The Old Regal Theater Chi Town's Gem

Living near the Apollo Theater in Harlem, I get to see some great performances, sometimes, even artists we know today as legends. Growing up in East Chicago, Indiana my friends and I would trek to the Regal Theater at 47th and South Parkway (now Martin Luther King Drive) on Chicago's Southside sometimes referred to as the "Harlem of Chicago", there we’d catch acts like the Temptations, James Brown or the Miracles. Opened in 1928, the Regal was an architectural gem. The Chicago Defender observed at the time, "It presents one of the most beautiful and amazing spectacles ever exhibited in a public institution." It was accentuated with Spanish Moorish and Eastern architectural elements making it wholly distinctive, bestowing a feeling of opulence on visitors. With over 3,500 leather-covered seats, its imaginative design has been described as carrying theatergoers into an Oriental garden on a moonlit night. For the young impressionable person it was the height of glamour. The big national acts played the Apollo and the Regal back to back during the holiday season, the Apollo's motto is "The place where stars are born" and legends are made but if a star or legend were to continue to shine they had to play the Regal as well. Apollo Shows are great but few theaters can match the old grandeur of ‘Chi’ Town's Old Regal Theater. The original edifice was demolished in 1973.

MJ:This Is It and How it Was

As the media blanketed the star-studded premier of Michael Jackson's "This is It"
documentary, I pondered MJ and family’s incredulous journey, from his humble beginnings in my old stompin' grounds to the pinnacle of fame, wealth and celebrity. Many in the jazz community and those plugged in to major social media sites such as Face book and My Space are familiar with my early affiliation with Steel town Records. My group, the Valiants were among the roster of artists on the short lived label credited with having recorded the groups' first moderately successful tune Big Boy. What is remarkable is the support network of my friends and associates whom were there to help the J5 sensing something great on the horizon was unfolding, most simply wishing to help out. Now many opportunists are seeking a stake in the Jackson enterprise that could yield big dividends for years to come. Music historians, collectors, curators, wealthy conosuiers, and producers are vying for connections with authentic memorabilia as pop culture writers attempt to sort fact from fiction.In The Chicago Reader article, entitled The Find, writer Jake Austen attempts to sort out the Jacksons early recording history.Thus far most Michael Jackson autobiographical books and movies depicting their early recording years are frought with distortions,blatant misrepresentations and right out lies. My group The Valiants are not directly mentioned in this lengthy Chicago Reader article,however, my role and the group are referenced in Bob Abrahamian’s interview with Delroy Bridgeman on WHPK 88.5 FM Chicago based radio show "Sitting in the Park". Several members of the Valiants are referred to, they include the late, Solomon Ard, Ludie Washington, singer turned actor seen in Hollywood Schuffle, Jo Jo Dancer, UHF, he was a co-founder of Steeltown Records(deceased)and Delroy Bridgeman. These lifelong friends were my former singing mates during Steeltown Record’s beginnings, and they were of immense help to Joe Jackson and the boys. When I left for Nashville to attend college, members of the group lent their more mature voices to the J5's first soundtrack success Big Boy by augmenting the adolescents’ youthful vocals with a somewhat more robust vocal background. They escorted and drove the brothers to their after school rehearsals when Joe Jackson worked evening or night shifts at Inland Steel in East Chicago; fetched sandwiches for a weary young nine year old Michael during long recording sessions. These deeds were rarely boasted about over the years, it was simply what one did in that era to help one another get to the next level. My remembrances of the stories shared of a working class family's struggle to attain musical super success , makes the very surreal Hollywood premier seem real when I think back on those days.Then we knew the meaning of the African proverb, “It Takes A Village.” These are some of the shoulders upon which the J5 stood during the lean and mean years far away from the glitter of a Hollywood blockbuster premier.I plan to see This is It but I'll always remember how it was as well.

Dancing to the Obama Shuffle

I was awakened from a sweet slumber at about 5:15 a.m. EST to breaking news that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I literally danced around my New York City apartment – to the amusement of my better half.

Joy was short-lived however. By the time TV news pundits got into full throttle around 8:00 a.m., conservative media network Fox News had made the president seem more like a suspect than a celebrant. Fox broadcasters were weirdly dismissive of the prestigious award, with one talking suit chiming, “He, (Obama) ought to share half the prize with President Bush. Well, go figure! Not one congrats came from the political Right or Republicans. RNC Chair Michael Steele's statement detracted from the greater global and moral significance of securing world peace, which is being spearheaded by Mr. Obama in his shepherding of the United Nations Security Council resolutions and US/Russian agreements reducing nuclear war heads, and in forging a consensus among Western powers on nonnuclear proliferation. Instead, the radical right is stirring the regional fringe base, highlighting the nation’s bleak unemployment rate and a perceived lack of concrete accomplishment by Obama since he took office nine months ago.

