Mysteries in Evergreen Review #22 (1962)

Joel E. Turner

Newaygo is a town in rural western Michigan where you can buy t-shirts that say “Newaygo – a drinking town with a fishing problem”. It’s a small old-fashioned town on the Muskegon River that does a lot of trade with folks engaged in outdoor recreation – tubing, kayaking, fishing, hunting, hiking – or just hanging out in the North Woods and drinking beer. It is a great place but not exactly Greenwich Village.

So, it was surprising to go into a bookstore in Newaygo and find a cache of issues of the Evergreen Review. I purchased this particular issue on the basis of its table of contents:

ev cover       Ev toc Continue reading →

A Good Day for Pat Martino Records (by any other name)

Joel E. Turner , ,

Last week, I was in Washington DC and visited a few record shops. I am a big fan of jazz guitarist Pat Martino and my usual search process involves looking not just for his records, but also those of other great players that he worked with as a sideman early in his career.

It was a very good day on the latter count, as I found three records, all by different lead artists and all on Prestige, featuring Pat.

The earliest recording was made in 1964, Live! Action, by Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson.

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Pat was 19 when this session was recorded at The Allegro club in New York. The session was a productive one, yielding three additional albums, also released on Prestige. Continue reading →

Ornamented Frames: Cal Schenkel and Horace Pippin

Joel E. Turner , ,

Five years ago I was in my local vintage vinyl and music memorabilia store, Gold Million in Bryn Mawr (PA) (http://goldmillionrecords.com), which was hosting an exhibit of work by Cal Schenkel (http://www.ralf.com).

Frank Zappa fans will know Cal as the artist responsible for many Zappa/Mothers album covers, including Cruising with Reuben and the Jets:

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Continue reading →

JET Research Bureau – Note #232: Flying BOAC in 1961

Joel E. Turner

JET Research Bureau – Note #232

I needed information on air travel back and forth between Philadelphia and London in 1961 for a novel I was working on. Some sources suggested Pan Am flew non-stop on this route back then, but details on  this were hard to find. However, I determined that British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) flew regularly from New York to London back then, which would be an easy connection from Philadelphia. I needed enough detail on this to be sure I didn’t have any howlers in the story.

Details, I found. Continue reading →

Personal Ad – London Times – 1961

Joel E. Turner

Here is a personal ad that ran on the first page of the London Times in early 1961. I came across this while doing research for my recent novel.  I wonder if he got any replies.

An authentic plea to escape the rat-race? Or as someone suggested to me, was he looking for an older well-off dame or fellow to make his life cushy?

Young man ad

They All Love Jack

Joel E. Turner ,

A short reading from Bruce Robinson’s recent book about Jack the Ripper, a fascinating and at times horrific account, and a passionate indictment of the appalling conduct of the Victorian upper class that was the backdrop for the Whitechapel murders.

Robinson is most famous as the director of Withnail and I. I recommend this book and his novel The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman.

His passion and wit come through in this reading.