CLEO BROWN, “The Legendary Cleo Brown,” President Records (UK) CD, 1935-36 recordings

CLEO BROWN
“The Legendary Cleo Brown”
President (UK) PLCD 548
17 tracks, recorded 1935-36 for US Decca
Brown, piano and vocal

I’d been hoping someone would reissue Cleo Brown’s 1930s recordings.
Unfortunately, she’s too jazzy for many in the blues world, too pop for
some “serious” jazz fans, and too jazzy for some of the “classic popular
song” crowd, so she’s slipped through the cracks in terms of music
history.

However, my mother had one of her 78s which I enjoyed as a little kid,
so she’s always been in the back of mind: her charming, playful, sexy
swinging vocals, supported by a rolling, jaunty, understated boogie
piano. Now that I’ve had the chance to hear 15 more tunes from this
great period of Cleo Brown’s work, I’m a dedicated fan and feel that
she is a very significant figure. Her music really swings–imagine
Mary Lou Williams with a twist of Fats Waller.

In a way, she can be viewed as the prototype for such post-war artists
as Hadda Brooks, Nellie Lutcher, Camille Howard, etc. CLASSY ladies
with sexy, insinuating vocal styles, with great senses of humor,
and with piano styles with roots in boogie and in Fats Waller.
Tracks such as “Lookie Lookie Lookie (Here Comes Cookie)”, “When Hollywood
Goes Black And Tan”, and “My Girl Mezzanine” are so infectious that
you’ll find it hard not to sing them to yourself after hearing them.

Ms. Brown continued working in music through the 40s, but became a
nurse in the 1950s and left the business. She resurfaced in Denver in
the 1980s, releasing a cassette (now out of print) on one of George
Buck’s labels, and appearing on Marian McPartland’s PIANO JAZZ, although
she now performs exclusively Christian material and instrumentals.
I heard that she was ill a few years back–don’t know her present status–
but on the mid-80s PIANO JAZZ show she still had her rolling piano
style and her wit and charm.

The music of Cleo Brown has great appeal and I’m sure many of you reading
this would love this album (fans of Ann Rabson or Hadda Brooks especially!).

Bill Shute, originally published elsewhere online in 1997

==========================

RAMBUTAN & BILL SHUTE, “BRIDGE ON THE BAYOU” new poetry-and-music album!

NOW AVAILABLE: the sound sculpture of RAMBUTAN meets the poetry of BILL SHUTE on the new CD album on the Tape Drift label BRIDGE ON THE BAYOU, which you can order here: https://rambutan.bandcamp.com/album/bridge-on-the-bayou

1.
Bridge On The Bayou 05:41
2.
Revelation in Slow Motion 05:47
3.
Reconditioning 04:57
4.
Satori in Opelousas 04:38
5.
Scrapple 06:20

Over a decade after meeting in upstate NY and performing together twice, San Antonio-based poet Bill Shute and Albany’s Eric Hardiman (aka Rambutan) team up for an official collaboration. “Bridge on the Bayou” features five masterful poems by Shute, written during the sweltering Summer of 2016 while staying on Bayou Teche in Arnaudville, Louisiana. The evocative words and imagery in Shute’s poems are set to music by Hardiman, using a combination of field recordings, random electronics, and guitars. The music and words merge together to create sonic portraits of a dark and murky Louisiana geography.

released April 1, 2023

Poems and readings by Bill Shute, recorded in San Antonio, Texas. Music by Rambutan (Eric Hardiman), recorded in Delmar, New York. Poems available in book form from Kendra Steiner Editions. Cover photo by Wyatt Doyle. 2023

You can sample the first track below via You Tube:

Tim McCoy in THE MAN FROM GUNTOWN (1935)

The Man from Guntown (1935)
Fast-moving Tim McCoy western–strong characterizations

Tim McCoy’s 1935-36 westerns for Puritan Pictures were an above-average lot, and this is one of his best. McCoy’s “mistaken identity” plot is trotted out once again, and while this could never happen in real life, it’s a great movie plot device and keeps the viewer on the edge of the chair. Will the bad guys find out who Tim REALLY is? Classic movie villain Wheeler Oakman is perfectly cast as the slimy crime boss, and his standoffs with McCoy–featuring many close-ups as they stare each other down–remind the viewer of how good acting can elevate a genre western. Rex Lease (although not in the movie that much) is his usual charming self, and Robert McKenzie is hilarious as a bumbling attorney who is under the thumb of Oakman but tries to pretend he isn’t.

