Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (Song scene taken from last night at my Wednesday Night event)

Vivienne Lewis is a great entertainer. She not only sings but does comedy as well. Whenever she comes to my event she always claims me to be her baby’s daddy. Some people actually believe her. I sincerely hope not (smile). She wanted child support money so I gave her 3 cents. By the way, she also sings quite well, and she did a Stevie Wonder song last night. As usual we had a “lot” of fun last night, and I hope you don’t mind me sharing this clip with you. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

 

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (Interesting excerpts from Michael Cohen’s testimony about his involvement with President Donald Trump)

I usually don’t like to accent political stuff. I realize that those who support certain people will most likely “continue” to support those people through the good and the bad times. I am not trying to change any of that. Michael Cohen used to be President Trump’s “fixer.” He knows a lot of the things that went on in the Trump campaign during the early days and even after he was elected President. He also is a convicted liar. I don’t want to alter anyone’s perceptions here, but I think these little tidbits need to “at least” be known. You can make your own determination as to whether or not you  believe this is true. Cohen testified yesterday and these are some of the things he said:

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/02/27/the-10-most-jaw-dropping-lines-from-michael-cohens-leaked-testimony/23679116/

If there is “any truth” to what Cohen has said then there may some heavy complications coming soon. Maybe it will be significant or maybe not. Time will tell on this one. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

Brett Jolly and Good Morning America TV host Robin Roberts

 

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (More songs with my brother Bill from our gig the other day)

Here are  couple of tunes. I hope you enjoy. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (A song from our gig at “South” here in Philadelphia)

I had some serious problems with the internet last night and this morning, but finally it appears as though everything is cool. This is a special rendition of Michael Jackson’s song “Billy Jean” in which my brother, Bill Jolly is singing the lead. I hope you enjoy it. Of course, I am playing the bass guitar (wearing black). I hope you like the tune. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (The prejudices within us)

Yesterday I went to a fast food place and noticed a couple in line ahead of me. The man was a White Caucasian male and the female was a Black African American female. They seemed like a nice romantic couple. For me, I didn’t focus so much on them, but I “did” manage to focus on the other people in the store. No one said anything, but the stares I saw said a lot. People looked at them as though they were doing something wrong. Please keep in mind that not everyone looked at them that way, but there were quite a few. I firmly believe that we “all” have some type of bigotry within us. We tend to view others who are of varying ethnicities differently than we view people of our own kind. In my eyes, that is not a bad thing. It is when we “act” upon our stereotypes that we are wrong. Think about this. If you are in church and a lady in front of you has on a huge hat that blocks your vision (and you don’t like her for it) then you could be harboring a stereotype. If you call a business and talk to someone with a foreign accent (and you have problems understanding them) then you could be harboring a stereotype. If you are an employer and you seemingly reject an applicant based on sight alone then you could be harboring a stereotype.  How would you feel if you saw the same couple that I saw yesterday? I am not asking if you would act upon it (because I don’t believe most of us would). However, would you stare at them based on their color differences? For the record, I think that if people of 2 different races got involved romantically then that is a good thing. To me that means that their love is genuine and is not based on the standards of others. There is a love match out there for just about everyone. I don’t think it should all be based on what you see, but rather what you feel. True love goes beyond the surface. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought, and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

Brett Jolly with Lynda Carter (The original Wonder Woman)

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought ( Song segment taken from last night at my Wednesday Night Event)

Last night felt a little peculiar. We had our Wednesday Night Event even though a lot of snow fell in the Philadelphia area forcing people to stay home. There was a special birthday celebration going on and the own of the Crab Tavern still wanted us to come out and perform. The normal crowd we would usually experience was not as massive as it usually is. However, we still came out. Last night was mostly a laid back night and we didn’t do a lot (except we still took some requests). I also had the opportunity to try out my new bass guitar amplifier so one of the first things we did was to try out an instrumental  jazz classic by the great bassist Stanley Clarke entitled “School Days.”  I had not had much of a chance to EQ the amp but it sounded really good. I have two more gigs today with it.  I hope you enjoy this tune. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

 

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought ( Trying to help a severely wounded raccoon)

