ghost of miles

Caution: reading this blog and thread may be hazardous to your fiscal health.

Set arrived last night and I’ve just started listening. The booklet looks amazing after a quick skim-through—can’t wait to read it at length. And the sound on Tubbs is excellent (it’s playing right now) as I’m sure it will be across the whole of the set. Thank you so much, Simon, for helming this project. I have your Hayes biography and this will be added impetus to read it ASAP. This will be a no-brainer for a best-of-2020 roundup. (Yes, technically it came out in late 2019, but like the new Mobley and Herman Mosaics, I consider it 2020-eligible, given that all three collections were released so close to the end of the year, are just now being listened to, and haven’t really begun to receive any write-ups yet in the jazz media... at least that I’ve seen. I may well have missed some.) That’s an interesting comparison—I can hear that! I was listening to a 1966 Woody Herman concert the other day and was reminded of how much I love Nistico’s playing with that band, especially on the uptempo numbers.

This is a fantastic project, HutchFan. FWIW I think it’s nearly comventional wisdom now among many jazz listeners that the 1970s was actually a vibrant decade for jazz (and I recall Ethan Iverson and Dave Douglas posting long lists of their favorite albums from the 70s ten years ago or so). There are still quite a few albums that merit further listening and discovery, as you note. Perhaps not as compelling, but I think a case could be made for the 80s being a more interesting decade than its current reputation. Just as the 70s got stereotypically/reductively dissed for too long as “the age of fusion” or some such, the 80s can be erroneously regarded as “the age of Marsalis/neo-classicism.” Lots of good stuff happening beyond/beside the dominant media narratives.

But he actually concludes by saying that he thought it was a great movie and really enjoyed it. I just watched the whole review (it’s definitely on the long-ish side), and found it pretty nuanced and insightful, both in its praise and in its criticism. Far better than much of the ridiculous vitriol that got flung against this film.

You mean the data that shows men are more than three times as likely to commit violent crimes as women in the U.S.? Cultural conditioning, whatever the root causes, but the data does not reflect well on your and my gender. In MLB news, penalties are coming soon for the Astros, Alex Cora likely faces discipline, and the Red Sox are now being investigated for illegal use of the video replay room in 2018. (Original ESPN story)

The 2-CD version released in 2011:

The Coltrane/Miles Final Tour set was included in last year’s list: Best Historical Jazz Releases of 2018

Agreed on all of this. I'll wait for the same pricey Japanese CD (in the meantime, I have the old CD edition). Streaming to me is good for revisiting, say, an old Style Council album from the 1980s that I'm not likely to listen to more than once. As a general way of listening to music, I have little use for it. But I understand ECM's bowing to the reality of the marketplace, where the vast majority of people now prefer to stream. I grew up with vinyl and was happy to leave it behind... no desire to go back, unless it's material that hasn't been otherwise reissued. Plus my little house would probably sink into the ground if my CDs all turned into LPs.

Aye, but there's the rub--we live in a country/culture/world still overwhelmingly dominated by men. Look at the makeup of the U.S. Congress, for example. Even after the last election, in which many newly-elected members were women, the House still breaks down 334 men, 101 women. U.S. Senate is 75 men, 25 women. Those are both historical-high proportions for women, but they've got roughly 23-25% representation in a country where they outnumber men 168 million to 161 million. (The Supreme Court, too, is comprised of six men and three women.) The moral arc of the universe may or may not be long and bending toward justice, a la MLK, but damn, it sure takes its time getting there. All this by way of saying that we are still in a place, unconsciously or not, where men hold power in a grossly disproportionate way. And it's not rocket science to see how that plays out in the realm of the personal, HAS played out in the realm of the personal for centuries. I alluded to the women-taking-their-husbands-last-name concept just because it's a stark reminder to me of how much this stuff has seeped into everyday life. No offense to any male board members whose wives took their last names, of whom I'm sure there are many. It's still a conventional thing: Why so many women still take their husbands last name But as that article also points out: The tradition of women changing their last names to match their husbands’ has its origins in the property transfer that took place upon marriage, Scheuble said. Essentially, women went from being part of their parents’ family to becoming their husbands’ property. “Although we don’t have that property aspect anymore, we still have this whole gendered notion that women somehow are obligated to take the last names of their husbands,” she said. “It’s turned over to normative tradition.” And then there's this: Certainly, my career provides a valid rationale for keeping my name, but I’ve never understood why I have to give one. If I’m being honest, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the logic behind why a recently married woman would change her name (except in a few, very exceptional circumstances). I was recently reminded that this opinion is very much in the minority: A study published earlier this month in the journal Sex Roles found that the husbands of women who chose to keep their surname were more likely to be perceived as feminine than those whose wives changed their names. I mean, whatever re "perceptions." My wife kept her last name when we got married and I couldn't give a damn about how that might affect dudes' "perception" of me and my masculinity. But the study to which she alludes is yet more evidence of how deeply baked-in this kind of thing is. Look, anybody who gets any kind of power has the capacity to act badly with it, as we've seen over and over and over throughout the history of humanity. So it's certainly not limited to men. But when it comes to domestic violence, the problem remains overwhelmingly a male one. And that leads back, I would argue, to root notions of gender, and how power is managed and distributed in personal relationships on the basis of gender.

