Tag Archives: Woodstock Birthdays

Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

ShaNaNa Jocko Marcellino

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ShaNaNa Jocko Marcellino

Happy birthday
May 12, 1950

Sha Na Na

ShaNaNa Jocko Marcellino

Most Boomers have heard of Sha Na Na and remember their successful late 70’s TV show, but young visitors to the Museum at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts not only don’t recognize the name, they don’t associate the band with Woodstock. Hendrix, of course. Sha Na Na? Never heard of them.

Not many had heard of the band made up of Columbia University undergrads before that famous August 1969 weekend in Bethel, NY either. And most weren’t there to hear the band on Monday morning.

Sha Na Na was there, though. They “opened” for Jimi Hendrix, an acquaintance and apparently the person who punched their ticket to Woodstock.

ShaNaNa Jocko Marcellino

Youngest @ Woodstock?

You can win some bar bets by asking who the youngest person to play at Woodstock was? Those who have an answer will often reply, “Santana’s drummer, Michael Shrieve.”

Country Joe McDonald boosts that belief dozens of times each day during the repeating movie in the entrance to the Main Gallery at Bethel Wood’s Museum.

McDonald is wrong. It’s Henry Gross, Sha Na Na’s guitarist (April 1, 1959), but Jocko almost made it as he was born on May 12, 1950. Shrieve is third youngest.

ShaNaNa Jocko Marcellino

 Post Woodstock

Sha Na Na John Jocko Marcellino

For five years after Woodstock, the band toured and then landed the aforementioned TV show. It had an eight-year run.

In 1978 they appeared in Grease, the wildly popular film adaptation of the rock’n’roll revival musical.

In addition to that movie, Marcellino has appeared in many others, including Rain Man. Check out his IMDB page.

ShaNaNa Jocko Marcellino

 Lately

Sha Na Na John Jocko Marcellino

Jocko continues to be in music and perform with his own band that departs from doo wop and believes in the blues. He released an album called Make It Simple.

Jocko discusses Woodstock’s golden anniversary on Yahoo!Finance

Internet resources:

ShaNaNa Jocko Marcellino
Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

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Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

March 20, 1950 – August 2, 1981

Remembering Alan Malarowitz, the drummer for Sweetwater at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. 

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

Jay Walker and the Pedestrians

As with nearly every band, Sweetwater grew out of another group: Jay Walker and the Pedestrians.  That is a bit of information that I had never seen or read about until serendipitously I surfed onto Bruno Ceriotti’s site. At that site Ceriotti has links to many of his projects, one of which is his ( and Mike Stax’s) research into Sweetwater.

Since today’s piece is aimed at Alan Malarowitz, I will only use the tip of the wonderful iceberg of information Ceriotti and Stax have accumulated and I encourage you to use the link above to check out the complete article as well as his research into many other bands and themes.

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

Nancy Nevins appears

Robert ‘Bob’ Barboza had formed Jay Walker and the Pedestrians  while in high school in Rhode Island. He moved to Los Angeles where he re-created the band with a core group of players as well as many others who came and went. Sometimes there were four or five playing a gig, sometimes a couple dozen.  But never a vocalist!

The story goes that one April 1967 night on her way home, a too-high-to-drive Nancy Nevins ambled into the Scarab coffeehouse  in Hollywood. Some of the various Pedestrians were hanging out there and jamming. She stared at them awhile. They invited her up. She sang along to a loose version of “Motherless Child.” They loved it. She left. Unlike Cinderella, the nameless Nevins left no glass slipper.

Between that hazy evening and re-discovering Nevins, the band played at the Freedom of Expression Concert on Sunday, April 30, 1967

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

Sweetwater’s source

Alex Del Zoppo finally located Nevins, she joined the band, and sang with it in sometime in late spring 1967.

