ghost of miles

Comment from Long Time Listener late in the game thread: >>some day we're going to laugh about this stretch I wish I could be placed into a coma until that day.<< The threads at PA are often entertaining, win or lose. It’s a long season etc, but if NY gets swept they’ll be 7 back in the loss column already. Quite a hole to try to dig themselves out of. I don’t really know enough about the Angels... are they playoff-viable this year, especially if Ohtani pans out as a starter and part-time DH?

Some gifs posted in the post-game thread at Pinstripe Alley tonight:

Oh, I definitely noticed! Certainly a Ruthian start to his season, after the dreadful spring training that had led to some speculation that be might even have to spend some time in the minors. A great story to follow this season, that’s for sure. I nearly posted earlier today that it would be a moral victory for the Yankees to take one of three in Fenway this week. After tonight’s dumpster 🔥, I may have to ratchet that definition of moral victory down to Judge’s home run off Sale. Not even mid-April yet, but Boston’s clearly the team to beat in the East... not NY. Houston doesn’t seem to have lost a step from last season either.

I got the Naxos because of your previous praise for it!

I tried to call Scott about this yesterday but couldn't get a hold of him--however, he emailed me and I wrote back, will definitely post any updated info that he might have to pass along. UPDATE: Scott says "Best we can say is 2 to 3 weeks... which when you factor in Murphy's Law, comes to 3-4 weeks!" So sounds likely to be very end of this month or beginning of next.

We re-aired Freddie Hubbard: The CTI Years last week in honor of what would have been the trumpeter's 80th birthday, and it remains archived for online listening.

Kudos to that Naxos “Jam-a-Ditty”—a very good-sounding compilation of the Ellington Musicraft sides. Much of the Teddy Wilson material came out in the early 1990s on these two CDs: Everytime We Say Goodbye Isn’t It Romantic

Yes, thanks, Dave, hadn't seen that highlight! Somewhat reminiscent of the ending to this 2009 Yankees-Mets game: After another morale-buster embarrassment of a loss today, I'll try to take solace in remembering that the 2009 team struggled out of the gate as well. But oh, man, did that suck. And so far the Marlins appear to have gotten the better of the Stanton-for-Castro deal.

The Red Sox are off to a great start, especially with their starting pitching. For all of the hype about the Yankees acquiring Stanton, I still put them third overall in the AL, either tied with or a notch ahead of Cleveland, with Houston and Boston pacing the field. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the same four teams in the American League playoffs this year. We’re also two weeks into the season and the Yankees are already the walking wounded. Greg Bird out (again), Hicks, Ellsbury, Clint Frazier, now C.C., plus Brandon Drury’s heretofore hidden migraine problem (which may account for the three errors he’s already accumulated), plus the bullpen’s shoddy performance out of the gate... NY’s in good shape, I guess, to be 5-4. Hopefully it won’t be this rocky all season long.

I’ve listened only to disc 1 so far, and it was quite late at night, which ended up seeming like a perfect time for it. It does have the feel of a relaxed afterhours (or after-afterhours) get-together. I’ll probably listen to the other five discs in the same manner. I bought the set because I’ve been on a Buck Clayton jag of late and another board member was offering it at a very reasonable price... quite glad to have it. But I can see (or hear) how it might be a rather sleepy fit for others. A lot of beautiful playing, though, at least through disc 1.

Up in remembrance: Jazz Advance: Early Cecil Taylor

This is making my wish-list: Woodfall: A Revolution In British Cinema

My neighbor Sam Stephenson (The Jazz Loft Project author) is a Mets fan and shares your pleasure at their performance out of the gate. He was sporting a Mets hat when he stopped by last night to borrow a book. ☺️

Yankees bullpen imploding yet again. Tonight it's Chad Greene against the Orioles.

Oh yeah! Finally scored a reasonably-priced copy of this. Excellent late-period Ellington:

I was delighted to see that Loren Schoenberg penned the notes for the Goodman set and that Dan Morgenstern handled the Clayton duties. Two of my favorite Mosaic booklet authors. I've only been able to listen to disc 1 of the Goodman so far (still absorbing the new Wilson set), but really looking forward to the rest of it and the Clayton as well. (I've been on a Buck Clayton kick of late, so this was perfect timing!)

Jack Cooper's "Gynn Square." He was half of the amazing Ultimate Painting songwriting partnership that just ended (their albums are all worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the Velvet Underground's third, eponymous album, often used as a point of comparison for their sound--but they morphed it into something all their own). This song is beautifully evocative, a sort of Joycean-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man moment from Sandgrown, the childhood-song-cycle solo album Cooper released last year. Another sign to me that we're living through another golden age of indie pop:

Shohei Ohtani seems to be putting his spring-training struggles behind him. Excellent first pitching start over the weekend, and then a 3-4 performance at the plate last night in his home-field debut as DH, including a home run in his first at-bat: Ohtani debuts at home with a home run

The Buck Clayton and Benny Goodman sets arrived today. They’re in beautiful shape... much appreciation!

Facebook Only, I'd assume. Games they're streaming only on Facebook and not broadcasting via TV?

Thomas Hustad, who published an impressive Ruby Braff discography through Scarecrow Press in 2012, will be joining me on “Just You And Me” this afternoon from 3-5 p.m. EST to talk about Braff’s life and music. He’s bringing along lots of Braff recordings as well. You can tune in online at the WFIU1 link below: WFIU1 online stream

From Loren Schoenberg’s commentary on Wilson’s solo recording of “Don’t Blame Me”: ”So much is made, rightly so, of Ellington, Tatum and Coleman Hawkins when it comes to harmonic adventurousness in the years before WWII, that it’s high time Teddy Wilson is added to that list. It’s not just in dissonant intervals above the root, but in the sly fourths here and there, the modulation with ascending major seventh chords (the piece starts in D flat and goes to C—like going down one floor in an elevator, but you think you went up!), and the sheer freedom with which he creates harmony from melody that place him in this sphere. There’s a moment where a left-hand line bubbles up to the right—others may have made similar moves, but not so poetically and not so minimally.”

Snowed out in NYC!