Post now updated with suggested additions following the list I compiled. Thanks as well for hipping me to the Shaw Basel and Lookout Farm titles, which I had somehow not seen. Just ordered them (even though I keep telling myself, "You've got enough live Woody Shaw." The kind of edict I'm least likely to keep. )

Somehow missed both the Shaw and the Liebman. I’m going to put an addendum into the post consisting of suggestions from listeners and readers like the two that you guys have mentioned here.

Yes, obviously it can and is committed by women against men as well, but I don’t agree with what’s called the “gender symmetry” theory of DV. This from the Wiki entry on domestic violence against men: Gender asymmetry is also consistent with government findings. According to government statistics from the US Department of Justice, male perpetrators constituted 96% of federal prosecution on domestic violence.[99]Another report by the US Department of Justice on non-fatal domestic violence from 2003–2012 found that 76 percent of domestic violence was committed against women and 24 percent were committed against men.[100] Dr. Ruth M. Mann of the University of Windsor, an expert on sociology and criminology, stated her opposition to the gender symmetry theory of domestic violence on the grounds that women as well as children are the main victims in the "annual pile up" (Coyle, 2001) of victims being murdered by intimate partners and fathers throughout Canada (AuCoin, 2005; Ogrodnik, 2006).[101] Violence against anybody is clearly bad, unless it’s violence in self-defense. (And some of the violence against men from women is exactly that.) But look at the conditioning and stereotypes that were still so prevalent in our culture when you and I grew up and that still linger today. The primary root of the problem is the notion that men have rights over a woman’s body—whether it’s sexual availability or denying them their reproductive rights (perhaps the biggest issue right now), there’s an inevitable extension that occurs whenever the whole system revolves around believing that a woman is your property. Plenty of women still take their husband’s last name, which seems crazy to me (talk about cultural conditioning of ownership!), but it’s still accepted convention for lots of folks. So yeah, violence against other humans in the context of relationships is unfortunately a two-way street, but most of the traffic is still coming from one direction.

Richard Linklater’s late-1930s foray—very enjoyable so far, with Christian McKay doing a great job as Welles (a part that would obviously be easy to overplay):

Seems like a just resolution--hopefully German straightens himself out in this regard and that the whole affair contributes to the stigmatization of any kind of DV being committed not just by athletes, but by men in general.

My annual take, with a number of recordings listed in the post that I wasn't able to include in the program itself. There's a note at the bottom about why the Mosaic Herman and Mobley sets are not present. Best Historical Jazz Releases Of 2019 I also didn't include the Miles Davis 1969 Lost Quintet concert because I actually haven't heard it yet (the import CD I received was defective and had to be returned) and the U.S. release is slated for next week. I'd say it's a promising candidate for the 2020 list.

Hey JC, yes, I briefly mention this in the show and include a 1957 SWF band recording of his composition "Tropic of Kommingen,"

Really enjoying this so far, and numerous jazz references in the opening chapters that describe the club scene of 1940s/50s L.A.:

Yes, have and love both the Salle Pleyel and Pasadena concerts! I have the Uptown as well and listened to it at least twice when it first came out, but your post is going to inspire me to revisit it.

We re-aired Sacred Blue: Jazz Goes To Church In The 1960s this past week, and it remains archived for online listening.

We’re on the same page tonight, Peter—currently listening to this, from around the same period: Yeah man! Iirc is Monk on some of those broadcasts?

Me as well! Just yesterday, apparently, so will probably take a couple of weeks to make its way across the pond... but happy to know it's on its way.

On disc 7 my second time through the set. Lots of new-to-me Ralph Burns arrangements and several compositions here like “Terrissita” and “Beau Jazz” that have helped make this collection a joy to listen to. Much appreciation to Mosaic for persevering and getting it out.