ghost of miles

Maybe it was a different Kenny Rogers?

Yep, wondering about the veracity of this as well--can't even find a whisper of a rumor on Twitter or elsewhere on social media.

... and also contemplating revisiting Camus’ The Plague, which I haven’t read since high school.

Can't imagine that baseball will start on time, no.

The NBA just announced it's suspending its season.

Got the same email and will definitely be picking up both the book and the CD.

Indiana University just announced suspension of all on-campus classes for two weeks following next week's spring break. How's this crisis playing out in your community?

Disc 4, which documents the beginning of Coltrane and Tyner’s studio work together:

We re-aired Jazzing The Cool this past week, and it remains archived for online listening.

I third Chuck and Hans' recommendation--the absolute best way to pick up that material.

Revisiting an old favorite—an excellent Hoagy Carmichael collection put together by Richard Sudhalter:

Up in memory. Hoping to do a program about the Milestone recordings sometime soon. Tyner Time: McCoy Tyner’s Blue Note Recordings

Nate Chinen’s Tyner obit for NPR.

Damn. Not terribly surprising, but terribly saddening. I'd been thinking about doing a show devoted to his Milestone recordings later this year. Gonna take some time to absorb this particular departure.

I know Kevin Spacey is persona non grata these days, but I greatly enjoyed the impressions interview that James did with him:

When Boyd came marching home!

Disc 7, for some much-needed Prez this evening:

Ethan Iverson writes at length about a topic definitely in need of more scholarly attention. (Much appreciation to Mark Stryker for his Facebook link, which is how I became aware of the article.) Black Music Teachers In The Era Of Segregation

Great playlist and some deep dives to be sure. Happy to see Nellie Lutcher and Tampa Red (among others) putting in appearances.

Celebrating 17 years of Organissimoicity today!

Playlist for today's weekly classic-jazz edition of the afternoon show: Tubby Hayes' MEXICAN GREEN

Reason #373 why I love to do jazz radio, especially here in Bloomington--so I'm featuring Mexican Green today on the show (taken from the Fontana box-set) and just got this email from a Bloomingtonian jazz pianist who's a UK native: Hi David I was at a concert by the visiting Duke Ellington band at London Festival Hall in the 1960s at a time when Paul Gonsalves was the hit tenor man for his marathon number Diminuendo and Crescendo (?). The band came on stage announced one by one, with the audience in heightened anticipation of welcoming Gonsalves. There was no Gonsalves. He was ‘indisposed’, to the great disappointment from the crowd. So who was to be his dep? There was a pause - - and then who walked on but Tubby Hayes!! Roars of surprised delight from the London crowd with whom Tubby was already a firm favorite and national star. And Tubby did us, and the Ellington band proud! I knew the story from Simon's bio, but still such a kick to get that email from a listener who actually attended the show!

This one, from 1986? Miles Ahead: The Music Of Miles Davis ... looks interesting as well. Thanks for the tip!

Finally got around to watching all of this--excellent documentary, did a great job of traveling a PBS-general-audience track without distorting the history. I thought the use of Carl Lumbly to read text from Miles' autobiography also worked quite well. Loved Greg Tate's description of Miles' early-1970s sound as "cosmic jungle music." The telling of the Birdland beating incident, a story with which I'm certainly familiar, was still upsetting. Overall I came away with a richer sense of Davis' humanity, always so evident in his playing, of course--but the film helped clear away some of the mystique. Stanley Nelson was a superlative choice to helm this project. (And yeah, agree with Late that I could have done with a little less of Frances talking about how great her legs were... but a small price to pay for such a vivid depiction of Miles.)