ghost of miles

Steven Isoardi posted a link on Facebook to his 2010 Current Research In Jazz essay about Grimes' re-emergence in Los Angeles after the Signal to Noise article: There are many layers to this story. Certainly the return of a great artist is the most prominent and is story enough. But there is also the re-emerging elder giant meeting the young neophyte, also with a difficult past. And the role played by the three young students contributed significantly to this special event in the spring of 2003. All of them grew enormously as artists and as people. As this story was unfolding, Oakwood’s headmaster, James Astman, observed, “Nick has done something remarkable and wonderfully humane.” [24] And much was done by Henry for Nick, for all of those who contributed to make this a success, and for fans of good music everywhere. Henry’s life was changed and his career re-launched, and perhaps Nick has found his direction in life... It is also a story of supportive communities—musicians, poets, journalists, researchers and archivists, students and a school administration, cultural space organizers, from East L.A., North Hollywood, and South Central L.A., as well as from the East Coast—all pooling their talents and energies to support Henry. It was an inspiring aligning of forces, something that in many other locations and contexts might not have happened. Fortunately, this was different and resulted in a special, unique experience with no down side. Everyone won. The Return Of Henry Grimes

Long Boston Globe article about the challenges of eventually resuming sports events: What will the sports fan’s experience look like after coronavirus?

Upping in memory, along with a note written for a Facebook post (Mark Sheldon was the friend who arranged Grimes' visit to Bloomington that day in October 2005): This is becoming a sad near-daily ritual. Henry Grimes, who played on numerous notable records of the late 1950s and 1960s and was practically a house bassist for the avant-garde of that era, has passed away from Covid-19 at the age of 84. Grimes vanished from the jazz world after moving to California in 1968 and was even thought to be dead for many years, then miraculously resurfaced in the early 2000s and began to perform again. I had been obsessed with his music and story since the early 1990s, and when a friend asked me in 2005 if I’d be interested in having Grimes swing through Bloomington for an interview, I could barely contain my excitement. I ended up spending most of the afternoon and evening with Grimes and the musicians with whom he was traveling; between interviews at WFIU and WFHB we went to dinner, and I remember feeling happily astonished that I was eating vegetarian burritos at the Laughing Planet with Henry Grimes, a resurrected jazz legend. He exuded a gentle, creative and enduring strength. When the Night Lights show posted below aired a couple of weeks later, Henry’s companion Margaret phoned the station and left a voice-mail saying that they were listening to the program and that Henry was really enjoying it. I can’t tell you how much that thrilled me—and how moved I was that this musician who had been a hero of mine, thought to be departed, magically reemerged after 35 years for a second chapter that would continue to the end of his life, had spent a day of his time with us here in Bloomington and tuned in to hear what I’d tried to make of it. Thank you, Henry Grimes, for having walked among us again. Now Found: Henry Grimes

He died of Covid-19. Nate Chinen has an obituary up at WBGO: Henry Grimes, bassist of avant-garde pedigree and storied return, dies of Covid-19 at 84

Back when the Take 2 series was yielding musical treasure on CD:

One of my favorites from Verve’s wonderful Take 2 series:

Changes over time, but these days it's probably the Lester Young 1936-47 set. Even though it's music with which I'm quite familiar at this point, it's such an amazing collection of recordings all in one place, and there always seem to be new nuances to enjoy in Prez's playing that I haven't noticed before. (And Loren Schoenberg's notes bring out plenty of detail in both Prez and the other musicians' performances as well.)

Love this set! I was finally able to get both it and the studio Roulette box for extremely reasonable prices about a year ago. Thanks for your post, which is inspiring me to pull it out again.

Been revisiting Elliott's music the past couple of days (and even more has surfaced since this thread's most active years) and finding that it resonates with me as powerfully as ever. This morning I watched an entire hour-long October 2000 set from the Figure 8 tour, about two weeks before I saw him at the Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky. While the Southgate performance was fine (he hadn't gone off the rails yet.. that happened almost immediately after this tour ended), he seems more on for this show, and there are great electric full-band versions of several of his acoustic-based songs. Video/audio quality is not necessarily great, but I actually often prefer "lo-fi" fan videos of shows as opposed to pro shots... they give me a more visceral, you-are-there vibe. At the very end there's a nice clip of him signing a woman's guitar and tuning it for her before he boards his tour bus. (The venue was Howlin' Wolf in New Orleans... ah, for the days of attending live music events.)

