Greetings, bed-hoppers, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday - today in a laidback, after-bang mode, if'n you know what I mean. And I know you do. For such times, when blasting 80s hair metal just won't do, you need the stylings of a lass whose singing is both skilled and chill like a lotus. Intrigued? Be sure to come to the Manor's "Crossing Swords" lounge at around 4am (or before closing at sunrise).  That 's when DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing tunes performed by a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a sphinx. Yes, it's another Mystery Lady™. Or yet another jazz songbird who recorded only one LP, then - poof! - vanished into oblivion. Unsurprising, since her LP dropped in the late-1950s during the inexorable rise of rock 'n' roll, which decimated the jazz songbird market. In the case of Easy Williams - what a name! - it's a shame, because her slinky-gal vocals are smooth, intimate and a lot of fun - and well suited to...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Today, DJ Li'l Scratch is completely chillaxed from a vaca across the pond and so needs a bright and lively singer to shake him alive - but with joy, mind you, only joy. It's a singer we're all familiar with, but have perhaps taken for granted. She has, after all, been in most of our lives since the very beginning, yet look - and listen - closely, because she's an astonishment that keeps on giving. Tonight at the Manor's exclusive "Pitch-a-Tent" bar and grill, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing scads of her bestest tunes ever.  Are you surprised it's Pearlie? You shouldn't be. In 1957 alone, Pearl Bailey's self-titled LP was one of seven released under her name. That's seven as in s-e-v-e-n. Can you imagine any pop-tarlet even approaching that kind of output today?  Her career lasted decades, so let's just bounce-bounce-bounce around a few career and person...

Greetings music lovers, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, this entry being, I hope, a brassy antidote to the mess that has become The Met Ball, or the East Coast's most famous Jerk Parade, tonight with Extra Jerk and Tupperware Titays (with apologies to dearly departed Tupperware). Can anything work to counter this gory dumpster fire of tacky, mess and blurgh? DJ Li'l Scratch believes so, and tonight at the Manor's exclusive after hours club, "Huh? Wha? I'll Have That With Sloppy Oral," he'll by spinning delicious tunes by a brassy singer you're guaranteed to be delighted by. Yes, it's Miss Toni Fisher, a performer who's giving us serious "growl, snarl, snap" above. Don't mess with Miss Toni amirite? Her time in the spotlight was brief. She was a Hollywood nightclub singer for only five years, recorded just one LP - 1960's "The Big Hurt" - and scored only two Top 40 hits, the first one being ...

Greetings music lovuhs, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. Or perhaps should I say "tap-tap, tap-tap-tap" since it's National Morse Code Day, too. Send this to likeminded nerds:  ( ... --- ...). It's   the universal Morse code distress signal, dont'cha know. 'Cause we're living in stressful times, aren't we?  It's time to decompress, if only for an evening, and at the Manor's exclusive "Tug Job" bar, vapory and snackery (warm, cheesy cassava bread is served all night!), DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing tunes by a  performer whose career as a big band singer, Broadway, movie and TV star stretched over 50 years. Do you know who it is? If you guessed Fran Warren, you're right. And, yes, you can also add Sexploitation Queen to her resume, since she played the cranky mom in " Toys Are Not For Children ," a beloved 1972 psycho-sexual drama extraordinaire. Fran really did do it all! It was the early 1940s ...

Happy 4/20, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a little puff-puff or a gummy or two. Why? Because it's 4/20, silly, a holiday started in the early 1970s by a bunch of "burn-out" teens at San Rafael High School, the numbers being code for a time, or 4:20pm, when they'd secretly meet to smoke weed by, or all things, a statue of Louis Pasteur.  What does this have to do with music or DJ Li'l Scratch? Absolutely nothing, but then don't expect our furry DJ to make sense today as he's lit like a sparkler. Better still, he'll be busy tonight at "Richard Johnson's," the Manor's after hours club and vape lounge, where you'll hear tunes by a deceptively loony, yet supremely talented jazz songstress. Why look, it's none other than Marion Montgomery. If you live in the UK, you might know of her, since she was an American-born jazz singer who married a Brit and thereafter became a much-beloved f...

