I remember my parents' 1930's radio which was also a large, lovely piece of
furniture, tall and slender with this fabric on the front with wood carving.
I suppose the sound came through the fabric? It's amazing. I remember the
first portable radios, quite large.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of joe harcz Comcast
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2016 11:43 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: blast from my ancient past
Wow. Some really good stuff, though before my time for sure.
My folks have lots of old seventy eights though not far from where I'm
typing.
And we have an old, but remodeled/refinished 1930 era victrola in here to.
Don't know if it actually plays anything but it is a fine piece of
furniture.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Jarvis" <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2016 11:05 AM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: blast from my ancient past
Joe and All Lovers of Trivia,
During my wild and crazy days I wandered Seattle's Skid Road and the
area we called, China Town...now it's the International District. Up
near Jackson Street you could find some great Black Blues with as yet
unknown Ray Charles hammering the piano and groaning out his mournful
lyrics. I hung at the Bird land,the most popular of the hangouts for
the city's Black Jazz Lovers, but I can't say for certain if I ever
heard Charles there. Down the road around Fifth Avenue, Elmer Gill
held forth with his trio. Alvin on the bass and Dave Colman, the
token White man, on the drums. Elmer was as fine a vibe player and
piano man as you would ever want to sit down with. The "room" was the
Ebony Club, and over the time I hung out, just about every jazz man,
and a few good women, dropped around and jammed with Elmer. He was
well received in Canada, where he spent much of his time, but pretty
much unknown here in the enlightened USA. It was at the Ebony Club
where I first met Joe Venuti. Joe had retired and moved to Seattle
from Chicago where he had a fairly successful career
as a jazz violinist, playing the electric violin. For some unknown
reason, Joe took a liking to me. Dogging in Joe's footsteps, I met
some of the greats in the jazz field of that long lost day. Joe
played around town for some time, which seems to be what retired
musicians do. He helped put Dave's Fifth Avenue on the list of
"Places to visit when in Seattle". Most of this music was unknown to
the fine upstanding citizens of the city. Seattle had the reputation
back then, as the nation's biggest tank town.
Tank towns were so named because they were built up around the water
tank where the old steam engines paused to fill their boiler tank.
Farmers in the area would bring their crops to the tank and wait for
the next train to haul their produce to market. Usually the next
place to be built was a cafe/saloon, then a general store and a small
waiting station.
Diesel engines and Eisenhower's Highway Project brought an end to the
need for many of these whistle stops, but a few grew into thriving
towns.
Anyway, you can see that this was not a handle any self respecting
city would want placed upon it.
I pretty much lost touch with Joe, after Judy and I were married in
1960, but I heard that Joe died in Seattle in 1978. He was only 75
years old.
The other music that kept me searching the second hand record racks
was early recordings. I had a decent size collection of old 78's that
I had put together from my many wanderings. At one point I had put
them all on reel to reel tape. Some of these records dated back to
the early 1900's and were in pretty bad repair. Not much I could do
about the cracks, a common problem among old 78's, but I would wash
the records in a warm bath of Dawn dish soap, and dry them in the dish
rack. I wish I still had those records, another victim of the split
between two loving adults.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/18/16, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oh my...I was never musical per se, but always from a young period hung
withmusicians and did some techical work...really I loaded and plugged
inequipment even in junior high through this perid. Shit I could just say
with some legitamacy "I'm with the band" from junior high through again
this
period....It , well did me well...
Regardless Dr. Ross was an icon of young white and black artist in this
area. Now again I'm living proof that all blind folks cannot sing a lick
or
is it just this blind guy? Smile...
Really Dr. Ross was a treasure and though I had no musical talent he and
some of his pals at my expense of course took a trip with some hard licker
in a Buick Rivera to party in Chicago and we went to here and visit Muddy
Waters and some other blues legends whom I can't remember.
Damn I always tried to get the goodly Doctor to smoke more weed and to
drink
less whiskey.
Grin...But he did the reverse philosophy on me.
It's kind of funny today, but I was the sort of token, cute (if I do say
so
myself) and non-talented white boy myself in that mix.
There were many times when I was the only white face in the crowd in those
excursions. It taught me a whole lot and not just about music.
It taught me about not only tolerance, which is a most nuanced term. It
taught me how to be a human being while being a so-called minority if you
catch my drift here.
Dr. Ross was a black, working class sort of "good ole boy"...Grin....
I loved that guy and thanks for the update as we got disconnected about
1975
or so and I settled down some and all that and moved on to houston and
then
New Hampshire for two decades or so.
Oh, I ramble. But again thanks Carl.
Whis I had the warm glow of some Jim Beams to salute Dr. Ross.
Got some budwieser, a poor substitute.
I'm kind of sad tonight as I buried my Godmother and revisited many from
my
youth at St. Mary's during the funeral and after.
Guess I'm giving to nostaglia...And there was the goodly Doctor a
classicboogie man. In fact he never called me Joe. He always called me his
little white boogie man.
Proberly not politically correct nowadays.
But, in 71 and 72 it was a "term of endearment"....Damned though if I
cannot
remember his favorred whiskey. It wasn't Crown Royal...Hmm...Just can't
remember...Wonder why? Grin.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Jarvis" <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2016 9:22 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: blast from my ancient past
Joe,
From my old, old days wandering around the old second hand record
shops in Seattle, I picked up a couple of not too scratchy records by
Dr. Ross. Hmm...I suspect my first wife dumped them after we split
up.
