ghost of miles

Man, I’d forgotten what a strong record Happenings is. Relishing this set, which is inspiring me to revisit some other mid-1960s Blue Note records that I haven’t spun in many years. That particular era of the label sremains a sweet spot in my love of jazz.

A happy 94th today to Helen Merrill.

Excellent set! Highly recommended for anyone who’s interested in the Jubilee era.

Not familiar at all with Smith’s Milestone work, but this is serving as a good introductory overview.

Found the following online in a Syncopated Times elegy for Michael Cuscuna: But the label will continue to offer quality jazz reissues, adhering to the philosophy Cuscuna and Lourie devised. “We have a couple of Vanguard projects in progress that Michael and I worked on together, but there’s still a lot that needs to be done. The first one will be—I forget how many discs, probably seven, I guess, of the small group, material. They’re all things John Hammond produced, with artists like Vic Dickinson and Ruby Braff and Sir Charles Thompson. It’s mainstream swing of that period, which is the mid-’50s. And then we’ll have a later set strictly dealing with piano from people like Bobby Henderson and Mel Powell and Ellis Larkins. “Another thing I’m working on now is a collection of small-group V-Discs. That will be out in the summer, I hope, featuring all sorts of small group things. And then next year, we’ll probably be putting together a V-Discs big band collection. It was owned by the government, so it’s all public domain.” The US government’s V- (for victory) Disc program began in 1942, but took the form for which it's best known a year later, when Lt. George Robert Vincent convinced his superiors to okay a project in which top musical artists of the day would record songs especially for those serving overseas. For contractual reasons, the records were supposed to be destroyed before their owners returned to the US. Not surprisingly, many of those records survived. The challenge has been to find ones that are in decent shape. “Yeah, that’s really it,” said Wenzel. “I got some through Lloyd Rauch, a collector friend of mine, and some through Tony Janak (of Columbia Records), who was one of the guys who started the program during the war. He had some glass masters for V-Discs with Red Norvo and Mildred Bailey on them, and some Woody Herman, too. We transferred those just last week. And the rest of them are coming from 78s, which is okay, because 98 percent of them were vinyl so they could send them off to the servicemen without them breaking on the way.” V-Discs are especially significant because the first few years of the program coincided with a recording ban called by James C. Petrillo, head of the musicians’ union, who believed the royalty structures for radio play were unfair. So, even as jazz went through some monumental changes, these were the only records that filled that gap. “Yeah,” Wenzel sighed wistfully. “I mean, it’s too bad that we don’t have the Earl Hines big band, for instance. But there’s Art Tatum, there’s plenty of Tatum, and some great playing by Bob Crosby’s Bobcats and other swing stars like Roy Eldridge.”

Looks like Larry hasn't logged in for about three weeks--hope he's doing OK.

Scott mentioned this project to me earlier in the year. I don’t know much in the way of details, except that it will focus exclusively on music that was specifically recorded for V-Disc distribution (as opposed to already-commercially recorded music that was then reissued on V-Disc). I’ve long wanted to do a Night Lights show about V-Discs and am eager to explore the in-depth collection that Mosaic’s assembling. Prior to the forthcoming Mosaic, this was a decent overview that Jasmine put out:

One more go-around this past week for Pittsburgh Soul Connection: Horace Parlan and Stanley Turrentine.

Disc 1. Fantasy did a really nice job with their label-overview sets (Debut, Prestige, and this one—and they also curated an excellent multi-label West Coast Jazz collection).

Same here—I watched every year as a kid, even though it was a miserable era for American League fans (iirc the NL won about a dozen years in a row, until the 1983 Fred Lynn grand-slam game). Nowadays, as I continue to downscale my following of sports in general (pretty much MLB only), I welcome the break from paying daily attention to baseball.

Not all of them jazz, but this still felt like the right sub-forum for a thread. Intended as a sort of sidebar to the NY Times’ larger and more general list: 14 best music books of the 21st century

I’ve read six and marked 28 as want-to-reads. Problem is I still have way too many books from the 20th century (and a few from the 19th) that I still need to read. Anybody on the board figured out a way to stop time yet? NYT 100 best books of the 21st century

I noted his strong followup start after his win against the Yankees. Boston has certainly played its way back into contention in the AL East. Hoping against hope that the Yanks finish today with a road sweep of Baltimore, but not optimistic with Rodon on the mound. Plus the Orioles are due, having lost five in a row.

Disc 2.

… listening tonight to the June 27, 1945 session from this set (C13 on disc 9), with Guarnieri and Buck Clayton and Denzil Best. What a date! It’s going to send me back to the Byas-Clayton small group sides made with Basie several years prior. Grateful to Loren Schoenberg for the reminder of the latter in his notes, which are superlative as always.

Dan smiles last and smiles biggest! The Miracle of the Rice was apparently only a one-day pause of the ongoing demise that is midsummer Yankee baseball this year. (Feeling more and more like 2022… it’s deja vu all over again, folks!) On a broader topic, what’s everybody hoping/looking for come the trading deadline? Are any significant players likely to move?

I’ll see Dan’s Saturday-morning smile and raise him my Saturday-evening smile 😉 after a Yankee rookie who grew up a Yankee fan in Massachusetts (and who as a little boy scrawled “Yankees rule” on the Pesky Pole at Fenway) blew away Friday night’s bad vibes with a three-home run outburst against the surging BoSox. 🤩 AL East has certainly gotten more interesting, with the Yankees’ 5-15 stinker of a stretch going into yesterday’s game, Baltimore slipping into the division lead but not capitalizing as much as they could have on NY’s miserable run, and Boston coming on strong. I still see the O’s as ultimately taking the Eastern crown, but the other four division teams are all in the wild-card hunt—even the struggling Jays and Rays. Anyway, Bos-NY rubber match tonight, with a faltering Luis Gil on the mound for NY—he’s gone from looking like Bob Gibson in 1968 to Carlos Rodon in 2023. (And 2024 Carlos Rodon has begun to look a lot like 2023 Carlos Rodon as well. 🤦‍♂️) NY has dropped five of its last six series and split the other one… will Boston extend our woes and induce another Gould smile, or will my face be lighting up with a grin as big and goofy as Ben Rice’s? On another note, I’ve followed the Astros’ return from the dead with displeasure. Jsngry, what are the chances of the Rangers turning their season around?