrew and Janis dueted on Sam's song "Call on Me", Albin sang lead on the group composition "Blindman", and Gurley and Janis sang a cover of "All Is Loneliness", a song originally by the avant-garde street musician Moondog: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "All is Loneliness"] The group weren't happy with the four songs they recorded -- they had to keep the songs to the length of a single, and the engineers made sure that the needles never went into the red, so their guitars sounded far more polite and less distorted than they were used to. Janis was fascinated by the overdubbing process, though, especially double-tracking, which she'd never tried before but which she turned out to be remarkably good at. And they were now signed to a contract, which meant that Janis wouldn't be leaving the group to go solo any time soon. The family were going to stay together. But on the group's return to San Francisco, Janis started doing speed again, encouraged by the people around the group, particularly Gurley's wife. By the time the group's first single, "Blindman" backed with "All is Loneliness", came out, she was an addict again. That initial single did nothing, but the group were fast becoming one of the most popular in the Bay Area, and almost entirely down to Janis' vocals and on-stage persona. Bob Shad had already decided in the initial session that while various band members had taken lead, Janis was the one who should be focused on as the star, and when they drove to LA for their second recording session it was songs with Janis leads that they focused on. At that second session, in which they recorded ten tracks in two days, the group recorded a mix of material including one of Janis' own songs, the blues track "Women is Losers", and a version of the old folk song "the Cuckoo Bird" rearranged by Albin. Again they had to keep the arrangements to two and a half minutes a track, with no extended soloing and a pop arrangement style, and the results sound a lot more like the other San Francisco bands, notably Jefferson Airplane, than like the version of the band that shows itself in their live performances: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Coo Coo"] After returning to San Francisco after the sessions, Janis went to see Otis Redding at the Fillmore, turning up several hours before the show started on all three nights to make sure she could be right at the front. One of the other audience members later recalled “It was more fascinating for me, almost, to watch Janis watching Otis, because you could tell that she wasn't just listening to him, she was studying something. There was some kind of educational thing going on there. I was jumping around like the little hippie girl I was, thinking This is so great! and it just stopped me in my tracks—because all of a sudden Janis drew you very deeply into what the performance was all about. Watching her watch Otis Redding was an education in itself.” Joplin would, for the rest of her life, always say that Otis Redding was her all-time favourite singer, and would say “I started singing rhythmically, and now I'm learning from Otis Redding to push a song instead of just sliding over it.” [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "I Can't Turn You Loose (live)"] At the start of 1967, the group moved out of the rural house they'd been sharing and into separate apartments around Haight-Ashbury, and they brought the new year in by playing a free show organised by the Hell's Angels, the violent motorcycle gang who at the time were very close with the proto-hippies in the Bay Area. Janis in particular always got on well with the Angels, whose drugs of choice, like hers, were speed and alcohol more than cannabis and psychedelics. Janis also started what would be the longest on-again off-again relationship she would ever have, with a woman named Peggy Caserta. Caserta had a primary partner, but that if anything added to her appeal for Joplin -- Caserta's partner Kimmie had previously been in a relationship with Joan Baez, and Joplin, who had an intense insecurity that made her jealous of any other female singer who had any success, saw this as in some way a validation both of her sexuality and, transitively, of her talent. If she was dating Baez's ex's lover, that in some way put her on a par with Baez, and when she told friends about Peggy, Janis would always slip that fact in. Joplin and Caserta would see each other off and on for the rest of Joplin's life, but they were never in a monogamous relationship, and Joplin had many other lovers over the years. The next of these was Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish, who were just in the process of recording their first album Electric Music for the Mind and Body, when McDonald and Joplin first got together: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Grace"] McDonald would later reminisce about lying with Joplin, listening to one of the first underground FM radio stations, KMPX, and them playing a Fish track and a Big Brother track back to back. Big Brother's second single, the other two songs recorded in the Chicago session, had been released in early 1967, and the B-side, "Down on Me", was getting a bit of airplay