Two days ago a raccoon on my street seemingly got struck by a traveling car. The poor creature was still alive but curled up on the street and not moving. My son used a shovel to pick up the animal and place him inside a huge box on our porch. The animal is not in very good condition but is still breathing. We tried to feed it and help it. The big problem is that if we called animal services the raccoon would probably be put to sleep.  We tried to let it go by turning the bod over but the animal is still too wounded to move. We think the animal is getting somewhat stronger because he did try to nibble and claw his way out of the box. We would like for the animal to survive and go back to his natural habitat.   My kids are concerned. We don’t know if what we are doing is the right thing, but we are hoping that it will recover. Most people would probably think this issue is insignificant because we are dealing with an animal, but I think they have just as much right to live as we do. We are hoping for a good outcome to this story, but it may take a while. We know fully the danger of rabies and any other form of disease the animal may have, but we will handle this situation with caution. If this animal can survive and go back to his family that would be “so awesome.” Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

Music producer Kenny Gamble (Center), former Atlantic City mayor Langston and Brett Jolly

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (“History”)

When you break it down into it’s primary parts, history is basically defined as “his… story.” It is what we have heard from others that we often compute as being the truth. However, when you eventually find out more facts, what does it do to all that you believe? For instance, I was taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America, and yet when he came here there were allegedly people already here before him. If he truly discovered it, then why wasn’t he the only one in this area? Another interesting tidbit was that Abraham Lincoln supposedly freed the slaves. The interesting part of this is that he freed the slaves in the north (but once they reached the north, they were automatically free anyway). When you consider any of this to be factual then what did he actually do? It was reported to me that George Washington never told a lie. How does anyone know that for sure? Who “really ” killed John Kennedy (and his brother Robert?). Thomas Jefferson had children with his slaves. Should we honor the memory of that? The plane that supposedly crashed in the middle of Pennsylvania on 9-11 had a story to it. It was alleged that the passengers tried to overtake the hijackers and that was when the plane crashed. However, that plane was alleged to have been late taking off (and like the other planes it was directed to go land at the nearest airport). Once that plane veered in another direction, I’m sure they tried to radio the pilot of the plane to ask why it was doing so. If they didn’t get the right answers from the pilot (and I’m sure they “didn’t” get the right answers) then what do you think authorities did? Rather than wait for that plane to get to the White House it would have made sense for authorities to “shoot it down.” When I saw the pictures of the hole in the ground where the plane “supposedly landed” I was intrigued (because there was no semblance of the the plane left, which was highly unusual). When you think about it, how can that happen? I believe that this is what they “wanted” us to believe (and this is what history does to us).  Whether you want to believe that Michael Jackson and Prince (2 EXTREMELY health conscious people) were killed or died from drug overdoses is up to you. It is amazing how they both died in the same manner. Quite a coincidence, isn’t it? History is stated in accordance to what they want you to believe. If you accept it as fact then your beliefs are what others have set for you.  There is nothing wrong with crosschecking history and discovering for yourself. You might find a more believable reality in the process. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought, and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

Paul Shafer (from Dave Letterman show) and Thomas Bell with Brett Jolly on bass guitar)

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (The copyright infringement of Blurred Lines)

Marvin Gaye’s family won a victory over the song “Blurred Lines.” They took Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to court over this song’s infringement on Marvin Gaye’s tune “Got to give it up.” My understanding is that now Williams and Thicke are appealing the verdict. As a musician, I have played both of these songs “many” times. I have perfect pitch, and I know “very well” the similarities between components of songs. While I am extremely happy for the Gaye family, I am a little puzzled as to what was used to prove their point. When comparing both songs and their components I don’t find any musical violations (other than the style of the music and maybe the drum beat). The drum beat could very well be stolen, but I don’t think  you can copyright drum beats. As for the keyboard parts, they are not the same. The bass line is “definitely not the same.” The vocal melody line is definitely not the same. The keys of both songs are different. Yes, the style of the song was copied, but is that a copyright infringement? Obviously in this court of law, it was. I am interested in this case because I am a songwriter. I do not like to steal anyone’s material when writing my own tunes but it is important for me to know the rules so that I don’t make that same mistake. I can take just about any established song and change the elements of certain components. There are only so many musical notes out there to work with. I would never steal anyone’s vocal melody line and I would be very leery of trying to steal a key essential of any song. Songs need to be protected. That is what copyrighting is all about. That is also why we need to know the actual rules of what makes a song protected and that is why this case is really important. For right now, it feels to me as though the style of a song cannot be copied. That could cause the music industry to crash. I will keep an eye and my ears open for the final result of this case. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.

Singer Freddie Jackson in concert with Brett Jolly on bass guitar

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (Song segment taken from last Wednesday at our open mic event)

Adrienne is an excellent singer, and this past week we celebrated Valentine’s Day. In accordance to the atmosphere, Adrienne decided to sing ” My Funny Valentine.” We think she did an excellent job and we wanted to share it with you. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Thank you for checking out my Daily Thought and as always I wish you the very best that life has to offer.