SNL February - Witty title about doing a month of live shows in a pandemic

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pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

But that's only half the story! There will be new shows January 30th through February 27th. So far the first three have been announced, and they're all first-timers.

John Krasinsky was originally supposed to host last March 28th, in promotion of his sequel to A Quiet Place, but, well, you know. Now he's undoubtedly here because NBC has been super aggro about promoting The Office on Unnamed Streaming Service. If you'd like to keep watching The Office without subscribing to yet another unnecessary streamer, the whole series was recently released on Blu-ray. But NBC has been forcing Office promotion on every one of their properties, from every hour of Today to all of late night, don't be surprised if there's a pretape that just happens to mention The Office in the first half of the show.

Also, Cicily Tyson died Thursday, and though I was expecting them to run her episode from 1979, it does make sense that it's not gonna air. I re-watched my original airing copy of it this weekend, and... oof. There's a sketch where the punchline is her character getting raped. And she's not in too many sketches. It would be kinda tricky to edit that one down to an hour, even. So, she'll get an obit title card at the end of the live show, tonight. Speaking of which-

https://vimeo.com/506626730

You may have missed it if you don't watch the broadcast repeats, but there was an obit edited into the Jason Bateman rerun a couple weeks ago. Howard Johnson played tuba in the original Live Band under Howard Shore, and was a legend in his own right. From the NYT:

quote:

Howard Johnson, who set a new standard by expanding the tuba’s known capacities in jazz, and who moonlighted as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger for some of the most popular acts in rock and pop, died on Monday at his home in Harlem. He was 79.

His death was announced by his publicist, Jim Eigo. He did not specify a cause but said that Mr. Johnson had been ill for a long time.

Fluent and graceful across an enormous range on one of the most cumbersome members of the brass family, Mr. Johnson found his way into almost every kind of scenario — outside of classical music — where you might possibly expect to find the tuba, and plenty where you wouldn’t.

His career spanned hundreds of albums and thousands of gigs. He played on many of the major jazz recordings of the 1960s and ’70s, by musicians like Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, Carla Bley and Charlie Haden; contributed arrangements and horn parts for rock stars like John Lennon and Taj Mahal; and performed as an original member of the “Saturday Night Live” band.

“I could find myself in almost anybody’s record collection,” he said in an interview in 2015 for the online documentary series “Liner Note Legends.”

And for more than 50 years, Mr. Johnson led ensembles with tubas on the front lines — first Substructure, then Gravity, which became his signature solo achievement. Consisting of a half-dozen tubas and a rhythm section, Gravity aimed, he said, to elevate the public’s estimation of the instrument.

From the 1930s, when traditional New Orleans music fell out of favor in jazz, the tuba had been relegated to the sidelines; the upright bass had almost entirely replaced it. Mr. Johnson helped to find it a new role, by expanding its range upward and by playing so lyrically. In recent years critics have hailed a broader renaissance for the tuba in jazz, building on the foundation that Mr. Johnson laid.

Writing in The New York Times in 2006, the critic Nate Chinen called Mr. Johnson “the figure most responsible for the tuba’s current stature as a full-fledged jazz voice.”

Howard Lewis Johnson was born on Aug. 7, 1941, in Montgomery, Ala., and raised in Massillon, Ohio, outside Canton. His father, Hammie Johnson Jr., worked in a steel mill, and his mother, Peggy (Lewis) Johnson, was a hairdresser. They weren’t musicians, but they kept the radio on at all times, usually tuned to gospel, R&B, jazz or country.

It was on boyhood visits to his uncle’s house that Howard first became enchanted with live music. “He lived over a juke joint, and if I spent the night and slept on the floor, I could hear the bass line very well,” he remembered in a 2017 interview with Roll magazine. “And that was very satisfactory.”