in San Francisco and made the local charts, though it did nothing outside the Bay Area: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me"] Janis was unhappy with the record, though, writing to her parents and saying, “Our new record is out. We seem to be pretty dissatisfied w/it. I think we're going to try & get out of the record contract if we can. We don't feel that they know how to promote or engineer a record & every time we recorded for them, they get all our songs, which means we can't do them for another record company. But then if our new record does something, we'd change our mind. But somehow, I don't think it's going to." The band apparently saw a lawyer to see if they could get out of the contract with Mainstream, but they were told it was airtight. They were tied to Bob Shad no matter what for the next five years. Janis and McDonald didn't stay together for long -- they clashed about his politics and her greater fame -- but after they split, she asked him to write a song for her before they became too distant, and he obliged and recorded it on the Fish's next album: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Janis"] The group were becoming so popular by late spring 1967 that when Richard Lester, the director of the Beatles' films among many other classics, came to San Francisco to film Petulia, his follow-up to How I Won The War, he chose them, along with the Grateful Dead, to appear in performance segments in the film. But it would be another filmmaker that would change the course of the group's career irrevocably: [Excerpt: Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"] When Big Brother and the Holding Company played the Monterey Pop Festival, nobody had any great expectations. They were second on the bill on the Saturday, the day that had been put aside for the San Francisco acts, and they were playing in the early afternoon, after a largely unimpressive night before. They had a reputation among the San Francisco crowd, of course, but they weren't even as big as the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape or Country Joe and the Fish, let alone Jefferson Airplane. Monterey launched four careers to new heights, but three of the superstars it made -- Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and the Who -- already had successful careers. Hendrix and the Who had had hits in the UK but not yet broken the US market, while Redding was massively popular with Black people but hadn't yet crossed over to a white audience. Big Brother and the Holding Company, on the other hand, were so unimportant that D.A. Pennebaker didn't even film their set -- their manager at the time had not wanted to sign over the rights to film their performance, something that several of the other acts had also refused -- and nobody had been bothered enough to make an issue of it. Pennebaker just took some crowd shots and didn't bother filming the band. The main thing he caught was Cass Elliot's open-mouthed astonishment at Big Brother's performance -- or rather at Janis Joplin's performance. The members of the group would later complain, not entirely inaccurately, that in the reviews of their performance at Monterey, Joplin's left nipple (the outline of which was apparently visible through her shirt, at least to the male reviewers who took an inordinate interest in such things) got more attention than her four bandmates combined. As Pennebaker later said “She came out and sang, and my hair stood on end. We were told we weren't allowed to shoot it, but I knew if we didn't have Janis in the film, the film would be a wash. Afterward, I said to Albert Grossman, ‘Talk to her manager or break his leg or whatever you have to do, because we've got to have her in this film. I can't imagine this film without this woman who I just saw perform.” Grossman had a talk with the organisers of the festival, Lou Adler and John Phillips, and they offered Big Brother a second spot, the next day, if they would allow their performance to be used in the film. The group agreed, after much discussion between Janis and Grossman, and against the wishes of their manager: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Ball and Chain (live at Monterey)"] They were now on Albert Grossman's radar. Or at least, Janis Joplin was. Joplin had always been more of a careerist than the other members of the group. They were in music to have a good time and to avoid working a straight job, and while some of them were more accomplished musicians than their later reputations would suggest -- Sam Andrew, in particular, was a skilled player and serious student of music -- they were fundamentally content with playing the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore and making five hundred dollars or so a week between them. Very good money for 1967, but nothing else. Joplin, on the other hand, was someone who absolutely craved success. She wanted to prove to her family that she wasn't a failure and that her eccentricity shouldn't stop them being proud of her; she was always, even at the depths of her addictions, fiscally prudent and concerned about her finances; and she had a deep craving for love. Everyone who talks about her talks about how she had an