FOR THE BROTHAS: AN INTRODUCTION

It must have been about 20 years ago when I first began thinking about creating a "Cultural Salon" as a reaction to the mundane social circles In Washington D.C. The richness of intellectual and artistic interchange had died, college friends had moved, the internet had not yet become the phenomenon it now is... I romanticised about the Salons of the mid to late 1800's in Paris, London and Berlin and the cultural dynamo of the Harlem Rennaisance. I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman, an artist who lived and traveled with James Baldwin... Jimmy he affectionately called him, and he spoke often of their small cottage in southern France and of the many Artists, Poets and Luminaries that dropped in to chat and relax. Well, the impressionists, cubists, modernists, etc. all hung out together famously in those days and shared their ideas with one another creating a creative greenhouse in a world that was rapidly changing. I longed to have lived in those times, to have met Cassat, Rodin, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Baker, Balwin, well I did finally meet Baldwin and others purely for the joy of intellection upon the arts. This was in the late 1980's and by the mid 2000's I happened to run into a friend of mine from Hampton University who had been living in New York since he graduated in the early 90s. Well, I was surprised to hear him comment that in all of the wonder that is New York he never met anyone who ever really had anything interesting to say about art, literature, architecture, science, fashion or anything... I was so surprised to hear this since it had also been my experience. Well here I am in 2011 attempting the Virtual Salon...

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

LAUNCH OF "LAMOUR EST BLEU" SELECTED BLUES AND JAZZ

I have decided to create a weekly musical selection called. L'AMOUR EST BLEU.  Musi'c will range from early 1900's vaudeville, ragtime and burlesque in the blues tradition to the present... please do provid e suggestions especially for new music.. I hope you will enjoy...

2-28-11  Update on L'Amour est Bleu:  I promised to feature a daily show but realized that it would be most effective if presented weekly... This revealation was made apparent while doing research for the first show.  The purpose is to create a thematic wave of music such as several versions of the same song by the same artist but at different times in their career... the example that first comes to mind is Billie Holidays, "Ms Brown"... I have been looking for a very hot ragtime version she recorded sometime in the late 30's or early 40's... I had it on cassette years ago... I do have the original vinyl but it is deep in storage now.... please check my facebook page for updates to my vinyl collection, I have featured pictoral shots of the record and album covers along with a brief description of the artists and date... no where near complete but it does take time to shoot and upload... I also realized the need to do a seperate show specifically to showcase blues... I have not come up with a name for the show yet but am open to suggestions...
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