Ellington's U. P. trip related

When music genius Duke Ellington traveled to the Upper Peninsula in 1959, he conceived a jazz masterpiece.

U. P. residents point with pride to "Anatomy of a Murder," the bestselling novel by Ishpeming native and Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker (pen name Robert Traver), which producer/director Otto Preminger turned into an award-winning motion picture. While the movie, filmed entirely in and around Marquette, impressed theater audiences, the soundtrack was equally striking.

Preminger had commissioned Ellington, probably the 20th century's greatest jazz musician, to compose an original score. Ellington had written short pieces for the movies, but this was his first (and only) full-length soundtrack.

While in Marquette, Ellington stayed at the Northland Hotel, now known as the Landmark Inn, as did Jimmy Stewart, the star of the picture.

Besides composing and recording the soundtrack, Ellington had a small cameo appearance as the owner of a road house. In the scene, which took place at the Mount Shasta Lodge in Michigamme, Ellington's character, Pie Eye, plays piano with defense lawyer (and jazz aficionado) Paul Biegler, as portrayed by Stewart.

In addition to Stewart, the outstanding cast included newcomer Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, Arthur O'Connell, George C. Scott and Orson Bean. Preminger brought a crew of 150 to Marquette for eight weeks of filming. Adding excitement to the project, Preminger hired 300 locals as extras. Some had speaking roles.

Ellington composed the score in Marquette while the black & white legal drama was being filmed, much of it at the Marquette County courthouse.

His soundtrack includes titles such as "Midnight Indigo," "Flirtibird," "Happy Anatomy," and "Windswept Sunday," among others. The opening title effectively launches the film which runs two hours and 40 minutes. "Flirtibird" is Remick's theme song, while Stewart's is called "Polly," after his character's first name.

After recording the soundtrack at Columbia Studios with his orchestra, Ellington embarked on the U. S. summer jazz festival circuit and traveled to Europe later in the year.

World premiere for the movie was held at United Artists Theater in Detroit on July 1, 1959, with many of the major stars attending. The picture was nominated for six Academy Awards.

Among the first major movies to feature a jazz soundtrack, "Anatomy of a Murder" was also acknowledged by the recording industry. Ellington was honored with three Grammys on Nov. 29, 1959, during the the organization's second annual awards ceremony. He won as a composer for best soundtrack album as well as for best musical composition. The third Grammy lauded Ellington as an artist for best performance by a dance band.

The story of Ellington, who has over 2,000 compositions to his credit, is virtually the history of jazz in America. Born in 1899, Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was a giant on the jazz scene from the early 1920's until his death in 1974.

Ellington had arrived in Marquette County on April 29, 1959, his 60th birthday. He met Preminger at the Roosevelt Hotel in Ishpeming for breakfast. That evening Preminger hosted a birthday bash for Ellington at the hotel.

A sophisticated world traveler, Ellington came to rural northern Michigan in a different era. The modern Mackinac Bridge was newly opened, but 1959 was years before national civil rights legislation was passed. Regardless, Ellington said in a radio interview to promote the movie that he enjoyed his stay in the U. P.

While "Anatomy of a Murder" is recognized as a great movie closely reflecting its U. P. origins, many people don't realize the score was integral to the film's success. Actually, Ellington's soundtrack can stand alone as a virtuoso performance by America's greatest jazz composer and bandleader.

How U. P. DJ made it big

You know Kris Erik Stevens. Or you should.

Stevens started as a disc jockey in the Upper Peninsula, became a stalwart in national rock 'n' roll radio and blossomed into one of the most recognizable voices in broadcasting today.

As a kid, Stevens palled around with Jim DeCaire (mastermind of Da Yoopers) and graduated from Ishpeming High School in 1962.

He immediately found employment at local radio station WJPD. Following opportunity, Stevens moved on to WLTH in Gary, IN the following year.

By 1966, he landed his first large market job at KOIL in Omaha, where he worked under the name "Johnny Mitchell." Then, in successive years, he moved through stations in Windsor (CKLW, where he was known as Billy Mack); Pittsburgh (KQV); and Atlanta (WQXI).

Rock music powerhouse WLS (890 on your AM dial) lured Stevens to Chicago on Valentines Day, 1968. The 50,000 watt giant broadcast to the entire mid-section of the country, including the Upper Peninsula and Escanaba.