As always, McCoy carries himself with an almost regal manner– he and Wild Bill Elliott were certainly the most dignified of B-Western heroes–and the unexpected ending gives depth to McCoy’s character. This film is in a class of its own and should satisfy any lover of solid genre westerns of the 1930s. It would also be a fine film to introduce novices to the genre.

BILL SHUTE, originally published elsewhere online in 2001

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My newest poetry book for 2023…only $6.95 and available internationally at your local Amazon platform

NEUTRAL by Bill Shute

KSE #420, 125 pages, 6″ x 9″ perfect bound, softcover

published 2 January 2023

available for immediate order from https://amzn.to/3IFS5Vs

A new book-length poem for 2023, and in some ways it is my most ambitious work (IMHO) since POINT LOMA PURPLE (2007).

‘Bridge On The Bayou’–new poetry-and-music CD from Rambutan & Bill Shute on the Tape Drift label

NOW AVAILABLE: the sound sculpture of RAMBUTAN meets the poetry of BILL SHUTE on the new CD album on the Tape Drift label BRIDGE ON THE BAYOU, which you can order here: https://rambutan.bandcamp.com/album/bridge-on-the-bayou

1.
Bridge On The Bayou 05:41
2.
Revelation in Slow Motion 05:47
3.
Reconditioning 04:57
4.
Satori in Opelousas 04:38
5.
Scrapple 06:20

Over a decade after meeting in upstate NY and performing together twice, San Antonio-based poet Bill Shute and Albany’s Eric Hardiman (aka Rambutan) team up for an official collaboration. “Bridge on the Bayou” features five masterful poems by Shute, written during the sweltering Summer of 2016 while staying on Bayou Teche in Arnaudville, Louisiana. The evocative words and imagery in Shute’s poems are set to music by Hardiman, using a combination of field recordings, random electronics, and guitars. The music and words merge together to create sonic portraits of a dark and murky Louisiana geography.

released April 1, 2023

Poems and readings by Bill Shute, recorded in San Antonio, Texas. Music by Rambutan (Eric Hardiman), recorded in Delmar, New York. Poems available in book form from Kendra Steiner Editions. Cover photo by Wyatt Doyle. 2023

You can sample the first track below via You Tube:

https://youtu.be/PzVyIlpyRlI

The five poems comprising BRIDGE ON THE BAYOU were written in the summer of 2016 and published in book form in 2017. Here are some excerpts from the original publication announcement:

The words, phrases, and stanzas float on the page; the insects, dirt, leaves, and broken twigs float downstream on Bayou Teche.

BRIDGE ON THE BAYOU….energized particles of language and consciousness with the taste of central Louisiana….five 6-page chapbooks, 30 pages, 30 fields, 30 assemblages, 30 “portholes of consciousness”…..thick pine smoke in our eyes, already moist with tears….husky patriots armed with dogwhistle jargon meet behind the rose hedges….her brother had become inattentive at his job at the meat processing plant, consumed with his quest to find a cache of treasure buried in a brass bucket by retreating French pirates two centuries past….detached, but not indifferent….manifestations of Siva on the horizon….hard trials & great tribulations….

The original paperback edition of the BRIDGE ON THE BAYOU collection can be ordered here:

https://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Bayou-Bill-Shute/dp/1979709084?ref_=ast_author_dp

I had the privilege of working with Eric Hardiman, aka Rambutan, on two poetry-and-music live performances in New York state in the summer of 2011, and at the time we agreed that we wanted to do an album together. Finally, 12 years later, the BRIDGE ON THE BAYOU album has been issued, a new creation Eric and I worked on in late 2022 and early 2023. He has truly captured the atmosphere of the poems, the Central Louisiana vibe, and ‘gets’ the form of the poems (that we are on the same wavelength was very clear from our live work together in NY state in 2011). I am very happy with this album and the response I’ve gotten from folks who have heard it has been very positive.

Grab your copy soon as there are only a few dozen copies left. It’s a professionally duplicated CD with an attractive picture disc. So far it has been featured on Mike Watt’s radio show and on WFMU.