Alex Del Zoppo suggested to a few of the band members that with Nevins and a few other more rock-oriented players, they could go in a different direction. That was fine with founder Barboza, he suggested a couple of players, and the as yet unnamed band was on its way with:

1) Alex Del Zoppo: keyboards, vocals
2) Albert B. Moore: flute, vocals
3) Pete Cobian: congas, other percussions
4) Nansi Nevins: lead vocals
5) Fred Herrera: bass, vocals
6) Andy Friend guitar, vocals
7) Alan Malarowitz, drums
8) Wesley Lloyd Radlein, cello

What’s in a name? Apparently the group went to attend the Monterey Pop Festival and while there Albert Moore drank water from a nearby stream. Nancy said he shouldn’t. He disagreed and said it was sweetwater. And so their name arrived

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz

Alan Malarowitz

At its inception, Alan Malarowitz was only 17, but, he had good feel and instinct for his instrument. He had a sympathetic easygoing temperament, but was often the first to let his hair down when it came time to party. He became a touring and studio drummer in his later career (band site)

Malarowtiz died when he fell asleep at the wheel in San Bernardino, CA (source) and crashed.  He was 31.

Sweetwater Alan Malarowitz
Music et al, Music of the 60s

Bobby Blue Bland

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Bobby Blue Bland 

“Two Steps From The Blues”
Remembering and appreciating Bobby Blue Bland
January 27, 1930 — June 23, 2013

Early life

Robert Calvin Brooks was born in Barretville, Tennessee. His stepfather, Leroy Bridgeforth was also called Leroy Bland and that became Bobby’s last name.

In his late teens, Bland started singing with gospel groups in Memphis where he lived with his mother. Memphis is, of course, the home of Beale Street and Bland gravitated there and found other young struggling musicians such as B.B. King, Rosco Gordon, Junior Parker, and Johnny Ace.

His early attempts at recording were not only unsuccessful, but interrupted by a stint in the Army.  He returned to Memphis and signed a contract with Duke Records. Unfortunately, the contract gave Bland a half cent per record sold, not the usual two cents. Bland signed such a contract because he had quit school and could not read.

Bobby Blue Bland 

Success “Farther On Up the Road”

bobby blue Bland

Bland slowly gained experience and in 1957 had an R & B #1 hit with “Farther  Up the Road” which also reached #43 on the (mainly white) Billboard Hot 100.

It should sound familiar to many of you!

 

Bobby Blue Bland 

Two Steps from the Blues

Bobby Blue Bland

It was on January 1, 1961 that Duke Records released Bland Two Steps from the Blues album, which like most albums of the time was mainly a collection of previously released singles. But what a collection it is!

AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine says that “Two Steps from the Blues is the definitive Bobby “Blue” Bland album and one of the great records in electric blues and soul-blues. In fact, it’s one of the key albums in modern blues, marking a turning point when juke joint blues were seamlessly blended with gospel and Southern soul, creating a distinctly Southern sound where all of these styles blended so thoroughly it was impossible to tell where one began and one ended.”

Tracks:
Side One

  1. “Two Steps from the Blues” (Don D. Robey, John Riley Brown) 
  2. “Cry Cry Cry” (Don D. Robey) 
  3. “I’m Not Ashamed” (Don Robey, Joseph Scott)
  4. “Don’t Cry No More” (Don Robey)
  5. “Lead Me On” (Don D. Robey)
  6. “I Pity the Fool” (Deadric Malone)
 Side Two

  1. “I’ve Just Got to Forget You” (Don D. Robey)
  2. “Little Boy Blue” (Charles Harper)
  3. “St. James Infirmary” (folk song; credited to Joe Primrose) 
  4. “I’ll Take Care of You”
  5. “I Don’t Want No Woman” (Don Robey)
  6. “I’ve Been Wrong So Long” (Don D. Robey, Ray Agee)
Bobby Blue Bland 

One of the Greatest

Bland’s greatest financial success was during the early 60s, but he continued to perform the rest of his long life despite substance and health challenges.

He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992,  the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012…

Bobby Blue Bland