A gifted student, he learned to read before he was 4 and skipped a grade in school. His first instrument was the baritone saxophone; after receiving just two lessons from his junior high school band teacher, he taught himself the rest. A year later, he learned the tuba entirely by watching other players’ fingerings in band rehearsals. He would wait until everyone had left the practice room, then tiptoe over to the tuba and try out what he had seen.

In the high school band, he thrived on friendly competition with his fellow tuba players. Many of them were receiving private lessons, but left to his own devices Mr. Johnson blew by them, stretching the instrument far past its normal range and maintaining a graceful articulation throughout.

“I thought I was playing catch-up — that all the stuff that I taught myself to do, the others could already do it,” he told Roll. “The ones who were the best in the section were kind of like role models: I wanted to play like them someday. But by the end of that school year, I could play much better than they could. And I could do a lot of other things.”

After high school, Mr. Johnson spent three years in the Navy, playing baritone sax in a military band. While stationed in Boston, he met the drummer Tony Williams, a teenage phenom who would soon be hired by Miles Davis, and fell in with other young jazz musicians there. After being discharged, he moved briefly to Chicago, thinking it would be a good place to hone his chops before eventually moving to New York. At a John Coltrane concert one night, he met the prominent multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, a member of Coltrane’s band. When he mentioned that his range was as great on the tuba as it was on the baritone, Dolphy urged him to move to New York right away.

“He said, ‘If you can do half of what you say you can do, you shouldn’t be waiting two years here; I think you’re needed in New York now,’” Mr. Johnson recalled. “So I thought, ‘It’s February, maybe I should go to New York in August.’ I thought about it some more, and I left six days later.”

Mr. Johnson also learned to play the bass clarinet, euphonium, fluegelhorn and electric bass as well as the pennywhistle, which he particularly loved as a foil to the tuba in terms of both pitch and portability. Characteristically, he took this unlikely instrument not as a novelty but seriously, developing a lightweight, even-toned, exuberant sound on it.

On arriving in New York, he soon found work with the saxophonist Hank Crawford, the bassist Charles Mingus and many others. He began a two-decade affiliation with the composer and arranger Gil Evans, sometimes contributing arrangements to his orchestra.

In 1970, after being connected through a business associate, Mr. Johnson persuaded the blues and rock singer Taj Mahal to allow him to write arrangements of Mr. Mahal’s songs that would include a suite of tubas, and then to take them on the road. Mr. Johnson and three other tuba players are heard on “The Real Thing,” Mr. Mahal’s 1971 live album. He would continue to work with Mr. Mahal off and on.

Mr. Johnson was soon getting work from other rock musicians. He led the horn section for the Band in the 1970s, including on the group’s farewell performance, captured in Martin Scorsese’s famed concert film “The Last Waltz.” He continued working with Levon Helm, the Band’s drummer and singer, for decades.

But Mr. Johnson’s greatest public exposure came on television. In 1975 he joined the house band for a new late-night comedy show then called “NBC’s Saturday Night.” He remained in the ensemble for five years, helping to shape its rock-fusion sound and making an appearance in some of the show’s most fondly remembered musical sketches.

Mr. Johnson is survived by his daughter, the vocalist and songwriter Nedra Johnson; two sisters, Teri Nichols and Connie Armstrong; and his longtime partner, Nancy Olewine. His son, the musician and artist David Johnson, died in 2011.

With Gravity, which he led from the 1970s until the end of his life, Mr. Johnson poured the sum of his musical experiences into arrangements for six tubas and a rhythm section that alternated between acoustic and electric. Reviewing a Gravity performance in 1977 for The Times, Robert Palmer lauded the group’s “fresh sound” and said he was disarmed by its “sunny good humor and affection for the jazz‐and‐blues tradition.”

Mr. Palmer made particular note of Mr. Johnson’s versatility: “Whether he is improvising on tuba, which he plays in a roaring and whooping style with remarkable facility, or on the baritone saxophone, which he wields with fluent authority and a dark, smoking tone, he combines New Orleans phrasing, avant‐garde shrieks, blues riffing and multi‐noted bebop flurries in a consistently exciting and wildly original style.”

