It all started with the familiar opening notes of “Take Five”. It was a lazy day off in 2012 and I was doodling at my art table with the sounds of Cocktail Nation with Koop Kooper in the background. Because the room reverb was slightly flat in the recording, I knew this version of “Take Five” wasn’t The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s original. And I was...
Halloween is here, a liminal time when the boundary between this world and the nether realms can more easily be crossed by all manner of evil spirits. Lest one be carried away by them, tradition dictates that we mere mortals disguise ourselves to fool the spirits into believing we are one of them. It was part of a tradition the Scots called “guising.” And while...
From the Sydney Penthouse the Lounge Lothario has been working overtime putting in the long distance calls across the globe to find you the craziest cats of the retro scene along with the legends who cohabit the swank universe that is the Cocktail Nation. In this edition the Lounge Leader talks magazines with Tiki Magazine founding father Nick Camara, art with El Gato Gomez and,...
In 1992, I was performing extensively under the stage name Jimmy Ross through Orange and Los Angeles Counties as a solo pianist/vocalist entertainer and occasionally in jazz trio and quartet settings. I had just started a double emphasis graduate program in piano and vocal performance at California State University. I was performing two nights a week across the street from where Diana Krall was performing,...
Mid-century retro goes by many names — Retro culture; Atomic culture — and it sometimes overlaps with many other subcultures like kustom kulture (i.e. hot rod & rockabilly fans); tiki culture, and even Goth. My preferred term for this subculture is Lounge Revival. To the outside observer, it would seem that the only thing your average Lounge Revivalist is interested in is dressing up in...
For some people, the term Burlesque is something that is associated with a exciting, stylish and perhaps also a little more innocent time. But as many things from the past it is being revived and has for the past years made a grand return with lush sets, glamorous costumes, swinging music, cool lighting and of course luscious women moving in rhythm to the crooners’ finger...
FIFTY YEARS AGO, 1958 — the jet age officially makes its mark in history with the launch of the Boeing 707. Jet planes could fly to their destinations non stop, cheaper and faster than before. Air travel was now longer not restricted only to people of wealth. The infamous phrases “Fly me friendly”, “coffee, tea or me?”, stewardesses with big smiles, elegant outfits and long...