The Rest of the Picture

I found this amazing photograph on the web a couple of weeks ago, while searching for "harmonicas" on Google. It is, from left to right, Rice "Sonny Boy Williamson II' Miller, Jimmy Rogers and Muddy Waters.

I sent a copy to my friend Ward Gaines, co- author of the definitive Little Walter biography, Blues With A Feeling, ©2002, Routledge Press, who sent it to his fellow authors. Scott Dirks wrote back, wondering who the fourth man was. Was it Little Walter?

Last Sunday I went to see Chicago blues harp great Steve Guyger and told him about the picture. He said he had seen the picture at Jimmy Roger's house, back in the days when Steve played in Jimmy's band. He said the missing guy was James Cotton. He also said that the picture had gone missing from Jimmy's house shortly before Rogers' death in 1997.

Hmmm... not Little Walter, but James Cotton? I thought that it didn't look like Cotton (all this from that sliver on the right), and sent Steve a copy of the picture.

According to his reply, there's actually a fifth figure cropped out. Cotton is in the lower left of the picture, seated, looking up at Sonny Boy. The mystery man on the right is Otis Spann, Muddy's longtime pianist and band- leader.

Yep- here's the full frame, courtesy of the internet. When I think of the hundreds of snapshots like this, probably taken by a fan or friend of the musicians, I have to wonder what happened to all of them. Some must still exist, in someone's scrapbook or in an old trunk in an attic somewhere. Where are the pictures of Muddy, Jimmy and Little Walter playing together? There are no pics of that band in action that I've ever seen. The greatest blues band ever and there are no pics, not even from studio sessions.

I haven't given up, and neither has Steve Guyger, nor Ward Gaines or any of the other collectors and fanatics of this great music. Someday, baby, someday....

When I take My Sugar to Tea

Happy Birthday, Connee Boswell- I love you!

Even though you stopped singing on the planet in 1976, October 11th, to be exact, I hear and see you all the time. I hear you when Ella Fitzgerald sings, and I hear you in Peggy Lee. I hear you and your sisters on my I-pod, singing "When I take My Sugar to Tea". I see you every time I go to your birthplace, AGC, New Orleans, LA. Why, I just saw you in a cameo on Turner Classic Movies the other night. You played Connee Boswell. You knocked me out.


Connee (or Connie) was born in New Orleans in 1907 on this date. She and her sisters, Martha and Vet (for Helvetia) grew up surrounded by great music, and were thought of as musical prodigies themselves. Multi- instrumentalists, they turned down an opportunity to play with the New Orleans Philharmonic.

The girls became known for their highly intricate vocal arrangements, mostly done by Connee, and their innate ability to really swing. They began recording in the late twenties and in the late thirties, Martha and Vet retired to raise families. Not Connee, though.

With Der Bingle

Despite being confined to a wheelchair since childhood as a result of a bout with polio, she continued as a solo singer into the early 1960's. She was Bing Crosby's favorite, as well as a major influence on Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The Andrews Sisters claimed the Boswells as their inspiration and jazz singers male, female, black and white acknowledge her influence on their phrasing and diction.

With Etta James' father Minnesota Fats

Happy 102nd birthday, Connee. Let's get together over a beignet and a coffee at the Du Monde next time I'm in town, like we always do.

Love,
Bret

Ginevra de' Benci or the National Gallery of Art II

This painting, by Leonardo Da Vinci, completed in 1475, hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Anyone can see this painting any day of the week for free. Imagine: a inarguably priceless object, shimmering with virtuosity, from the hand of a man so gifted that he could paint this and do a thousand other things brilliantly, just waiting for you or me to walk through and look at it.

No stupid action movie or conspiracy book can compare with this real- life miracle. This is Leonardo, this is a masterpiece of art, beautifully lit and displayed and it's ours. It belongs to us.

I could go on and on about the brushstrokes, the textures of paint on the hair, and the background, the pallette, the composition, the expression of the sitter, but why? You can just go see it for yourself.

We are so lucky.

The Best Men's Room in Washington DC

The National Gallery of Art, West Wing (the older, palacial one), has the best men's room in Washington DC. Mind you, I haven't seen them all, nor do I make a point of frequenting public restrooms, but this one, well... it's just beautiful.

Black marble, gleaming white sinks and urinals (not pictured), always clean, scented, elegant really.

I spent the morning in the Museum today (more about that) and as always, I was impressed by this men's room. So impressed I took this picture.

Rev

I took this picture of Reverend Craig Eder, (September 6th, 1919 to November 22nd, 2009) back in the early '80's. My friend George Ferris and I decided to photograph as many of our old St. Albans teachers as we could find. George set up the appointments and I did the photography.

Rev, as everyone who went to St. Albans called him, was at St. Columba's by then, a pretty church in NW Washington, DC. He had retired from St. Albans some years before. I asked if he was still called "Rev" and he said, "Only by St. Albans boys." Maybe he didn't like being called "Rev."

But that was the thing about him: he was such a sweet guy you could never tell what he disliked.

He taught the C. S. Lewis Narnia books to us in 5th grade Sacred Studies (it was that kind of school), and only once did I see him angry. A boy in our 6th grade class brought a lighter to school and lit another boy's jacket on fire. Rev gave him ten demerits, the equivalent of two and a half hours of Saturday detention. The worst you could get was twelve demerits, but Rev could only bring himself to give this little pyromaniac ten. "You have ten demerits, Werner! You REALLY do!" Any other teacher would have had the kid suspended.

Ah, Rev.

The Opiate of the Peoples

The iconic front of Peoples Drugstore, the CVS of Washington DC. This image, from Shorpy Archives, is of the store at 11th and G Streets, NW, c. 1920. Peoples Drugstore #7, the sign says.

By the time I was born, in 1951, Peoples was ominipresent. Sure, there was Rexall and Drug Fair, but the Peoples' chain reigned supreme, a socialist banner of prescriptions, sundries and prophylactics unfurled in the seat of Capitalist power.

The chain was sold in 1990 to CVS, who kept the name Peoples until 1994, when all the stores became CVS's.

N C Weighs In or Thanksgiving, pt 2

Here's another beautiful American Thanksgiving from another beautiful iconic American illustrator, the great N. C. Wyeth. This image is from the Golden Age Comic Book Stories Blog.