ghost of miles

Yankees' game a real pleasure to watch last night, with Severino finally getting a win under his belt (and setting a career record for Ks in the process), Betances getting out of a self-created jam, and Chapman using a wicked slider as well as his triple-digit heat to put away the Rays in the 9th for the sweep. And Aaron Hicks! Seems he hasn't let Aaron Judge's beating him out for the RF spot have a negative effect on his attitude. Greg Bird's timing at the plate still seems a bit off--hoping he can soon regain his spring-training form. 153 games to go... Spring/summer/early autumn sweetness!

Looks interesting! A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra And The Birth Of Afrofuturism

This week's Night Lights show takes a look at the role that jazz played in the life of spiritual writer and monk Thomas Merton (The Seven Storey Mountain and numerous other books). It includes an interview with jazz musician and Merton friend Dick Sisto, as well as excerpts from recordings that Merton made of himself in his hermitage listening to and commenting on jazz recordings. Organissimo board member and musician Jason Bivins, author of the recent book also talks about the relationship between jazz and religion. The Jazz Monk: Thomas Merton

I've been rewatching The West Wing--almost to the end of season 1 now. Definitely one of my all-time favorite television programs.

Third the Threadgill recommendation--I just ordered a copy of this set for the station's library. Amazing that Mosaic was able to put out both this and the Braxton set.

... And anybody who finds tiresome the notion that an ongoing proliferation of R.I.P. threads is tiresome and making this place look like Organdonorissimo is free to ignore this thread as well! Etc, etc. People have posted RIP threads about musicians and non-musicians ever since this board started. It's only lately that Jim's taken to posting numerous ones, which does tend to give the board a whiff of the obituary page. I don't see Dmitry or anybody else crashing the threads themselves about it, just stating it here.

I'm not dead yet

Excellent article, thanks for posting. For anybody into a history of the St. Louis scene, you might want to check this book out: Point From Which Creation Begins

Gary Sanchez out for four weeks. Greg Bird hopefully back in a couple of days... the Yankees' youth movement is hurtin'.

Re-reading Carson McCullers' The Member Of The Wedding, as well as the third volume of Simon Callow's Orson Welles biography.

Have to say I'm not a fan of this posting trend (is the point that everybody dies, not just jazz musicians we love? That death, while sad and inevitable, is simply a part of life, etc.?) which has indeed been dominating the "new topics" alert of late. But it's a free board and all that, c'est la vie... or c'est la mort, as the case may be.

Up for birthday 77! We also re-aired it on stations last week: Maiden Voyage: Herbie Hancock In The 1960s

Pretty sure I recently came across a comment from Michael Cuscuna in an interview somewhere about just such a set, and that licensing issues had prevented it from happening.

Last week's Night Lights show was devoted to Ashby: The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby

Yeah, the whole last chapter of the book is about JBB! Phil spent some time going through his archives out at Rutgers and contemplated writing a biography, but decided that the chapter in Dig covered most of what he had to say about Brooks. He delves pretty deeply into Avant Slant, which sank into obscurity almost immediately after its 1968 release.

Full disclosure: Phil's a good friend of mine, teaches at the IU School of Music here in Bloomington, and has been on Night Lights several times, including this program that grew out of the book: To Dig Or Not To Dig: Jazz And Hip With Phil Ford I think the book's excellent and that Phil's style is accessible and unique--both rare qualities in academic writing, IMO. He also contributes (is the main contributor, for the most part) to the blog Dial M For Musicology.

Last week's Night Lights show, devoted to the late 1950s-late 1960s recordings of jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, is up for online listening: The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby Coming soon: "The Jazz Monk: Thomas Merton."

How is it that Bartolo Colon is still pitching? Dude's turning into the Phil Niekro of the 21st century.

I pulled out Stanley Turrentine's Up At Minton's to feature on the show today (he was born on this day in 1934) and remembered that Blue Note's Doubletime CD series is another favorite of mine.

Yes--I watched much of tonight's game on my laptop, then switched to my phone when I was out in the kitchen. You use your normal log-in for MLB.com (assuming you're already registered there--if you're not, it's a pretty quick process) after having downloaded the T-Mobile Tuesday app and redeemed the April 4 offer for a year's free subscription. Ways to watch MLB.TV

Anybody here who's a T-Mobile customer, check your email. Today only (so for only a few more hours), you can get a free 2017 subscription to MLB.TV Premium by downloading the T-Mobile Tuesday app onto your phone. (You also will need to register at MLB.com) For the past several years I've simply gotten a GameDay audio subscription because it's only $2.99 a month, and I like listening to baseball on the radio--but I'm more than willing to take up T-Mobile on this offer. Watching Yankees-Rays on my phone even as I type.

Playlist for today's show (Kandace Spring's version of "The World Is A Ghetto" was originally included but had to be dropped because of technical problems with the CD): Organissimo: A Soul-Jazz Tribute To The Beatles

A new and recent Night Lights show now up for online listening: Nica's Tempo: More Hipsters, Flipsters, And On-The-Scenesters Last week's Dorothy Ashby program coming soon.

Reading an advance copy of Sam Stephenson's new book about photographer W. Eugene Smith, and it contains this interesting passage about the iconic status of Cool Struttin' in Japan: "According to Soundscan, which began tracking CD sales in 1991, Clark's 1958 album on the Blue Note label, Cool Struttin', has, in Japan, outsold several Blue Note albums with similar instrumentation from the same period that dwarf Cool Struttin' in terms of iconography and sales in the States. For example, from 1991 to 2009, Cool Struttin' sold 38,000 copies in the States and 179,000 in Japan, while over the same period, Coltrane's classic 1957 release, Blue Train, sold 545,000 copies in the States and 147,000 in Japan."