Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a boss beat - plus a triple-stroke roll, a cowbell and a wing nut. No, these aren't sex positions you've never heard of, you perv, though feel free to invent a few to go along with them, but drumming terminology. And by drumming, I mean specifically in a jazz environment, because in the jazz world, he's still considered one of the very best. And tonight - only at "Cleaning the Cat," the Manor's exclusive music club and pizzeria - DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing all his best tunes. Get ready to be shocked, since with tonight's music, every sound will be played by real instruments. I know, right? And that includes the drums played by this vanguard:  Yes, it's Gene Krupa, the drumming phenom who invented tunable tom-toms, developed the modern hi-hat and was the very first to standardize (and popularize) modern cymbal techniques. Oh, and he was a dynamite player, ...

Greetings, horlettes, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. Today's starry songstress studied piano and voice in college, as she was set on becoming an opera singer. But once she heard a few Duke Ellington LPs, introduced to her by her mother, opera was dunzo . Jazz had infected her soul, as it had for so many in the early 1930s. Back then, jazz was also called "devil's music," since it was created by Black musicians, of course, but also because it was linked to the Women's Liberation movement, and unlike classical music, it wasn't based on any foundation of specific rules and techniques. Improvisation was scary - and, yes, it increased immorality and promiscuity. I know, I know, I can hear you now: "Sign me up!" But this was a different time, as they say. Lucky for us, at the Manor's "Cake Shakin' Lounge and Dessertery," DJ Li'l Cat will be spinning her tunes tonight. Do you recognize this gently coquettish ope...