Go to Bandcamp and order your copy now from Tape Drift Records: https://rambutan.bandcamp.com/album/bridge-on-the-bayou

I’m not selling this online myself–orders are handled by Tape Drift–but if you are a local here in San Antonio or a friend I will run into in-person, let me know in advance and I’ll get you a copy, as I have a few extras. I am devoting my energy toward long-form book length poems in recent years, as regular readers of this blog know, so I don’t anticipate doing another project like this in the next few years, meaning you should grab this one while you can. Thanks to Rambutan/Eric for such a wonderful job on this project…and thanks also to Wyatt Doyle of New Texture, who provided the perfect cover photo for the album.

‘ORDER TO ASSASSINATE’ (Italy 1975), starring HELMUT BERGER

(RIP Helmut Berger, 1944-2023… truly, a larger-than-life character and an actor in a category of his own)

Atmosphere is essential in a crime film….you can forgive a number of flaws if you can feel and taste the atmosphere, and ORDER TO ASSASSINATE has atmosphere to burn. Released in Europe in 1974 and then issued in the US in 1975 under the name ORDER TO KILL (the VHS tape from which my DVD-R was copied has a cheesy video title of MISSION TO KILL…and the film is also known as HEAD OF THE SERPENT), ORDER TO ASSASSINATE was shot in the Dominican Republic, which gives it a fresh flavor and distinctive and atmospheric tropical locations. A number of Euro-crime films have used the general Caribbean area well, from VIOLENT CITY with Charles Bronson to MEAN TRICKS with Charles Napier (and let’s not forget some of the Terence Hill and/or Bud Spencer films which were shot in Florida or the islands).

In this one, Helmut Berger plays an American Army deserter who has become involved with a crime organization operating out of Santo Domingo (led by head mobster Kevin McCarthy! yes, of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS fame), and when he hesitates on a hit of a friend he’s ordered to do, he gets on McCarthy’s kill-list. At the same time, he’s being courted by US law enforcement heavy-hitter Jose Ferrer (I’m not sure what government agency he works for….as an FBI officer, he’d have no jurisdiction in the Dominican Republic–although he talks of “orders from the Embassy”–and he does not seem to be CIA as he’s more of a police sort than an intelligence sort, but hey….who asks questions like that for a film like this…settle back and enjoy the ride!), who is in this film A LOT and has the requisite gruff badass authority needed (and who dubs his own voice, fortunately, as does McCarthy).

Helmut Berger has always been a one-of-a-kind film presence. Rocketing to stardom in Luchino Visconti’s THE DAMNED, he pretty much cornered the market in the field of bored, jaded, debauched, formerly aristocratic characters who had fallen from grace. Think of him as a willowy, upper-class Austrian version of Joe Dallesandro or a more desperate and dissolute Fabio Testi who hasn’t eaten for a few weeks. He has a magnetic presence in anything he’s in, and his long career has shown him to be a very versatile actor and a man who still has the same magnetic presence in his 70’s that he had in his 20’s. A non-traditional documentary was made about him a few years ago–HELMUT BERGER, ACTOR–which I need to see, and which was labeled by John Waters as best film of the year. Here, he’s just right as the man without a country, and even without a clear identity. Dressed in the light colors you’d expect in a tropical area, with his shirt always unbuttoned 2/3 of the way down, he’s not so much a typical tough guy but a man who has checked out of conventional life-as-it-is-lived (and both the cops and criminals are playing on opposite sides in the same game, a game which Berger has drifted beyond) and has nothing left to lose. He’s quite convincing and charismatic as the anti-hero here.

With the usual Italian 70’s crime-funk-jazz soundtrack, a gritty look and feel to both the photography and the locations and sets, a plot where pretty much everyone winds up dead (oh, pardon me….spoiler!), and the gravitas brought to the film by such heavyweights as Jose Ferrer and Kevin McCarthy and Renato Rossi (aka Howard Ross, aka Red Ross), ORDER TO ASSASSINATE delivers the goods. I’m surprised to see it get mediocre or negative reviews among the few writeups found for it (mostly by Eurocrime completists). Let me put it this way, anyone who would get excited about the prospect of seeing Helmut Berger circa 1974 as an existential hit-man in an Italian crime film shot in the Dominican Republic with Jose Ferrer as a burned-out cop and Kevin McCarthy as a gleeful mob boss….and I would assume we could count many of you reading this in that category….will get EXACTLY what you’d want from this film. Since I have two hands, I’ll give it two thumbs up.

