ghost of miles

Just arrived, now playing!

On the very same page with you in all respects, Rooster.

From today's NY Times (it's from their Covid update stream, so I can't link directly to one specific piece)--we set another record for newly-reported cases in a single day yesterday with almost 60,000. Oh, and the death toll is starting to climb again, too: The growth in cases in the United States has continued to accelerate at alarming rates, even as other early hot spots curbed the spread of the virus. Italy set its single-day record for new cases on March 21 with 6,557, but it now reports fewer than 200 a day. Spain, which was averaging 8,000 new cases a day during its peak in April, now averages a little over 400 a day. And Britain, which was averaging 5,500 new cases a day in mid-April, now averages 537. In the United States, on the other hand, the outbreak is getting worse. Officials had hoped that the virus had reached its peak in the country in the spring, when it set a single-day record of 36,738 new cases on April 24. New cases did initially begin to decline after that, but continued to average more than 20,000 a day. And as states have eased restrictions and allowed more businesses to reopen, new cases have exploded in recent weeks. The contrast between the United States and the early European hot spots was underscored when, as hospitals across the American South and West were being flooded with virus patients, a hospital in the hard-hit province of Bergamo, Italy, which was once the center of the global outbreak, reported that its intensive care unit had no Covid-19 cases for the first time in 137 days.

From that article: (Ohio State athletic director Gene) Smith shares that concern about a fall season taking place. "I'm really concerned. ... I'm very concerned," Smith said. "In our last conversation, whenever that was, I was cautiously optimistic. I'm not even there now, when you look at the behavior of our country and you consider that in May we were on a downward trajectory with our [coronavirus] cases. ... Now we're, if not the worst in the world, one of the worst in the world. "I am concerned that we may not be able to play. Which is why we took the measure we took -- in order to try and have September available to us for conference games and give us the flexibility and control to handle disruptions if we're able to start a season. I'm concerned about where we are, just across the board, relative to the management of the pandemic as individuals." We didn't have to be here, but here we are. Deleting the rest of my comments because they are oh so very political. I think the point is that sadly plenty of people still seem to think or act otherwise, despite the wealth of information on this topic.

From Richard S. Ginell's notes to the Contemporary box-set, which reference the same Stereophile interview: Oddly enough, (Roy) DuNann was not a modern jazz fan; he liked the country-western tunes that he had been recording over at Capitol, and his favorite act in Koenig's stable was, of all things, the Banjo Kings on Good Time Jazz. One doesn't have to imagine his reaction to the Ornette Coleman sessions ("I would have sent him home," he told Stereophile Magazine in 2002). John Koenig remembers that DuNann used to scrawl sarcastic comments in pencil on the tape boxes (he labeled one of the selections from Coleman's first album "Butchered Blues"). Even so, DuNann and his former Capitol colleague Howard Holzer quietly engineered a legacy of recordings that have terrific presence and balance, and still sound better than many of the latest digital wonders.

Yeah, gotta admit I didn't know about the classical side of Contemporary, or had forgotten till I started rereading Ginell's essay for the box-set. Also that Koenig had worked as an assistant to William Wyler on films such as The Best Years Of Our Lives, Detective Story, and Roman Holiday, and that his career in the film industry was apparently derailed by his refusing to name names before HUAC. Or that he started Good Time Jazz as a vehicle for Firehouse Five Plus Two, and then essentially used the proceeds from the success of that label to indulge his more progressive bent with Contemporary. This reading stuff, I'll tell ya--it's educational!

Ditto--as mentioned on the jazz box-set thread, I just pulled this out for revisiting last night, and African-American artists seem well-represented. I realize it's almost as much of a cliche now to say "'West Coast jazz' was much more diverse than you've been led to believe!" as it's always been to say it was Chet Baker and a buncha Lighthouse All-Stars all playing on a beach somewhere, but Contemporary in particular has a really interesting discography.

I realize Jazzbo already answered your question--I snagged it a few years ago when the Fantasy box-sets were turning up online as cutouts at bargain prices, and when I was going through a period of new appreciation for such anthologies. It's an excellent overview of the label, with good historical notes by Richard S. Ginell, and really shows the range of so-called "West Coast jazz," at least as recorded by Lester Koenig. Well worth picking up if found for a reasonable price.

Last week’s Night Lights show highlighting pianist Ahmad Jamal’s run of albums for ABC and Impulse from 1968 to 1971 is up for online listening: The Second Great Trio: Ahmad Jamal On Impulse

Not a good 24 hours for the Yankees, given Stanton’s line-drive off the top of Tanaka’s head. On the coronavirus front: Four Atlanta Braves test positive for Covid ... not good news either. Freddie Freeman and Will Smith are two of the four.

