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 ...

Happy Martin Luther King Day, music sloots, and welcome to another kicky edition of Manor Music Monday. Today, we'll be chatting about a winning jazz songstress whom time has unjustly forgotten, though in her day, she delighted top jazz musicians and composers who scrambled to work with her. You can hear her tonight at "Sportin' a Semi!" the Manor's 24-hour club and creperie where DJ L'il Scratch will be laying down her irresistible tunes.  Yes, it's Patricia "Pat" Thomas. Just look at her: coquettish beauty and adorableness incarnate. Born in The City Of Big Shoulders - that's Chicago to you pesky rubes - she was an in-demand performer by nearly every jazz band in the late 1950s and early 60s, and hit the big-time, if briefly, with her 1963 LP, "Desafinado," the title track being a Bossa Nova-flavored triumph which rocketed up the charts.  It was her rich, caramel-toned voice which made her stand out, even in her early days. Her fi...

Welcome, music sloots to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today by way of a San Francisco gal with incredible talent and understated class, a combo we don't see much in performers these days of any ilk, if at all. Better still, she's still truckin' at age 86. And though it's wintertime, her music will bring back summer. Just listen and you'll feel the heat, the light humidity, a chill band and her freshly reviving voice. Also, San Francisco must have something in the water, because so many terrific jazz vocalists seem to hail from there. It can't be a coincidence. Case in point, Mary Stallings, born in 1939 in the city, the middle child of 11 siblings. Get this: she's also the niece of saxophonist Orlando Stallings, who introduced her to jazz when she was just a wee one after overhearing her scatting to Dizzy Gillespie's "Oop-Bop-Sh'bam." She performed briefly with Uncle Orlando's band and with her church, and while she was still...

Greetings music slutinos, and welcome to the first Manor Music post for the new year! It's back to work for many of you today - and I know, blech. Myself, I want at least another week off, but, hey, music can be a vacation, right? No, really, it can. Tonight, at the Manor's exclusive "Bush Diver" after-hours bar and taquitoria, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing just want you need to hear as you start the work week. Something effortlessly light, something to sweep away the drudgery, something with giggles.  How about "The Girl With A Giggle In Her Voice?" That's what she was dubbed in the early 1950s. Behold the chucklesome Alma Cogan, here in her dressing room just seconds before hitting the stage. She designed all of her fetching costumes, by the way. Never once was she seen in the same outfit twice.  I 'm still trying to wrap my noggin around the fact that she was, for quite a long time, the highest-paid female performer ever in the UK (until th...

Welcome, music sloots, to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a swingin' sister to kick you into the New Year with a big smile on your face - and these days, we need something to smile about, don't we? Please make sure and join DJ Li'l Scratch tonight at the Manor's exclusive after hours joint, "Liquor in the Front!" There, he'll be spinning tunes from a performer who started out as part of the "Cool School" sound on the West Coast in the 1940s and 50s, which was yet another movement that acted as a counterpart to bebop. If bebop was "hot-hot-hot" - being loud and fast (and competitive) - Cool Jazz was its "cool" counterpart, or chill, understated and sometimes intellectually detached. You know them when you hear them: Chet Baker with his fragile, whispered delivery; Peggy Lee with her minimalist singing, doing as much as possible with the teensiest amount of volume; and Chris Connor, famed for her vibrato-less v...

Greetings music slutinos, and welcome to a special Winter Holiday Edition of Manor Music Monday! For me, the holidays aren't complete without a few things, like delicious dark chocolate, squealing chirruns and Vince Guaraldi. If that name is unfamiliar to you, I'll bet his music isn't, since he composed the indelible music for "A Charlie Brown Christmas," a 1965 TV special that's all but imprinted on our minds, much like "The Wizard of Oz." And just like the music was important to "The Wizard of Oz," it was crucial to "A Charlie Brown Music," conveying not only seasonal giggles 'n fun, but Charlie Brown's deeply melancholic state of mind. And perhaps most head-turning of all for a mass-market TV special in the mid-60s, the score was jazz.  In fact, it was the very first time jazz was used prominently in animation - for the big or small screen - giving Peanuts a wholly unique, sophisticated, yet accessible sound. The soundt...