In the 1990s, well into middle age, Mr. Johnson signed with Verve Records and released three albums with Gravity, full of blues-battered, elegantly arranged music: “Arrival: A Pharoah Sanders Tribute” (1994), “Gravity!!!” (1995) and “Right Now!” (1998). The last album featured Mr. Mahal singing roisterous straight-ahead jazz on some tracks.

Mr. Johnson remained active until nearly the end of his life, despite a number of health setbacks. In 2017, he and Gravity released a quietly triumphant last album, “Testimony,” with some original members still in the band. His daughter also makes an appearance on the album.

In 2008, the instrument maker Meinl Weston unveiled the HoJo Gravity Series tuba, designed for players with Mr. Johnson’s wide range.

“This is something I hear every time: ‘I didn’t know a tuba could do that!’” Mr. Johnson said in a 2019 interview with the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College in upstate New York. “Well, that means I haven’t been doing my job, because I’ve been doing it since 1962, and people still don’t know.”

There's a great vintage Terry Gross interview here from 1984 as well.

By the way: The clip in the tribute is from when Johnson's band Gravity performed on the show in April 1978, which can be seen on the complete 3rd season DVD set, as well as Hulu. Host: Michael Sarrazin with Keith Jarrett, Gravity.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 01:45

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# ? Mar 1, 2021 01:11

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

And tonight's Vintage ain't no slouch, either - John Goodman with Faith No More from December 1 1990. That's right, Mike Patton and his patented six octave range are going out over the airwaves of the National Broadcasting Company again tonight, and you can't see this on Unnamed Streaming Service. Finally, you can see a version of "Epic" that isn't potato quality!

# ? Jan 31, 2021 01:48

hanales: Nov 3, 2013

Is it strictly music rights that keeps this stuff off Hulu

# ? Jan 31, 2021 02:40

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Not that strong a swimmer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMfCUvIK3V8

# ? Jan 31, 2021 02:45

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

I love when old episodes prove that SNL was as much a cheerleader for war as anyone at the time

hanales posted:

Is it strictly music rights that keeps this stuff off Hulu

Oh entirely in my opinion. Only the first five years are “complete” thanks to the herculean efforts to secure clearances for all the music cues. Everything else is shredded to ribbons online, and even in on-air repeats.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 03:03

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

This some straight-up propaganda poo poo

Gotta give Hartman credit for doing these stunts

# ? Jan 31, 2021 03:07

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Live dealer4s like right at the table.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:29

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

So upset that they’re giving this fucker oxygen. Stop propping up lunatics, we just lived through a five year demonstration of what can happen when you give these fuckers airtime

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:31

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

Also Lorne takin care of his hedge fund bros

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:33

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

lol this is actually good

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:35

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Eat Tom Brady. YAYY!

I never knew how to pronounce his name.

Zeluth fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Jan 31, 2021

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:38

EL BROMANCE: Jun 10, 2006; COWABUNGA DUDES!

Not a fan of that wardrobe choice, John.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:40

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

What the!!! Love it.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:45

EL BROMANCE: Jun 10, 2006; COWABUNGA DUDES!

I’m 80% sure that’s Aidy, so goodbye Lauren.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:48

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

Oh you think msfuckingnbc is leftistkhgdddc

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:48

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Time for the biuscits.

Science?

Zeluth fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jan 31, 2021

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:49

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

Relieved that the stonks sketch didn’t go in the direction of parade-of-wacky-reddit-usernames

# ? Jan 31, 2021 04:59

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Shoosh. Now I am in my slippers.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:00

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

You gotta be frugal with your mustard. It doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

...

It does? Neat.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:02

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Roffle!!!!

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:04

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

Available wherever I am

Come and find me

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:06

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Risk.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:07

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

Zeluth posted:

Risk.

Are you a bad enough msan rto save the President?

