Now this is GO-GO

I always thought how interesting dance crazes are. I see country western line dancing and it looks like the old bus stop and the hustle of the 70's. One dance that has never been re-invented is Go-Go. Here is the classic Candy Johnson rippin' it up in the credits of "Beach Party." You gotta dig this!

Sorry I have to do this!

To be on the safe side, I have deleted my music shares. It appears that the music copyright police have been forcing people's blogs to be shut down or deleted due to copyright issues. Most of the music blogs that I follow share music that is no longer available or even re-released. Apparently the group filing all the DMCA claims lately is in the UK, and has no rights whatsoever. Google is so afraid of the lawsuits, that they take anyone's word for it. They just delete the shares no matter who files.  Great blogs like Cheerful Earful, Zip Your Rip, Hooked on Stereophonic have been forced to shut down. My love for music is to turn people on to great music and the artists who make this music. I make no money by sharing the music I love. Hopefully someday things will get better. Stay tuned I might be able to share again. If in the meantime if you are a friend of mine and see something you like email me and let me know, I may be able to help you out. Thanks again for visiting my blog.

We Pardon This Interruption For A Recipe!

Part of "Swank Living" is having great food. For Easter I made prime rib, a first for me. I followed a recipe by Alton Brown and Paula Dean of Food Network fame. It came out incredible. Here is the recipe for all my swanky friends.

FOOLPROOF STANDING RIB ROAST

Adapted from Paula Dean and Alton Brown 

Recipe:

1 (5 Pound) standing rib roast

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Seasoning

1-cup salt

¼-cup black pepper

¼-cup Garlic powder

Allow roast to stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degree F.

Rub/coat the roast with olive oil.

Rub/coat the roast with the seasoning. Make enough to fully cover the roast.

Place the roast on a rack in the pan with rib side down and fatty side up.

Roast for 1 hour.

Turn the oven off – Leave the roast in the oven but do not open the oven door for 3 hours.

About 30 – 45 minutes before serving time, turn the oven to 375 degrees F. and re-heat the roast.

*****Important*****

Do not remove the roast or open the oven door from the time the roast is put in until ready to serve. If you wish to use a remote thermometer, place the probe in the roast prior to cooking.

This recipe results in a roast that is rare. It is recommended that a pot of beef broth be available on the stove warmed to a simmer. Rare servings may be placed in the broth to finish to medium or well done in a short amount of time without drying out the meat.

Sauce Recipe:

1-½-cups of good mayonnaise

3-tablespoons of Dijon mustard

1 ½-tablespoons whole-grain mustard

1-tablespoon prepared horseradish

1/3-cup sour cream

¼-teaspoon kosher salt

Blend all ingredients together in a bowl.

Thanks to Kevin Z. for turning me onto this great recipe.

We now return to regular swank programming.

The Jetson's are really swank!

As a kid growing up I loved the cartoon "The Jetsons". The artwork and futuristic design was one of the defining characteristics that creators Hanna-Barbera infused in the show by an architectural style heavily influenced by the Googie designs of countless commercial buildings and establishments that were popular throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.  Bold angles, colorful signs, plate glass, sweeping cantilevered roofs and pop-culture imagery captured the attention of drivers on adjacent streets. Bowling alleys looked like Tomorrowland.  My father, being an architect loved this kind of architecture. I think it rubbed off on me because I have always liked these buildings. How swank is that?

Seattle Space Needle

TWA FLIGHT CENTER, John F. Kennedy Airport

Design by Eero Saarinen

Even the Googie Signs had the look

Here in Kansas City we have some retro "Jetson's" looking buildings.

Historic TWA Operational Center (now an ad firm) Gotta love the Rocket!

  The Jetson's was also inspired by Disney's "The Magic Highway".

Take a look at this animation and see how similar the look is for the Jetsons.

Most of all I loved the interior design of the Jetson's.  Not only futuristic but very Swanky!

Modern Day Twist 

How about the Moon Bench?

George sat in one of these.

Nice Dining Area

Could use one of these chairs


Our world today may not have the flying car yet, but alot of the design of the Jetson's is here around us. So look around you might have a Spacely's Sprockets near you!


other links to articles about the jetsons and architecture.
Architecture: Are We Ready For The Jetsons?


Building The World Of The Jetsons

Swank retro TV for you

Looking to outfit your own swank pad? I found this great retro HDTV at Wilkerson Furniture. 
It's perfect for anyone wanting that 1960's look. Pretty cool  that you think?

JAI & KAI + 6 (1956) Forgotten Music Of My Youth

Time to get back into the SWANK!!!!

This was one of my parent's albums. As I have posted in earlier posts, as a kid I loved looking at album artwork. As a teen I would buy albums just because their cover art looked cool. I used to go through my parents albums to look at the art. This one always caught my eye even though I don't ever remember hearing it. It's cartoon illustration is what I think attracted me it to it. Now as I listen to it, man can these trombones swing. Now more about the album.


In April 1956, eight of New York's top trombonists joined an all-star rhythm section to record Jay & Kai + 6, an album that has become a must-have for any trombone lover's music library. The historic recording was an expansion of the immensely successful Jay & Kai recordings featuring J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding. 