This is ludicrous ''stinkin' thinkin'" in the scheme of attaining world peace. The Nobel Prize is in part awarded for consensus building and creating a climate around the pursuit of peace – fetes which Obama has and continues to perform. President, Obama's rhetoric and actions have recast the United States as a conciliator willing to engage diplomacy and nation building over coercion and militarism. These initiatives, despite a global economic downturn, create a sense of global hope and optimism for a world at peace, which the Committee on the Nobel Peace Prize did not choose to ignore. Obama has used his bully pulpit as leader of the free world to usher us into an era of reduced nuclear threat and conflict resolution through negotiation and mediation. For this reason alone I believe our President deserves the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Failure to accept the good will Obama has generated for enhancing world peace, ensuring a climate for muti-lateral solutions to end world conflicts, and urging a robust diplomacy within the United Nations Security Council’s fledgling process – even delimiting the full deployment of missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, thereby reducing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction – suggests that neoconservatives, hawks, and Obama naysayers are unable to see the forest for the trees. Their criticism of the Committee’s choice fails to take into account these accomplishments that could have long term impact on a sustainable peace.

As the late Speaker of the House Senator Tip O’Neal stated, “All politics is local.” President Obama has his work cut out at home. Indeed, if he fails to deliver on major challenges, like health care, unemployment, and honorably ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then building a global consensus that peace, not war, is the answer won’t be enough to appease the home front. But until he does deliver the local goods, both John Lennon from the grave and I from my Harlem apartment will dance this day because all we are saying is “Give Peace a Chance,” Congratulations, Mr. President, and keep on truckin' !

July 2009 Jazz Improv® NY
Review: Dennis Day All Things in Time
By Cathy Gruenfelder
All Things In Time may be Dennis Day’s first jazz album, but it is the work of a veteran singer who has paid plenty of dues and has already found a high level of success in other markets. He recorded with Steeltown Records as lead singer of the Valients, the label that first recorded the Jackson Five, and he also was a featured vocalist with The Jades, in which he recorded “My Loss, Your Gain” for Decca Records. He currently leads jazz groups in New York City, and was recently selected as one of six singers to lead the Jazz Vocalist Workshops at the famous Blue note Jazz Club.

As soon as I pressed play I was struck by a feeling that to me is the characteristic reaction to a real jazz singer – that feeling is a sort of joyful anticipation of surprises that you know will be at every turn, and it is also due to a connection with authenticity. Dennis Day is wholeheartedly Dennis Day – he lets go, and sings in the moment. His sense of phrasing is in no way outlined before the song begins. He is as unaware of how he may phrase it as I am – at least that’s the impression that I get as a listener, and it is a very important impression to get!

Also impressive is his ability to go from deep brooding ballads to joyful flamboyant up-tempo numbers, pulling off each tune as effectively as the next. Ballads include “Everything Must Change,”
“You Are Too Beautiful,” and “Who Can I Turn To?” Another element of his style is more exotic and adventurous deliveries, exemplified on tunes like “Caravan,” and his original composition “African
Musings,” on which he provides some tribal and animalistic vocal effects.

Day’s tone, as perfectly described in the liner notes by Herb Boyd, is “a pleasant baritone, with dollops of second-tenor silkiness.” Day doesn’t take himself too seriously, and as a result, you can hear in his voice how good he feels when he is singing – even when he is expressing sadness – you can feel the catharsis that takes place for him. All Things In Time is quite the debut record from this authentic jazz crooner. There’s also one more not so minor detail – the band is killing!


All THINGS IN TIME-D-Day Media Group
Web: www.ddaymedia.com.
1. Caravan; 2. African Musing; 3. Sister Sadie; 4. Everything Must Change; 5. Trouble Down Here Below; 6. You Are Too Beautiful; 7. Taking a Chance On Love; 8. Hallelujah, I Love Her So!; 9. Desifinado; 10. The Trolley Song/Get Me To The Church OnTime; 11. Blues Medley; 12. Who Can I Turn To?

PERSONNEL: Dennis Day, vocals; Danny Mixon, piano (tracks 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11); John DiMartino, piano (tracks 1, 7, 12); John Miller, piano (tracks 3, 6, 8); Lisle Atkinson, bass (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12); Eric Lemon, bass (tracks 3, 8); Earl Grice, drums (tracks 1 – 12); Willie Martinez, percussion (tracks 2, 9); Stefon Harris, marimbas (track 2); Jason Curry, alto sax (tracks 3, 6, 8); Cleave Guyton, flute (track 4), alto sax (track 11); James Zollar, trumpet (tracks 10, 11); Joey Morant, trumpet (tracks 3, 8); Melvin Sparks, guitar (track 5); Wycliffe Gordon, trombone (track 3)

Obama - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

President Barack Obama is a genius in the way in which he adeptly uses the media to drum home his points to the broadest possible audience without resorting to hyperbole or inducing unproductive “guilt trips.” Ever mindful of any golden opportunity to foster a highly teachable moment, as a presidential candidate he seized such a watershed moment in Philadelphia with his historic “race speech,” daring to navigate the third rail in American politics – race relations in the United States.