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:11

InsensitiveSeaBass: Apr 1, 2008; You're entering a realm which is unusual. Maybe it's magic, or contains some kind of monster... The second one. Prepare to enter The Scary Door.; Nap Ghost

So they've mentioned peacock, MSNBC and CNBC, will they mention NBCSN? (Oh wait...)

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:13

Codependent Poster: Oct 20, 2003

It's so weird to me that Machine Gun Kelly is playing this type of music now

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:16

Zeluth: May 12, 2001

I don.t want to sleep now. But damnit.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:19

EL BROMANCE: Jun 10, 2006; COWABUNGA DUDES!

Zeluth posted:

I don.t want to sleep now. But damnit.

Make sure you drink water first.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:21

Codependent Poster: Oct 20, 2003

lol this is an excellent MyPillow guy impression

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:22

Involuntary Sparkle: Aug 11, 2004; Chemo-kitties can have “accidents” too!

My husband doesn't follow politics as closely as I do and he keeps looking at me and asking, is that real? "Did she really say that about Jewish space lasers" " does the pillow guy really have a book?"

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:27

je1 healthcare: Sep 29, 2015

At least the Bella Daphine joke was self-explanatory, everything you need to know about her is in the gamergirl bathwater headline.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:28

InsensitiveSeaBass: Apr 1, 2008; You're entering a realm which is unusual. Maybe it's magic, or contains some kind of monster... The second one. Prepare to enter The Scary Door.; Nap Ghost

Involuntary Sparkle posted:

My husband doesn't follow politics as closely as I do and he keeps looking at me and asking, is that real? "Did she really say that about Jewish space lasers" " does the pillow guy really have a book?"

https://books.google.com/books/about/What_Are_the_Odds.html?id=vPYXzQEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description

quote:

"What Are the Odds? is a raw, authentic account by a man many thought would never rise above his serial, addiction-fueled failures. Mike’s gripping narrative transports readers from his small-town tavern with its colorful cast of “Regulars” to Mexico and a drug deal gone awry. From Las Vegas casinos, where Mike won and lost fortunes as a professional gambler, to a jail-cell beatdown. From failed rehabs to his 20-year marriage, an ideal union decimated by addiction. And finally, to the redemption of the most shameful moment of his life. An unvarnished account of the ravages of cocaine, crack, and gambling addiction, What Are the Odds? tells the improbable tale of how a small-town guy with a dream somehow made it a reality. More importantly, Mike opens up about the God who relentlessly chased him down, turning him from a casual believer to a passionate evangelist with an absolute, mathematical certainty that God is real. What Are the Odds? will not only speak to entrepreneurs and those struggling with addiction, but also to anyone looking for a message of hope."

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:32

Involuntary Sparkle: Aug 11, 2004; Chemo-kitties can have “accidents” too!

InsensitiveSeaBass posted:

https://books.google.com/books/about/What_Are_the_Odds.html?id=vPYXzQEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description

Oh no, what I meant was that I knew these things were real but that they're so incredibly stupid that he's questioning whether they're true and asking me.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:34

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

InsensitiveSeaBass posted:

So they've mentioned peacock, MSNBC and CNBC, will they mention NBCSN? (Oh wait...)

To be fair, nobody ever talked about NBCSN before

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:38

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

pwn posted:

To be fair, nobody ever talked about NBCSN before

but my Tour de France coverage

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:43

pwn: May 27, 2004; This Christmas get "Shoes"

Meat is the new bread

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:46

InsensitiveSeaBass: Apr 1, 2008; You're entering a realm which is unusual. Maybe it's magic, or contains some kind of monster... The second one. Prepare to enter The Scary Door.; Nap Ghost

They're not going to mention tuna, are they

... oh poo poo Jared

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:48

ArtVandelay: Jul 13, 2004

I'm still not convinced this dude isn't a Pete Davidson character.

Seriously though, I'm genuinely baffled how this guy is a thing. He's truly awful.

# ? Jan 31, 2021 05:53