BILL SHUTE, originally published elsewhere online in 2018

PIER 5, HAVANA (1959), starring Cameron Mitchell

well-paced low-budget mystery with Cameron Mitchell

This is one of three low-budget programmers made by Cameron Mitchell for director Edward L. Cahn and the same production company (all UA releases) in 1959-60, all of which are worth seeing. Living in Miami, small businessman Cameron Mitchell comes to post-revolution Havana to find an old friend who was going to come and work for him, but never arrived and seems to have vanished. Although Mitchell’s character is not a detective, this plays a lot like a detective film, and director Cahn is a master at pacing, so despite the miniscule budget (Havana is evoked by a few small sets and a few California exteriors with Spanish-language signs on them!), the film plays like a good little paperback-original mystery novel–especially so since Mitchell provides voice-over narration here and there to speed things along and to mention things that would be too expensive to show on camera.

As always, Mitchell treats the role with the greatest respect, digging into the character and turning what could have been a generic role into someone the viewer cares about and roots for. Michael Granger is also excellent as the honest, professional Cuban police investigator who stays on the case himself and keeps running into Mitchell along the way. The film also features legendary 50s leading lady Allison Hayes (Gunslinger, The Unearthly, Attack of the 50 ft. Woman)as a woman who once knew Mitchell and was married to the missing man. Although a low-budget programmer that is only 67 minutes long and was no doubt made in a few weeks, PIER 5, HAVANA provides good, honest, hard-boiled entertainment and plays like a good 1950s detective TV show.

Director Edward L. Cahn was the best kind of journeyman director, a true pro who could take a talented cast, a few small sets, and a genre-based script, and turn it all into a solid, unpretentious feature film that still entertains and engages decades after it was made. If you come to this film with enough willing suspension of disbelief, it won’t matter that the punches thrown in the fight scenes miss by at least eight inches–the sound effects are synched accurately so you THINK the punch must have landed, and the scene has moved on before you have time to analyze it. I’ll take honest entertainment like this over CGI effects any day of the week. This film was probably made for less than the bottled water budget on the last Eddie Murphy film (note inserted in 2023–today, I’d say “Marvel Universe film”). Bravo to director Cahn and star Cameron Mitchell!

BILL SHUTE, originally published elsewhere online in 2003

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My newest poetry book for 2023…only $6.95 and available internationally at your local Amazon platform

NEUTRAL by Bill Shute

KSE #420, 125 pages, 6″ x 9″ perfect bound, softcover

published 2 January 2023

available for immediate order from https://amzn.to/3IFS5Vs

A new book-length poem for 2023, and in some ways it is my most ambitious work (IMHO) since POINT LOMA PURPLE (2007).

THAT’LL FLAT GIT IT, VOLUME 30: RCA VICTOR RECORDS (Bear Family, CD, released 2018)

1 Joe Clay– Get On The Right Track 1:55
2 Janis Martin (2)– Little Bit 2:09
3 Ric Cartey– My Babe 2:23
4 David Hill (4)– Wild Child 2:00
5 Jimmy Dell– Rainbow Doll 2:07
6 Jean Chapel– Welcome To The Club 1:50
7 Sammy Salvo– Wolf Boy 1:57
8 Dave Rich– Chicken House 1:59
9 Marlin Greene– Never Been Kissed 2:10
10 Benny Martin– Hoebe Snow 2:10
11 Otto Bash– All I Can Do Is Cry 1:58
12 Anita Carter– He’s A Real Gone Guy 2:29
13 The Morgan Twins– Let’s Get Goin’ 2:06
14 Joe Clay– Cracker Jack 2:22
15 Tam Duffill– Cooly Dooly 1:59
16 Roy Orbison– Almost Eighteen 2:03
17 Lee Denson– Heart Of A Fool 1:59
18 David Hill (4)– Big Guitar 2:35
19 Ric Cartey– I Wancha To Know 2:36
20 Autry Inman– Dream Boat 1:58
21 Janis Martin (2)– Ooby Dooby 1:58
22 Nite Rockers– Oh! Baby 2:37
23 Gordon Terry– It Ain’t Right 2:04
24 Bill Carlisle– Dumb Bunny 2:10
25 David Hill (4)– That’s Love 2:15
26 Ray Griff– That Weepin’ Willow Tree 2:04
27 Ric Cartey– Mellow Down Easy 2:19
28 Georgie Gibbs– Great Balls Of Fire 2:08
29 Dave Rich– School Blues 2:05
30 Pee Wee King– Tweedle Dee 2:23
31 Terry Fell– Caveman 1:55
32 David Houston– I’ll Always Have It On My Mind 2:16
33 Jimmy Dell– The Message 1:58
34 Janis Martin (2)– All Right Baby 1:36
35 Joe Clay– Goodbye, Goodbye 2:18

Over 25+ years, Bear Family’s That’ll Flat Git It series has been compiling label-based surveys of rare 50’s and early 60’s rockabilly and rock and roll. RCA was the first label surveyed back with Volume 1, and now with Volume 30 they return for a second survey, which rates as one of the best-ever comps in this series.

