ghost of miles

Night Lights observed the occasion: Sassy First Soars: Sarah Vaughan in the 1940s

Night Lights celebrated the Sarah Vaughan centennial last week with a show devoted to her 1940s recordings, including a broadcast with Billy Eckstine’s big band, sides made with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker (among them the first waxed version of “A Night in Tunisia,” aka “Interlude”), live performances at New York City’s Town Hall (featuring Lester Young on one song), recordings for the Musicraft label, and her first outings for Columbia, with a young Miles Davis on trumpet: Sassy First Soars: Sarah Vaughan in the 1940s

Jesus holiday sighting! https://x.com/JomboyMedia/status/1774495730255970434?s=20

Yankees sweep Houston 4-0 on the road to start off 2024. Juan Soto’s line through first four games: 9-17, 1 double, 1 HR, 4 RBI (including two game-winners), .529 BA, .600 OBP, .765 slugging, 1.365 OPS. And he looks absolutely overjoyed to be playing for NY. Definitely worth the haul of pitchers we gave up to get him… already seems like a night-and-day difference between 2023 and this year’s team. Judge off to a terrible start and both Yankee and Astros fans in game threads were arguing that Houston should have IBB’d Soto to face Judge instead… which sounds insane, but frankly might not have been a bad idea. Instead Soto hit a 3-2 opposite-field single off Hader for the go-ahead run. (Hader then struck out Judge to end the inning.) I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a single player have the broad kind of impact that Soto’s having on the Yankees so far… his presence and energy is infectious and seems to be affecting the entire batting order in a positive way. Still concerned about the pitching depth and players staying healthy, but couldn’t ask for a better beginning to the season.

Mosaic’s Condon Mob Sessions set was mentioned early in this thread, and it’s well worth seeking out for fans of this genre—it kicks off with a standout 1940 Bud Freeman date and includes just about everything that Jimmy Dorsey’s late-1940s “band within a band” Dixieland unit recorded. You also get a fine run of Lee Wiley sides. And speaking of Dorseys, the Clambake Seven records from Tommy’s orchestra are enjoyable as well. There was a 2-CD set issued by Jasmine many years ago that gathered together quite a lot of that material.

Electric Opening Day moments from around MLB … including a fifth straight Opening Day HR from Red Sox outfielder Tyler O’Neill. 😮

Thanks for posting this, Ken. Enjoying the Tatum set as I type!

Great opening day win for the Yankees, defeating Houston 5-4 on the road after falling behind 4-0 in the first two innings. Juan Soto drove in NY’s first run with a single, walked twice, and made the play of the game with an outfield assist in the bottom of the 9th. Yankees looked simultaneously more relentless and more patient at the plate. Still dubious about our rotation, esp with Cole on the shelf for two months and possibly longer, but a thrilling and satisfying start to the season!

❤️ Right now:

I'm content with the big red 1999 RCA box and the 2003 Never No Lament set, but always happy to see this music getting any kind of fresh circulation.

This is from the ESPN timeline story that I posted above: 8:30 p.m. ET Monday (9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Seoul): The spokesman for the first time says Ohtani paid the debts on behalf of Mizuhara. He says Balelo, the agent, went to Mizuhara, who "finally came clean to him and said that was the truth," and that Ohtani told Balelo he had covered Mizuhara's debts in $500,000 increments. It's not clear whether the spokesman is saying Ohtani communicated with Balelo through Mizuhara. The spokesman quotes Ohtani as saying: "'Yeah, I sent several large payments. That's the maximum amount I could send.'" The ESPN reporter, knowing the spokesman worked for Ohtani, wants to hear it from Mizuhara. The spokesman says he will work on arranging that.

He’s going to be here in Bloomington on Eclipse Day. (We’re right smack in the middle of the path of totality.)

ESPN timeline of Ohtani story “Stinks to high heaven” is the phrase that comes to mind.

