WHO IN THE HELL WAS CLEO "PATRA " BROWN????

Live and learn!Class is now in session! I adore the obscure and revel in unlocking mysteries of days gone by! I savor a new glint into anyone who I personally adore past.
Whether it be scurrilous or a genuine, unserving good damn deed!

So, of course you can imagine my glee as I was hanging out on the net I read that they wanted Billie to sing a bit more like Cleo Brown. Of course in my ignorance I was aghast "How dare this writer defame MY Billie! But, something said "Google the name" and I read it for myself.

Now of course we are all familiar with John Hammond and the mysterious powers that be wanting Holiday to resurrect a bunch of Ethel Waters, Clara Smith tunes of the 20's and her classic reply "I don't wanna sing that old shit man its 1935!" Funny now right? But when she walked into the Columbia studios for the now famous "Miss. Brown to you and What a little Moonlight can do sessions they wanted her to sing more in the Cleo Brown "goodtime style which personally, this blogger loathes tho it was the great depression and Im sure they ( like us today) could use a bit o damn cheer! she (Cleo) sounds so goddamn dated I almost expect to hear applause and then see Al freakin Jolson come out and do a Black Bottom dance in full black face.

However Billies record (what a little Moonlighht can do" actually charted #12 in 1935 and the flip side charted at 20. That made the big guys leave her alone and she soon began fronting her own studio orchestra ( which was actually a ad hoc group of some of the greatest musicians that were in NYC at the time).

Cleo Brown? Who the hell is Cleo Brown? Often referred to as Cleo Patra brown ( aint that some smess? well....With the exception of an album that she made in 1987, 1935-1951 is all anyone has heard of the recordings of pianist-singer Cleo Brown. Brown, who has sometimes been cited by Dave Brubeck as an early influence (although the musical connection really cannot be heard), was an excellent pianist and a personable good-time singer. She recorded four sessions for Decca during 1935-36, in which she is backed by guitar, bass, and drums, performing such numbers as "Lookie, Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Cookie," "The Stuff Is Here And It's Mellow," "Mama Don't Want No Peas An' Rice An' Cocoanut Oil" and the unusual "When Hollywood Goes Black And Tan." In addition, she romps on the solo "Pelican Stomp," her part from a Decca All Star Revue is included, and there is one session apiece from 1949, 1950, and 1951. It seems odd that she never became a big star. Needless to say, this CD is the perfect way to obtain and enjoy this lost legend's recordings. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide Im still investigating this woman who because of her tiny body of work is NEVER even discussed these days and once again thanks to Billie another diamond has been found in the ghetto wasteland of obscure music....Jahlaune Hunt 2011

TRUE URBAN HAVOC ENTERTAINMENT HOUR PRESENTS: HARLEM REVISTED

SNEAK PEEK FOR OUR BLOG READERS AND FOLLOWS. THIS IS OUR NEW FORMAT WE WILL BE EXPLORING THE MORE OBSCURE ARTISTS OF THE HARLEM RENASANCE AND HOPEFULLY LATER ERAS. HOPING YOU ENJOY THIS LABOR OF LOVE FOR ALL THINGS HARLEM AND OBSCURE


E TO

Who was Monette Moore? 1902-1962

Other than being the host at Monettes on w.133rd Street where a young Billie Holiday wowed John Hammond what else did she do? That ran thru my mind for years! How awful to have your own sucessses overshadowed by someone elses. So I had to do a little digging!

Monette Moore was never a star but she led a rich and varied life in show business. She began her career accompanying silent films in Kansas City and then toured the vaudeville circuit as a pianist and singer. In the early 1920s she made her way to New York and became active in musical theater. Her recording career began in 1923. Many of her early records were released under the pseudonym of Susie Smith. In 1925, Monette was in the cast of the musical revue "Lucky Sambo". She sang with Charlie Johnson's Orchestra at Small's Paradise Club (229 1/2 7th Avenue at 135th Street) and Connie's Inn (2221 Seventh Avenue at 131st Street) in New York and made some wonderful recordings with the band in 1925. In 1927 and 1928 she was singing with Walter Page's Blue Devils in the mid-West. She returned to New York in 1929 and was very active in musical theater and cabaret work until the late 1930s. In the early 1940s, she moved to Los Angeles and performed in clubs, recorded with Teddy Bunn and the Harmony Girls and had small parts in a couple of films. From 1951 to 1953 she appeared on the Amos 'n Andy television program and recorded with George Lewis. In 1960, she began performing with the Young Men of Dixieland at Disneyland and appeared in the Disney television programs "The Wonderful World of Color" and "Disneyland After Dark".