He was excellent in First Blood as well:

Wasn’t that part of the Tristano teaching method—having his students sing notable jazz solos?

Just remembered that Konitz did a stint with Stan Kenton's Innovations orchestra in the early 1950s as well. (Was that the gig that supposedly caused friction between him and Tristano?) Damn, what a discography.

We're now going to re-air this next week in light of Lee's passing, but bumping it today in memory: Lee Konitz: The Verve Years

Brand new book from historian Mike Davis, whose previous book City Of Quartz has become a benchmark among Los Angeles histories:

Surely one of the last surviving members, if not the last, of Claude Thornhill's late-1940s orchestra? And one of the few alto players from that era to set a flight course different from Bird's, though that was just the beginning of an astonishingly original career. My first discographical stop today will probably be the Atlantic sessions that Larry annotated so splendidly for the Mosaic Tristano/Konitz/Marsh set. He sure did leave us a wealth of wonderful music to enjoy. Also a recommendation for this book: Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser's Art

Similar situation with a beloved local bookstore here, in that the owner also owns the building--hope that makes it more likely that she'll be able to ride it out. Problem with starting up the country again, pre-vaccine development and distribution (still a year away, it seems) is that we can't make people go out and shop again, visit stores/restaurants/bars, stay in hotels, hold conventions, go to ballgames, etc. Most of the people I've talked to--friends and co-workers--feel very wary of participating in anything, commerce or otherwise, that requires close proximity to others in any number. (Their assumption, which I share and believe is not groundless, is that the virus is far more widespread than testing indicates, given how low the proportion of tests to the total population is.) It's a real quandary. We've got to live somehow, and living inevitably requires commercial transactions and an active economy. But I don't foresee anything close to a return to normal economic activity once the shelter-in-place restrictions, guidelines, or whatever they are in one's city or state are lifted. I like what the northeast governors are doing, trying to coordinate a sort of "rolling re-entry," but most people's hunker-down psychology is not going to change much IMO until a vaccine's been developed. Continuing to read more and more stories about people younger than 50 and without pre-existing conditions dying from this thing. Anyway, sorry--above is probably more appropriate for the general COVID-19 thread. Glad that City Lights will apparently endure for awhile longer. Hope we can all say the same for the rest of us.

Well, you know us, we like to jaw about all manner of things! Sounds as if City Lights will be OK for the time being. I’m still worried about similar small/independent stores and establishments that don’t have the kind of global reputation and recognition that City Lights has and may not be able to attract enough needed support. Trying to do what I can to still give some business to Landlocked Music here in Bloomington and help to others that are unable to offer any kind of inventory for sale right now. Not a proprietor, so I’m not really clued in to how much the loan legislation that Congress has passed is going to provide in the way of assistance.

Bit of a shocker, though he's taken a backseat to Hal in recent years. Not COVID-19 related, apparently. However, the death of 48-year-old NY Post sports photographer Anthony Causi was: New York sports figures share in grieving over death of 48-year-old NY Post sports photographer Anthony Causi

That's such a great film, Dmitry! I need to watch it again. There's a new documentary about NYC bookstores that my girlfriend and I were hoping to catch on the arthouse circuit sometime later this year. That won't be happening now, but Coolidge Corner's virtual screening room will be offering streaming rentals for it starting this Friday, so I think we'll be choosing that option for our weekend movie date:

I think my dentist is on a similar policy right now--emergency work only. Just rescheduled my six-month cleaning appointment from this month to July, though like so much else these days the new date is tentative.

Sept/Oct at the earliest, I’m afraid. Lincoln Center, for example, has cancelled all of its summer programming. Here at IU all summer events have been cancelled; we’re looking at trying to turn our outdoor Jazz In July concert series into Swing In September, but even that looks unlikely right now. Until a vaccine is manufactured and widely distributed (at least a year away, current consensus seems to be), I really don’t see how any kind of mass events—whether you’re talking 50-100 people in a small club or 50,000 people in a football stadium—are going to be able to be undertaken safely. Why Sports Aren’t Coming Back Any Time Soon

Not the first reputable source I’ve seen that suggests the overall number of deaths and cases in general may be significantly higher than the official totals compiled so far. We just had our first official death from the virus here in Monroe County (though it’s likely at least one other person died of it, but the state didn’t grant the county coroner’s request to conduct a posthumous test) and a firefighter in Terre Haute just passed away as well. Indianapolis and upper northwest Indiana (aka “Da Region” or “Chicagoland”) getting hit the hardest here in Indiana.