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Sometimes images from the past fade ..... except when they don't:
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? - Canadian film star Keanu Reeves and Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
Roll over Beethoven, and tell ..... you-know-who to stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
ART NOTES - an exhibition of Contemporary Icelandic Art is at the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks through August 15th.
MUSIC NOTES - first it was monks in northwest Spain who released a noted Chant album, then an order of monks in Vienna, Austria - now, it's cloistered nuns from Avignon, France who have signed a major record deal.
FILM NOTES - a biopic of the early life of Jerry Garcia - up until the time he helped launch the Grateful Dead - could begin production as early as next year. Its title, of course, is "Dark Star".
TUESDAY's CHILD is Harley the Cat - a British Columbia pootie who overcame a vicious attack and is recuperating at home.
A RECENT CARTOON by Tom Tomorrow is sadly titled, "Retirement is for Losers".
POLITICAL NOTES - after seeing his name cited as a personal hero by both Rod Blagojevich and the recently-jailed Canadian/UK press baron Conrad Black: one British essayist wants a Richard Nixon Litmus Test to be asked of candidates ... before they reach high office.
ART NOTES - works by Sir John Lavery in an exhibition entitled Passion and Politics are at the Dublin, Ireland City Gallery until October 31st.
POLITICAL NOTES - the musician Wyclef Jean is considering running for president of Haiti in November's elections
EDUCATION NOTES - at the university graduation of his daughter, my main-man Silvio Berlusconi still managed to make headlines: when the university chancellor asked Barbara Berlusconi about a teaching post, observers ascribed this to an opportunity to seek additional funding from her father.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Possom the Cat who - at age 28 - is believed to be America's oldest kitteh.
MUSIC NOTES - a popular series of concerts each summer at London's Royal Albert Hall - known as the BBC Proms - will feature its singing debut of Dame Judi Dench, devoted to the music of Stephen Sondheim.
THE ANNUAL ritual of shipping in sand to create an artificial beach-like atmosphere in the French capital called Paris-Plages is back for another year.
POLITICAL NOTES - lest you thought that only US conservatives were upset about answering the census: well, one essayist wrote that Canada's Tories are trying the Hogan's Heroes defense in their opposition.
ALTHOUGH IT HAS FALLEN off in popularity over the years: it did seem odd that the London exercise in open political speech known as Speakers' Corner never caught on elsewhere. Until now: as a theater director plans to begin one in Berlin, Germany on the site of the former Templehof Airport (the staging area for the Berlin Airlift).
THURSDAY's CHILD is the late Frisky the Cat - an English pootie featured in the opening credits of the long-running UK soap opera "Coronation Street" - whose ashes(!) fetched nearly $1,300 at auction.
MUSIC NOTES - it may sound like an oxymoron, but Istanbul, Turkey is set to host its inaugural Islamic Jazz Festival next month.
COMEDY NOTES - it's not online, but a nice magazine profile on Garry Shandling detailed his beginnings as a comic. As a 19 year-old, Shandling drove two hours (from Tucson to Phoenix) to offer George Carlin twenty pages of material he'd written for him. Carlin said he wrote his own material but that if Garry would return to the nightclub the next night: he'd critique it for him. When he did, Carlin had already marked up the twenty pages and concluded, "You're very green, but there's something funny on every page. If you're thinking of pursuing this (as a career) ... I would".
SEPARATED at BIRTH - TV/film star Brittany Snow and film star Reese Witherspoon.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... when one reviews the "Rock stars who died too young" file: one of them would be the 25 year-old guitarist Tommy Bolin whose drug overdose ended a career that was had already achieved much. Not simply in rock music: he had roots in blues, jazz and funk, and had recorded albums with not only name bands, but also several noted solo releases. Thirty years on, as the All-Music Guide's Greg Prato wonders .... "What could he have been?"
Born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1951, Bolin began playing as a 13 year-old, and in 1967 was expelled from school for .... refusing to cut his hair. He later moved to Boulder, Colorado and formed a band whose name was later changed to Zephyr - whose albums (1969-1971) Zephyr as well as Going Back to Colorado are worth checking yet. Featuring a Joplin-esque singer named Candy Givens the band not only covered blues-rock in-and-out, but offered new interpretations on jazz classics such as St. James Infirmary and from modern jazz: Pharaoh Sanders' The Creator Has a Master Plan epic. Although they were (ultimately) not successful other than as a regional group: Bolin's ability was garnering rave reviews (including that of Jimmy Page, as Zephyr was an opening act for Led Zeppelin at that time).
Intrigued by the burgeoning jazz-rock-fusion (of Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Weather Report, etc.) of the early 70's: a twenty year-old Bolin founded such a band celled Energy in 1971. They never released an album at the time (although some surfaced years later). But this led to Tommy Bolin's breakthrough: as a sideman on the 1973 Spectrum album. The first solo album by the explosive Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Billy Cobham is among the best jazz-rock albums of all time (center photo) and listen to Tommy's playing on Quadrant Four and Red Baron proved to be an inspiration for rock veterans like Jeff Beck, who explored that world with albums such as "Wired" and "Blow by Blow".
In 1973 Bolin was the answer to the needs of the James Gang - who had not recovered from the loss of Joe Walsh, and whose replacement Dominic Troiano had left. While Bolin's work did not help return James Gang to its former glory in the charts, the two albums he participated on received excellent reviews and Kossack Dave the Wave testified to his ability in this space four years ago. He left the band in late 1974 and relocated to Los Angeles, seeking a role as a session guitarist. No trouble finding work: he performed with Alphonse Mouzon, Carmine Appice and the Canadian band Moxy.
He began recording his first solo album Teaser (photo right) in 1974, which showed not only his wide-ranging taste in songs (rock to jazz to ballads) but also a flair for songwriting and even singing, which he had never delved into in the past. Before it was released, the phone rang again: as Deep Purple had seen the loss of founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in late 1974, singer David Coverdale recalled Bolin's work on Billy Cobham's Spectrum and Bolin eventually auditioned for (and won) a spot in the band. He began touring with them, and was on the 1975 Come Taste the Band recording. But by this time, Bolin's heroin habit was beginning to escalate, and the band broke-up after a farewell tour in 1976.
Tommy Bolin resumed session work and released a successful second solo album Private Eyes that was issued on CBS. He toured throughout the remainder of 1976, and opened a show for Jeff Beck on December 3rd, 1976, posing for a photo with Jeff after the show. The next day, Tommy Bolin was dead from a heroin overdose.
Although his recordings alone are an important legacy, his brother Johnnie has done a great deal to preserve his memory. The drummer for Black Oak Arkansas since 1985: Johnnie has organized annual Tommy Bolin tribute concerts and manages the catalog of his brother's discography, including a compilation album that is quite comprehensive. In addition, the specialty Dean Guitars company has a Tommy Bolin signature model, and less than two years ago the biography Touched by Magic chronicled his life. Guitar enthusiasts will probably be influenced by Tommy Bolin for years to come.
Of all of his work: I'm still drawn to his work (at age eighteen) on the eponymous first Zephyr album: Cross the River (fair-use extract below) shows the band at its heaviest (and more introspective) and shows Candy Givens' vocal range: sometimes subtle, other times ... well, not so subtle. And below you can listen to it.
From far, far, far...'cross the river
A man's voice calls out to me
I can't hear what he's saying,
Why won't he let me be?
I beg him to release me
Oh, but he will not set me free
I saw him right through the madness
But he walked right into my life
For he walked across the river, and
His smile tells me that he's kind
I don't love him, not right now
But I think it's going to work out fine.
