Stan Polley (1922-2009), one of rock’s allegedly most crooked managers died July 20, 2009, in California.During the 1960s and 1970s he managed <a href=”http://www.the27club.net/tag/badfinger”>Badfinger</a>, Al Kooper, Lou Christia, and Charles Calello and others. Over the years, Polley’s reputation as a ruthless manager has been documented in books by Al Kooper and Dan Matovina, and according to The New York Times, Polley was named in 1971 as someone who worked as an in-between organized crime and a New York Supreme Court judge.

Stan Polley had a habit of forming companies for each of his clients, using charm to lure them in and complicated business structures to funnel money away from the artists. He formed Badfinger Enterprises, Inc. in 1970, and acted as the American arm of the band’s organization. Over time, it became clear to several band members that they had no control over their money, but Pete Ham (one of the 27s) refused to believe that Polley was a bad apple. In 1972, Badfinger let Polley negotiate a new record deal with Warner Bros. Records. The contract called for cash advances to be placed in escrow and WB soon found itself filing a lawsuit when it couldn’t locate the funds. A legal tangle ensued and Badfinger saw their records pulled from the shelves. By then Pete Ham saw the writing on the wall and tragically hung himself. His suicide note ended with “Stan Polley is a soulless bastard and I’ll take him with me.”

Polley soon left show business, but he continued to swindle and embezzle. In 1991 was ordered by a California Court to return $250,000 to an aeronautics entrepreneur, but according to the victim, he never received any money.

Be sure to read Dan Matovina’s book Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger for more.

Raymond Rogers (“Freaky Tah,” “Tahleek”)

Born: May 14, 1971, in Queens, New York
Died: March 28, 1999, in Queens, New York
Member of: Lost Boyz, 134 Allstars

Like the blues, hip-hop’s ethos is to create something from nothing, makin’ a way outta no way, and it’s not surprising that a lot of hip-hop’s brightest came from the front lines of urban decay.

Take New York City’s E Line to the end and get off at Jamaica in the South Queens borough. In the early nineties rappers threw down hip-hop jams in Baisley Pond Park there. One of the young men who made a name for himself was Raymond Rodgers who called himself by Freaky Tah.

Tah’s high school buddies DJ Spigg Nice, Pretty Lou, and Mr. Cheeks were there too, and the crew began to jam as a unit. The Lost Boyz appropriated its name from The Lost Boys (a teenage vampire movie that featured Echo & the Bunnymen’s version of The Doors‘ “People Are Strange” on the soundtrack).

The Boyz slung drugs to get by but quit after another dealer they knew was shot. The Lost Boyz soon debuted the single “Lifestyles Of the Rich & Shameless,” and it climbed up Billboard’s Hot 100 thanks to its hypnotic creed “some died wit the name, some die nameless, it’s all the same game, all the same pain.” Based on the single and the promise of more party jams, Uptown Records added the Lost Boyz to its roster. “Renee” followed and was included in the spoof movie Don’t Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In the Hood.

“Cheeks and Freaky were the star players on the team,” Pretty Lou says. Freaky Tah’s throaty voice was the response to Mr. Cheek’s call, the story’s chorus, the adlibbing backup—the hype man. “He was that big spark that started the engine,” says his brother Tito. “He loved his fans and loved being on stage.” Like Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav, Tah’s role in the group was irreplaceable. Tahleek’s deep rasp is found all over their ’96 debut Legal Drug Money; he even rocked the mike on “1,2,3.” The record is part contemplation and part celebration of the Queens they emerged from. Even the song titles speak collectively of a greater story with “Get Up,” “Music Makes Me High,” “Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz,” “All Right,” “Straight From Da Ghetto,” “Da Game,” and so on.

The album commanded the top spot on the rap/hip-hop charts and climbed to number six on the Billboard 200, going gold in the process. Several cuts from Legal Drug Money charged up the singles charts, such as “Music Makes Me High,” which outsold LL Cool J, Outkast, Jay-Z, and Mary J. Blige in November ’96.

