Welcome, music hors, to another edition of Manor Music Monday, and the first in November after the you-know-what tsunami or shellacking or spanking or whatever you want to call it. All DJ Li'l Scratch knows is that a lot more people are out clubbing, dancing and slipping him prime 'nip. Is DJ Li'l Scratch high? Let's put it this way; that scratching post in the DJ booth has been decimated, m'k?  Meanwhile, did you know? This past Tuesday, it was our nation's Black Queens who once again helped  save the day . Have you thanked your neighborhood's Black Queens today? Speaking of queens, the songstress below was long known as Miami's Queen of Soul, and tonight, at the Manor's "Black Pearl" lounge and dinette, DJ Li'l Scratch will be spinning her irresistible tunes all night long.  Yes, it's Betty Wright, and her electrifying "Live" LP may have been recorded over thirty years ago, but make no mistake, it sounds as urgent and f...

I know what you're thinking (if you're 'Murican), and it might have to do with the outcome of certain polling and balloting or efforts to plebiscite (ten dollar word, amirite?) come the next few days. I know what else you're thinking: how can you possibly get excited about a fabulous Dame at a time like this? But DJ Li'l Scratch urges you to fight against such notions, for this is precisely time we should all be celebrating everything that is good and glamorous, and also brassy and bold and daaaaaamn. So tonight, you and yours are cordially invited to "Pork Steeple!", the Manor's after-hours bar and gourmet sandwich porkery, where DJ L'il Scratch will be spinning tunes from Wales' finest contribution to hot-cha!, jazz hands!  and wowza! Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the one, the only... ...Dame Shirley Bassey. There is no other. If you know her, and I bet'cha you do, you probably first think of her indelible tunes for three, count ...

Greetings music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. It's almost Halloween, which means it's time for all good puddytats to watch out, because they could be snatched by dastardly foes. This does not include witches, as they were once known, or gayelles, as they're known at present, since then and now, they feed, brush and generally spoil those puddys they grab before finding them a good home. Surprisingly, DJ Li'l Scratch has managed to evade capture all these years, from friend or foe, even though he's on his 6th life and spans the ages.  Speaking of spanning the ages - how's that for a segue! - the one and only Sophie Tucker bridged the eras from the 1800's to the 1900's, and like DJ Li'l Scratch, there's no reason she can't continue streaking toward infinity and beyond. When you listen to her sing, Sophie will take you back to vaudeville's and burlesque's earliest days, a time she lived through, when the g...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. Are you good at solving mysteries? Because DJ Li'l Scratch has a nice one today, and maybe you can help solve it. Be forewarned, it's a lot more complicated than his recent mystery, "Where's my stash?" or the one just after, "Seriously, where's my stash?" and the one following, "Im'a cut a bitch unless we find my stash." At any rate, tonight only at the Manor's "It's Pink Inside!" after-hours club and dinette, the DJ will be playing tunes by a mystery lass who really ought to be better known - and celebrated, too.  Who is Lea Roberts? Here's what we know. She was born Leatha Roberta Hicks in Dayton, Ohio in 1946, where her mother led the "Sweet Chariot" gospel choir at Corinthian Baptist Church - and gave Lea her musical start as a wee choir member. Years later, in the early 1960s, she briefly relocated to Detroit, Michigan to...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Music Manor Monday, today served with hair-raising peril and moody, heart-stopping music. By the way, have you noticed how DJ Li'l Scratch only appears in black-and-white? Sorry, there's no work around for this, no matter how colorful the setting you may find him in. As a hard-boiled creature of night and shadow, he will always look as if he's just stepped out of a film-noir crime-drama. Hissss!   I've always had a special place in my chilled heart for film-noir (and for  John Garfield , the ultimate dumb-luck hunk). And yet it's not just the skewed camera angles, concealing shadows, tempting femme fatales or nefarious storylines that have pulled me in. The music adds to the fun, and most of it makes for great listening (even out of context). Take Elmer Bernstein's landmark, daddy-o jazz score for 1955's "Man With The Golden Arm, " which is both rhythmic and menacing, a stunning innovation...

