Entertainment

Most of us became familiar with Sheila E via Prince and her album The Glamorous Life.

The “E” in her name comes from her family name Escovedo, and the family is best known for afro cuban latin jazz percussion. Her father, Pete, is a percussionist. Tito Puente is her godfather. The musical family (brothers, uncles, cousins, etc.) has ties to Santana, and they’ve played and collaborated with numerous other artists.

My Guilford friend Belinda, who’s a prime mover for Brattleboro Winter Carnival, asked me to help get the word out about this evemt, so of course I immediately tuned into ibrattleboro. dm

What happens at the Legion, stays at the Legion… well at least when this year’s theme is ‘Murder in Las Vegas’! Take a roll of the dice and see if you can figure out who the murderer is before all is revealed! You can bet it’s going to be a great dinner, with lots of friends and a fabulous show! The Vermont Theater Company will be our entertainment and dinner will be served by Brattleboro’s One and Only BMH Ladies Auxiliary. Get your tickets early to be sure you get a seat for this evening of fun, you won’t want to miss it!!

Escape the cold with a Classic Matinee Film Noir Series at Brooks Memorial Library. Wednesday Feb 12 at 2 pm we are screening a film about a juicy double murder in a jealous pique. 

What is film noir? Literally it means “black film” and it is a Hollywood genre of crime movie of the 1940’s and 50’s that developed mostly out of the Great Depression crime fiction.

After the film stick around for a little discussion lead by cinephiles Tom Bedell, golf/beer journalist and lover of film; and Tim Metcalfe, veteran Hollywood screenwriter and Brattleboro Film Festival Advisory Board member.

Okay, punks. Ready to stage dive? Let’s hit rewind on the time machine and head back to 1982 to see Washington, DC’s Bad Brains take to the stage at the legendary CBGB club in NYC.

Bad Brains are a weird and pleasant mic of reggae, funk, rock, and hardcore punk all mixed up together. Wikipedia says they started as a fusion jazz group, which makes a bit of sense. Bad Brains were musical in their madness.

They didn’t have it easy, though. Many DC clubs banned them around 1979. One might guess that the owners of the clubs were more worried about the customers than the band, judging by the CBGB crowd. Bad Brains did what any self-respecting punk band would do. They wrote a sing called Banned in DC and moved to New York.

In the mid-1960’s, Pete Seeger hosted a black and white folk music show on television station WNJU in NY. He would host and play songs, and invite guests such as Doc Watson, Judy Collins, and Buffy Saint-Marie to come and share songs and stories.

It was an important show for Seeger, who had spent many years blacklisted from television. Tapes of the show were rescued and restored in the 1980’s.

Please check out DJ Pockets on “buttahmilk” this tuesday Fe.4th from 6-8pm on Brattleboro Community Radio-107.7fm…www.wvew.org

Dr. Curtis Duncan is a holistic health expert, herbalist and avid researcher. possible topics of discussion: feminization of males and the chemicals that are behind the reason why, testosterone levels have been declining, impotence, dropped sperm counts, smaller penises, genital birth defects, autism, ADHD, cancer, low libido and more. These chemicals also have gender bending effects and cause men to act and behave like women and women to act and behave like men, even altering sexual preference.

Remember the early days of music television? It was typically regulated to late Saturday mornings after the cartoons were over but before the sports programs got going, or very late on weekend TV. If you wanted to learn what songs would be popular on the radio, you would tune in to Dick Clark and watch his American Bandstand. If you wanted to learn how to dance, though, you’d switch over to Don Cornelius and the Soul Train.

One of the highlights of the show (in addition to the funky animated train logo) was the line dance. Pairs of dancers would take turns dancing their way toward the camera while others stoof around, watched, and clapped while waiting for their turn to shine.

This one is for keyboard players, musicians in general, and Steely Dan fans.

I like to hear musicians talk about their craft. This week I’ve decided to feature a video in which Warren Bernhardt sits with Donald Fagen in Woodstock, NY to talk about songwriting techniques such as harmony and melody, and the blues.

It is a master class in piano playing, but it is also a look at Steely Dan’s songs Chain Lightning, Peg, and Josie, and shows how they were constructed. It’s an up close and personal demonstration of each song followed by a performance.

Beat the winter blues with Film Noir! What is film noir? Literally it means “black film” and it is a Hollywood genre of crime movie of the 1940’s and 50’s that developed mostly out of the Great Depression crime fiction.

Please join your neighbors at Brooks Memorial Library for a series of matinee classic noir on Wednesday afternoons beginning, January 15, at 2:00 PM, in the Library’s meeting room, with a classic 1951 Hitchcock film.

Oklahoma University hosted a tribute to John Philip Sousa in 1987 and recorded it for posterity. What makes this show interesting is that the symphonic band didn’t just play his marches, they attemtped to recreate a perfomance by having authentic costumes and a conductor to impersonate Mr. Sousa.

John Philip Sousa III acted as host for the evening and provided a living link to the composer.

I know very little about Janelle Monae other than every time I’ve seen her perform, it has been energetic and exciting. She reminds me a bit of James Brown, Prince, and Michael Jackson, but has her own style. It’s rap, R&B, island, soul, and pop all rolled into one. Spastic is another word some might use.

This show is from the Made in America Festival 2012, kicks off with a bit of a latin groove and moves through dancey hits and cover songs, and everyone seems to be having fun.

One year after George Harrison died, a group of his musician friends gathered at Royal Albert Hall for a memorial concert.

This show begins with the Ravi Shankar orchestra and a few meditative pieces, followed by some Monty Python. The second half is a collage of Harrison tunes performed by his friends. Taxman by Tom Petty. If I Needed Someone by Eric Clapton. Photograph by Ringo. All Things Must Pass by Paul. It is that kind of show.

Atom Planet live on BCTV.   Artist ala Mode December 12.  

Esoteric out jazz? Strange funk from specific neighborhoods in Washington, DC? An overplayed pop star?

Not this week. This week we have Muppets.

This is a 1987 TV special called Muppet Family Christmas, featuring holiday songs, talented frogs, fashionable pigs, and bad jokes by bears. In fact, it features characters from the Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and Muppet Babies all performing together.

Time for more holiday fun.

In addition to the iBrattleboro animated interactive calendar, there are some more goodies in the bag to share.

For example, we have the Christmas Calendar at Castle Arcana, and numerous cards to play with, such as Build Your Own Snowman, Trim Your Own Tree, and more at http://www.castlearcana.com/christmas/

I’ve been listening to John Coltrane since college, when my pal Everett introduced me to the world of jazz. At first it sounded like a lot of squeaking and noise to my ear. After hearing a new piece, I’d jokingly ask if he was done tuning up.

Ev taught me to think of the jazz sax as a voice, a singer. He wanted me to listen to what Coltrane was saying, not playing.

It took a while to get it. I made a cassette with Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, and John Coltrane’s Love Supreme on the other side, and let it play over and over again.

We’ll take a bit of a detour this week and feature the holiday music stylings of singer Andy Williams.

Andy Williams used his weekly variety show for an annual Christmas special on TV each year throughout most of the 60’s and early 70’s. Often the Osmonds would show up. It was a bit like a hipper Lawrence Welk Show, and is was fun for the entire family to watch.

This video is a collection of Andy William’s favorite clips from those specials.

This week we feature Tuba Skinny, a band from New Orleans. I don’t know much about them, other than my dad played me a bit of them from his iPhone this week.

This seems to be recorded in Australia for a live radio program.

GRAFTON, VT—The critically acclaimed Russian Duo will play at the White Church in Grafton on Sunday, December 1 at 3 p.m.

Featuring vocals and Russian percussion, the Duo will perform Russian folk music, romances, dances, classical music, gypsy melodies, and interpretations of favorites from around the world. Oleg Kruglyakov is a balalaika virtuoso originally from Siberia; Terry Boyarsky is an American concert pianist. The balalaika, with its three strings and a triangular body, is the instrument of choice for traditional Russian folk melodies.

Here’s a show from Montreal in 1964. One of the YouTube comments say that it is “a Radio-Canada video of the first night of Ellington’s appearance in the Le Hot Jazz room in Montreal’s Casa Loma, taped Apr. 20 1964.”

So this is what people were doing a few months before I was born.