Welcome, music slores, to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Wheeeeee! It's time to sing, to swing, and to gather up some fun music to play for peeps at Thanksgiving and during all your wintertime celebrations - because jazz vocalists make every holiday better and I won't be told otherwise. You can't live on "Jingle Bells" and Mariah for the entire holiday season, right? So if you're searching for some festive tunes to play during the season that everyone will enjoy, just click the Manor Music Monday tag and thumb through the posts. Meanwhile, tonight at the Manor's "Milf n' Cookies" lounge and dinette (try the classic lasagna!) (it's meaty!), DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing the vocal stylings of a songstress who started her career way back in 1939 during an amateur talent contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater . Did I mention that she won that contest? Because she did. Everyone loved Betty Roche right from the start. With her c...

Greetings, hormigos, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a li'l Creole spice, and who doesn't want that, amirite? Today's fetching jazz and R&B singer wasn't just born to Creole parents in Louisiana, she was also a gifted songwriter and violinist. And, yes, she slayed in the 1940s and 50s. DJ Li'l Scratch can't wait to play all of her tunes for you tonight, so be sure to swing by "Rim Job," the Manor's after-hours club and car wash. You won't be sorry. Savannah Churchill is that good.  And get this: unlike most Black singers of her day, Savannah didn't start singing and performing at her church - "Wait, what?" you say - but instead at her school, where she also excelled at the violin.  With her stunning beauty and fair complexion, she could have easily passed as white, which surely would have benefited her career. However, she steadfastly embraced her Black heritage.  It wasn't long before she ...

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 re...