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I think Chambers has some pluses and considerable minuses. The pluses - it’s comprehensive as far ans official recordings go and he mines a lot of secondary sources. However, he has serious blind spots / cluelessness on Miles’s music starting in the mid 1960s that get worse and worse the later you go. His coverage of the electric era is mostly a waste (except to get a flavor of how that music went over many jazz listeners’ heads). There are also some discography errors that suggest he wasn’t a close listener. I also think it’s unfortunate that he didn’t do any primary research when nearly all the musicians who played with Miles were still alive. None of the other, better biographers had that luxury. I think Carr’s bio is better, as is Tingen’s. I haven’t read Szwed’s yet!

Will Mothership get an all-new cover design? I’m guessing ‘yes’ — but we’ll see. I don’t buy brand new vinyl, and rarely buy much use vinyl at all either (haven’t for 20-25 years, I’m nearly all CD — except for maybe a couple dozen obscure 60’s or 70’s titles I found used quite cheaply). Still curious if Mothership gets a new cover design though.

Michael Cuscuna told me that Stitt & Gordon were obviously very drunk at that session and that this tune was the only one he found from that date that was releasable. Given that other "unreleasable" stuff has been released since Michael left, I'm sure there's a chance that more stuff like this will see the light of day.

John Hicks & Ray Drummond Two Of A Kind

I should point out that Derek Taylor (above) is "The Voice of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers." ***** Top 50 Plays of the Year https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/2025/11/11/who-earned-bragging-rights-for-the-no-1-cfl-play-of-the-year/ ***** Today's Head Coaches' Press Conference https://www.cfl.ca/2025/11/10/head-coaches-press-conference/ https://www.cfl.ca/2025/11/11/3-things-you-missed-from-head-coaches-press-conference/ ***** Thursday night's CFL Awards Ceremony will be shown here. https://www.cfl.ca/2025/11/10/cfl-awards/ ***** Friday's State of the League speech will be shown here. We'll see if anyone give the Commissioner any grief about the proposed changes. https://www.cfl.ca/2025/11/10/commissioners-state-of-the-league/ ***** Grey Cup previews https://www.cfl.ca/2025/11/11/3-strengths-for-each-team-in-the-112th-grey-cup/ https://www.cfl.ca/2025/11/11/3-storylines-that-could-define-the-112th-grey-cup/ https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/article/maas-mace-lead-their-teams-into-grey-cup/ https://cflnewshub.com/cfl-news/112th-grey-cup-saskatchewan-and-montreal-lineup-for-cfl-glory/ ***** BC free agents https://3downnation.com/2025/11/11/the-b-c-lions-potential-2026-free-agents-list/

“Ben Pollack Volume 2,” Jazz Oracle cd Ben’s groups work always lifts my mood.

Rusty Dedrick “Salute to Bunny–Rusty Dedrick Plays Berigan Tunes” DCC cd Baritone Saxophone – John LaPorta Bass – Wendell Marshall Drums – Clem De Rosa Mastered By – Steve Hoffman Piano – Jack Keller Recorded By – Jerry Newman Trumpet, Vocals – Rusty Dedrick Original Released As Counterpoint CPT-552. Recorded At The Esoteric Sound Studios By Jerry Newman, Fall 1957

If you don't know, you're lucky. i live in the belt buckle of the Ohio snow belt.

Re Brothers 4 on CD, to my ears it's surprisingly straight-ahead for '69 and the Varitone/other device is barely noticeable (I think we had this discussion or one very like it on my blindfold test long ago). Grant did a bunch of sideman session for Prestige at the start of his comeback and would have signed with them, but they couldn't/wouldn't match BN's $1,500 up front per leader date. In the late sixties, an organ date could be more or less straight ahead, old school greasy shuffles, or new school funky, or a mix. GG had also done a few dates for Prestige with McDuff etc. early on. I have most but not all of GG's sideman dates and all the leader dates, except Funk in France and the other one that came out at the same time (I have heard them, the're not terrible but...). Sonny Stitt is one of those guys who recorded so much and mostly in more or less similar bags that I don't feel compelled to have it all or even anywhere near. But I do enjoy what I have and would by that rejected date with Dexter in a flash. Some may feel that there's no need to have everything by Grant, or even near, but they would be wrong. I thought the clash with Alfred was more about choice of material and casual approach to recording - but I find the accounts of him running into the studio literally pulling his hair out a little hard to credit given that they got a full album's worth done that day. Makes a great story tho'.

Answering myself, though it’s been a decade since I’ve read it — I especially recall Szwed’s Miles bio as being really wonderfully written. Been as many or more years since I’ve read his Sun Ra bio too — but I specifically remembering coming away from reading So What thinking just was a truly great example of writing it was (a joy to read, iirc, its use of language, etc. — not necessarily overly flowery or anything, but it was just a really well-told story, in addition to however good the content was). And also, how it seemed to cover areas of Miles’ life that I hadn’t read about as often as I had in the 3 or 4 (or 5?) other Miles bios I’d read prior.

Mavericks GM Fired After 3-8 Start, Fan Uproar Over Doncic Trade In the "I'm shocked!!!..." category. 😁 No link...I saw the story on Bloomberg, which probably has a paywall, but it'll be on every sports site.

Well, she just won't watch superhero stuff, or science fiction stuff, or. . . most of the stuff I'd really like to watch. But after ten years living together I'm quite used to it.

Wow! I've gotta get that Brookmeyer book!

More Steve Kuhn:

I can understand that. As amazing as he is, Farrell's Penguin isn't exactly the most pleasant and peaceful character on the tube!

Saw "Bugonia." Loved the ending.

And disc 3. Some fine work by Irving Fazola on this one.