aching need at all times for approval, connection, and validation, which she got on stage more than she got anywhere else. The bigger the audience, the more they must love her. She'd made all her decisions thus far based on how to balance making music that she loved with commercial success, and this would continue to be the pattern for her in future. And so when journalists started to want to talk to her, even though up to that point Albin, who did most of the on-stage announcements, and Gurley, the lead guitarist, had considered themselves joint leaders of the band, she was eager. And she was also eager to get rid of their manager, who continued the awkward streak that had prevented their first performance at the Monterey Pop Festival from being filmed. The group had the chance to play the Hollywood Bowl -- Bill Graham was putting on a "San Francisco Sound" showcase there, featuring Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, and got their verbal agreement to play, but after Graham had the posters printed up, their manager refused to sign the contracts unless they were given more time on stage. The next day after that, they played Monterey again -- this time the Monterey Jazz Festival. A very different crowd to the Pop Festival still fell for Janis' performance -- and once again, the film being made of the event didn't include Big Brother's set because of their manager. While all this was going on, the group's recordings from the previous year were rushed out by Mainstream Records as an album, to poor reviews which complained it was nothing like the group's set at Monterey: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] They were going to need to get out of that contract and sign with somewhere better -- Clive Davis at Columbia Records was already encouraging them to sign with him -- but to do that, they needed a better manager. They needed Albert Grossman. Grossman was one of the best negotiators in the business at that point, but he was also someone who had a genuine love for the music his clients made.  And he had good taste -- he managed Odetta, who Janis idolised as a singer, and Bob Dylan, who she'd been a fan of since his first album came out. He was going to be the perfect manager for the group. But he had one condition though. His first wife had been a heroin addict, and he'd just been dealing with Mike Bloomfield's heroin habit. He had one absolutely ironclad rule, a dealbreaker that would stop him signing them -- they didn't use heroin, did they? Both Gurley and Joplin had used heroin on occasion -- Joplin had only just started, introduced to the drug by Gurley -- but they were only dabblers. They could give it up any time they wanted, right? Of course they could. They told him, in perfect sincerity, that the band didn't use heroin and it wouldn't be a problem. But other than that, Grossman was extremely flexible. He explained to the group at their first meeting that he took a higher percentage than other managers, but that he would also make them more money than other managers -- if money was what they wanted. He told them that they needed to figure out where they wanted their career to be, and what they were willing to do to get there -- would they be happy just playing the same kind of venues they were now, maybe for a little more money, or did they want to be as big as Dylan or Peter, Paul, and Mary? He could get them to whatever level they wanted, and he was happy with working with clients at every level, what did they actually want? The group were agreed -- they wanted to be rich. They decided to test him. They were making twenty-five thousand dollars a year between them at that time, so they got ridiculously ambitious. They told him they wanted to make a *lot* of money. Indeed, they wanted a clause in their contract saying the contract would be void if in the first year they didn't make... thinking of a ridiculous amount, they came up with seventy-five thousand dollars. Grossman's response was to shrug and say "Make it a hundred thousand." The group were now famous and mixing with superstars -- Peter Tork of the Monkees had become a close friend of Janis', and when they played a residency in LA they were invited to John and Michelle Phillips' house to see a rough cut of Monterey Pop. But the group, other than Janis, were horrified -- the film barely showed the other band members at all, just Janis. Dave Getz said later "We assumed we'd appear in the movie as a band, but seeing it was a shock. It was all Janis. They saw her as a superstar in the making. I realized that though we were finally going to be making money and go to another level, it also meant our little family was being separated—there was Janis, and there was the band.” [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] If the group were going to make that hundred thousand dollars a year, they couldn't remain on Mainstream Records, but Bob Shad was not about to give up his rights to what could potentially be the biggest group in America without a fight. But luckily for the group, Clive Davis at Columbia had seen their Monterey performance, and he was also trying to pivot the label towards the new rock music. He was basically willing to do anything to get