Open from the Outside

This photo of Nat “King” Cole, Sarah Vaughan and company comes to VBG courtesy of the lovely blonde woman in the picture, Monica Lewis, who had a remarkable decades long career as a jazz singer. Ms. Lewis is 90 years old today and just as stunning! She is joined by Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole of course, along with Stan Kenton, a progressive jazz bandleader that she was dating at the time. The occasion was a gathering of top musicians in Chicago sponsored by BILLBOARD magazine. I wish I knew the name of the beautiful lady standing in between Ms. Vaughan and Mr. Kenton (she is not Mr. Cole’s wife, Maria Cole) so if you do know, tell me her name in the comment section!

vintageblackglamour: Nat “King” Cole and Maria Cole dance at...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:26:07 -0400

vintageblackglamour:

Nat “King” Cole and Maria Cole dance at their wedding reception 65 years ago today, March 28, 1948, which happened to be Easter Sunday. The Coles were married at Harlem’s famous Abyssinian Baptist Church by Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the legendary Harlem congressman. According to Michael Henry Adams, author of the beautiful coffee table book, “Harlem Lost and Found,” Ms. Cole wore a $700 ice-blue satin dress designed by none other than VBG fashion designer legend, Zelda Wynn Valdes! Photo by Lisa Larsen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.

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Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:25:18 -0400

Where the water meets the sand…. I live there.

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:24:25 -0400

Where the water meets the sand…. I live there.

“Peace Zone”

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:22:40 -0400

“Peace Zone”

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Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:43:24 -0500

Photo

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:40:00 -0500

Birdlike

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:38:32 -0500

mobbleberry:

She is a haunted house,
for she does not possess herself.
She will hover in no-man’s land
and her ancestor’s will peek out
and speak for her, when she does
not have the modern words for ‘hurt’.

She will sense a marvellous strangeness
in her hands and feel predatory claws
lurch forth and overcome her victim.
There are some things within her,
that even if they are true -
We should not believe are possible.
For none of us are immune to the shadows.
Least of all, those who are made up of them.