Maintaining a quaint teenage custom, local kids took to their cars in the evenings to catch the latest sounds from WLS, as well as broadcasts on rival WCFL (AM 1000). From Oct. 1970 until the end of the following year, Stevens' three hour show began at 6 p. m. Most listeners were probably unaware of the DJ's U. P. roots.

A sampling of Stevens' program is preserved on "Cruisin' 1970," a yearly volume in a series documenting rock 'n' roll radio, issued by Increase Records, a Chess subsidiary. Beginning with 1955, the 18 disc set features distinctive cartoon covers drawn by Mike Royer, telling the continuing story of characters "Eddie" and "Peg."

The aim of the series is to re-create a top DJ's original program, including songs of the spotlighted year as well as commercials, news, sports and weather bits, plus station jingles.

Stevens' time capsule was produced by Frank Slay, a songwriter and music publisher, who supervised the recording of Sugarloaf's "Green Eyed Lady." A number three hit from August of that year, the song is one of 11 surveyed on the collection.

Other memory-inducing tracks on the album, issued in 1995, include: "Spirit in the Sky," Norman Greenbaum; "Gypsy Woman," Brian Hyland; "Vehicle," Ides of March; "One Less Bell to Answer," Fifth Dimension; and "Sunshine," Jonathan Edwards.

Stevens even plays a "WLS number one oldie" in "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," by the Shirelles, from 1960. Just like real radio, the hits are interspersed with ads for Coke, Eastern Airlines, Sears (hey, they're having a record sale), Pepperidge Farms and Chicago Today.

In 1972, Stevens, armed with a Billboard magazine on-air personality award, switched allegiance to competitor WCFL. Some listeners probably followed Stevens to his new job, but most kids in the northern hinterlands listened to both stations anyway.

After three more years in the Windy City, Stevens decided the sunny climes of California were calling him and took a position at KIIS in Los Angeles.

While in California, he started Kris Erik Stevens Enterprises, a broadcast creative services company, parlaying his talent to remarkable success.

You'll recognize his impressive vocal abilities in television promos for HBO, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox; commercials for McDonald's, Levi's, Ponderosa, Wall Street Journal and dozens more. He's done voice-overs for every major motion picture studio as well being the voice of dozens of TV and radio stations. The radio veteran may be most readily identified as the host of "Movie Tunes," a music network heard in 20,000 theaters around the world.

Today Stevens resides in Calabasas, CA, where his studio is located, but his voice continues to be heard virtually everywhere.

Now, you really know Kris Erik Stevens, former Upper Peninsula disc jockey.

Catching up with B. B. King

It took some time to catch up with B. B. King.

Like millions of rock fans, I paid little heed to B. B. until early 1970 when his trademark "The Thrill Is Gone" demanded to be noticed.

The song, which closed Bluesway's "Completely Well" album from the previous year, had been issued as a single, then appeared again in 1971 with the release of "Live in Cook County Jail."

King revamped the song, a Top Ten Rhythm & Blues hit for Roy Hawkins nearly 20 years before, adding a string arrangement. In fact, B. B. first recorded in 1949 and placed 20 hits on the pop charts before 1970, but I wasn't paying attention.

Composed by Arthur Benson and Dale Pettite, "The Thrill Is Gone" changed that.

King sang with such conviction and played his guitar, "Lucille," with such authority you had to take note. The recording industry caught on, too, awarding him a Grammy for Best Male Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance for his effort.

With the passing years, I continued to buy King's albums and later compact discs. As you might expect, the 80-year-old guitarist and singer has an extensive discography approaching 100 albums. My collection boasts a handful of vintage LP's and 30 discs to prove my devotion.

In addition to recording prolifically, King has been known to spend up to 300 days a year on tour.

Born in Indianola, Miss. in 1925, B. B. moved to Memphis in 1946. The local Beale Street music scene embraced him and today he owns B. B. King's Blues Club there as well.

The famed and influential downtown neighborhood was among the stops my wife Sue and I made during a Memphis vacation in late May, 2001. We stopped at B. B.'s place, 139 Beale Street, but the boss wasn't in. I guess he wasn't expecting us.

B. B. had generated an interest in the blues which led us to see many great players including the late John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray.

Finally we got a chance to put B. B. King at the top of that list when he appeared at the Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste. Marie on April 24, 2003 during a North American tour.

The casino offers superlative surroundings as a concert venue, adding to the enjoyment of B. B.'s show which we saw with friends Bob and Carol Nygaard along with their son Sam.