Paul Krugman in the NY Times a couple of days ago: >>at this point Arizona, with seven million people, is reporting around as many new cases each day as the whole E.U., with 446 million people.<< Gee, America sure is great again! Re the George Floyd protests, I’ve seen several articles about cities where large protests took place and yet no spikes seem to have occurred. Speculation that this may be because the protests were held outside and the vast majority of protesters were masked. This was certainly the case at the early-June protest here in Bloomington, which I’d say I witnessed rather than attended, as I took pains to keep six feet distant or more at all times. Protest was estimated at 5-7000 people, and almost every single person I saw was masked. (As was I.) And Monroe County has seen only the slightest of upticks in the weeks since (which could also be attributed to our limited reopening). Marion County (Indianapolis) just instituted a mandatory mask policy beginning next week, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Monroe County follow suit. What drives me crazy is that the same people pushing for full-steam-ahead reopening are almost always the same folks hollering against masks and social distancing. WTF?!

Thanks for this! I’ve long contemplated doing a Powell Night Lights program, and his post-jazz classical work would certainly be a part of the conversation. (As would his post-1950 jazz recordings... the Vanguards and perhaps the 1987 Return Of Mel Powell date—though I’ve listened to the latter only once and don’t recall it being particularly memorable. Will have to give it another listen if/when I undertake a show. OTOH I might opt to frame it entirely within the 1940s, given his body of work with Goodman and the AAF, and the relative lack of exposure for his Commodore and Capitol recordings.)

Thanks BBS! Almost certainly the small group he led as part of Glenn Miller’s AAF. I think I have some of them as part of the numerous AAF compilations I’ve picked up over the years. Powell’s group was the nod-to-modernists part of Miller’s hydraheaded outfit... there’s even a broadcast of them doing one of the earliest versions of “Night in Tunisia!”

I’m going to make a CD-R (or two) of all of pianist Mel Powell’s recordings as a leader in the 1940s. I don’t own any discographies and can’t find one for Powell online—what recordings, if any, did he make under his own name in addition to the 17 for Commodore and the 12 for Capitol in this era? I’m also going to include the four solo piano sides he made in Paris in 1945, which are on the CD Glenn Miller’s G.I.s in Paris. (For those interested in Powell, the Commodores are all included on two of Mosaic’s three Commodore sets, and the Capitol sides are part of Mosaic’s Capitol Jazz collection. Ocium has put out a CD that compiles some of the Commodore and Capitol tracks, as well as a handful with Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller’s AAF, plus the solo Paris recordings.)

I think this is the same one that I bought--in fact, didn't we correspond about it off-board? Anyway, completely agree--I bought it because I wanted to get a UK box-set of Woodfall films that had no apparent prospects for a North American release. It also came in handy when I wanted the uncut BBC versions of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. No issues whatsoever with the player, and I needed something to play domestic Blu-Rays as well anyway.

Ahmad Jamal turns 90 today. Here's this week's Night Lights show, with a special note of thanks to Jsngry and the forum in general: The Second Great Trio: Ahmad Jamal On Impulse

What on earth are the Astros (or any other team that's planning to allow fans, because apparently Houston's not alone here) thinking? But especially a team like Houston, situated in a state that is one of the leading hotspots for Covid in the country right now. Houston Astros allowing fans at MLB games is a dangerous move

Don't be a zero, be a hero!

The Rockies’ Ian Desmond is opting out of playing in 2020. Evidently not the first and probably not the last player to do so. According to the ESPN article, “Earlier Monday, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Mike Leake and Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and pitcher Joe Rossannounced that they are opting out of the 2020 season amid the coronavirus pandemic.”

No, I haven't--and I don't think Charles Mingus would have countenanced charlatans. Personally speaking, I've been lucky to hang out and talk with Amram several times over the past 10 years, and the guy just brims with good creative energy. Emailed him about the show last week and got an effusive response that left me hoping that I can still cook like that when I'm 88. So glad you liked the program! There's an Amram music bed ("City Talk," from his 1957 Jazz Studio album) that starts at 6:00 in and runs for a couple of minutes under the narrative.

Last week's Night Lights show, which delves into the music and history of New York City's Five Spot, is now up for online listening: Making A New Kind Of Scene: New York City's Five Spot It includes commentary from Five Spot regulars David Amram (also a Five Spot performer) and novelist Dan Wakefield, as well as live Five Spot recordings from Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane or Johnny Griffin, Eric Dolphy and Booker Little, and representational recordings by Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman, and poet Frank O'Hara reading "The Day Lady Died."