Post by wingsj0 on Mar 10, 2006 21:21:20 GMT
As I'm sure you know, Jan 30th was Ukulele Monday in the UK! What a day to celebrate the music of the Uke King, Ian Whitcomb...he wrote all those books you see in the music shops on 'how to play the ukulele', and he's THE master of the instrument.
NOTE: There's a brand new, big coffee table book just published in America - coming out in Britain too - called The American Song Book with everyone in it from Jolson to Crosby. Ian will have a praising paragraph as one of the Keepers Of The Flame.
READ ON:
Rumour has it that Grammy winner Ian Whitcomb was born with a ukulele in one hand and a harmonica in the other. (I don't know how they explain the piano or the accordian!) Check out www.picklehead.com/ian.html
Ian Whitcomb is coming to the UK with his new cd, an exclusive UK tour and new dvd.
The first presenter for The Old Grey Whistle Test, Ian is British but made it biggest in the USA in the 60's with lots of top 10 hits and tours with The Rolling Stones, Peter & Gordon, Dave Clark 5 and others of the British Invasion. More recently, he produces vintage music (ragtime, tin pan alley, swing, jazz, etc etc etc) Very talented guy and is a noted musical historian with a long list of books to his credit including bio of Irving Berlin. Ian has over 50 albums to his name plus a few Best of cds.
Ian also produces music for the big screen and supplied the soundtrack for the recent Cat's Meow, in which Eddie Izzard played Charlie Chaplin
Biography
Grammy winner Ian Whitcomb was born in Woking, Surrey, on July 10, 1941 and has been involved in music most of his life. After playing in a variety of ragtime, blues and jazz bands, he hit it big with a novelty tune called You Turn Me On which reached the Top 10 in the American pop charts in the summer of 1965. During the 60¹s he toured with The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Peter and Gordon and others from the Sixties¹ British Invasion as well as American superstars The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, and The Byrds. Since 1966 he has recorded over 50 albums, ranging from ragtime to rock including tangos, music hall numbers, and country & western. His Titanic album won a Grammy in the mid 1990¹s. More recently, he produced the music for the movie, The Cat¹s Meow, which stars Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin. He lives in California with his wife Regina, 2 cats and a dog and continues to perform regularly, sometimes as a single act and sometimes with his 10 piece band or as one of Janet Klein¹s Parlor Boys.
British Footnote:
Ian¹s interest in ragtime songs spilled over into an LP for the British branch of United Artists, ³Under The Ragtime Moon² (1973). He also made an LP for Argo, a branch of British Decca, called ³Hip Hooray, Neville Chamberlain². Around this time MGM finally released the Mae West album as ³Great Balls Of Fire². The rest of the 1970s saw him working both in England and in America, almost exclusively in the field of vintage music:
He was the first host of the long-running BBC rock show, ³The Old Gray Whistle Test²; he wrote and presented segments on music for BBC¹s ³Late Night Line Up²; his revue ³Under The Ragtime Moon² was Ireland¹s entry in the annual European television variety show contest; he wrote and starred in a musical journey, ³Tin Pan Alley² (based on his EMI songbook of the same name) made for PBS and produced by Taylor Hackford in Hollywood. He wrote, advised, and appeared in several TV documentaries, notably ³The Friendly Invasion²(BBC), ³All You Need Is Love²(London Weekend) and ³L.A.--My Home Town²(BBC). Ian also produced a segment on western movies for BBC TV.
Books Published:
Rock Odyssey - A Chronicle of the Sixties
After The Ball - A Chronicle of Pop Music from Ragtime to Rock
Irving Berlin and Ragtime America
Tin Pan Alley - A Pictorial History
Whole Lotta Shakin¹ - A Rock Œn Roll Scrapbook
LotusLand
Resident Alien
The Beckoning Fairground
www.ianwhitcomb.com
Thanks to Jane Quinn of Jellybean Promotions for sending us the information.
www.jellybeanpromotions.net
NOTE: There's a brand new, big coffee table book just published in America - coming out in Britain too - called The American Song Book with everyone in it from Jolson to Crosby. Ian will have a praising paragraph as one of the Keepers Of The Flame.
READ ON:
Rumour has it that Grammy winner Ian Whitcomb was born with a ukulele in one hand and a harmonica in the other. (I don't know how they explain the piano or the accordian!) Check out www.picklehead.com/ian.html
Ian Whitcomb is coming to the UK with his new cd, an exclusive UK tour and new dvd.
The first presenter for The Old Grey Whistle Test, Ian is British but made it biggest in the USA in the 60's with lots of top 10 hits and tours with The Rolling Stones, Peter & Gordon, Dave Clark 5 and others of the British Invasion. More recently, he produces vintage music (ragtime, tin pan alley, swing, jazz, etc etc etc) Very talented guy and is a noted musical historian with a long list of books to his credit including bio of Irving Berlin. Ian has over 50 albums to his name plus a few Best of cds.
Ian also produces music for the big screen and supplied the soundtrack for the recent Cat's Meow, in which Eddie Izzard played Charlie Chaplin
Biography
Grammy winner Ian Whitcomb was born in Woking, Surrey, on July 10, 1941 and has been involved in music most of his life. After playing in a variety of ragtime, blues and jazz bands, he hit it big with a novelty tune called You Turn Me On which reached the Top 10 in the American pop charts in the summer of 1965. During the 60¹s he toured with The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Peter and Gordon and others from the Sixties¹ British Invasion as well as American superstars The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, and The Byrds. Since 1966 he has recorded over 50 albums, ranging from ragtime to rock including tangos, music hall numbers, and country & western. His Titanic album won a Grammy in the mid 1990¹s. More recently, he produced the music for the movie, The Cat¹s Meow, which stars Eddie Izzard as Charlie Chaplin. He lives in California with his wife Regina, 2 cats and a dog and continues to perform regularly, sometimes as a single act and sometimes with his 10 piece band or as one of Janet Klein¹s Parlor Boys.
British Footnote:
Ian¹s interest in ragtime songs spilled over into an LP for the British branch of United Artists, ³Under The Ragtime Moon² (1973). He also made an LP for Argo, a branch of British Decca, called ³Hip Hooray, Neville Chamberlain². Around this time MGM finally released the Mae West album as ³Great Balls Of Fire². The rest of the 1970s saw him working both in England and in America, almost exclusively in the field of vintage music:
He was the first host of the long-running BBC rock show, ³The Old Gray Whistle Test²; he wrote and presented segments on music for BBC¹s ³Late Night Line Up²; his revue ³Under The Ragtime Moon² was Ireland¹s entry in the annual European television variety show contest; he wrote and starred in a musical journey, ³Tin Pan Alley² (based on his EMI songbook of the same name) made for PBS and produced by Taylor Hackford in Hollywood. He wrote, advised, and appeared in several TV documentaries, notably ³The Friendly Invasion²(BBC), ³All You Need Is Love²(London Weekend) and ³L.A.--My Home Town²(BBC). Ian also produced a segment on western movies for BBC TV.
Books Published:
Rock Odyssey - A Chronicle of the Sixties
After The Ball - A Chronicle of Pop Music from Ragtime to Rock
Irving Berlin and Ragtime America
Tin Pan Alley - A Pictorial History
Whole Lotta Shakin¹ - A Rock Œn Roll Scrapbook
LotusLand
Resident Alien
The Beckoning Fairground
www.ianwhitcomb.com
Thanks to Jane Quinn of Jellybean Promotions for sending us the information.
www.jellybeanpromotions.net