250th Kick-Off

Happy Saturday morning. No coffee! At least not till Marcia gets up, and this will be a while since I got an early start on the day. Having said that, no worry, you will get to read this morning’s Ramblings in a timely Saturday a.m. manner. (a.m. for Ante meridiem, Latin for ‘before midday’) So, sit back, watch, listen, read, and enjoy!

For more on this Latin bit read today’s ‘Bonus Points’.

Tuesday evening a single drumbeat started the evening, and the start of Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. I was at our Music Hall where our Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Cincinnati Ballet, and the Cincinnati Opera began what was the nation’s very first ‘kick-off’ beginning of our nation’s 250th anniversary. The ‘Nati began it all with a massive The Spirit of America Gala at Music Hall.

The Ohio River was the theme and thus the opening drum gave homage to the early natives who traded along the River. Celebrated were the African sounds and Blues music from southern slaves seeking freedom the river brought up from New Orleans. The orchestral sounds and Opera the European immigrants brought down the river to what was then the extreme edge of the settled new continent. With a Cincinnati harbor filled with flat bottom steamboats, the sights, smells, and sounds such as this by Aaron Copeland would fill the place:

Those sounds brought our town a vibrancy of music like none other on the continent – remember this was before Memphis and Nashville. In fact, a young Cincinnati youngster, Mamie Smith, recorded the very first ever black-female blues song. One year after releasing her groundbreaking record (1920) she came home and on the very stage our Pops orchestra now occupied and sang her hit – “Crazy Blues”.

WLW700 radio – Time moved on, and soon radio became any household’s ‘must have’. Locally, WLW700 was the biggest with its 500.000 watts transmitter (max for any station today is 50,000 watts). This caused most every entertainer to stop in the ‘Nati to perform and record since the WLW radio signal, from coast to coast, gave instant coverage. This had several studios spring up. The most innovative being King Records which quickly became the nation’s largest independent label. Syd Nathan owner was also the first studio to be fully integrated. Syd was referred to as the “happiest little, short man” and was heard to say; “white or black, it doesn’t matter, I just like green”.

So, it was King where James Brown’s career was launched. Aso from Cincinnati came some kids who recorded as “The Isley Brothers” of “Shout” fame. The Isley Brothers are the only act in history to hit the Billboard Hot 100 in six consecutive decades: The 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

So it was all of the above sitting in a hall with our full Pops Orchestra which led me to watching a baritone Opera singer singing and dancing The Twist while covered by a full Pops Orchestra. We watched the Ballet dancers, now in street clothes, lead us all in dancing to Shout – “a little softer now”.

What an evening!

Shenanigans rule – America’s River Roots festival is in full swing. The river is filled with churning paddle-wheelers. Sounds of the steam horns and Calliope music fill the air. And every so often a roaring canon kicks off another boat race – never a clear winner without shenanigans galore causing much delay and bickering before finally declaring the race’s winner. So much fun.

The scenery looking up and down the river is not to be forgotten. Thursday even with the big boats coming and going came a parade of probably close to 50 ‘Great Gatsby” era style wooden Chris Craft type boats.

I am a volunteer on the Kentucky side of the festival at The Bourbon Experience. Three ticketed events a day offer a roomful of people an hour and a half tasting and learning experience. Each is different and presented by a different local Bourbon distiller. People love it.

The music – is so critical to these events. A series of stages offer a variety of music throughout the day. Thursday evening outdoors on the River Adrianne and their house guest joined me to watch a favorite of ours, Over the Rhine who played along with The Newbees. I’ve always viewed them as a wonderful regional band. Hearing them again I am proclaiming the as a really good International Band: Karin Bergquist & husband Linford Detweiler form the duo. It even brought way back memories when they performed at nearby Sudsy Malone’s leaning on the clothes dryer – see, Malone’s located in nearby Corryville was not just a music venue but was also the neighborhood laundromat!

So, this ends the post for this week. It’s a little focused on a single subject but does reflect just how involved I am with the America’s River Roots festival. Plus, I do have to get ready to head out again – it’s a double shift today.

Happy entry into America’s 250th

Life is AMAZING! – what a time to be alive!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

You’ve probably accepted that Latin (used by the Romans) is really a dead language. The following are words the Romans used and we too use, but one is not. Which word is NOT Latin in origin?

1) “Alibi”
2) “Arena”
3) “Bonus”
4) “Video”
5) “Forum”
6) “Gift”
7) “Raptor”