OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With Frances Wayne! Plus Memorial Day At The Manor!

Can you believe we’re headed into summertime already? Wheeeeeee! Is your swimsuit bod ready yet? Are you hankering for some good tunes by the pool? Then head over in your finest scanties to "Five-Finger Slippy," the Manor's popular new jazz and supper club, because DJ Li'l Scratch is spinning tunes by a terrific jazz singer who only put out a handful of LPs. We're talking the incomparable Frances Wayne.

Ain't she lovely? Or "bella" as her parents might have said, since she was born of Italian immigrants in Boston. As for her singing, sometimes when you have it, you know it and you know it early - and so does everyone else around you. Frances hit New York city as a teenager and almost immediately found herself in high demand, singing and touring with the Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman bands, amongst others, and creating a solo sensation at nighteries in NYC and L.A. In short order, she nabbed a recording contract, later scoring one of her biggest hits with her moving rendition of "Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe."

Her second LP in 1956, "Songs For My Man," showcases her uncanny ability to mold her near-operatic contralto to the demand's of any song, be it straight jazz, bop, blues or otherwise, like "Mood Indigo," or my favorite in this collection, her finger-snappin' bop version of "Man Of Mine." How good was she? Billboard called her vocals "wondrous," a perfect description, I think.

Though she released only five LPs, her and her husband, trumpeter, composer and arranger Neal Hefti - he later wrote the theme song for TV's "Batman" series - kept busy on the nightclub circuit. And despite a break in her career to raise their children, Frances kept on performing well into the 1970s before her untimely death at age fifty-three. The complete "Songs For My Man" is right here:

As a special aside I would be remiss not to note, and least for 'Muricans, that today is Memorial Day, and it's being celebrated at the Manor in our own inimitable fashion:

Yes, it's true, both of the Manor's splendid kidney-shaped pools will be replete with boozy bars, kicky music, fresh salads and finger sandwiches, as well as many cheerful, patriotically-adorned Bendy Boyz™ who'll be ready to serve your every need. Celebrate with them however you wish. For our non-American residents, also celebrate with them however you wish. They're citizens of the world, dont'cha know. 

Photo Credits: Getty Images