Greetings, Manor slutinos, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, a day which is frosty and cold for most of you, so tonight, at "Box Job!", the Manor's exclusive after-hours nightery, only hot libations will be served, including Irish Coffee, Mulled Wine and my favorite, Spiked Hot Chocolate. Even better, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing tunes by a mesmerizing one-LP wonder, or a talented jazz songstress who scored a single LP deal, lots of club dates, and then moved on to a second life - in this case one just as interesting as the first.
From the daughter of a speakeasy-singing mother to West Coast jazz crooner to successful, politically-active hippie restaurateur, Pat Healy lived many lives. Born in 1927, wee infant Pat was sometimes left to sleep in a dresser drawer at home while her mother sang and performed all night long at speakeasies and nightclubs in Cleveland, Ohio. Yet later, little Pat accompanied her. Is it any wonder she wanted to become a jazz baby? She first tried to hit the road as a singer as a teen, but her mother put a stop to that. Still, it wasn't long thereafter before she headed to Los Angeles, pursued singing and became part of The Actor's Lab, a theatre troupe which also welcomed Jane Fonda and Jack Nicholson.
Deeply identifying with the jazz environment - it was in her blood, she later said - she was soon after able to score gigs at local clubs up and down the West Coast - sometimes performing with the Bud Shank Quartet, as well as the Claude Williamson Trio - and quickly earned a reputation as a "jazz singer's singer" and a noted "cool jazz stylist." Even better? She finally got a record deal, cutting her first and only LP, "Just Before Dawn" in 1958, for Pacific Jazz Records, a prominent West Coast jazz label, to near universal acclaim from critics and listeners alike.
This was no surprise to those who'd already heard her live. Her warm delivery, coupled with her razor-sharp interpretive skills, make every track on the album sound like a mini three-act play, her emotional clarity evident in each tune, like the hushed, "Every Time."
So why not more LPs, more gigs, more renown? Unfortunately, fate threw her several monkey-wrenches - and all at once. After her agent abruptly died, just as her marriage fell apart, she had no choice but to reinvent herself. At first, she made a hardscrabble living growing organic vegetables, which she sold out of the back of her truck.
But soon after, she became a beloved, "Mama Hippie" West Coast restauranteur and bakery owner - one of her places became a haven for music-loving, politically-active youths in the 1960s and 70s - and she didn't retire until she was seventy-eight. I just know you'll want to listen to the rest of her bewitching album RIGHT HERE. You might want to fire up a fatty when you do, because this allowed in Pat's restaurants.
What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know. Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾
Photo Credits: Pacific Jazz Records/Capital Records/Universal Music Group; Getty Images
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