While RCA couldn’t press enough Elvis Presley records to meet the demand in the mid-to-late 1950’s, the label surely thought that lightning might strike twice with a similar hillbilly bopper, and signed young upstarts such as Joe Clay and Ric Cartey, both of whom reached a red-hot level comparable to greats such as Johnny Carroll and Johnny Burnette (who recorded for Decca and Coral, respectively) and were rawer and further-out than Presley. Clay’s album opener, “Get On The Right Track,” with its raw vocal and distorted, bent-note guitar solo could almost be labelled punk, and he closes the 35-track album with another scorcher.

RCA of course had a fine roster of country artists, and their country boogie and honky tonk sides were not far removed from rockabilly even before Elvis, so nudging the material just a bit in the rock and roll direction allowed for fine sides from Autry Inman, Anita Carter, Terry Fell, Bill Carlisle, and even polka-rooted western swing bandleader Pee Wee King. Also, many artists who went on to fame on other labels—David Houston, Roy Orbison, Gordon Terry, Ray Griff—made records at RCA during the height of the original rock and roll mania. RCA was also the home of “The Female Elvis, “ Janis Martin, who is represented here with three fine sides, and Elvis’s Memphis friend Lee Denson is featured on the Haley-esque “Heart Of A Fool” (co-written by Eddie Cochran). Little-known artists such as The Nite Rockers, Tam Duffill, and Otto Bash are also peppered throughout this well-programmed collection and deliver the rockin’ goods. We all know how rich and full the recordings made in RCA’s Nashville and New York studios were in that period, so not only is the music hot, it comes out of the speaker as if the musicians are in the room with you.

There is a mix of styles here that makes the album seem fresh with each play, and even though the hardcore collector of 50’s compilations will have 2/3 of the material, for anyone else this should be an essential purchase—exhaustive notes and great sound, of course, as always delivered by Bear Family.

BILL SHUTE, originally published in 2019 in Ugly Things magazine

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My newest poetry book for 2023…only $6.95 and available internationally at your local Amazon platform

NEUTRAL by Bill Shute

KSE #420, 125 pages, 6″ x 9″ perfect bound, softcover

published 2 January 2023

available for immediate order from https://amzn.to/3IFS5Vs

A new book-length poem for 2023, and in some ways it is my most ambitious work (IMHO) since POINT LOMA PURPLE (2007).

LITTLE SAD SACK #15 (Harvey Comics, March 1967)

Anyone who frequents junk stores or the so-called antique malls and peruses the printed matter for sale knows that the Harvey Comics line is not particularly in-demand. Oh, there may be SOMEONE out there who is willing to pay big bucks for a mint copy of the RICHIE RICH MEETS LEON TROTSKY “Giant” issue of Harvey Hits, but for the most part, there are so many variations on so few characters (Richie Rich, Sad Sack, Casper The Friendly Ghost, etc.) that if you find a comics dealer willing to deal, you can get a stack of Harveys for next to nothing.

Case in point: recently I got a stack (literally–about 25) of coverless comic books from the late 60’s and early 70’s for about 20-25 cents each, and most of them (the Harveys especially, though there were also Charlton westerns and some other items) had clearly never been read….or even thumbed through. The spines were tight and just waiting for some ten year old–or ten year old at heart, like me–to kill some time in the upbeat wonder-world of Harvey Comics (and yes, that K. Gordon Murray reference was intended). The covers had been ripped off and returned to the distributor for credit when the book’s initial selling period ended, maybe a month after its release, and instead of throwing the coverless books out, as the retailers were supposed to do, or letting the employees or good customers have them for free (or selling them at a steep discount under the counter, as the Convenient Food Mart on Bridge Street used to do for me as a kid), someone decided to save these books in a box somewhere, and who knows how many times that box got moved over the 51 years between this comic being discarded and my picking it up for a quarter. Yet, in 51 years, no one read it….until I did.

