ghost of miles

I can't remember which of these I bought first, but it was around the same time--the Massey Hall double-LP upon the recommendation of my best friend from junior high and high school (who was an enthusiastic jazz listener, as well as musician, long before I was) purchased at Rockin' Billy's and the Billie Holiday at World Record Shoppe (which amazingly appears to still be in business) in Indianapolis. The Billie Holiday must have been one of the last Columbia Holiday reissues to come out on vinyl--this would have been around 1989 or so:

Man, what a great win for New York last night! Odds are still way high against coming back to win the ALCS, but at least they finally dropped Verlander (who was 4-0 in 7 postseason starts against them going into last night’s game) and didn’t get eliminated at home. Nats certainly have to be loving this. If Houston wins today they’ll be able to fully reset their rotation for the WS and start Cole and Verlander for games 1 and 2 on regular rest. If they lose, they have to use Cole for a game 7 tomorrow, and he wouldn’t be available again (assuming Houston won a game 7) until the WS game 3 on Friday.

Yeah, that's definitely weird! I used a couple of Signature recordings in the show--"What Is This Thing Called Love" and "Key Largo." There are also a couple of live performances with Count Basie's big band at the Royal Roost circa 1948 in there as well. This is the CD that I have the Signature material on (although I think most of it also appears on Proper's Young Anita box-set):

This just about made me cry as well. Screw all the blather about Girardi not being close enough to his players:

Hated to see him leave the game tonight. So much heart in that guy. Welp, the fat lady is warming up for tonight’s Houston-NY game. Barring a miraculous turnaround (which would involve beating Verlander and Cole, the latter on the road in Houston, and then still having to win an all-in game 7 after that!), this will be the first decade since the 1910s that the Yankees haven’t made it to a World Series. We’re not in the 20th century anymore, Toto. Small consolation for me is seeing the Nats make it there this year. They’ll definitely be the underdogs, but a good friend of mine who loves baseball thinks they might be able to pull off a 1990 Cincinnati Reds vs Oakland A’s type upset. I’ll be pulling for them, assuming said miraculous NY comeback doesn’t occur.

Posting this week’s Night Lights show today in honor of Anita O’Day’s centenary: The Swingin’ Jezebel: Anita O’Day In The 1940s

That book is quite a "tome," as Hardbop used to put it years ago. So cool that you saw those particular configurations--especially the Clark and Crosby one!

Working right now on a Babs show for Night Lights... next week is his centenary. Just remember that a dollar is your only friend!

Just arrived in the mail!

The Replacements binge continues:

I hope so. I think Houston's the slightly better team, but I also thought, going into the series, that we were definitely capable of beating them. Yeah, the offensive performances against Verlander and Cole have been incredibly frustrating. Really missing Stanton, who had been doing great batting fifth in the postseason.

I joked to some baseball friends the other night that the Cardinals clearly need to throw some more infants on the fire!

Wow, the Nats... doing to the Cardinals what the Cardinals did to the Braves in the last game of the NLDS. Yankees crapped the bed against the Astros yet again and are just about done—failure to calitalize repeatedly in games 2 and 3 was infuriating. Scherzer/Strasburg/Corbin against Verlander/Cole/Greinke would be a titanic matchup of arms for a World Series.

Picked this up at NYC’s Jazz Record Center last January and am now reading for a Night-Lights-in-progress:

All of the old Modern Libraries that I've picked up over the last 25 years or so--this is one of my favorites, cover design by E. McKnight Kauffer:

Disc 1, Matt Wallace's original mix of Don't Tell A Soul:

Turns out I have the 1994 BMG reissue, which is not the one to which Dan's referring in his original post. So he's still looking for help on this one.

PM on the way!

Yeah, Otto's been crapping the bed on a semi-regular basis for the past 6-8 weeks. Biggest problem was Paxton going less than 3 innings--well, that and utter failure to do anything against Houston's pen. NY has to win at least *one* game against the Verlander/Cole axis to have any chance of winning the series, and last night seemed like a good shot at it. Astros haven't lost a game with Cole as starter since I don't know when... July or something crazy like that?

Last week’s Night Lights show sampled some of the final editions of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, featuring musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, Mulgrew Miller, Kenny Garrett, Terence Blanchard, and Javon Jackson. It’s now available for online listening: Late Art: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers In The 1990s

Yankees sure blew a great chance last night to come back to NY up 2-0. Now they have to beat Cole in game 3 *and* take the next two to avoid a game 6 and 7 scenario where they’re lined up against Verlander and Cole respectively. Whatever happens from here on out, they need to clean house and overhaul their strength/conditioning/rehab regimen during the offseason. No team suffers such a tidal wave of injuries (the latest being Stanton, yet again, with a right calf strain from running to first base—insert long string of expletives here) as a result of “bad luck.” The Yankees set an MLB record this year for most time spent by players on the IL. Do what the Nats did three years ago and get a new crew and approach in there. Maybe get these guys to do a little less 400-lb-plus bench pressing and a little more yoga.