Greetings music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! As we near the winter holidays, I think back to the year we've all had - and how we all need a break from the madness. For me, vocal jazz always does the trick. So what do we need tonight? We need DJ Li'l Scratch, who'll be cranking tunes at the Manor's own "Moist Muffin Lounge and Dinette." What will he be playing? A gal you may not have heard of, and I bet'cha you'll take her for granted once you listen to her - or at least the first time around. Some things sneak up on you. Confused? I'll explain. When I first played Pam Garner's 1960 LP, "Pam Sings Ballads For Broken Hearts," I was contemplating the herculean effort it might take to rearrange and scrub my work station (contemplation is such hard work!). The LP ended and I thought, "Meh, Pam's okay." My desk remained a mess. But a day later, while preparing chicken breasts and realizing that...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. You are, as they say, in the right place at the right time, just like our delightful jazz, pop and deeply soulful songstress was back in the day. But more on that in a sec. Did you know that today is National Chocolate Brownie Day? Isn't that delightful? Aren't you hankering for some now? Then make sure to head to the Manor's exclusive "Salty Glue" after hours club and dessertery, where DJ Li'l Cat will be spinning tunes by a songstress who's career was short, but impactful, and where "special" Alice B. Toklas-approved brownies will be served on a first-some-first-serve basis.  Meanwhile some gals know just how to style their hair:  Yes, it's the renown Brenda Holloway, who retired from showbiz...at age 22. Whaaaaat ? You are intrigued, no? Brenda was multitalented. As a youngster in Watts, LA, she played the piano, the flute, the violin, and later, wrote or cowr...

Greetings, music trollops, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. Are you still bloated from the holidays? Do you just want to kick back and drink and chillax with a jazz songstress who knows her stuff and can whisk you away to Happyville? Then pay a visit to "Apres Holiday Boink-Boink," the Manor's exclusive pop-up lounge and donut eatery. Tonight only, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing tunes by a cult songstress prized by jazz aficionados worldwide.  Presenting the delightfully named Dodo Greene. She's been forgotten by many, but give a listen: her voice is at once jazzy and bluesy and rock 'n' roll. She almost defies categorization, what with her husky, rhythmic, and always emotive, vocal delivery. In other words, she's an astonishing original. And if that's not worth celebrating, then I don't know what is. Born in Buffalo, New York in the early 1920s, she first turned heads while singing as a tween in her church choir, quickly ...

Welcome, Manor music sluts, to another edition of Manor Music Monday! And happy Almost-Turkey-Day for those of you in The Land of the Free (ish). Are you getting your playlists ready for your Turkey Day gathering? Me, too. And I'm avoiding Christmas tunes, thankyouverymuch, because we'll all get enough of that in the coming weeks. Why not create a playlist with all your jazz favorites - just like DJ Li'l Scratch is doing. Trust me, even tots, tweens and teenagers will like jazz when introduced to it. Besides, haven't they listened to enough Cynthia and Arianna?  Meanwhile, if the picture above doesn't say "sizzle," then I don't know what does. Behold Sallie Blair, a red-hot jazz chanteuse in the 1950s and early 60s who never attained big-time stardom. Why, you ask? Once again, the rise of rock 'n' roll obliterated her and many other mainstream jazz artists from radio playlists, leaving her to record only a few LPs, score some TV gigs, and dazzl...

Greetings, music sloots and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Today we have a beautiful-sounding mystery, because unlike so many music performers, past or present, there's virtually nothing to be found out about this one-of-a-kind jazz songstress on the internet - which, no matter your background or era, is pretty hard to do these days. And these days? We really need her.  Yes, we desperately need the dulcet tones from a singer who's been there and back. In fact, we need Cora Lee Day (center in the photo above), a noted actress who had a late-career renaissance in "What's Love Got To Do With It?" and the compelling  "Daughter's Of The Dust," for which she should have received an Academy Award (or at least a nomination) (but I digress) (as I'm wont to do). Born in 1914, many claim that she first worked as a model in New York City. This isn't hard  to believe, since she was stunning to look at and quite tall. Somehow, she next ...

Welcome, music prostitots, to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a li'l bump, a li'l grind, and lots of razzmatazz. And yes, our songstress of the day has a gimmick, because, as you might know, you gotta get a gimmick. Those last four words were probably enough to cause all of you Broadway Babies out there to squeal with happiness - and for good reason. But this ain't no Broadway post, bub. It's about the Real McCoy, as they say, or the genu-wine article. Tonight, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing all of her hot-cha! songs at the Manor's "Tuna Pole!" lounge and Shirako dinette. Yes, i t's times like these that call for Gypsy, don't you think? No, not the movie or stage Gypsy. I'm talking about the actual person. Yes, it's true, there really was a burlesque queen named Gypsy. I know, right? It's like finding out the tooth-fairy is real. And yes, she and her audience frequently had to make a mad dash for the streets when...

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, tonight served with beef stroganoff, a relish tray, a Brandy Old Fashioned, and for your entertainment, a truly classy songstress. When I first heard the term "supper club singer," it conjured up images of a hard-bitten chippy singing slightly off-key at the "Pour Decisions Lounge" in Seaford, Long Island (right next to the abandoned HoJos) (the town's strong odor of sewage is just a bonus!). But back in the day, a "supper club singer" was high praise, denoting a group of gifted jazz birds who could be counted on to deliver the goods - and the crowds - at posh eateries on both coasts and abroad. One of them was Ann Williams, whom DJ Li'l Scratch will be spinning tonight at the Manor's "FlufferNutter" lounge and dinette. You won't want to miss out. Oh, and just look at her picture. Yes, she's that kind of gal. Big blue eyes, provocative curves and a ...