Greetings, fellow prostitots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a bit of skiddly-doo, bop-bop-a-loo-bob and shoobee-doobee. These words were frequently accompanied by a wink, finger guns and tap dancing leaps, all prime words and moves from the early 1960s - just before jazz at last lost its popular hold to rock, which had been near-to-obliterating it years before. Now the job was done. Finito.  Also lost? Jazz babies, or femme jazz vocalists who were the star attraction at exclusive supper clubs, some of whom even got to cut an album or two. Like the hot-cha singing attraction, Peggy Connelly. And lucky you, tonight at the Manor's "Mack the Cat" nightclub and dinette, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing Peggy till the early yawning hours.  At one time the wife of "Laugh-In's" Dick Martin, Peggy was a popular model, singer, dancer, and sometime TV and movie actress, in the 1950s and 60s - and a choice escort about to...

Greetings, sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a sunny visit to "The Pearl of the Antilles," as it was once called, or "El Cocodrilo," which translates to "The Crocodile," since viewed from above, this is the country's shape on a map. I speak of Cuba, of course, from yesteryear to today, where, if its achingly slow rebirth isn't quashed by El Jefe de Covfefe, distinctive music has and will hopefully continue to flourish. Since my delicious, squeezable hubs is from Cuba, I've long known about the country's culture, food and music, all of which are practically inseparable. And lucky for all of us, DJ Li'l Scratch is bringing home the Cubano tonight at "Mamar Pinga," the Manor's popular after hours bar, club and Lechon Asado eatery. Plus there'll be lots of barn-burning music. Of course. When people think Cuban music, they invariably think of Gloria Estefan.  Which is understandable, e...

Let's see if we're good this time... Hey there, music sloots and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with an extra blast of fun from the 1970s. Which means disco, of course, but also adult entertainment, two things that were inescapable back in the day when attending them was considered the perfect movie for a chic night out. What does that all mean? What the hell am I talking about? I ask myself these questions daily, but tonight, at least, we can all learn the adults-only answers from DJ Li'l Scratch, who'll be bringing the sizzling disco tunes at the Manor's "Fapping Fodder" lounge and late night pizzeria.  That's when we'll meet a luminary who went from trained classical pianist to porn legend to unstoppable disco queen. "Scooby-wha?" you say. There's only one Andrea True, or Andrea Marie Truden as she was first known. Back in the late-1960s and 70s, when adult movies where cultural events, Andrea was a star, b...

Hi'ya music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Tonight, DJ Li'l Scratch will at the Manor's "Gimme A Stiffy!" bar and lounge playing tunes by a beautifully smooth vocalist who was also a polyglot, singing fluently in English, Italian, Portuguese, French, and German. In fact, her 1990 album, "Sabia," and 1993's "From Bassie to Brazil," are considered definitive jazz explorations of Brazilian Bossa Nova. And get this, she was also a successful writer. Her short stories were published in "Mademoiselle" and "Cosmo," and her story "Ramona by the Sea" won a prestigious O. Henry Award in 1975. In the category of "What Couldn't He Or She Do?" she's way up there. Yes, it's the amazing Susannah McCorckle, who was working as a translator and linguist in Paris in the late 1960s when she heard a recording of Billie Holiday singing "I've Got a Right to Sing the Blue...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to a spanking new edition of Manor Music Monday, today en francais! What does that mean? It means we're about to explore a mesmerizing French chanteuse who briefly became a Hollywood starlet. Tonight at "Gober Moi, Cherie," the Manor's exclusive French music hall and dessert creperie, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing all of her best tunes, each of which made the French swoon, thoughtfully smoke Gitanes, and ask themselves if they should be proud or ashamed for inventing mayonnaise and Pieds Paquets, or stewed sheep's feet. Shall we? Apres vous, mon ami.  Isn't she something? A lovely gamine , one might say. And tough as nails, too. Yes, it's the legendary Juliette Greco, whose sultry, commanding, deep-toned voice entranced nearly the entire world just after WWII. As a mysterious, sensual, femme fatale-like figure - whose devotees included Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Miles Davis, the latter whom she had a tor...

Greetings, music sluts and slutinos, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with an extra Ay and a  Yi , with an added Yi . Toss in a cuchi-cuchi and you're all set. You know her well if you're a human being, and even if you're an alien merely peeking in on humanity here and there, you know her. She's as ageless as Cher, as delightful as Dolly, and, yes, like them, needs only one name in order to be identified. If you're still confused, are you eight-years-old? Are you blind and deaf - put together? These are the only possible reasons I can think of that you might not know of this world-famous legendary legend (the kidults call her "iconic" in their best vocal fry). But on the off chance that you're deeply, mortifyingly confused, or actually do know of her and rightly want to celebrate her continued fabulousness, please join us tonight at "Sausage Stick!", the Manor's exclusive nightery and gourmet hot doggery where ...