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 ...

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...