Greeting music tramps, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a lovely songstress and a whiff of scandal. Speaking of the latter, DJ Li'l Scratch has had many lives, as you know, and let's just say that he's never been snipped. In other words, if you notice your own puddytat half-closing their eyes and grooving to cool jazz, then they're surely a descendant of the DJ. All cats love jazz, of course, but his progeny really and truly feel that backbeat rhythm. If you believe your cat is a scion of DJ Li'l Scratch, they may be entitled to compensation in the form of extra treats, hugs and gentle patty-butt spanks. So very groovy, right? Speaking of groovy, say hello to Miss Georgia Gibbs: Though she found success and love as an adult, Georgia's life began in tragedy. Her father died when she was six months old, causing her and her siblings to spend nearly a decade at an orphanage where they were visited by their destitute mother only once a...

Greetings music tramps, and welcome to annother edition of Music Manor Monday. Today, we're diving into some far-out jazz from London Town in the late 1950s/early 60s, a time when DJ Li'l Scratch was kickin' it at The Flamingo Club and chord chasing with the best of them. Hollywood hadn't quite caught on to the sound, though it would, yet low-budget moviemakers were keen to exploit it, along with it's youthful, daddy-o ethos.  If you yearn to be slutty (no judgement here) (obvi), why not do it old-school and inspire yourself with some prototypical slut music? This is what got the kids hot and pervy in the late 1950s. You can hear it all when DJ Li'l Scratch plays music from a distinctive composer from the era, tonight only at "Street Squish," the Manor's exclusive and filthy nightery.  \ The music is from "Beat Girl," a 1960 exploitation movie which one appalled reviewer at the time called "machine made dirt!" Is the movie any ...

Greetings music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. But not just any edition, for today, a giant of jazz has entered the Manor. We don't always get to celebrate a singer universally acclaimed by critics and taken to heart by the masses - a rare feat, but she did it, and for over 50 years. Top that current pop tarts! So be sure to swing by the Manor's exclusive "Tubesteak!" after hours bar and lounge, because DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing her tunes all night long.  Yes, it's Gloria Lynne, who burst onto the scene to instant acclaim at The Apollo Theatre when she was only 15 years old. She lied about her age in order to qualify. From there she was off, signing with the legendary  Everest Records and soon after scoring hits like "June Night" and "I'm Glad There Is You." Audiences loved her, and not only at her sold-out club dates, but nationally on TV specials with the likes of Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald a...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with heavy dollops of sass, class and brass from a pioneering jazz songbird who overcame several jaw-dropping life challenges and obstacles, yet remained as upbeat as the day she was born. Tonight you can revel in her tunes with DJ Li'l Scratch at the Manor's exclusive "Find 'n Grind!" after-hours saloon. You'll want to stop by, I swear.  Also, dear lord, we're in the midst of September, nearing October and Halloween, then there's Thanksgiving, which means it's almost time for a gaggle of December holidays, and then New Year's and then - what? January bloat? A zombie apocalypse? One of those "Eat! Drink! Paint!" events at Applebee's? Kill me now. Or rather, don't. Let's hope our music will get us through the rough spots. Lucky us, since classy-lassy Lee Wiley can always be trusted to whisk away the blues no matter the time of year. Conside...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with two - count 'em, two - wonderful, mostly forgotten jazz songbirds. Yet they're not forgotten by DJ Li'l Scratch, who's lived many lives, as you know, and has seen and heard so much, and in fact was born with a brood of five wee kittens in the smoky backroom of " The Green Mill Jazz Club."  But that's a story for another day.  Tonight only at the Manor's "Shuck 'Em and Funk 'Em" after-hours lounge and taqueria, DJ Li' Scratch will be spinning tunes by two chanteuses from the "cool jazz" period in the late 1950s through the early 1960s, or tunes with hushed tones, smooth, steady tempos and complex harmonies. First we have Joy Bryan, the epitome of the All-American girl-next-door, don't you think? Yet looks can be deceiving - and all is not vanilla. Joy was yet another one of those terrific, highly regarded late 1950's-era West...

Greetings music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Can you hear birds whistling tuneful songs? Or little animals singing cheerful ditties in three-part harmony? If so, then you are psychotic and should really speak to a doctor about your visual and aural hallucinations. I kid, I kid, because we all see and hear singing birds and animals, right? Right? Anyway-I-swear-I'm-not-on-Thorazine, the songstress we're celebrating today is both famous and not famous. And sang with animals.  Confused? You won't be if you swing by "Rumpy-Pumpy Wowza-Powza," the Manor's newest after-hours club and sausage-sizzle eatery, where DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing this gal's sweet-as-syrup and twice-as-nice LP that just might make you feel all kinds of gentle and good. "It was another time," as they say, and gentle and good was allowed. Look! Singer Ilene Woods was so pretty she just popped to life. "Wait," you ask. "Ilen...