The Lost Boyz managed to stay out of the East Coast / West Coast beef that claimed the lives of Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, and many others. In an otherwise bling-filled scene, the Lost Boyz pioneered plain white tees as part of the hip-hop uniform.

Tah never forgot about who he was and where he came from and invested time in prepping kids from his hood in the rap game. His crew was known as the 134 Allstars and included 50 Cent.

When Tah wasn’t hanging with his crew, he might ride the bus so he could sign autographs or pass out CDs and t-shirts. He was in the street all the time, and on his birthday he’d throw a BBQ for the south side of Queens. “That’s why 95 percent of everyone knew who Tah was,” Tito says.

In 1997, the Lost Boyz followed up with Love Peace & Nappiness and Tah stepped up on two of that album’s essential tracks “Why?” and “Get Your Hustle On,” while “My Crew” paid homage to their hood. The album went gold, and the single “Me & My Crazy World” placed in the middle of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

March 28, 1999, the Lost Boyz entourage celebrated Mr. Cheeks’s birthday at the Sheraton Hotel in Queens. Well after midnight Tah said goodbye and left the party. As he walked through the main doors of the hotel, a man on the street shot him in the head and escaped in a car that sped off.

Freaky Tah was pronounced dead at 4:20 a.m.; the incredible hype man was only 27 years old.

In 2001, Kelvin Jones pleaded guilty to murdering Raymond Rogers and received fifteen years to life, while driver Raheem Fletcher was sentenced to seven years for chauffeuring the getaway car.

The socially conscious Talib Kweli pays his respects in “Good Mourning” off Reflection Eternal’s 2000 album Train of Thought. He raps “Freaky Tah, rock rock on.”

Nat Jaffe

Born: January 1, 1918 in New York City
Died: August 5, 1945, in New York City

After a childhood spent in Germany, pianist Nat Jaffe became part of the NYC jazz scene. In addition to heading his own bands, Jaffe recorded with Joe Marsala, Louis Armstrong (1938), Jack Teagarden (1939-40), Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan (1945).

The 27s won the 2009 IPPY award for popular culture

We just came back from New York City and Book Expo, which is the largest book trade show in the country. Long lines for our official author signing and we even ran out of books. Thanks to everybody who showed up!

Friday night we headed down to The Providence, a former church and recording studio where Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and even Guns N Roses have all laid down tracks. It’s a really cool club and definitely worth checking out if you’re ever on the west side.

The Independent Publisher Book Awards is a broad-based awards program to laud the best in independent publishing and we were up against the best of the best produced in small, medium, and university presses across the country.

The show, which you probably understood by now, was held at The Providence and The 27s won silver in the popular culture category. David Byrne of the Talking Heads won this last year for one of his books, so we’re psyched for the recognition.

News about Dash Snow’s death has now been reported by the Guardian, the New York Times. Gawker broke the story yesterday, erroneously writing he was two years shy of his 30ieth birthday; Dash Snow died 27 years old.

Writer Ariel Levy wrote about Dash in much-read feature in New York Magazine two years ago:

“What makes the legend richer is that Dash Snow could very easily have lived a different kind of life, been a different kind of artist. Snow’s maternal grandmother is a De Menil, which is to say art-world royalty, the closest thing to the Medicis in the United States. His mother made headlines a few years ago for charging what was then the highest rent ever asked on a house in the Hamptons: $750,000 a season. And his brother, Maxwell Snow, is a budding member of New York society who has dated Mary-Kate Olsen. But Snow has concocted something else for himself. He has been living as hard as a person can-in and out of jail, doing drugs, running from the police-for a decade. He’s unschooled, self-taught.”

The web is filled with a mix of caring and vicious comments about Snow’s art and lifestyle, which go hand in hand. Fact is he was addicted to heroin, but his art was also displayed in major galleries in NYC, London, and LA–including the Whitney Biennial, and some of his works picked up by collectors over the past few years. There’s little doubt that Dash Snow, given this article, his De Menil pedigree, the anarchistic creative crew he was part of, and the widespread news about his death will leave a legacy like the rest of The 27s. The young, tragic death of an artist always seems to do that.