Fortunately, as with an obscure silent comedy short from the 1920’s or a lesser-known Bowery Boys film you’ve somehow missed, there is something timeless and pure and charming about this coverless Little Sad Sack comic book. Of course, it’s well known that the Harvey Comics incarnation of Sad Sack was nothing like the original, created during World War II by soldier George Baker for a military audience and reflecting, with a kind of black humor, the problems facing soldiers, addressed from one soldier to another. Harvey reinvented Sad Sack as a kind of kindler, gentler, more kid-friendly version of Beetle Bailey, but without most of the pointed workplace humor that adults appreciated so much in Beetle (and still do). A lot of the credit for the appeal of the newly re-invented Harvey Sad Sack goes to artist Fred Rhoads, who boiled the character down to its essence and favored an open, minimal art style that would pull the reader in. He also gave the comics a kind of wide-eyed brightness not unlike Disney comic books, but not as saccharin. As much as the character evolved when adapted by Harvey, according to online sources, creator George Baker continued to oversee the series and do the covers, and I vividly remember seeing those unique covers with the weekly comic offerings at the local newsstand or drug store as a child.

Harvey being all about spin-offs of the core “brands,” Sad Sack comics offered other lines focusing on Sarge, Sack’s dog Muttsy (!!!), Gabby Gob (the Navy version of Sack), and the comic under review today, LITTLE SAD SACK. This is basically Sad Sack as an elementary school-aged child. With a face only a mother could love, the child version of Sack looks like Leon Errol playing weather-beaten Knobby Walsh in the Joe Palooka movies, but put into a ten year old’s body (and if you’re not familiar with Errol/Walsh, think of Jimmy Durante, big schnoz and all, as a child….looking exactly like the adult Durante, but with softer facial contours!). The basic concept of this is so ridiculous that just looking at a page of LITTLE SAD SACK comics puts a smile on my face. It’s almost like the “adult baby” persona of Harry Langdon (see pic) if he had stumbled into the world of PEANUTS, had PEANUTS been created by Mort Walker of BEETLE BAILEY fame. Little Sad Sack’s adventures are not unlike those of Dennis The Menace, but toned down and gentler.

What I like most about this orphan comic book, abandoned and unread for decades, is the purity of its comedy, something not really seen today….or for the last 30+ years. It’s the same feeling seen when Stan Laurel or Oliver Hardy will get a piece of paper stuck to their shoe, or get a fly annoying them, and spend a good 5 minutes developing and extending the situation. Time stands still and the world outside no longer matters. Jerry Lewis tried that kind of thing in his second “comeback” film, SMORGASBORD (aka CRACKING UP), the film he made after HARDLY WORKING, and it could not even get a US theatrical release as it was so out-of-step with the culture of that day, 1983 (it did well overseas and wound up on cable and late-night TV here). And to have that kind of simple and pure comedy served up by a character who looks like a grizzled old character actor, but in a ten year old’s body, makes the packaging even more appealing to me. He’s almost like an elementary school version of Shemp Howard, and who could not get excited by that prospect. It’s interesting that artist Fred Rhoads had worked as an assistant on Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, as Little Sad Sack has a kind of Snuffy Smith vibe to him. And like Snuffy Smith or Harry Langdon, Little Sad Sack does not have to DO anything to be funny. His face and his attitude say it all in a universal language a four-year-old could understand.

Just like the character of Sad Sack, the line of Harvey’s Sad Sack comics (and its endless variations) does not get any respect today. When I looked on some comic book history websites to get my facts straight for this review, I saw one of those listings (as you see for records on Discogs) where it states how many collectors have this comic and how many want it, and for this LITTLE SAD SACK comic, under the “wants” section, instead of a number, it sarcastically stated “who would admit to wanting this!” Hey, I want it! And thankfully, I’ve got it. The super-hero fanboys (and most are boys, whatever their age) who make up most of the comics-nerd world will never “get” Harvey Comics or Sad Sack, let alone Little Sad Sack, which is about as welcome in their world as a second-tier Columbia comedy short featuring, say, Monte Collins or the team of Eddie Quillan and Wally Vernon would be welcome at the Sundance Film Festival.

This comic book is certainly not what the popular historians would have you believe was happening in 1967. Reading this coverless orphan comic book today is like getting a breath of pure oxygen—-oxygen that’s been waiting 51 years to be used by someone—-after spending a day working outside in some polluted urban area. It’s exactly what I need after a day in the fetid and toxic and self-important world of contemporary society and popular culture.

BILL SHUTE, originally published elsewhere online in 2018

MOD JAZZ RIDES AGAIN (Kent-Ace Records, UK, CD, released 2018)

1 The Tempo Rhythms– Poppa Nickel 3:31

2 Jimmy Witherspoon– Hey, Mrs Jones 2:18

3 Russell Evans & The Nite Hawks– The Bold 2:23

4 Ray Shanklin– Shank & Grits 2:23

5 Harold Betters– Hot Tamale Man 3:26

6 Ray Johnson– Sherry’s Party 2:20

7 Sammy Davis Jr. & Buddy Rich– I Know A Place 2:24

8 The Rhoda Scott Trio– Sha-Bazz Pts I & II (Edit) 4:34

9 Montego Joe– Fat Man 3:58

10 Jimmy Mayes & The Soul Breed– Pluckin’ 2:21

11 Otis Spann– I’m A Dues Payin’ Man 3:09

12 Gate Wesley– Do The Thing 2:04

13 Billy Graham & The Escalators– East 24th Ave. 2:23

14 Nina Simone– Come On Back, Jack 2:14

15 Johnny “Hammond” Smith– Sticks An’ Stones 2:44

16 Jackie Ivory– High Heel Sneakers 2:15

17 T-Bone Walker– Shake It Baby 3:04

18 The Playboy Five– Spoonful 2:20

19 Gene Walker & The Combo– Empire City 2:33

20 The Clarence Daniels Orchestra, Obie Jessie– I’ve Got My Walking Papers Vocals – Obie Jessie 3:18

21 Hank Jacobs– Pushin’ The Button Of Soul 2:51

22 Candy Phillips– Timber Pt II 2:17

23 Eddie Bridges & His Lowriders– Out House 2:09

24 Bobby Jenkins Quartet*– What Is Love 2:34

Since 1996, the Ace-Kent Mod Jazz series has issued nine albums, and many of us anxiously await each volume and another fix. The core focus of the series is early-to-mid 1960’s “soul jazz” in the broadest interpretation of that term, not just the kind of R&B-flavored organ-and-saxophone albums and singles issued on labels such as Prestige, so the Mod Jazz series offers a refreshing variety of styles that somehow co-exist under that broad tent, and this new volume is a particularly strong entry in the series, shining a light on both obscure records by little-known artists and over-looked items from well-known artists. These albums put the listener into some fantasy-world approximation of a 1966 London Mod R&B club, with DJ’s who had access to a wide variety of American imports and exquisite taste. They aren’t afraid to present a track by Sammy Davis, Jr. backed by the Buddy Rich big band covering a Petula Clark song if it swings and has a finger-snapping cool aura, and you can dance to it.

Compilers Dean Rudland and Ady Croasdell cast the net wide and deep here, with Mar-Keys style R&B instrumentals (The Tempo Rhythms), Latin jazz in the groove (Harold Betters, Montego Joe), Nina Simone doing an answer record to “Hit The Road Jack” in 1961, Ramsey Lewis Trio-style piano-led small groups (Ray Johnson), blues guitar workouts backed by an R&B horn section (Jimmy Mayes & The Soul Breed), jazz organ combos (Johnny Hammond Smith, Rhoda Scott), and blues veterans (T-Bone Walker, Otis Spann) doing soul-flavored late 60’s sessions for the Flying Dutchman/Blues Time label. Five tracks come from obscure singles on Atlantic/Atco, others come from labels best known for soul such as Romark, Loma, Arock, and Port, and obscure labels such as Vistone, Affiliated, and Bandstand USA are also represented.

With largely unfamiliar material, a nice mix of dance tempos, a combination of vocals and instrumentals, well thought-out programming of the 24 tracks, and informative liner notes, Mod Jazz Rides Again offers up the ultimate 60’s R&B-rooted Soul Jazz DJ set.

BILL SHUTE, originally published in Ugly Things magazine in 2019

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My newest poetry book for 2023…only $6.95 and available internationally at your local Amazon platform

NEUTRAL by Bill Shute

KSE #420, 125 pages, 6″ x 9″ perfect bound, softcover

published 2 January 2023

available for immediate order from https://amzn.to/3IFS5Vs

A new book-length poem for 2023, and in some ways it is my most ambitious work (IMHO) since POINT LOMA PURPLE (2007).