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 ...

Greetings, music-loving sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a flame-haired Hollywood beauty who acted, sang and danced up a storm, and though she was known as "The Queen of Technicolor" given her eye-popping beauty and luxurious red locks in a series of popular Westerns, today she's remembered most for her roles in B&W film-noir thrillers. I know you'll be excited to hear her sing, and you can, tonight only, at the Manor's exclusive "Dry Docking!" after-hours lounge and salad bar. Dress to impress, because our singing lass always knows what to wear, or not. Can you guess who it is? If you guessed Rhonda Fleming, you're right! Collect your gift in the alleyway behind the north wing of the Manor (and bring lube). Anyhoo, our Rhonda was born Mary Louis in 1923 in Hollywood and trained in light opera while only a wee one, then entered - and won - several singing contests. It's no big surprise that she was sign...

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 ...

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...

Greetings Manor hors, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Did you know? Today is National Bubble Wrap Day, so if you have some, by all means enjoy popping those air-filled plastic nubbins. Pop-pop-pop! Such fun. Also fun, a lively jazz and Broadway songstress who was brought to new heights in 1949 after being spotted performing at Greenwich Village's The Cinderella Club  (where Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk frequently gigged) by none other than Mae West, who promptly cast her in her Broadway revival of "Diamond Lil." That's quite a gal to give your career a boost. And tonight, at the Manor's exclusive "Canyon Yodeling" club and taco joint, DJ Li'l Scratch will be spinning her irresistible tunes. How irresistible? Let's just say that Frank Sinatra himself called her "the world's greatest saloon singer."  Yes, it's Sylvia Syms (not to be confused with the British actor with a similar name), who was born in ...