With cameras rolling at the ancient Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the American president once again seized a teachable moment, embodying the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

“That looks like me!” the president quipped. “Look at those ears.” Cameras zoomed in to show a hieroglyphic head with prominent protruding ears similar to caricatures of Obama seen increasingly in publications and identified in pop culture with MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Newman. The seemingly light-hearted remark by the youthful president was chalked up by most mainstream reporters as presidential levity, tempered with a bit of earthy humility expressed through self-deprecating humor – personal qualities many voters find appealing and even admire in powerful leaders.

A picture being worth a thousand words, the image Obama pointed to in this instance turns out to be a representation of a god's face on the tomb of Kar, an Egyptian nobleman who served as a priest, scholar, and judge. The camera’s lighting aesthetic, even with a slight shadow, glaringly outlines the image’s prominent Negroid features; the full lips and broad noses phenotypical of Nubians during Egypt’s Dynastic eras. The Kar hieroglyphic bears strong resemblance to Nubian and Negroid phenotypes that populated the fertile Nile Valley in 2,500 BC and suggests the centrality of the African presence from antiquity and lineage to Egyptian modernity.

Mr. Obama only chose to highlight the more sanguine, apolitical physical similarity – the ears. President Obama knows all too well that television images in today's cyber age will have a viral impact via the Internet and an picture indeed is worth a thousand words. [See link to the video “Obama Visits Pyramid” at left.]

Just as race relations have historically been the Achilles heel among American politicians, requiring adroit maneuvering around potentially inflammatory issues, any flirtation with Western historical revisionism could be equally troublesome for America’s first African American president. Right-wing drones like Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Hannity will no doubt misread Obama’s nuance. As a throwback to pre-inaugural conservative allegations of so called Obamian elitism, they may decipher Obama’s wit as an attempt to identify himself with Egyptian royalty and fail to see the larger picture. We now have a president who is not only capable of making history but whose execution and grasp of big ideas may even aid us by informing history, challenging revisionist fallacies that would deny, distort, and malign the monumental and lasting achievements of people of African descent.

Slippery Slope for NY Post

D-Day Media Group, Inc.
A Message to You
from D-Day Media



Dear Friends,

One need only look at the German press and its complicity during the unfortunate Nazi reign of terror in German history to understand the depth of outrage over using a primate as an ideological stand-in for our president, Barrack Obama.

During pre-war Germany's era of rising inflation, recession, and soaring unemployment Goebbels’ propaganda machine used the press as a tool, caricaturing Jews as sub-human, thus setting the stage for the slippery slope that led to the extermination of six million Jews. We can ill afford to ignore The Post's cavalier response to a serious breach of journalistic ethics and fairness. Editors McManus, Allan, and cartoonist Delonas must go immediately! Moreover, The Post must issue a public apology to its readers and to the citizens of our great nation.

To add your voice to the growing wave of protest against the New York Post go to

http://colorofchange.org/nypost/?id=2472-122858

Cordially,

Dennis Day
President/CEO,
D-Day Media Group Inc.
www.ddaymedia.com
www.myspace.com/dennisdaymusic

AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR JOHN McCAIN

Dear Senator McCain:

I want to believe in my heart-of-hearts that you love this country even more than you cherish the notion of a Republican presidential victory. However, if violence were to be fomented against Senator Obama on any level leading up to Election Day, November 4, even a Republican victory would prove a hollow one, void of meaning and incapable of exercising the moral leadership that will be needed to heal the irreparable rupture sure to follow within our racially polarized nation.

Our history has shown us that during times of economic hardship, racial and ethnic minorities and their leaders are susceptible to becoming targets of inflammatory rhetoric, even to the point of inciting riots and bloodshed in our nation’s streets. Today we see a vicious cancer of negative emotion spreading rapidly by the intentional efforts of the McCain/ Palin campaign, and you sir must help to surgically excise it from our body politic.

You, Senator McCain, can take charge by exerting the moral authority that so many ascribe to you, simply by firmly and consistently denouncing the hate language, race baiting, and fear mongering spewed from your supporters at Republican campaign events and the zealots using media to sew seeds of ethnic division and racial hatred.

If you, sir, were to forcefully address the nation specifically on this issue, much in the manner that Senator Obama did before a national television audience in Philadelphia last February in his speech on “Race in America,” you could go down in history as a great American healer and not a divider. Moreover, you will achieve a legacy as one of this nation's most courageous political leaders in history, whether you win or lose the presidential election. Such a bold, non-partisan act of moral clarity and leadership by you is especially needed during these times of great economic and personal insecurity

You decide. On which side of history do you choose to stand? The world is watching.


Best regards,

Dennis Day
New York New York