them. Eventually Columbia agreed to pay Shad two hundred thousand dollars for the group's contract -- Davis and Grossman negotiated so half that was an advance on the group's future earnings, but the other half was just an expense for the label. On top of that the group got an advance payment of fifty thousand dollars for their first album for Columbia, making a total investment by Columbia of a quarter of a million dollars -- in return for which they got to sign the band, and got the rights to the material they'd recorded for Mainstream, though Shad would get a two percent royalty on their first two albums for Columbia. Janis was intimidated by signing for Columbia, because that had been Aretha Franklin's label before she signed to Atlantic, and she regarded Franklin as the greatest performer in music at that time.  Which may have had something to do with the choice of a new song the group added to their setlist in early 1968 -- one which was a current hit for Aretha's sister Erma: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] We talked a little in the last episode about the song "Piece of My Heart" itself, though mostly from the perspective of its performer, Erma Franklin. But the song was, as we mentioned, co-written by Bert Berns. He's someone we've talked about a little bit in previous episodes, notably the ones on "Here Comes the Night" and "Twist and Shout", but those were a couple of years ago, and he's about to become a major figure in the next episode, so we might as well take a moment here to remind listeners (or tell those who haven't heard those episodes) of the basics and explain where "Piece of My Heart" comes in Berns' work as a whole. Bert Berns was a latecomer to the music industry, not getting properly started until he was thirty-one, after trying a variety of other occupations. But when he did get started, he wasted no time making his mark -- he knew he had no time to waste. He had a weak heart and knew the likelihood was he was going to die young. He started an association with Wand records as a songwriter and performer, writing songs for some of Phil Spector's pre-fame recordings, and he also started producing records for Atlantic, where for a long while he was almost the equal of Jerry Wexler or Leiber and Stoller in terms of number of massive hits created. His records with Solomon Burke were the records that first got the R&B genre renamed soul (previously the word "soul" mostly referred to a kind of R&Bish jazz, rather than a kind of gospel-ish R&B). He'd also been one of the few American music industry professionals to work with British bands before the Beatles made it big in the USA, after he became alerted to the Beatles' success with his song "Twist and Shout", which he'd co-written with Phil Medley, and which had been a hit in a version Berns produced for the Isley Brothers: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] That song shows the two elements that existed in nearly every single Bert Berns song or production. The first is the Afro-Caribbean rhythm, a feel he picked up during a stint in Cuba in his twenties. Other people in the Atlantic records team were also partial to those rhythms -- Leiber and Stoller loved what they called the baion rhythm -- but Berns more than anyone else made it his signature. He also very specifically loved the song "La Bamba", especially Ritchie Valens' version of it: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, "La Bamba"] He basically seemed to think that was the greatest record ever made, and he certainly loved that three-chord trick I-IV-V-IV chord sequence -- almost but not quite the same as the "Louie Louie" one.  He used it in nearly every song he wrote from that point on -- usually using a bassline that went something like this: [plays I-IV-V-IV bassline] He used it in "Twist and Shout" of course: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] He used it in "Hang on Sloopy": [Excerpt: The McCoys, "Hang on Sloopy"] He *could* get more harmonically sophisticated on occasion, but the vast majority of Berns' songs show the power of simplicity. They're usually based around three chords, and often they're actually only two chords, like "I Want Candy": [Excerpt: The Strangeloves, "I Want Candy"] Or the chorus to "Here Comes the Night" by Them, which is two chords for most of it and only introduces a third right at the end: [Excerpt: Them, "Here Comes the Night"] And even in that song you can hear the "Twist and Shout"/"La Bamba" feel, even if it's not exactly the same chords. Berns' whole career was essentially a way of wringing *every last possible drop* out of all the implications of Ritchie Valens' record. And so even when he did a more harmonically complex song, like "Piece of My Heart", which actually has some minor chords in the bridge, the "La Bamba" chord sequence is used in both the verse: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] And the chorus: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] Berns co-wrote “Piece of My Heart” with Jerry Ragavoy. Berns and Ragavoy had also written "Cry Baby" for Garnet Mimms, which was another Joplin favourite: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And Ragavoy, with other collaborators