Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with music to keep you warm - even scorching - especially for those if you in bone-chilling, snow-laden lands hither and thon. Did you know? At the Manor, every climate is represented. Just turn a corner on our grounds and it's Fall, then Summer, and so forth. We've got that Narnia-type shit going on (sans closets). But I digress. Tonight, at "Sweating Like A Skerd Gerbil" bar and gourmand nuttery, DJ Li'l Scratch is bringing us a songstress who's smooth with a refreshing spike of 'tude, which is really the best way to describe Marlena Shaw, an unheralded diva who conquered jazz, soul, R&B, disco, gospel and blues, and all with equal aplomb. In other words, she's surfed with the times, from The Apollo Theatre as a ten-year-old phenom, to the present day, where she performed at a major jazz festival in the Netherlands. Some divas never stop. Until they have to. Sadl...

I t's time to jump, jam and jive, and there's no cat around who can do that better than DJ Li'l Scratch, am I right? Tonight, at the Manor's exclusive "Cake Shake Lounge," Li'l Scratch will be spinning tunes from the smoothest jazz vocalist around. Can you guess? I'll give you a hint. Who has the vocal smoothness of Etta Jones with the rhythmic snap of Della Reese? If you guessed Helen Humes, you were right.  "For who - and for what?" you might also ask.  Let me explain, first by pointing out that Cincinnati once had its very own popular Cotton Club nightspot .  "Wait - really? Shut up!" you exclaim. I will not shut up, and  for reals, it did . And get this: that's where the incomparable Helen Humes truly kicked off her career in the early 1930s. "Saucy," "rousing," "classy" and "swingin'" are just a few of the adjectives that were used to describe Helen during her heyday, though later...