ghost of miles

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.)

Part 2, in which Mark talks about Louis Hayes, Yusef Lateef, Tribe, Geri Allen, Kenny Garrett, and others, is now up for online listening: Made In Detroit: Jazz From The Motor City, Part 2

Spending Sunday at the Village Vanguard:

I picked that up in the recent Fresh Sounds sale but haven’t listened to it yet. Now on to more Mark Turner:

So happy to hear this, Brad!

👍 Right now, some sweet Saturday morning listening:

Something about the late-winter stretch toward early spring puts me in the mood for Joni Mitchell:

There's also now a blog post up linking to previous Night Lights programs I've done about these Detroit artists, some of whom weren't covered in the broad sweep of the two shows I did with Mark--Dorothy Ashby, Donald Byrd, Betty Carter, Alice Coltrane, Curtis Fuller, Barry Harris, Thad Jones, Charles McPherson, and Gerald Wilson, : Detroit jazz artists on Night Lights

Lovely album from Enrico Rava:

Definitely thinking of her and you as well, Brad.

For a long time all I had was Songs To Learn And Sing, which is a fantastic best-of compilation drawn primarily from the first four albums and accompanying era. Recently went on a binge, buying the box set and the deluxe reissues of those first four albums, so I've been immersed in their music for the past several weeks. I actually enjoyed some of the late-1990s reunion sides that round out disc 3 of the box-set as well. I'll keep an eye (and ear!) out for that live release that you reference above.

Are you already a T-Mobile customer? If so, maybe you could get a refund? I signed up for T-Mobile for completely different reasons about five years ago. (They had what seemed to be the best deal for what I needed in terms of cellphone service.) But man oh man, their business relationship with MLB has sure proven bountiful in this regard.

While awaiting news of the next Yankee injury (Gerrit Cole hit by a golf-cart? Gary Sanchez broke his toe playing soccer? Gleyber Torres strained an oblique in batting practice and is out for 3 months? Who knows what be next?), here is a note of good cheer for all who happen to be T-Mobile customers: T-Mobile is once again offering free season-long MLB.TV subscriptions to their customers I think this is the fourth year in a row they've done it, and it's spoiled me rotten.

Disc 3 of this excellent box set:

I spent a lot of time last year revisiting the 1980s Dream Syndicate catalogue as well--need to check out the new stuff. Would love to see the band in its current incarnation.

According to Pat Thomas' Facebook page, reissues of the Opal albums are in the works.

Love Opal and Mazzy Star and especially that first Rain Parade album (they're still good but just not at the same level after Roback's departure). I've been revisiting that first Rain Parade album a lot in the past year. Paisley Underground was such a fascinating scene; I've been listening a lot to the earliest Bangles recordings as well (gathered on Ladies and Gentlemen... the Bangles!!!, plus the first Columbia album). Have you ever heard the Rainy Day covers project? EDIT: I see the Guardian piece mentions that project. Interesting that there doesn't appear to be a lot of extended writing out there about the Paisley Underground. I had to actually contact the UK publisher directly last year to order this collection of mostly-contemporaneous reportage: Tell Me When It's Over: Notes From The Paisley Underground

Zev Feldman mentioned it on his Facebook page when the article was posted online, but he's not ready yet to announce details.

Disc 1: