http://kevxml2adsl.verizon.net/_1_6UKTO10LO6EKF__vzn.dsl/apnws/story.htm?kcfg=apart&sin=D8KA5P880&qcat=entertain&ran=13339&passqi=&feed=ap&top=1
Let me just say that this cat was the real deal, and I will definitely miss him. I met him when I was about 10 years old. My uncle was making a documentary about chicano rock and rollers. He came over to our house wearing a pink blazer, and a gorgeuos younger wife! I ended up getting back in touch with him when I got older and went to some of his shows at the bowling alley. I think it made him happy to see that the younger crowd still appreciated his music. He always reminded me of one of those cool uncles that everyone has, up on stage cracking dirty jokes and what not... He was definitely one of the influences for my old band, "lil luis y los wild teens". We were going for a kind of dirty late 50's rNr sound, with some songs in spanish and some in english, what better influence for that then the champs?! This guy was an old school pachuco from way back, the coolest of the cool! We even did one of his songs in spanish, a version of "you are my sunshine". I had him sign my alto saxophone because he was one of my inspirations, along with Joe Houston, Joey DiAmbrosio, & Big Jay McNeely, maybe i will have to retire it and just hang it up on the wall. RIP man.. ~ollin~
I dont think so. It was pretty cool though. It had the guy from ? and the mysterians doing "96 tears" and some footage about ritchie valens, and los lobos too i think. I will have to give him a call. He lives in Las cruces NM, and I havent talked to him in a while but he said he would send it to me.
Damn this week blows for the LA late 40's-50's music fans. Just found out Jimmie Madden passed away too. He was another cat from here in LA that was rockin' before it was called rock'n'roll, and he was good friends with Danny Flores. One of the few "white" zuit suiters you would have met back in the 40's. His music was also featured in the move "the Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" LA WEEKLY Jimmie Maddin, 1928–2006 The sweet & wild ways of an L.A. jazz/proto– rock & roll hero By JONNY WHITESIDE Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - 6:00 pm Seventy-eight-year-old saxist-singer Jimmie Maddin, one of Los Angeles’ most prolific and longest-running jazz-R&B stylists, died September 1 at the Nevada State Veterans Home. Born February 27, 1928, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Maddin arrived here in 1947 to begin a staggering run as a musician, club owner, television personality and record producer. Although a stone jazz head, Maddin specialized in crazy, hopped-up rhythm & blues, first captured on 1950’s “Boogie Boo,” where his gutsy, playful tenor sax and coolly detached vocal combined for an irresistibly charming sound. (The fact that it featured Benny Carter, Harry “Sweets” Edison and Red Callendar didn’t hurt either.) Maddin had an amazingly active hand in the town’s churning postwar music scene, opening a series of Hollywood clubs (among them, the Sanbah, the Summit and Hot Toddies), making friends with mobsters (“Mickey Cohen was a wonderful guy”, movie stars like Jack Haley (who gave Maddin his first guest TV shot, resulting in KTLA’s weekly Jimmie Maddin Show) and John Carradine, and “all of Errol Flynn’s ex-wives.” He also flouted L.A.’s unwritten yet inviolate segregation law, using mixed bands, encouraging mixed audiences, and even duetting with Jeanette Baker on Johnny Otis’ TV show. The LAPD’s displeasure was often evident, but Maddin just kept on; his proto–rock & roll heat (check him out in the 1959 AIP flick Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow) opened doors for many. He later produced the Seeds’ first album (Sky Saxon wrote “Pushin’ Too Hard” in Maddin’s car), an offbeat move typical of Maddin’s freewheeling methods. Maddin continued blowing his sweet, hot sound at his Capri Lounge until last year (under a liquor license in continuous use for 50 years), overseeing a wild, unpredictable and perpetually swinging session. His goodhearted enthusiasm never faltered, and its loss is one all Los Angeles should mourn.
The Jalopy Journal
