OPEN POST: Monday Music At The Manor With DJ Li'l Scratch!

Are you freaking out about the election tomorrow? Me, too. Or maybe you're having a more generalized "It's Monday, oh-my-fucking-gawd" freak out? In either case, please allow Peckerwood Manor's esteemed DJ Li'l Scratch to take you away. Many of you already know about Li'l Scratch, as he regularly lays tracks at "Heavy D's," the Manor's exclusive after-hours club. 

Today he's spinning Teri Thornton, a vibrant, husky-voiced jazz singer and piano player who hailed from Detroit. In 1961, she exploded onto the scene with her debut LP, "Devil May Care," demonstrating show-stopping vocal prowess. The reviews were through the roof and so was the public reception, yet just as suddenly - poof - she vanished after a few more LPs, her career thwarted by market changes given the rise of rock 'n' roll. And that was that. She was all but forgotten, reduced to driving a taxi to make ends meet. 

But in a jaw-dropping comeback, she resurfaced three decades later in the mid-1980s in NYC jazz clubs. The acclaim was instantaneous once more - as if no time had passed. Throughout the 1990s, her acclaim only grew. She was signed to a major label, then won the coveted Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Tragically, cancer whisked her away shortly after at age 66, but give a listen to this LP - and do crank it. Trust DJ Li'l Scratch, you'll understand what all the fuss was about. Or take Elle Fitzgerald's word for it, who cited Teri as "my favorite singer" in a Downbeat magazine interview, or listen to Tony Bennett, who said, "She's the first singer in years who doesn't have any gimmicks, any tricks. Instead, she's endowed with perfect pitch, a three-octave range, and years of invaluable experience."