Posted by Bruce Sanborn on April 25, 2012 - 1:09pm
I don't know if you caught this, but it's pretty cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFQIciWsF4
President Obama being the first black president, has brought an element of musical soul to the White House that heretofore has not been present. You saw him singing with B.B. King. He let loose on Let's Stay Together by Al Green. And now doing a slow jam with Jimmy Fallon. There's talk he'll do an album of soul standards and I'll be the first in line to buy it (I'm making that part of it up but it's a great idea).
But Obama is not the only President with musical talent. What about Nixon? Yes, the weasel from Whittier College was quite the adept pianist playing on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ihI5_Vg6A
...and he also played at Duke Ellington's birthday party in the early 70's. It takes balls to play piano in front of Ellington, probably more balls than running for President but probably less that commiting felonies in the White House.
Harry Truman was also a piano player, having practiced every day for two hours until he was 15-years-old. There's a famous shot of him with Lauren Bacall...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmcnab/3032839558/
...at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on February 10th, 1945. Truman of course was Vice-President at the time.
Apparently Andrew Jackson and his wife were bluegrass guitar and banjo players, racists through and through. Jackson even had his driveway shaped like a guitar and his swimming pool shaped like a horse's cock. Not sure of the symbolism there.
It was said that Warren G. Harding could play anything but the trombone and the clarinet. Nice to know he wasn't a total fuck-up.
In his younger days, Woodrow Wilson was a singer and violinist, playing with the Virginia Glee Club.
Jack Kennedy wasn't much of a musician. But First Lady Jackie Kennedy hosted some top-flight talent at the White House during her tenure there, including Pablo Cassals, Count Basie and Leonard Bernstein.
The most famous might be Bill Clinton. Some people opine that his appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992 playing saxophone clinched the nomination for him. Gotta admit, he looks pretty cool doing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkUeb6zQFA
Music is vitally important to our culture, our society and to our very lives. When the person in the White House is a music fan or player you can't help but hope that this person will automatically be more receptive and encouraging to musicians, music and to the arts in general. And with the current President, there's always hope for a solo album.
B
TheBruceSanbornBand.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFQIciWsF4
President Obama being the first black president, has brought an element of musical soul to the White House that heretofore has not been present. You saw him singing with B.B. King. He let loose on Let's Stay Together by Al Green. And now doing a slow jam with Jimmy Fallon. There's talk he'll do an album of soul standards and I'll be the first in line to buy it (I'm making that part of it up but it's a great idea).
But Obama is not the only President with musical talent. What about Nixon? Yes, the weasel from Whittier College was quite the adept pianist playing on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ihI5_Vg6A
...and he also played at Duke Ellington's birthday party in the early 70's. It takes balls to play piano in front of Ellington, probably more balls than running for President but probably less that commiting felonies in the White House.
Harry Truman was also a piano player, having practiced every day for two hours until he was 15-years-old. There's a famous shot of him with Lauren Bacall...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmcnab/3032839558/
...at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on February 10th, 1945. Truman of course was Vice-President at the time.
Apparently Andrew Jackson and his wife were bluegrass guitar and banjo players, racists through and through. Jackson even had his driveway shaped like a guitar and his swimming pool shaped like a horse's cock. Not sure of the symbolism there.
It was said that Warren G. Harding could play anything but the trombone and the clarinet. Nice to know he wasn't a total fuck-up.
In his younger days, Woodrow Wilson was a singer and violinist, playing with the Virginia Glee Club.
Jack Kennedy wasn't much of a musician. But First Lady Jackie Kennedy hosted some top-flight talent at the White House during her tenure there, including Pablo Cassals, Count Basie and Leonard Bernstein.
The most famous might be Bill Clinton. Some people opine that his appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992 playing saxophone clinched the nomination for him. Gotta admit, he looks pretty cool doing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkUeb6zQFA
Music is vitally important to our culture, our society and to our very lives. When the person in the White House is a music fan or player you can't help but hope that this person will automatically be more receptive and encouraging to musicians, music and to the arts in general. And with the current President, there's always hope for a solo album.
B
TheBruceSanbornBand.com
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