J.J. Johnson , Kai Winding , Jimmy Cleveland, Eddie Bert, Bob Alexander, Urbie Green - Trombone -
Bart Varsalone, Tom Mitchell - Bass Trombone
Hank Jones - Piano
Milt Hinton, Ray Brown - Bass
Candido Camero - Congas, Bongos
Osie Johnson - Drums

1 - Night In Tunisia
2 - Piece For Two Tromboniums
3 - Rise 'N' Shine
4 - All At Once You Love Her
5 - No Moon At All
6 - Surrey With The Fringe On Top
7 - The Peanut Vendor
8 - You're My Thrill
9 - Jeanne
10 - Four Plus Four
11 - You Don't Know What Love Is
12 - The Continental (You Kiss While You're Dancing)


You may not think a bunch of trombones are for you, but give it a try. You will appreciate the great musicianship and music of this album. This album has the Swank Lounge seal of approval!!

Pleasure (1978) Never Forgotten Music Of My Youth!

Ever heard of Pleasure???????

This band is one of the best bands you have probably never heard of. Best known for its 1979 hit "Glide," Pleasure was a risk-taking, horn driven band that often brought jazz overtones to its funk/soul foundation. Pleasure was formed in Portland, Oregon in the early 70's and was discovered by Wayne Henderson (Jazz Crusaders Fame) who got them signed and produced 4 of it's 6 albums.


When you listen to them they sound like a cross between of Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang and Sly and the Family Stone. Who stands out in this great band is the bass player Nathaniel Phillips who's bass playing on the song "Glide" is studied and copied to this day. Here is a youtube clip of "Glide" which was a hit for Pleasure in 1979 on the album "Future Now".



On this album "Get To The Feeling" the band plays some serious funk. Here is the first track which has some great horn lines.


"Celebrate The Good Things"







Then the group does some serious Jazz Funk with "No Matter What."





There is a good compilation  of their work over at iTunes So check out this great band.


So It's my Pleasure to introduce you to a killer jazz funk band
"Pleasure."

Auracle-City Slickers (1979) Forgotten Music of My Youth

This is Auracle's 2nd and last album before this very talented band broke up. Of note on this album is the guest playing of Lee Ritenour (guitarist extraordinaire). This album is more commercial sounding than the first, but still very enjoyable to listen to. 
Here is Bombs Away Ballet to give you an idea of the band







Track listing is as follows:

1 Little City Slickers
2 Tied Shoes
3 Honey
4 Bombs Away Ballet
5 City Of Penetrating Light
6 Rotary Andy's Raggedy
7 Sambanana

IF "Waterfall" (1972) Forgotten Music Of My Youth

IF was a great jazz rock band from the UK. I think I bought this album on liking the album cover art plus the back cover photo showed they had two sax players. Gotta love horn players!
Here is some bio from a fan site

In 1969, Melody Maker poll winners Dick Morrissey (saxes and flute) and Terry Smith (guitar) were invited to form a group in the wake of the success of Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago. What they came up with was something quite different and absolutely unique - the jazz more modern, the rock more progressive - it keeps the listener constantly surprised and wondering where the ideas came from. Vital in this was the writing and arranging of Morrissey and fellow reed-man Dave Quincy, who, along with the rest of the band, showed a feel for both jazz and rock that was extremely rare at the time.
Another bio from experts.about.com, with some unique insights:

IF was a Jazz-Rock band formed in Britain in the early 1970s.
History
IF was a seminal jazz-rock band formed in 1969 as Britain's answer to the pioneering US bands Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago. The main difference was that IF did not have a trumpet or trombone player and featured two saxes instead. Essentially a live band, true to its strong jazz influences IF was probably the only jazz-rock group, both then and now, to feature solos by all the band members, not just by the lead instruments.
They toured extensively in Europe and the States during the Seventies, performing at all the major venues and festivals (Newport, Reading, Fillmores East & West, Whiskey A-Go-Go, etc.) and shared billings with, among others, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Leon Russell as well as many of the classic rock bands of the day, such as Cream, Traffic, Yes, Black Sabbath, Grand Funk Railroad, Ten Year's After, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
IF became one of the most highly-acclaimed groups of the Seventies to never quite make the big time. Signed on by Chris Blackwell, an enthusiastic early fan, to Island Records in the UK and by Capitol Records in the US, their first album, IF (1970), entered the charts in both the States (Billboard) and the UK, as well as winning a design award for its cover, and was followed that same year by IF 2, also on Island and Capitol.
The albums IF 3 (1971) and IF 4 "Waterfall" (1972) were accompanied by heavy touring schedules in the States and Europe, especially in Britain and Germany, where the band appeared on TV (BBC's Top of the Pops/Old Grey Whistle Test in the UK and xxx in Germany). Finally, in the summer of 1972, the band had to come off the road in the middle of a US tour when Dick Morrissey was admitted to hospital for major surgery. As a result of the break-up, in 1975 the band members went off to work on other projects




 

Waterfall is a very good album. It's got some very fine playing and a couple of tunes have some time changes that I like. You can hear the Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears influence, but this band has got more jazz roots to it. It's too bad a lot of bands just fade off to oblivion. This band was good for it's time and it's a good time to listen to them now.


Here is a track to listen to, "The Light Still Shines"