Bad Girl Jazz

In I Want to Live! (1958), Susan Hayward played (or
overplayed, depending on whom you talk to) accused
killer Barbara Graham. See the TCM trailer is HERE.
The jazz comes courtesy of Gerry Mulligan. Gerry made
another appearance on Starlet Showcase HERE.

Jazzy Gerry Mulligan

I've been enjoying a lot of jazzman Gerry Mulligan's
music today, especially his work with Paul Desmond
and Chet Baker. You can watch Gerry Mulligan blow
his baritone sax in the 1958 Susan Hayward movie
I Want to Live! There's a picture of Gerry below.
The other two album covers here simply serve as
our usual gratuitous sex photographs. The top one
is significant for its pinup of Elizabeth Montgomery.
The bottom picture just looks way cool.

Speak No Evil

I am listening to jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter's Speak
No Evil, which seems like a great excuse to post some
gratuitously sexy album covers.
(Actually, any excuse will do.)

Cool Jazz and Hot Women

Uhhh...I just needed some excuse to use the title
"Cool Jazz and Hot Women," which just came to mind
somehow. I'm listening to Wes Montgomery's "Bumpin',"
which of course is jazz guitar. Today's forecast is Breezy
and Colder, but it's not as bad as February. Anyway,
maybe I'll do a "Hot Jazz and Cool Women" post at
some future date. It's one of those strange pairings,
like "Good Wine and Bad Women," "High Heels and
Low Blows," or "Long Nights with Short Men."
That sort of thing. If you think of any others, send 'em.

Imitation of Monofonico Hi-Fi

I don't speak or write Spanish or Portuguese or any of the "Romance languages," so I don't know what these album covers are all about. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter at all. I'm listening to the Miles Davis All Stars, it's Friday, and I'm looking forward to a long weekend indoors.


This is Susan Kohner (The Gene Krupa Story, All The Fine Young Cannibals, Freud) playing Kick-The-Lamb or something in a publicity still from Imitation of Life (1959). I'd like to think those are cool jazz LPs on the floor, but they could be Rock & Roll records. I think that in 1959, most Rock & Roll was the stuff of 45 RPM records. Being that it was 1959, they could also be Calypso or Cha Cha. I haven't seen Imitation of Life in a while, and it will be a long, long time before I ever see it again. Susan Kohner may be about to kick the lamb, because she's frustrated about being multiracial in a weird little family with an ass-less Lana Turner and an annoyingly white Sandra Dee. Starlet Kohner herself was Mexican and Czech. She very sensibly left Hollywood after a 10-year career, raised a family, and had a life. She still does, in fact.
There is a strange, cluttered Myspace page about Susan Kohner HERE.

A Jazzy Natalie Wood Morning

Coffee. . .

Cigarettes. . .

Jazz. . . (Right now it's Since I Fell for You by Lee Morgan)

I'm celebrating. I just won my very first game of Spider
Solitaire at the 4-suite difficulty level. Yes, I know you've
been winning that easily for years now. Yes, other people
are linebackers for Dallas. Some people excel at polo or
chess or speed skating. Yeah, I know that. I'm talking
about a "personal best" here, so give me a break. Imagine
that I'm a long-term paralytic in a wheelchair, and I've
somehow just moved my big toe voluntarily. Like that.
Well, it's not really that monumental, but I'm pleased
with it.
And with Natalie Wood, how can you lose?

Jazz on a Rainy Morning

Actually, it's a rainy day here in River City.
But there's nothing better than decaf French
Roast coffee, Kool Ultra Lights, Wallace Roney
on the trumpet, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, and
J.J. Johnson on a quiet rainy morning.