jeffcrom

This caught everyone here totally off-guard. I haven't been a big baseball fan since the mid-90s strike, but I've been to a few games at Turner Field, most recently late this past season. It's great stadium, and to me, who saw many games at the old Atlanta Stadium, it seemed like the paint was still fresh. None of the Braves' stated reasons for the move - traffic, ease of access, lack of parking, needed renovations at Turner Field - hold up to much scrutiny. (For one thing, while rush-hour traffic is bad in downtown Atlanta, it's a real nightmare at the I-75/I-285 interchange where the new stadium will be located.) It seems to come down to two things - money and scared white people. The new stadium will be partly owned by the Braves, so they'll get money from the naming rights and more from the concessions and parking. And the new stadium will be smaller, presumably driving up the price of premium seats. Most of the people commenting on the online articles I've read think this move is ridiculous, but among the folks who think it's a good thing, the word "ghetto" shows up a lot in their comments. I wouldn't walk in the neighborhoods around Turner Field alone after midnight, but the notion that attending a Braves game there is scary or dangerous is ridiculous. I've walked with friends from "The Ted" to their condo a mile to the east after games. And J.H. Deeley just brought up the issue of the cost to Cobb County taxpayers. Cobb County is extremely conservative - they hate taxes - and nobody ran this by them. There have been no public hearings. This was presented today as a done deal. I know that we live in a "disposable" society, but throwing away an expensive stadium at the 20-year mark makes my jaw drop.

Recently: acoustic classical, concert bands, pre-1920 dance, and Yiddish records. Today: The great Decca Kansas City Jazz album again, plus: Jimmie Lunceford - The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down/I'll See You In My Dreams (Decca, 1937) Jimmie Lunceford - Well, All Right Then/Time's A-Wastin' (Vocalion, 1939). A gorgeous copy. I don't have the B side on LP or CD. Duke Ellington - Put Yourself In My Place, Baby/The Wildest Gal in Town (Columbia, 1947). Don't have this one anywhere else either, and it's nice to hear some "new" studio Ellington that I hadn't heard. These are two non-Ellington pop songs, with vocals by Kay Davis and Dolores Parker, respectively. There's some Shorty Baker on the A side, and some Lawrence Brown on the flip. Ivie Anderson - I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good/On the Sunny Side of the Street (Black & White, 1946). A very nice little record, with solos by Willie Smith, Karl George, and Charles Mingus.

Yes, that's true. All the music stored in my iTunes collection also finds its way into my Spotify library. Whew!

Whoa! That is really disturbing. By the way, I recorded those Rev. Jones radio shows.

It's late; I should be in bed. But sometimes the music won't let me go, no matter how late it is. So: Max Roach/Archie Shepp - Force (Uniteledis/Base). Found this one in a little record store in Stockholm a couple of years ago.

The Giants of Jazz (Atlantic). Although I'm not sure it's recognized as such, Monk's solo on "Blue 'n' Boogie" is one of his greatest improvisations.

The Boss (recorded in my hometown) is fabulous. The Magnificent Goldberg thinks so, too. Decided to spin this myself. Some parts are beyond fabulous; they're scary - like Smith's solo on the title tune.

The Boss (recorded in my hometown) is fabulous. The Magnificent Goldberg thinks so, too.

Something a little more serious than the last LP I spun: Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre - Humility in the Light of the Creator (Delmark)

Yes, it's kind of remarkable. I had a little cabin fever today after being under the weather for a few days, so I went to a store I hadn't visited for a couple of months - picked up the Lunatic album (for three dollars!) and a couple of things from the dollar bin, including this one: Harry James - Harry, Not Jesse: Harry James Plays Neal Hefti (Metro stereo). Okay, before anyone laughs - I got this one for nostalgic reasons: Hefti's "Sunday Morning," included here, was the first chart I played way back when I joined my high school jazz band at age 13. Our version was slightly simplified from the version heard here, but was substantially the same arrangement. The album is good for the most part - there are a couple of corny charts, but most are excellent. James is the main soloist, but Willie Smith was still in the band, and takes a couple of nice solos.

Twilight Monologues (Lunatic). One piano solo each by Masahiko Sato, Aki Takase, Ichiko Hashimoto, and Takashi Kako, recorded in concert in Hiroshima in 1984. Lunatic 002, The Kiss by Steve Lacy, is an album I've really loved since finding a copy a few years ago. I had been curious about Lunatic 001, and found it today in an Atlanta record store. It's up to the level of The Kiss - excellent music, beautifully recorded, and pressed onto an absolutely noiseless platter of vinyl.

Bill Perkins - Bossa Nova with Strings Attached (Liberty mono). A really nice little obscurity from 1963.

So long to an instantly recognizable voice. I discovered him as a teenager when I checked out George Freeman's Birth Sign LP from the public library, and I've been a fan ever since.

The Modernity of Bob Brookmeyer (Clef). Brookmeyer cut this while on modernity leave from the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.

Brad, are you referring to Miles' Cellar Door box? I think that that was 1969, wasn't it? You're getting something mixed up. Miles' Cellar Door recordings were made December 16-19, 1970.