B. B.'s nine piece band opened the concert with the crowd roaring its approval when the world's most famous blues musician walked on a few minutes later.

Taking his seat at center stage, the charismatic King led his band through an entertaining and sometimes rousing show.

The group, which included one of B. B.'s sons, even performed a bluesy Christmas number although the holiday season was four months past.

Then, Sue and I finally got to hear "The Thrill Is Gone" live for the first time. B. B., his face full of expression, alternately sang and played his signature song, which ran an all too brief five or six minutes.

The crowd that day loved hearing it and B. B. obviously enjoyed playing the song although he has probably performed it 10,000 times before countless audiences.

One of those audiences was at Chicago's Cook County Jail on Sept. 10, 1970 when King played before 2,117 inmates for what became an immortal live LP for ABC Records.

For us, "The Thrill Is Gone" sounded as fresh and vital as it did when it first demanded attention on the radio 33 years before.

It turns out catching up with the King of the Blues was quite exciting, you might even call it a 'thrill.'

Rock 'n' roll, Cleveland style

Compared to the fuselage of Otis Redding's downed airplane or Jim Morrison's Cub Scout uniform, a snow dome featuring a miniature Rock and Roll Hall of Fame doesn't seem like much. But it's our small reminder of a noteworthy Sept. 1, 1995 trip to Cleveland for the grand opening of rock's greatest edifice.

My wife Sue and I traveled to our Ohio destination along with thousands of die-hard music fans to tour the museum commemorating rock's legends and to attend a star-studded concert featuring the biggest names in the business, both past and present.

We arrived downtown for the dedication ceremony as the throng in front of the pyramid-shaped glass building began to rapidly expand to about 10,000 people. Rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard positioned himself on the podium, beaming and welcoming the crowd like a greeter at a department store chain.

Organizers lined up a host of celebrities to participate in the ribbon-cutting including Cleveland Mayor Michael White; Gov. George Voinovich; Rolling Stone Magazine publisher Jann Wenner; Yoko Ono, widow of Beatle John Lennon; musician Paul Schaffer and Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegun.

But, following the broadcast of Jimi Hendrix' version of the "Star Spangled Banner" and a fly-over by two Harrier jets, we realized we had a big problem: entry to the museum was to be controlled by timed tickets purchased in advance, a fact we hadn't known. But, Sue did some fast talking to a museum official and after waiting for hours in the sun, we finally got in the door.

The $92 million dollar building housed an impressive collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia, including Janis Joplin's psychedelic Mercedes-Benz, report cards from the Everly Brothers, posters of early Chuck Berry performances and other treasures.

As we were taking a break, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, and his entourage breezed through the facility. Luckily, Sue was one of just a few people who got to shake his gloved hand before the Hall of Famer disappeared into a VIP-only area.

But, the excitement was just beginning. The next day we were going to see many of our rock 'n' roll heroes perform live at a concert at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

We arrived at the venue to another throng of nearly 65,000 fans but we were able to take our seats just before the historic six-hour show began. First up was a duck-walking Chuck Berry, the father of rock 'n' roll. Clad in a white tuxedo, Berry performed "Johnny B. Goode" backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

There were many great moments. Heartland rocker John Mellencamp put his all into "R. O. C. K. in the U. S. A.," name-checking some of rock's giants. That was followed by the Pretenders, Johnny Cash and Aretha Franklin.

James Brown performed "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" and John Fogerty stormed through two Creedence Clearwater Revival classics. Soul Asylum played tunes with rock renegades Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. Then, George Clinton tore through two Sly and the Family Stone gems with guest Larry Graham.

The crowd roared approval when Bruce Springsteen appeared to do "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Then, Jerry Lee Lewis joined the band for piano-pounding renditions of "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

The acts kept coming as the hours passed. Natalie Merchant, Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby, Bob Dylan, Booker T. & the MG's, Sam Moore, and southern rockers the Allman Brothers took turns on stage. Slash and Boz Scaggs teamed up for their version of "Red House."

Many of the performances appeared on a two-disc set distributed later by Sony Music. But only concert-goers and those watching on live television got to see Sheryl Crow, the Kinks, Carole King, Heart, Robbie Robertson, Little Richard (who made his entrance standing on his piano), Eric Burdon, Martha Reeves and Jon Bon Jovi.

At the end, Berry appeared on stage again for an anti-climatic All-Star version of "Rock & Roll Music."

We left the stadium tired but satisfied. Rock's finest had given us their all. Who could ask for more?