ghost of miles

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.

The original Matt Wallace mix of the Replacements' Don't Tell A Soul is revelatory--I always loved these songs, in spite of the late-80s big-hair makeover they'd been given. And man oh man, do they sound even better as originally intended:

Archived Night Lights show: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: Class Of '57 I'll be posting a new show soon devoted to 1980s editions of the Messengers.

Up for the Art Blakey centenary today. A new show this week focuses on the 1980s Messengers, and I'll be posting that soon. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: Class Of '57

Up—started revisiting this set after pulling it out for the Anita O’Day sides. Such a fantastic collection.

I don’t recall being all that crazy about Reach Out when I picked it up umpteen years ago, but I’ll certainly give it a fresh listen when the new set finally arrives. Definitely a great run of recordings for Hank during these years.

I went to bed last night after Kershaw struck out Eaton to end the Nats’ 7th; therefore shocked when I got up this morning and saw that the Nats had come back to win.

I really like the 1960s Quartet and even though I share Jim's concern about the manner in which Lloyd's playing deteriorated near the end of that group, I'm still going to spring for this one. Hearing the other musicians in this context will still be fun, even if Lloyd's starting to zone out somewhat.

Kinda interested in that Raymond Scott collection (esp since it's on CD as well). The Griffin-Lockjaw live date too.

If Houston does still manage to advance, it'll be Greinke in Game 1 and then Verlander in Game 2, but that would be Verlander's third start in 10 days--something he's never done before in his career, evidently. OTOH Houston had the best record at home in the MLB and they'd have home-field advantage over the Yankees. I think it's going to be *extremely* difficult for the Rays to beat Cole at Houston, but ya never know. Biggest problem for Houston right now is their lack of offense (aggravated, of course, by the Rays' outstanding pitching).

I think Jim's referring to a falling-off in Lloyd's playing that occurred in the latter phase of the CL Quartet--a rather different matter than a leader like Miles hiring players who brought strengths that he himself might not have had. When I interviewed George Avakian a few years ago for a Night Lights show about the Quartet (he was their manager), he was extremely negative about Lloyd's leadership in the group's waning days... seemed to ascribe it to a combination of ego and drugs, though he avoided getting too specific.

Three of the DS going to a deciding game 5. I really can’t see the Rays beating Cole on the road at Houston, but “you can’t predict baseball” and all that. Even if the Rays do lose, I’m grateful to them for scrambling Houston’s potential ALCS rotation plans.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Wow, definitely going to have to get this! I've been on a CCR binge the past several days after picking up the 2001 box set.

Some great defensive plays from last night's game: https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/torres-slick-play-to-end-5th https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/judge-robs-sano?t=alds-b https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/lemahieu-s-great-snag https://www.mlb.com/yankees/video/didi-s-nabs-polanco

Hell yeah!! Great game by NY last night--to me, the most significant moment might have been Severino getting out of the bases-loaded, no-outs situation unscathed in the second inning. Goodbye ghost of 2017 wild-card! Sevy stepped it up big-time. Also, the lineup/batting order we ran out for that series was the best we've had all year, IMO: 1) DJ LeMahieu, 1B 2) Aaron Judge, RF 3) Brett Gardner, CF 4) Edwin Encarnacion, DH 5) Giancarlo Stanton, LF 6) Gleyber Torres, 2B 7) Gary Sánchez, C 8) Didi Gregorius, SS 9) Gio Urshela, 3B On to the ALCS! (Speaking of banishing ghosts of 2017...)

Probably won't be a CD, I'd imagine. Boo to the resurgence of vinyl... I'll stick with my older CD version.