ghost of miles

The new all-jazz issue of Daedalus:

Waaaaaayyyy back... not sure how well such an early effort will hold up, but here you go: Music For Peace: The Sacred Jazz Of Mary Lou Williams There's also this show: Sacred Blue: Jazz Goes To Church In The 1960s As for books, Harvey Cohen's Duke Ellington's America delves pretty deeply into DKE's sacred-jazz period and works. Friend and Organissimo poster Jason Bivins has written an excellent book, Spirits Rejoice! Jazz and American Religion that I highly recommend; and both Mary Lou Williams biographies cover her sacred-jazz writings and recordings as well.

Uptown release For The Moment:

Phil Woods goes where no man has gone before... Barry Harris loves Lucy... Bob James takes a taxi. Last week’s Night Lights show now up for online listening (with plenty of material on the cutting-room floor for a sequel): Heard It On The TV: Jazz Takes On Television Themes

One of mt favorite bands from the past few years:

Nate Chinen, author of the recent book Playing Changes: Jazz For The New Century, did an interview with me that we aired this afternoon for International Jazz Day. It's now archived online: Playing Changes: Music And Conversation With Jazz Writer Nate Chinen

Definitely going to get this as well (gonna have to save my pennies and then some for the Timner that HutchFan also recommended) and have an interest in the period to which you refer (inspired as well by the presence of Indiana saxophonist David Young in that late-70s Mercer-led Ellington orchestra. I have a recording of them doing "Three Black Kings" in Warsaw, iirc).

Definitely buying this one! Just pre-ordered on Amazon.

Thanks so much! I'm particularly intrigued by the Timner, though I'd like to read Mercer's book as well. I'm going to add a sub-list of DKE books to the post that have been recommended by others like you. Much appreciation! Btw, to all DKE devotees in general... if you haven't gotten the Eddie Lambert book, somehow try to track it down!! It's invaluable.

By rights I felt I could recommend only books that I'd at least read in part.

NPR's Morning Edition just did a piece about this year as well: More Than Kind Of Blue: In 1959, A Few Albums Changed Jazz Forever

A list of recommended books about Ellington that I put together in honor of his birthday today. Additional suggestions welcome! Read Him Madly: A Duke Ellington Bibliography

BillF and other UKers, I just got a used copy of this—haven’t started it yet, but thought it might resonate with you:

I remember reading a quote from Peter Buck once about Murmur: "It was designed to circumvent everything rock 'n roll and still ended up being rock 'n roll."

Scott Wenzel provided some elaboration about this project for a Night Lights blog post: Mosaic is planning a Black and White label box set

So glad you enjoyed it, Brad! I've got another one coming up about 1968 for the last week of May.

OH YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's included in this set of Miles' Warner Brothers recordings, which I highly recommend--in part because disc 5 gathers a number of his 1980s sideman one-offs as well as four tracks from the Rubber Band sessions: Miles Davis 1986-1991 The Warner Years

Miles Davis did a Cameo side as well, right?

Hey all, here's a segment from my weekday afternoon jazz program that includes some previously-unknown recordings of Michael Brecker's late-1960s Bloomington, Indiana trio, as well as an interview with William Paterson University jazz curator David Demsey and Bloomington-area musician and promoter David Miller, who knew Brecker during his time at IU: Michael Brecker In Late 1960s Bloomington, Indiana