Carl Jarvis
*****
In 1951 Ross's records began to get airplay in Mississippi and
Arkansas.
He recorded with
Chess Records
and Sun with a group that included folk instruments, such as the
washboard
.
[2]
In 1954 Ross moved to the Detroit area and began working for
General Motors.
[2]
He recorded some singles with
Fortune Records,
including "Cat Squirrel" and "Industrial Boogie". He recorded an album
issued by
Testament Records
and toured with the
American Folk Blues Festival
in Europe in 1965.
[2]
He recorded an album for
Blue Horizon Records
while he was in London and worked with
Ornament Records
in Germany in 1972.
[3]
Ross and his music were popular in Europe, more so than in his home
country.
[2]
Ross won a
Grammy
for his 1981
album
Rare Blues and subsequently enjoyed a resurgence of popularity and
critical acclaim towards the end of his career.
He died in 1993, at the age of 67, and was buried in
Flint, Michigan.
On 11/18/16, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oh my. I was cruising through some olden day files ain "mydocuments" for
other purposes and came accross the entry after my signature line, It was
from some heady days just after my graduation from High School and when I
moved in to Flint and lived with some Black Panthers and engaged in
radical
things of the time on the East Side of Flint. I also was on the local
community college student government which was a hot bed of radicalism
back
then and was a reportor with the "Freedom Reader" mentioned here. I also
was
one of the organizers of this event which sought free medicine for all. A
bit player for sure but an event organizer of this blast from the past.
And here all these many years later we are still fighting for universal
healthcare, and I'm still fighting for at very least a single payer
system...Sigh...BTW that year I was also associated with John Sinclair
and
the Ann Arbor Sun, several anti-war groups, and was a McGovern delegate
all
the way to the state convention.
I also helped to bring the likes of Angela Davis, John Sinclair, Maceo
Dixon (of the Socialist Workers Party), and William Kunstler to the
campus
as speakers. Oh and Andrew Young, and Julian Bond too.
OH and I and some pals got the Doctor Ross mentioned here to play for the
benefit. He was a sort of blues guru in these parts. A rather talented,
but
sadly total alcoholic blues master. We scraped up fifty bucks (which was
a
lot for those days) and a fifth of some rotgot whiskey to pay him. He
played
acoustic guitar with a harp on a three legged stool. He was so drunk when
he
came on three of us, including me had to help him on the stool. He kept
getting started with his performance and then kept falling off the stool.
Finally we kept picking him up and tthen I stood behind him with my hand
on
his back for gentle support. It took him a while to get going. But, then
there was "magic" and he rocked on for well more than an hour without
assistance.
And there was, of course lots of sex, drugs and rock and roll going on
then
too which is probably why I didn't get my degree for a while.
The revolution got dashed that year imo, or at least for awhile.
The McGovern thumping reminds me of the election of today. But,
rememember
it was followed by watergate. And seeds of watergate abound today.
But I digress. This is a bit hard to read but is the best I can get from
the
digital archives of the Ann Arbor Sun from the Ann Arbor Library:
Mark Farner Sings For Free Health! | Freeing John Sinclair
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Mark Farner Sings For Free Health!
Ann Arbor Sun, February 18, 1972
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Mark Farner Sings For Free Health!
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Mark Farner, lead singer and guitanst in Grand Funk Railroad, made a
surprise appearance on February 4th in Flint at a benefit for a Free
Medical
Clinic
that some brothers and sisters are trying to set up. Mark took the stage
by
himself and sang a tune, accompanying himself on accoustis. The tune is
called,
"Flint, You're Making Me Sick" and is directed at the choking pollution
that
greets you on a visit to the city. The benefit was organized by the same
people
who put out the killer Flint paper, the Freedom Reader, which was started
with some help from Mark, who also serves on its editorial board. Also
appearing
at the rally were Big Red and the Sherm Mitchell Quartet, both from
Flint,
and Doctor Ross, and old time Flint bluesman who really boogies. The Up
were
scheduled to play, but their eqüipment truck broke down on the way up, so
they couldn't. Speakers included John Sinclair, members of the Vietnam
Vets,
and Ann Berrigan, daughter of the mprisoned Reverend Daniel Berrigan.
Ballenger Field House was packed, so the benefit produced over %1500
which
can now
go to provide free medical care for people who need t. It's great to see
other communities setting up the kind of people's institutions which Ann
Arbor
has been developing recently; as the Freedom Reader put it "With the cost
of
medical expenses getting higher all the time, people just can't afford to
take care of their health. All the money this government spends on war
and
it doesn't even provide for the people. It is obvious that the people who
run
this government do not care for its' citizens, so we have to care for
ourselves." Brother Mark, who's newest album, E Pluribus Funk, is
definitely
worth
checking out, is beginning to put his tremendous economie and political
power in the service of the people. The more our bands do that, the more
of
our
needs we'll be albe to take care of, and the more we'll be about to make
our
communities the kind of, places we all dream about. BUILD THE RAINBOW
NATION
?
Michigan-boogie
Ann Arbor Sun, February 18, 1972 ?
Wcbn On The Air ?
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