My MC Hammer Story

Back in 1990, I was attending grad. school in California. I had just left my job as Vice President of Decision Research Corp., a public opinion and political consulting firm headquartered in Cleveland, OH. To make some money while a student, I did a little political consulting. I spoke at a Campaign Management conference at UC Davis. There I met a captain of the Fremont, CA. Fire Dept who was the campaign mgr. for Fremont Mayor, Ben Ball. He hired me to do some voter targeting for the Mayor's re-election campaign.

So where does Hammer come in? MC Hammer, a resident of Fremont, was one of the Mayor's biggest supporters. The Fire Capt. mentioned to Hammer that I had a pretty good rap on my answering machine. I'm pretty sure Hammer called me and listened to the rap. He didn't say anything, but I would recognize that laugh anywhere. Hahaha. That's my MC Hammer story. As we all know, Hammer is too legit to quit!

Thanks for calling, but the Kinsey's aren't home
Or at least they can't come to the telephone.
If you leave your leave your name and your number too
chances are they'll get back to you.
You can leave a short message, to be complete
But just remember wait for the beep.

Oscar Peterson singing?

Hey guys,
I'm in New York City right now. I've been here for about a week and I'm heading back to Syracuse on tomorrow on the 10:45 train. My last post, promised a story about the late great Oscar Peterson's singing at the CCC Jazz Festival.

Until recently, I didn't know Oscar sang. A couple of nights ago, in a jazz club around 92nd and Broadway, my friend Larry told me that Oscar did sing, recorded himself singing, and that he (Larry) had a very rare copy of that recording.

This kind of takes the interest out of my promised story. I didn't think Oscar could sing. When I saw Oscar at the old State Theatre in Cleveland (during the CCC Jazz Festival sometime during tne decade of teh 1980s), he only played piano. He didn't sing. Larry told me that Oscar had a wonderful singing voice, but he sounded too much like Nat King Cole. In fact, he sounded identical to Nat King Cole, so he stopped singing (on records, anyway).

Here is my story of the great CCC Jazz Festival and Oscar Peterson. Oscar comes on stage (after the drummer and bass player had been playing for a little bit). He starts playing. It sounds great. He grabs the mic, that was laying on his grand piano and announces the next song. While he is playing, I hear this "eek eek eek" sound. This sound continues through the entire song. When the song ends, the eek eek eek ends. Oscar introduces another song and starts playing. That "eek, eek eek, is back. I start looking aroud to see who is rocking in their squeeky chair making that sounds. I find no indication of this.

As it turns out, Oscar is kinding half humming, somewhat singing, basically vocalizing with his playing. It is totally off tune and basically sounds like, "eek, eek, eek, eek," and so on. He never turned off his mic after introducing a new song and the mic was picking up on his vocals.

After about three songs, the "eek" faded into the background and I never really heard it again. Oscar put on a wonderful concert. CCC Jazz Fest was a big hit and I miss Cleveland.
Best regards,
Dennis

Oscar Peterson

So long to another great...Oscar Peterson. I saw Peterson in the mid-1980s. He was the headliner for the CCC Jazz Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Wow. What a show. The concert was held in the old State Theater on Euclid Avenue. I have been telling a story about that night for years. I'll tell it here when I get some time. It has to do with Oscar's singing. Yes, singing. In the mean time, enjoy this clip of Oscar Perterson and Count Basie playing "Slow Blues."