The Bandstand: August 2005

I'm so pleased the headline implying that the quiz in this edition might be the last turned out to be profoundly untrue. Ed Cecchini was only getting started and continues to supply us with terrific big band quizzes. Grazie, Ed!

'Tain't No Sin

The heat gripping Southern California has had me humming this tune around the house:



By the way, a tip of the BBAA cap to member Ellen Donaldson, daughter of composer Walter Donaldson, who co-wrote "'Tain't No Sin" with Edgar Leslie.

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Here's a recent Wall Street Journal article about widows of jazz performers working to perpetuate their late husbands' names and music:

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Francine Bellson made news a second time in May, when the headstone she herself designed for Louie was unveiled in Moline, Ill. Photographs appear courtesy of www.louiebellson.com:

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And in one more death-related item, an English novelist, Beryl Bainbridge, passed away two weeks ago. Obituaries mentioned her attempt at suicide when she was in her mid-20s:

"'Putting one's head in the oven, yes, I think I was probably trying to draw attention to myself,' she said."

When it comes to understatement, nobody lays a glove on the Brits.

Cheeseburger in Hollywood

Saxophonist Lanny Morgan has played in the orchestras of Maynard Ferguson, Bob Florence, Bill Holman, Bill Berry, Frank Capp and Milt Raskin, to name just a few. He's probably never worked with rocker Jimmy Buffett of "Cheeseburger in Paradise" fame, but if the newspaper article that appeared last week is any indication, Lanny would be well qualified to do so:



Lanny can be reached through his website, www.lannymorgan.com. 

And how about a developer picking up a prime location like that for only $825,000 after the city paid nearly five and a half million? Man, we're in the wrong line of work.