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...

Greetings music vixens, and welcome to another edition of Music Manor Monday, today with a little Italiano flair, va bene ? Tonight, you can find out what this means by moseying on over to Pompino Club and Winery, where DJ Li'l Cat will be playing some tunes from a very special singing principessa . Quick, which jazz luminary also worked as a featured actress in "The Godfather" and "The Godfather II?" There's only one. If you guessed Morgana King, you're right! She played Carmela Corleone, the wife of Don Vito Corleone, or Marlon Brando, in both movies. Interesting side note: the character's first name is never mentioned in either movie, and because she's played by Morgana, she gets to sing a small bit from  "Luna Mezz'o Mare" during the wedding reception scene. The scrappy daughter of Sicilian immigrants, Morgana thrilled audiences from a young age. At 16 years old, she was embraced by New Orleans’ Black audiences at Bohemian Ca...