Sunset.
When my pal BGO sent me notice of Earle Hagen's passing, I was stunned. You mean to tell me, I thought, that someone actually wrote "Harlem Nocturne"? Surely the standard is just a natural part of the cosmos, like wind or gravity. Anyone who's held their lover on a dance floor when a baritone saxophone launches into the devastatingly romantic introduction to "Harlem Nocturne" knows just what I mean. (Earl Bostic's is a typical treatment.) It gets even stranger. Hagen wrote the theme songs to The Andy Griffith Show, The Mod Squad, That Girl and best of all, The Dick Van Dyke Show. Genius, I tell you! Hilario Duran's refreshingly unconventional version comes from his first-rate Latin jazz effort Habana Nocturna. Duran tours throughout Canada this summer.
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Connie Vitale died May 25. She was 61. Vitale's many ventures included co-ownership of Kansas City's Love Records and Autograph Records.
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My friends Bill and Corky have added a blog component to Village Records.
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Kansas City Click: Dierks Bentley plays a free show at the Power & Light District.
1 comment:
Until now I had never heard Hilario Duran's version of Harlem Nocturne. Nice!
So sad about Connie Vitale. I knew her from the days when she started dating her late husband John Vitale back in the early
1970's. He and Mike Fasone were the original owners of Love Records at 3909 1/2 Main. I was the first employee.
And for trivia, the real name of the store registered with the state was Brother Zapp's Records. True Story. Someone painted Love above the entrance and that is how the name got changed.
Bgo
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