This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed Twiggy (go here), who in 1966 as a 16-year-old English model revolutionized fashion and captured the pop innocence of the global youth market. She also wound up on Broadway, on albums, on the cover of David Bowie's Pin Ups album and in The Blues Brothers movie, among dozens of other places. Twiggy talked to me about her childhood home in a London suburb, how she came to add those lines under her eyes at 15, why her parents let her leave school to model, and the strange series of events that landed her in front of a camera in the first place.
Here's Twiggy during a photo shoot dancing in 1968...
SiriusXM. Last week, Nik Carter and Lori Majewski graciously had me on their Feedback show on SiriusXM's Volume network to talk about my "Anatomy of a Song" column on Joan Jett's Bad Reputation. If you missed the show, here's a link (go here). And don't forget, Bad Reputation, the documentary about Joan's career, hits theaters September 28 (go here). It's excellent.
West Coast Jazz. Planning on being in Los Angeles between October 25 and 28? Don't miss out on the West Coast jazz festival being held by Ken Poston and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute at the Four Points Sheraton at LAX (9750 Airport Blvd) in L.A. Concerts include Veronica Swift singing Anita O'Day, singer Bonnie Bowden with the Dave Pell Octet, singer Pinky Winters, singer Stephanie Nakasian singing the music of June Christy and Bob Cooper, the Four Freshmen Plus Five Trombones and so much more your head will spin. For more information and tickets, go here and download the event's color program. It's wild. Or call (909) 939-0777.
Barcelona Jazz Festival. My dear friend Joan Anton Cararach—who showed me a wonderful time in Barcelona a few years ago when he invited me over in coordination with the U.S. State Department to give a series of talks—has written to say that his Barcelona Jazz Festival will begin October 6 and run through December 12. Sponsored zestfully by Voll-Damm beer, the festival this year marks its 50th anniversary. Joan also mentioned that on October 9 he will produce a special free concert to celebrate Bebo Valdés’s 100 years. For more information, go here.
I miss Bacelona—the tapas, the paella, the pata negra, the warmth of the Catalans and, most of all, those dinners that start at 11:30 p.m. and end at a martini bar around 3 a.m. If you haven't been to the city during jazz festival season, go.
Terry Gibbs. Les Johnston in Australia sent along a link to a swinging video of vibraphonist Terry Gibbs (91 at the time) in 2016 jamming with friends and family. Joined by John Campbell (piano), Mike Gurrola (bass) and son Gerry Gibbs (drums), the quartet plays Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Here's the video (hang in until the video starts)...
John Coltrane radio. This Sunday (September 23), WKCR-NY will present its annual John Coltrane Birthday Broadcast 11:59 p.m. Saturday night and then continue day and night on Sunday until midnight. You can listen on your computer or cell phone from anywhere in the world by going here.
Radio promos. I'm a bit of a radio promo freak. Can't help it. I fell asleep every night in the 1960s and early '70s with a transistor radio under my pillow. Radio promos (you know, the things with vocal groups singing the station ID and the DJ on the air) sifted into my unconscious. I can listen to them all day long. So I was gratified when Dallas pal Bruce Collier of 90th Floor Records sent along a "shrimp bar" of promos produced by Ken R LLC for radio stations. Just click on each of the seven vocal "power-pella" samplers. You'll be instantly transported back to your feather pillow and your thumb on the volume dial (go here).
What the heck. Man, if this song doesn't take me back to 1974. When the single was out in late August of that year, I was moving into my dorm on the Fenway in Boston on a warm afternoon...
Oddball album cover of the week.
Strange angle for a cover shoot, but not if your client is the maker of Gold Bond acoustic ceiling tile. This surface was standard in most suburban basements of the '1960s and early '70s. And yes, our cover model is holding an album with the same cover as this one. A bit hypnotizing, don't you think? (Cue the Twilight Zone theme.)
