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I haven’t featured a Whole Wheat Radio artist for a few weeks, so here’s my favourite for today! From their WWR artist page:

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One of the features of TweetDeck is the Recommends column which displays users the TweetDeck team deem worthy of following. Most of time its a fairly random mix of folks, but sometimes you get some unlikely pairings!

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Damn straight.

Having used both, while I do prefer Django for my own projects, Ruby on Rails has a fancier welcome page. Sorry, it had to be said :D.

If they were really smart they’d include a picture of Reinhardt the Awesome and some wicked jazz music, plenty of both to choose from! It’d probably quadruple the size of the framework tarball, but to borrow a phrase from my sister "it’d be SO worth it!" Am I right? Don’t answer that.

Continuing in our seven day Whole Wheat Radio Artist of the Day experiment here on Rubénerd.com, today’s artist is the awesome jazz pianist and composer Michael Wolff.

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It seems somewhat ironic that my latest song obsession would be about a place I’m homesick for since I just left it again, but this time it’s the Manhattan Transfer’s cover of On a Little Street in Singapore, originally written in the 1930s. I no nothing about music but when I was told it’s played in a minor key I could tell it’s quite different. The trumpets also sound "old", probably using some specialised mutes which again I know nothing about.

You can watch and listen on YouTube.

According to those dang Wikipedias:

"On a Little Street in Singapore" is a jazz song written by Peter De Rose and Billy Hill. Though now obscure, it had some measure of popularity in the 1930s and 40s, marked by a number of high-profile performances. Artists to cover the song included Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Bert Kaempfert, and Jimmy Dorsey among others. Manhattan Transfer covered it again in 1978. The song features a haunting, lazy hook in a minor key, with numerous diminished chords. The overall impression is both languid and wistful.

They’re right, it has a laid back, summer sound. Singapore has changed a bit since then (the understatement of the century) but sitting at the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, the Riders Cafe, the restaurant at the Botanic Gardens or even a hawker centre having kaya toast for breakfast the song lyrics still fit :).

Given we moved around Australia and South-East Asia when I was growing up which firmly established me as a third culture kid, I’m glad I was able to live in a place long enough to consider it home… or at least more home than anywhere else.

I tend to listen to Whole Wheat Radio during the early afternoon, and my own music later in the evening. Since using Libre.fm to scrobble music I’ve noticed many artists I listen to haven’t been in their database before and are subsequently automagically added. What a mouthful.

The latest such artist is Michael Franks! Currently if you click any of these covers, I’m the only one who’s played him, even Popsicle Toes and Tiger in the Rain. Unfortunately I don’t have all his music in CD form, I inherited from my mum all his classics on original LPs but as far as I know I don’t think any scrobbling client currently supports such archaic devices :).

The great thing about being an early adopter of a service is you get to be part of the site during important milestones like this. Well, at least I consider them important. As Michael sang in one of his songs: "Just continue reading me…" which doesn’t make sense given he’s a singer/songwriter not an author. I guess I could read along with the lyrics. Why do I talk to myself so often here now? Can senelity set in when you’re 23? Don’t answer that.

I wrote my Michael Franks music review back in January 2007.

Photos of Harry’s from their website, linked below

UPDATE: Unfortunatly for all of us who appreciated him and his music, Michael Stanton passed on. I send my sincerest thoughts to his family and friends during this difficult time. Having just gone through the death of my mum to cancer I can empathise with your positions even if I can’t imagine what you yourselves are going through. Remember the good times and his music.

For those following this in your blog readers, you’ll want to check out the comments section of this post.

Had I known this post would become such a focal point for Michael I would have put more effort into it. I appreciate you all taking the time to post comments, as I’m sure his family is too.

Thank you again.

I really wish I were in Singapore and could have gone there. Harry’s on Boat Quay is a cozy jazz bar and lounge right on the water in Singapore. I had a beer there with my dad after my very quiet 21st birthday in 2007. I imagine the atmosphere there during this event would have been amazing, and for such a noble cause.

I wish Michael Stanton all the best. Cancer is a f-ing scary thing, but the support of friends and family can make a huge difference. You’ll be playing poetry with those keys again soon sir.

(Even if some jackarses deleted your Wikipedia page… what a crock.)

From Channel News Asia:

Jazz community holds concert for cancer-stricken musician
By Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 07 December 2008 2140 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s jazz community got together for a good cause on Sunday evening.

Top jazz artistes and musicians performed at Harry’s Bar at Boat Quay to raise funds for fellow jazz musician Michael Stanton, who was recently diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

Mr Stanton, who is now hospitalised, needs between S$15,000 and S$20,000 for his hospital bill and his trip back to the United States.

The artistes at the Concert of Life included Alemay Fernandez, The Jackson Twinz and friends, as well as a host of Singapore artists and musicians.

Mr Stanton arrived on the Singapore jazz scene some ten years ago.

The concert at Harry’s Bar ends late Sunday night. Entrance fee is a minimum donation of S$30.

This surprisingly beautiful excerpt from an article at TODAYOnline (JavaScript required, temporarily disable NoScript if you use it) outlines the history of Mr Stanton’s Jazz career in the US and in Singapore:

MUSICIANS have never shied away from giving support to a worthy cause from Live Aid to Live Earth. And this weekend, several of the top musicians in Singapore are rallying to help an ailing friend in need: Jazz keyboardist Michael Stanton.

The American keyboardist, based here since 1997, was diagnosed last Thursday with terminal pancreatic cancer, and some of his closest friends and collaborators are holding a benefit concert to raise funds for his medical treatment, and to send him safely home to his family in Compton, California.

Stanton, a consummate pianist, arranger and songwriter, has performed with some of the top names in Asian jazz, including pianist Jeremy Monteiro, singer Anne Weerapass, Malaysian jazz drumming legend Lewis Pragasam and saxophonist Greg Lyons.

However, even before reaching our shores, the Californian perfected his chops with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, ChakaKhan, Patti LaBelle and Stevie Wonder — you can hear him on Wonder’s groundbreaking album from 1977, Songs in the Key of Life.

Stanton arrived here at the behest of fellow musician and Compton native, Christy Smith, who played bass with Harry’s resident band Chromazone. After a stint at the now-defunct Somerset Jazz Bar at the former Westin Stamford Hotel, Stanton decided to make Singapore his home, performing at Harry’s at Boat Quay, Swing@Cuppage Terrace, Raffles Hotel, Jazz@Southbridge and most recently, QuaruBar@Dempsey Hill.

Yes you’re right Wikipedia editors… he isn’t notable at all is he?

So today was a pretty dreadful as days go. I walked into my mums room this afternoon to see her face turning red and sweating; she couldn’t breathe. So we got into a taxi and after one of the wildest traffic weaving adventures I think any of us have ever had we got to the hospital and had her admitted into the overnight care wing. She’s okay now thank goodness, bit of a scare, but the nurses there are all really friendly and I’m positive she’s in capable hands.

Anyway so this evening sitting back home my sister and I were feeling depressed, as you can no doubt imagine!

Now I’ve found myself getting more and more into Jazz and especially in the last few years, especially with artists like Kevin So and Chick Corea with their clean sounds, the huge volumes of Latin Jazz my dad has picked up on his business trips to South America and of course the Official Rubenerd Greatest Artist of All Time: Michael Franks.

But we needed something else today as well, so I whipped out some Eric Clapton, B.B. King, the Blues Brothers, Sam and Dave, Terry Callier… and a whole pile of other stuff. I love it!

Then it got me thinking: I looked at all the mountains of music I’ve accumulated over the years on my various playlists, and I have far fewer pop and “Billboard Top” and “MTV” and all that stuff than I thought. Am I turning into a music snob already? 10 years from now when I’m in my thirties will I be rocking in a chair talking to my kids about the “horrible” music they’re playing on the radio? Heck that’s what I think about most of it now!

Dang I need to unpack my mixer board ASAP, this is great rant material for a Rubenerd Show right here :).

Oh god… I have more J-Pop than western pop… oh god… I didn’t see that coming.

The crazy huge moth episode!

Giant scary tropical flying moths, listener feedback (birthday and departing wishes on Rubenerd Forum by Manny the Mailman, Mr Bunny, Surrealist and Felix) moving back to Singapore (parallel universes, loud removalist packer peoples), birthday celebrations (your host, host’s sister Elke, Ruben’s crappy April fools joke, the Overnightscape show, Dave Winer’s Scripting News), cheap decorating on a MacBook Pro and MacBook (tickets and whatnot), a Jazz club in Singapore, signs you read too many weblogs, Dave Winer’s phonebook of developments, never deleting old podcasts since 2004 and Douglas Adams on things that happen because they happen.

Download MP3 ↓ 30:00 minutes, 13.8MiB

You can also stream this episode and view its Internet Archive page.