The “Say it ain’t so, Sho” and “Shoeless Sho” quips have been proliferating online since this story broke. Tawdry as this emerging scandal is, I appreciate baseball fans’ ability to invoke century-old historical references for new memes in 2024. Let me take a seat beside you!

… I mean, c’mon. So the new narrative is that Ohtani knew nothing about any of this, that Ippei concocted a whole story that implicated Ohtani in making illegal wire transfer payments on his behalf, then went on ESPN and told his b.s. story with the world’s most popular athlete at the center, and figured poor innocent, completely-in-the-dark Ohtani wouldn’t care once he “learned” the supposedly b.s. story his best friend and interpreter had just told to the media universe? Ffs. Whatever the outcome here, I’m already soured on Ohtani. Like most everybody else I’ve loved watching him as a player, but unless he steps up and gives an honest accounting of what went down and takes full accountability for whatever his role was in it (about as likely as the end of all global warfare and famine), I’ll be taking no pleasure in any of his accomplishments on the field.

From ESPN’s latest story—doubling down on insulting b.s. as they back the bus up over the interpreter: >>Mizuhara on Tuesday evening told ESPN the same and laid out his story in great detail, including saying that Ohtani had sat with him, and the two transferred the money in $500,000 increments in several different settings. But as ESPN prepared to publish a story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account. In a subsequent interview with Mizuhara, he told ESPN he had not been truthful -- that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling activities, debts or efforts to repay him. On Thursday, a source close to Ohtani gave an explanation for the changing storylines: As Ohtani's handlers tried to determine what had happened, they initially relied solely on Mizuhara, who continued to translate for Ohtani.<<

Breaking down the Shohei Ohtani-Ippei Mizuhara story

Former pitcher Dallas Braden’s tweet sums it up pretty well: A rough timeline: - Ohtani rep goes on record W/ESPN stating Ohtani transferred $4.5MM himself to bookmaker on behalf of Ippei. - Spokesperson for Ohtani delivers Ippei to ESPN for statement. Ippei says Ohtani NEVER bet & felt bad for him & paid off his debt so he’d never do it again. -Spokesperson for Ohtani says Ippei is lying after he gives his 90 minute statement to ESPN. -Ohtani’s lawyers claim “massive theft”. -Ippei then says Ohtani had zero knowledge of his debt or his gambling habit in general. That about right?

A big whiff of b.s. about the changing “story” here, via ESPN: >>Initially, a spokesman for Ohtani told ESPN the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara's gambling debt. The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, during which Mizuhara laid out his account in great detail. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account and said Ohtani's lawyers would issue a statement. "In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities," read the statement from Berk Brettler LLP.<< I strongly suspect that the first account was accurate—it came from Ohtani’s spokesperson, and they then put the interpreter on ESPN to elaborate on it… then realized that that narrative was going to be problematic for Ohtani in some legal and/or PR way. But changing the story looks even worse, IMO. In any event, I’m sure the Dodgers and MLB will do anything they can to protect Ohtani’s image, given his enormous fan appeal. Ohtani interpreter fired

I’d imagine that’s because once upon a time (1990s/2000s) Capitol fell under the EMI umbrella, which also owned Blue Note, and Mosaic presumably was able to license Capitol recordings with ease. (In fact, didn’t EMI at one point have a direct financial share in Mosaic?) I’ve lost track of who owns what these days when it comes to label catalogues, though. Is it down to just the Universal and Sony behemoths? Anyway, I’d definitely be in for any kind of 1960s Cannonball Capitol set for sure.

Great document of the 1943 band. I wish the the rest of the material from that run at the Hurricane would get an official release (though I think some of it showed up as bonus tracks on Storyville’s CD-reissue of the Treasury broadcasts series).

I like the idea of a Musicraft Mosaic that would focus on the label’s 1940s jazz releases. A wealth of artists and material to draw on, including Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, and Teddy Wilson.

Great set—picked up at my local record store a few years back. Right now: