In-honor of Super Bowl LVIII, I’m jazzing the blog up with a couple of classic “Touchdown” songs from two of the genre’s giants, Bob James and Freddie Hubbard.
You may see my choices for best cutz below in red, which I wrote at the time in 1981 on the jacket! I still remember the Fantasy Promotion rep who I got my records from, up at the Columbus Circle tower, in Manhattan.
From inside the open-up jacket you can see Bob James’ musical mates on this superb super soundtrack bowl album!
The late, great trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who I had the honor of interviewing back in 1994 for my radio show (still have the cassette!), from his 1979 “Splash” vinyl on Columbia Records, and keyboardist, arranger and producer, Bob James, from his 1978 aptly-named Columbia/Tappan Zee Records vinyl, “Touchdown”. Thanks to YouTube, I can timely share them with you.
And…
Th-th-th-th-th-thatz all folks!! Enjoy the game! Cheers!
To put it short and simply, my website was “AWOL” since I can’t remember! It was at least the past year or so, if not more! However, in the true “scouting tradition” I didn’t totally give up, nor let it bum me out – I just ignored those feelings – until the time came for me to dig, sniff and experiment around with the original platform once again, and lo and behold…”Viola!” It was still hiding there, partially due to something called “Square” which apparently merged with Weebly – my original site platform in 2007 – sometime this decade, as a monetization vehicle for “selling”. Not sure what kind of selling, although the images are of pottery and ceramics and household stuff. Hmmmm…
As my site and life is predominantly centered around music, media and wordcasting, the Square model did not fit – and that’s okay! They who do other things do not traverse my online world, we do not counter-judge one another and we still exist harmoniously, and that, as the late Teena Marie sang back in 1981, is “square biz”!
Not to belabor the point, because soon I have some other current common nonsensical events to blogplain about, I’ll just ask that when you have some free time, you to check out the (slightly) new look of I.M.I.J Produckshunz (pronounced “image productions”), 2023 two-point-OH! http://www.imijproduckshunz.com/
The home of Cheetah Media & Freelance Services (CMFS). We are here for your needs, if our lifetime expertise allows.
Many Thanks, Be Well and best wishes in all you (legally and ethically) Do. ~ Cheetah NJB
It was a given that my generation of men always embraced the “Playboy” lifestyle out of college in the 1970s and now, amusing as it is that some criticize us for it; it really made us better (and more sexy) men!
You know that my writings are not “politically correct” because I do not believe in that line of thinking, and you like that! So, here we go again:
I first heard this jam in the background of a Frankie Crocker on WBLS FM radio show, I think; or maybe it was a “High Life” theme on a Miller beer ad or some commercial? Who? What? “This is what you ARE!?
what you listen to is a continental, bon vi vant style, which brings to mind the French Rivera! Don’t you think?
I came upon this “high life” song again by dint of my jukebox musical mind remembering when I reviewed it for http://www.about.com/dancemusic back in the late 2000s, when the legendaray “DJ Ron” was my Editor! Wow! I like the continental style of the lead singer, who brings us into a vacationing state of mind on this compilation of “Dimitri In Paris”,
And now the album my previous EP revu teased has dropped!
Janey Street’s “My Side of Paradise” [BER 1020 Blu Elan Records]
If you would talk to Janey Street, you would never know that she is a singer because she is just a natural, typically loquacious chick with a regular speaking voice that has a slight New York City treatment. What I think it allows for is a variety of pitch within this collection which ranges from rock to funk along the blues street in paradise. The concept of this album measures today’s social mores.
The album begins like I thought it would with the first drummer rim shots.
This is a collection of very well written songs. I emphasize “well-written” lyrics and performed by Janey Street who has apparently paid enough blues dues to earn a shot to fulfill her dreams, proving that we must keep on keeping on (to borrow a title from the late, great Curtis Mayfield) because it is never too late as long as we have breath in our bodies and a strong pulse. Many of these heartfelt songs will end up rambling through your mind as soothing tune wedgies, long after your first listening to the album.
What I love about the first two tracks, which are my favorites, is their Motown-esq funky band feel that even features one of my favorite instruments, the baritone saxophone which made so many hits of the 1960s and 1970s so ballsy and timeless! It kicks in about midway into “Among The Missing” and staples it until the end. They keep that horny horn into “Good Side” and even lead with the baritone which becomes integral from the outset and throughout! I can totally relate to the lyric, “I’m a little moody in the morning/I can change my mind without warning…”
The next tune and ballad, “Bring it On”, brings in the orchestral strings and I think I heard a cello at one point! It is a bit strident at times as occasional vocal overreach stretches Janey’s vocal range. What I found curious is how she pronounced the word, “stubborn” during this song. It sounded more like “stubbren”. No phonics?
“House Of Mirrors” is a storytelling funhouse rocker that is reminiscent of many 1980s Top 40 hits. The next tune, “Situation” you already know how I feel about its succinct relevance from my prior writings. Events are oft not as hideous as we worry about them being at the end of the day.
I have another line for song number six, “Tears Taste the Same”, ‘they taste like whatever you been drinking, they taste like Beer…’ Nice, cold ending, by the way.
The advanced EP single, “I’m Not The Girl I Used To Know”, cut number seven, has actually grown on me since I reviewed it in June of this year. Maybe it is because of its context position midway through this album and because I can see how it speaks to some inner truth many people might feel even though I am the boy I used to know – and then some!
“Grand Delusion” takes on the perceived illusion that the internet and social media creates in this, the future that is now, if you do not know how to use it correctly. “Rose-colored glasses made for the masses…” Her treatment makes this global technology dysfunction seem almost pleasing – but as good as it is for song, they are off the mark in-reality, which is a debate for another post.
“Radar” mellows it out like a Joni Mitchell song from the seventies. “Scat Like Ella” is the best possibility for a “tune wedgie” as it is catchy and will linger in your music mind for all times. It is a really good concept song that Ms. Street performs to the max and conveys the message succinctly. Again, the lyrics carry part of the day as she mentions so many of the giants of legendary Jazz music. I left it believing that she really does want to “scat like Ella Fitzgerald after hearing her give us a sample! Now I think I want to scat like Cab Calloway!
At the “End of the Day” is a finale, mostly acapella and well-positioned wrap song for the album, which, maybe, with the exception of “I’m Not The Girl…”, tells a kind of revolutionary story about the times within we reside in toto. I like Blue`lan’s packaging of the CD, which includes a lyric booklet. My final question is how to get a ticket onto that train to Janey’s Side of Paradise – or is it an island? As a songstress/storyteller, Janey Streets consistently paints a beautiful word-picture throughout the effort that defies any one music genre catagorie, in my opinion. I bless it with Four out of a possible Five Guitars.
It is against the backdrop of the cowardly and horrific Islamist bombing of the Brussels airport that I pen this review of music by a native daughter of that country which bothers no other and I cannot understand why those scum continue to maim innocents instead of fighting a nation’s armed forces face-to-face; such sissies!
Well, on to her important music EP, “Wait 4 It”. I must have met Belgium’s hot foxy female vocalist, Irenka, during my twelve years living in Nashville, Tennessee, right? Or Nyet. I would have remembered such a creative presence, energy as hers! The first sound that I hear on track one “Comme Si” is Irenka clearing her throat. I said, “What??” Listened again; however, quickly those sounds turn into her spittin’ like a Euro human beat-box meeting Soft Cell’s 1981 “Tainted Love” – at least in musical key – as she then croons in French, the lingo most speak in Belgium. The last time I listened to this much lyrical love language was on Dimitri From Paris’ 1998 “Sacre` Francaise” or when I reviewed the various artist Playboy Club remix back in 2009. “Scare Bleu!”
“Dreamland”, track two, is an introspective, somnambulistic ballad where she displays her vocal range for the first time. This and the next selection where she lets her fingers do the singing on track three are perfect for a cloudy day. Irenka is really playing a beautiful classic-style piano solo instrumental! I know because I asked her. Next up and showing an inner versatile similarity to the late Amy Winehouse but with a better voice, or Billy Holiday, she styles on, “I don’t Need No Lover (except to hold me through the night from time-to-time)”. I think that this arrangement reminds me of New Orleans blues-jazz in a street march parade; especially because of the brass accents. At one point I was unsure whether Irenka would hit the climbing high-note – but she did. You will know it when you listen. It is a song that hearkens me back to the days of, “Hubba-hubba!”
Finally, she rocks out with the fourth and last track, “A Reason To Hate Me”.
The video, “Comme Si”, takes us on a musical personal journey and is full of familiar scenes from my twelve years living there in Nashville/
Athletic, isn’t she?
Upon learning of the repulsive, pusillanimous Brussels airport attack, act we communicated and her reply, in great musician style was, “Luckily all family is safe, but it is nonetheless terrible, and it is our duty, we the artists, to bring peace and love to this crazy world!”
The world is not as crazy as some of these recent lunatics who inhabit it and I might have been at first on the fence in limbo about Irenka, but now that I have listened copiously and seen her video, there is no “reason to hate” on Irenka with three-and-a-half hopefully motivating musical stars. This is the last music review here at this varied and long-standing blog since 2009. From now on, you are invited to check out my musical musings at https://achilliadsmyvinylrecordshoppe.wordpress.com/
As soon as I saw these roadside posters, I wanted to attend this show! I haven’t heard from or of Billy Ocean since the late 1980s with anything new and of course his hits lasted all through the 1990s when I was still gigging as a DJ in clubs and bars. His first hit, “Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)”, is one of the great dancefloor-filler of all times, that the late Frankie Crocker used to play again and again and…a-gain on WBLS FM during one of its several heyday peaks in 1981.
Of course, his baadest jam, and one twelve-inch vinyl I still own is “Carribean Queen”, a song that often haunts me and wedges itself into my sleep and at other inapporpriate moments. Proving its timelessness is still in full effect. Check out how Billy looks nowadays! lolI dig the “wig” [I know it is his hair and still has gthat big smile. Kool, ‘Mon… lol
Michael Bolton, on the other hand, is a fixture of my career as a Top 40/CHR (mostly on overnights where I liked the novelty of being the only black Brotha, lol) radio personality, where I spun his early hits in the 1980!
But this post isn’t all about me, as this concert I really wanted to see – but didn’t. Summer rain showers threatened that Sunday at the end of June and therefore, to this former neighborhood near where I grew-up, I did not swoon.
Only to learn weeks later (and with those posters still hanging and reminding me at the side of the road) that the show had gone on despite the “chance of thunderstorms”, which were in the area that evening.
On to the videos! Thank you for reading and please leave a comment! Cheers!
Next in-line:
Both these cats are lookin’ and soundin’ Great in-time and space! Bravo!
And now my favorite “Carribean Queen” video for dessert…Come away with me! MmMmmmm, Good…Safe(?)…Travels.
I have known about Mark Tara since 2006, when I was first assigned his single, “Different Love” to review by my then Editor at www.about.com/dancemusic, Nashville’s “DJ Ron” (Slomowicz).
Since then I learned much more about Toronto’s Mark Tara and his varied talents which include being very astute as a creative website developer.
“Creative” is the adjective I can use multiple times to describe Mark’s latest musical release, “Number One”, which is now available for your ears. The proof is in the first sentence of his press release, which describes the single as “the perfect blend of talent and technology”.This alludes to the virtual collaboration with co-producers, The Netherlands’ Matt Pop, who commented, “It’s always a pleasure working on a strong tune with great vocals – that was very much the case with Number One.” and the Klubjumpers of the USA, whose Dan Matthews added, “It was great working with Mark Tara on Number One. Very appealing lyrics to the song with Mark’s great voice just adds life to [The KlubJumpers] remix. ‘Sure to be a Hit on many DJ’s Radio Mix shows Play List.”
Number One” is sparkling and brilliantly fierce as dance tracks go these days! I am so happy that Mark thinks enough of me to have sent me the advance video and colorful follow-up finished track.I like the way the video opens with a curtain going up on a stage and then the multi-boxes of Tara performing marquee-style – it ends with the curtain going down on the show. Great stuff!
“We live in days of making dreams come true,” says Mark Tara. With the advent of WE TRANSFER, a website allowing users to email files as large as 2 gigs, (Wow!) digital distribution sites and DSLR camera technology, which means that the future is indeed here, allowing musicians like Mark to present his unique talents to a global market – or even the musical gift anthem to the US President and Supreme Court in the aftermath of their recent apparent affirmation of “gay marriage’- strange bedfellows, indeed! Mark is a kinder, gentler and prettier ‘RuePaul’, if you will allow the analogy. Sometimes it seems that Mark’s moves in the video are a parody of female singers, but as with many things these days her in ‘the future which is now’, it IS what it IS.
I could loop this song and listen to it or play it in my club over-and-over again, ad infinitum! As Toronto-Trinidadian Mark revealed in one of my prior music critic interactions with him, “”You Rock!” I give this song four lucky stars out of five, remembering that this is just one song of an anticipated forthcoming album (I hope). And I will say this, without the video, like back in my younger days of just having a 45rpm vinyl or a 12” vinyl or single CD first, this might just be “another dance cut” vying for attention.
During the decade of the 2000s, I penned many music reviews for my friend DJ Ron of Nashville and the site About.com. Warming you up for another original here on my blog this 2013 Fourth of July weekend, here is one of them from 2008 with proper respect and appreciation to the aforementioned people in this paragraph.
Once upon a time there was a musical that I never heard about called Damn Yankees which inspired Mark Tara to compose “Lola” as an homage. “The record Lola was actually going to be more of a spiritual record”, Mark explained to me, “Hence the bonus tracks “The Beginning”… (Which I think should have lead the album because its fantasy-driven lyrics really get your attention) “Then the style of the record totally changed and I fashioned it after Donna Summer’s classic album Once Upon a Time which tells a story.”
Oh, now I understand!!
Hmmm, I remember Damn Yankees, but it is just the start of spring training as I write this, and I never claimed to be all-encompassing, musically, anyway.
Along with the album is a two-song sampler disc which includes “Live Your Life”, the best of the duo, which is a message song for whomever and whatever battle or demon you are fighting along with another “Lola” reprise. But why do a separate CD when there is no discernible remix or difference from the album version? There are so many versions of “Lola” that it almost makes the theme hackneyed.
Mark told me, “I saw the movie Kinky Boots where the main character does the song “Whatever Lola Wants” which is from the musical Damn Yankees. As I was watching that scene a thought popped into my head that I could totally do that song in a dance vain and well.”
Figuring Out Who Lola Is
So let us see what we can glean about “Lola” (who I thought might be his latest love interest – NOT). It has taken me longer to get into, and I’m not sure I’m feeling this song from Tara as much as “Different Language,” his last track that I reviewed. However the single definitely has its musical moments. Track four, “Sexduction” where he uses the vocoder effect to perfection, is one of the album’s best. It has a great pace and should fit satellite radio’s dance format. The next jam, “Where You Live” is another boss musical toss! There is a very good remake of the Imagination dance club classic “Just An Illusion” on here – complete with the piano solo!
When I asked Mark who this “Lola” person on the cover is, he replied, “The pic is me taken by a photographer friend of mine. I wanted to tell a story of seduction and the emotions that go along with it, this seduction has to do with me – LOLA – being in lust with a straight man and how I cast my spell on him. Gender bending – I’m totally into that – blurring the lines between male and female and what we find to be sexually appealing.” A friend of Tara’s, Stor Dubine, did a cute caricature of him for the back cover CD art.
Maybe Lola is an AlterEgo?
Now we are getting a feel for who Mark Tara really is; I then thought that “Lola” might be his alter ego, but I was wrong again when he told me, “Its not an alterego, the picture is just me. The record tells a story and I think the most telling song is “Something” which encapsulates the record as a whole”
“Sometimes” is a whispery, introspective, mid-tempo piece with am edgey touch. The song is part of an almost middle-of-the-road trifecta here in the middle of the album that ends with a made for adult Contemporary radio track “Someone To Love” which sounds like an N-Sync record circa 1999.
Tara wants to be known as “The Queer Of Pop” just like Madonna is the “Queen of Pop” and Michael Jackson is the “King of Pop.” He clarifies, but by no means do I compare Mark to these two mega-artists – they are both legends in my eyes. (This review really has taken some interesting twist and turns, lol)
In the finial analysis, Tara is a masterful musical storyteller with a message. This album, like the previous one Different Love flows in movements like a symphony does. There is one more nuance to our musician as he relays, “Here in Canada gay marriages are now legal and have been for the past few years – YEAH! – Just think of growing up knowing that you are gay and that you can indeed get married to someone of the same sex – I think that totally rocks!”
Aren’t those the words with which we ended the review of “Different Love” last time? Therefore the terminus is nigh, and its time to abate words and urge you to listen for yourself happily ever after with a genial three stars bestowed.
I commute
You are cute.
“Toot-Toot!”
Yet abhor
Lack of success.
In a picture,
I digress;
Love you on the beach,
In that red dress!
Stay inside,
Someday in I’ll slide.
Then again I awake while commuting,
From my dream;
I come in pants,
Silently scream.
To work I quake and settle into it.
Close my eyes,
Thinking of you;
For over ninety minutes daily when I
Ride the subway metro.
I plan our dream;
Plot this is no bullshit scheme!
Our future is now.
And Holy Cow!
I sit in a seat like this!
Imagine me sitting here with you!
Oh, so “koo-koo”!
Spring bird calls return;
Now are heard.
I want you to back-up into me,
Until you feel my hard ecstasy.
I want you to back-up your
Ass to me;
Feel the hard head of need;
Tooo crazy now not to succeed.
Back-up, Baby
Back-up to when we met.
Back-up, love,
Never forget;
That you honestly found me,
Then helped me improve my life
Without conditions nor regret.
Achilliad's Blog! by Jimi B 
The Return of the Website 2023
Short and simple:
To put it short and simply, my website was “AWOL” since I can’t remember! It was at least the past year or so, if not more! However, in the true “scouting tradition” I didn’t totally give up, nor let it bum me out – I just ignored those feelings – until the time came for me to dig, sniff and experiment around with the original platform once again, and lo and behold…”Viola!” It was still hiding there, partially due to something called “Square” which apparently merged with Weebly – my original site platform in 2007 – sometime this decade, as a monetization vehicle for “selling”. Not sure what kind of selling, although the images are of pottery and ceramics and household stuff. Hmmmm…
As my site and life is predominantly centered around music, media and wordcasting, the Square model did not fit – and that’s okay! They who do other things do not traverse my online world, we do not counter-judge one another and we still exist harmoniously, and that, as the late Teena Marie sang back in 1981, is “square biz”!
Not to belabor the point, because soon I have some other current common nonsensical events to blogplain about, I’ll just ask that when you have some free time, you to check out the (slightly) new look of I.M.I.J Produckshunz (pronounced “image productions”), 2023 two-point-OH! http://www.imijproduckshunz.com/
The home of Cheetah Media & Freelance Services (CMFS). We are here for your needs, if our lifetime expertise allows.
Many Thanks, Be Well and best wishes in all you (legally and ethically) Do. ~ Cheetah NJB
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