Unsung Black Beautys Of Another Era

THE SNAKES CRAWL AT NIGHT by CHARLEY PRIDE

My mother use to say " thats one handsome Cat!"

PLAYING AROUND WIT OLD PICS FOR TUH

 

Wanda Sykes on Gay Marriage

Many thanks to our listeners

Im always presently surprised when one of our listeners pops up on my yahoo IM (jahlaune is my yahoo messenger name) and never moreso than today. Just as I was diggin thru the archives ror a episode for this weekend Bayou popped on explaining how long it took to download our show 3 hours and hes overseas in Africa. This was the third complaint about the lengthy time our show takes to download and since I was the only person on deck today (as I am every saturday) I took the time to see if it could be remastered and set to a FM bandwith.
I am listening and I thank you for your sugguestions.
Anthony McCowan i would like to thank you for sharing our Sunday gospel show with so many people on Face Book! The "Just A Closer Walk" Series is close to my heart and yes! I promise to keep the praise and worship at least twice a month on our roster...
Many thanks to our legions of jazz fans! WQe have indeed covered the waterfront the last season with the likes of Mamie Smith, Noble sissle, Count Basie, Ahmad jamal and more and I thank each of you for your kind remarks from our "Live at the Mars Club" PLEASE!!!! Remember that is a virtual club LOL with a really truly name !
I love you all so much and without you I would have given up long ago!

Jahlaune K Hunt

Underneath A Harlem Moon: the Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall

by
IAIN CAMERON WILLIAMS
with a foreword by Dame Cleo Laine

The first major biography of Adelaide Hall


Often seen as the most important and influential female star of Harlem’s Renaissance, Adelaide Hall dynamically pushed down the barriers that had previously prevented black entertainers from reaching mass recognition. Though she will always be associated with Harlem’s famous Cotton Club and her wordless vocals on some of Duke Ellington’s most famous tunes, it was the astounding media attention Adelaide Hall received on both sides of the Atlantic during her two year starring role in Lew Leslie’s Broadway revue “Blackbirds of 1928″ that turned her into what can only be termed the first modern-day international black female superstar.

With fame came controversy. Her Broadway performance incited a riot. The persecution she encountered from her racist neighbours after purchasing an exclusive estate in Larchmont, a predominantly white suburb in Westchester County, hit national headlines.

Iain Cameron-Williams takes the reader on a fascinating roller-coaster ride from the birth of Adelaide in Brooklyn and her humble childhood in Harlem, through her triumphs on Broadway to the glamour of Paris’ Moulin Rouge, appearances at the most sophisticated and celebrated nightclubs in the world and across two continents on a ground-breaking eighteen month RKO tour. By the end of 1932, Adelaide had performed to millions and in the process had become one of America’s wealthiest black women.

Adelaide’s celebrity status afforded her the privilege of befriending many stars from the world of showbusiness. The book includes many accounts of such friendships including her encounter with Rudolph Valentino, her close acquaintance with Maurice Chevalier, her stormy relationship with the Broadway impresario Lew Leslie, her meetings in Chicago with Al Capone, her amusing account of an evening she spent in the company of Gloria Swanson, her exciting visit to Douglas Fairbanks house “Pickfair” in Beverly Hills and accounts of all the famous black stars she knew from the Harlem Renaissance including Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Sam Wooding, Bojangles, Aida Ward, Florence Mills, Lottie Gee, Valaida Snow etc. The book also explains in depth the continual rivalry and hostility Adelaide received from Josephine Baker. For the first time ever in print the book dates exactly when, where and how Adelaide discovered the blind pianist Art Tatum and also explains Adelaide’s lifetime claim that it was she who helped name New York the “Big Apple.”

In 1935, Adelaide and her husband moved to Europe and set up home in Paris where her career continued to flourish. Here, she opened her own nightclub “La Grosse Pomme” and employed Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli’s Quintette du Hot Club de France as the resident in-house band. Not content with being dubbed the Parisian “Queen of Montmartre” Adelaide set her sights on conquering Britain. The book concludes with her mysterious disappearance in November 1938, which until now has never been publicly explained.