Alec Wilder Octet (Columbia 10-incher)

I've enjoyed reading this thread, even if most of this has been hashed out before. I was to write a long reply, but decided to keep it relatively short: Atlanta is blessed with lots of new and used record/CD stores, which I hit often. Whenever possible, I try to buy new CDs from Decatur CD, but they can't get some of the more esoteric stuff through their distributors. I like the used stores as well, because you never know what you might find. I hated Bev's line about "helping to keep an increasingly outdated means of distribution on life-support," but I think he's probably right. I worry about how much longer Decatur CD can stay in business - the owner says sales are dwindling, and they have a pretty high overhead. I just love records (you can read that as "records and CDs") - beyond their superiority as sound carriers over downloads. I mean, downloads have gotten better, and my ears are getting worse, so switching to downloads should make sense. But I've loved looking through records, sorting records, handling records, and listening to records for over 40 years, and they're in my blood. That being said, I recently visited a musician friend who no longer keeps any records or CDs - it's all on his hard drive and his iPods. It freaked me out a little, but I can see how it would be liberating to get rid of all the physical objects and just listen to the music. Old habits die hard, and I don't think I could totally do that. But at some point my wife is going to want to retire near her family on the other side of the country, and I figure that's when I will go ahead, bite the bullet, and whittle my records and CDs down to a few boxes. But I'm not looking forward to it.

Thank you to all for the good wishes. Thanks for asking, Paul, but unfortunately I'm feeling pretty lousy physically today. That's okay - I'm using that as an excuse to just relax and listen to music all day. And the wife is taking me out to dinner at our favorite restaurant - I think I can muster up the energy for that. And she gave me a nice new Protec gig bag for my alto (my idea) and a book of William Claxton jazz photographs (her idea).

Milford Graves/Don Pullen - Nommo (SRP). Finally treated myself to this one when I found a copy at a price I could live with. It's the second cover, but that's okay with me. It arrived today, so I guess I'll consider it a birthday present to myself.

Bucky Pizzarelli with Bud Freeman - Buck & Bud (Flying Dutchman). A really wonderful album.

Happy birthday, but try as you might, you'll never catch up with me.

I love Miles & Mono too so................................................... Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I think that promotion is over.

Miles Davis Quintet - Newport 1967 (Wolfgang's Vault). This was a premium for signing up with Wolfgang's Vault for a year. I already had the music on a CDr, but this is nice-sounding mono LP. Hate the cover; love the music.

I started reading Linda Dahl's biography of Mary Lou Williams, Morning Glory, today. I don't know what took me so long to get to this book. I had known that Williams was born in Atlanta, but for some reason I had thought she was born in the Buttermilk Bottom neighborhood, in what is now called Midtown. While reading the first chapter of Dahl's book, I realized that Williams was born (and lived to the age of about five) in Edgewood, within walking distance of my house. Here's the deal: Edgewood, once a separate town, was one of the suburbs that developed east of Atlanta in the late 19th century. In contrast to more prestigious suburbs like Inman Park and Druid Hills, it was a working-class town, filled with shotgun houses and small bungalows. (I live in one of the latter, which replaced one of the former in 1930, as far as I can tell.) Atlanta annexed Edgewood in 1909, approximately a year before Williams was born. Edgewood was divided by the railroad tracks which run along the Eastern Subcontinental Divide - about a hundred feet or so from my house. South of the tracks, Edgewood was populated almost entirely by African-Americans. North of the tracks, the population was mostly white, but there were two black enclaves known as Rose Hill and Hooperville. (This is not from the Dahl book - I already knew this stuff.) The area south of the tracks is still known as Edgewood, while my neighborhood north of the tracks is now known as Candler Park. In true white Atlanta fashion, the names of the major streets that connect Edgewood and Candler Park were changed in Candler Park in the mid 20th century, so that the white residents north of the tracks wouldn't be associated with the black neighborhood south of the tracks. Williams' half-brother was very specific that she was born in Edgewood, and that they lived there. The name of the street was supposedly Gotsipling. I can't find any reference to any street of that name ever existing in Atlanta. So I think that either that wasn't the official name of the street, or that it was such a tiny alley in such a poor neighborhood that no one took any notice of it. Dahl asked the legendary Atlanta historian Franklin Garrett about it, and he thought it must be a corruption of "Gospero." Well, Gaspero Street still exists, but it's in the Old Fourth Ward, Martin Luther King's childhood neighborhood, and over a mile from Edgewood. Mary's parents were active at the Beulah Baptist Church in Edgewood, and her mother played the reed organ there. That's a common church name, but I quickly came up with a Beulah Baptist Church that was located at the corner of Hardee Street and Wesley Avenue in Edgewood in the early years of the 20th century. (The church is still active, but later moved out of the city limits). Here's the location. (I live just north of the area shown - on Clifton Rd. near DeKalb Avenue.) My guess is that Williams was born and raised within walking distance of this church. I explored the area a little today, and there are streets that probably look much as they did 100 years ago, although much of the area has changed a lot. North of the church site is a new-ish subdivision, with street layouts that are obviously different from the time of Williams' birth. East of the site is a large apartment complex, and south is the campus of a public school which looks like it was built in the 1970s. My guess is that Gotsipling Street, or whatever it was, was in one of these areas. I'm going to do more research - I would love to pin down the exact location of Mary Lou's birthplace and childhood home. That may be impossible, though - no birth certificate was issued for her at the time. But for now, I'm guessing that this is the right neighborhood.

Lucky Thompson - Happy Days are Here Again (Prestige stereo)