In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Sugar Ray Leonard for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Sugar Ray talked about nearly drowning as a child, nearly being killed in an auto accident and the single event that compelled him to box professionally after his Olympics gold medal in 1976. In the early 1980s, while working at The New York Times as a copy boy, I was sent to cover boxing at Madison Square Garden when beat reporter Mike Katz had a day off or was on vacation. By any measure, it's an astonishing sport. Sugar Ray Leonard was an exquisite fighter with superior stamina and the ability to unleash a storm of artful combinations that routinely resulted in opponents dropping their hands. When that happened, a fight's finish was moments away. As with Muhammad Ali, the naked eye never saw Sugar Ray's lightning-fast knockout punch. You had to see it in slow motion to catch the physical genius and speed of Sugar Ray. Today, Sugar Ray is a successful motivational speaker and a joy to listen to.
Here's Sugar Ray in action...
SiriusXM. If you missed me on Thursday on Feedback with the wonderful Nik Carter and Lori Majewski talking about the writing and recording of Papa Was a Rolling Stone, here's a link to the show...
Horace Parlan. Last week, jazz saxophonist and educator Bill Kirchner sent along a link to Steve Wallace's blog and his remembrance of Horace Parlan just after the pianist died in 2017. To read the post, go here. And here are a few Parlan tracks:
Here's Speakin' My Peace, with Tommy Turrentine (tp), Stanley Turrerntine (ts), Horace Parlan (p), George Tucker (b) and Al Harewood (d)...
Here's My Foolish Heart, with Parlan, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (b) and Tony Inzalaco (d)...
And here's Up and Down, with Booker Ervin (ts), Horace Parlan (p), Grant Green (g), George Tucker (b) and Al Harewood (d)...
American Sound Studios. Between 1967 and 1971, about 120 Billboard hits were recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis. Co-founded by Chips Moman and Don Crews, the studio hosted the "827 Thomas Street Band" of studio musicians who recorded behind Neil Diamond on Sweet Caroline, the Box Tops on The Letter, B.J. Thomas on Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Elvis Presley on Suspicious Minds, In the Ghetto, and Kentucky Rain and so many others recorded at American Sound.
Chris "King" Cowles, host of Saturday's weekly Greasy Tracks (3:30 to 5:30 p.m., EDT) on WRTC in Hartford, Ct., sent along a link to a documentary segment from Session Men on American Sound Studios. Go here...
Clifford Brown radio. WKCR-FM in New York will present its annual "Clifford Brown Birthday Broadcast" on October 30, playing Brownie's music for 24 hours on his birthday anniversary. The show will start on Monday night at 11:59 PM, and then air around the clock all day and night Tuesday. You can listen on your computer or phone from anywhere in the world by going here.
What the heck. Here's Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars performing Stompin' at the Savoy in Stuttgart, Germany, on February 15, 1959. The All-Stars included Armstrong (tp), "Peanuts" Hucko (cl), "Trummy" Young (tb) William "Billy" Kyle (p), Mort Herbert (b) and Danny Barcelona (dr)...
Oddball album cover of the week.
I can only imagine the tracks: That Old Black Magic, Dancing on the Ceiling, Guess Who I Sawed Today, Levitate and Ghost of a Chance.