Iain Cameron-Williams
Underneath A Harlem Moon is Iain Cameron-Williams’ first biography, having previously worked as a musician, producer and composer. He released three records under various stage names and co-wrote the song ‘Give Me One More Chance’ which represented the United Kingdom in the 1990 International Song Festival. He was a close friend of Adelaide Hall from 1971 until her death in 1993. He live’s in London’s Notting Hill Gate.

Underneath A Harlem Moon by Iain Cameron-Williams is published by Continuum, 428pp, 75 illustrations, Hardback price ?20.00. ISBN 0826458939. Available from all good bookshops.

From the vaults "Rod Stewart" Gasoline Alley

 

From The Vaults! Rod Stewart "Have I told You lately?"

 

From the vaults Bette Midler "Wind Beneath My Wings"

 

From the vaults " Bette Midler " Under the Boardwalk"

 

Where does the show get the music? We welcome you to our vaults!

 

Over the next few weeks I will bwe sharing the music from our most remembered shows! Yes we dont use MP3s our archive is very extensive contributed from personal collections and just music we grew up with over the years or stolen from Mommys basement ENJOY!

Co Workers

 

This was the greatist team! Never an argument Betwixt us. We appered on some cable show back in early 2002 this was after

Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth

The voice of summer circa 1980's Berlinda from the Go Go's !

TRUE URBAN HAVOC HAVOC ENTERTAINMENT HONORS THE MOTHER OF MODERN JAZZ SINGING "MISS.ETHEL WATERS"

Authors Note: a special thank you goes out to blogger Corey Jarrell from the "I've got you posted" blog for his corrections which were taken and used to help make this a better, correct blog! Thank you my brother!


This week we will enjoy two clips from Ethel Waters and The Brown Sisters. http://trueurbanehavoc.podOmatic.comFeatruring the song Underneath The Harlem Moon, and Am I Blue ( from on with the show!" By: Jahlaune K: By the early 1930's Ethel Waters was already a huge star. Apperaring on stage and screen and a frequent guest of the top society people in New York (think of author Carl van Vechtin author of the book Nigger Heaven). Her songs such as Dinah! Recorded in the 1920's was already beloved along with so many of her other hits such as, "At the New Jump Steady Ball, Birmingham Bertha and of course Am I Blue?' One of her songs she is famous for and which is rarely heard today is "Underneath The Harlem Moon" by today's standards its consdiered extremly racist but in the early 1930's it was a very popular pop tune recorded (as was the usual in those days) by many diffrent bands and vocalists but I think many people will agree the two definitive versions are by Ethel Waters and The Brown Sisters. On todays Ethel marathon we compare these two video clips back to back. And yes thats a very young Sammy Davis Junior in the clip ( from Rufus Jones for president) with Miss. Waters. visit our new fan page on facebook!!!http://www.facebook.com/pages/True-Urban-Havoc-Entertainment-Hour/132173473467821

Una Mae Carlisle - Walkin' by the River

Alex cuba band - Dime si despues

I love this guy this song "Tell nme then...." sums it all up perfectly!

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST SUNDAY OFFERING! PLAYTIME IS OVER!

L Description: With all this shouting I offer a very special shout out to my bff Mikey Reidout in Miami Fla, Bernadette Blair- Young In Thomasville, NC and all the others that helped make this project a reality. Their are so many of you : Tammy Dawson who took me to my first all night tarry service in Hempstead New York, The choir and members of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle Church, On New York Blvd in Jamacia, NY. during the time of Bishop Roderik Ceaser, Sr Your Youth For Christ choir is simply AWESOME!All these years later I can still here them making that recording to many years ago to disclose! To Dee Peters from Queens who cant sing but can SANNNNNGGGG! Elder Lawrence Harper who first introduced me to the COGIC church in the Bronx, Thank You! I learned so much in the past few months from COGIC elders, Pentacostals, Holiness, Apostolic and all the various degrees of Protestant. To one of the greatist singing Pastors from my child hood "Uncle Willie" The Rev. Wilfred Quimby from the Christ Gospel Baptist Church of Jamacia New York. Thanking Refuge Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY for all the great music I listened to NON Stop. This podcast is for all of you! May you enjoy this praise and worship podcast. Featuring: Elder Moore on Organ, and a variety of what I feel is the best praise music I have ever heard in my entire life!