ghost of miles

Up for the holiday.

Look out!

Matthew, your Mariners are sticking it to us again tonight. On paper I still think NY does not look like a .500 team, but damn if they don't continue to play like one, overall... good stretches, bad stretches that all bring the team generally to a .500 level since the beginning of August last year. ESPN's Andrew Marchand nailed some of the ongoing problems yesterday. They've just begun a very challenging stretch of games, and so far they look like perennial also-rans against Seattle.

Thanks. I've dropped a line twice now to a board member who generally gets back to me pretty quickly, and no reply at all so far to either the apparently deleted conversation or the new one.

This week's Night Lights and Afterglow shows both pay tribute to Memorial Day in one way or another. On Afterglow it's I Sustain the Wings: Major Glenn Miller Goes to War With the Army Air Force Band: There is also a longer, 94-minute version of the program linked to at the bottom of the program post. On Night Lights it's Reminisicing in Tempo: Remembrance in Jazz and Popular Song, featuring music from Lou Rawls, Nina Simone, Anita O'Day, Ben Webster and more, with Duke Ellington's 1935 recording of "Reminiscing in Tempo," written in memory of his mother, serving as the highlight of the program. A safe and happy Memorial Day weekend to all.

The Glenn Miller Army Air Force band show is up: Glenn Miller Goes To War With The Army Air Force Orchestra It includes an interview with trombonist and surviving AAF member Nat Peck, historian Michael McGerr, and bandleaders/jazz educators Brent Wallarab and Janis Stockhouse. There's also a 90-minute version of the show online, which includes more music, commentary, and background. It's at the bottom of the linked post above, or you can go directly to the file here. I'll probably post this as a separate thread closer to Memorial Day, but wanted to mention it as part of the Miller AAF thread too.

Then there's always this approach.

Lazaro's Miles Davis tribute on Blue Lake.

Contribution made--thanks as always for providing this wonderful home online for our collective jazz gaggle.

We re-aired East Meets West: Ahmed Abdul-Malik and World Jazz this past week on Night Lights, and it is available for online listening.

The Yankees have a $10 million+ option on Swisher next year with a $1 million buyout--is that correct? I know he's off to a terrible start this year, but I'm not ready to give up on him just yet. He's given us two pretty good years to date, and I'm still hopeful that he'll amp it up as the season goes on. He's been abysmal so far this year, no argument on that, though I still think he brings some much-needed levity to the team. Whether or not we should keep him on after 2012 is a whole 'nother question, given that he'll turn 32 & will probably want more years than the Yankees would be willing to give. That's all contingent, of course, on his showing a big improvement over the course of this season. If he ends this year having batted .220-.230 with less than 20 HRs, yeah, hard to argue that he should be the starting rightfielder.

If a member has "left the conversation," does that mean he/she will not have any notification/evidence/body or otherwise of a PM reply that you've sent?

Great milestone for Mo Rivera today: first pitcher ever to appear in 1000 games for a single team. Incredible! And Jeter's only 24 hits away from reaching the 3000 mark. Definitely good to savor these moments, especially after Pettitte hung up his glove without taking a retirement lap, and after Posada's struggles and unhappiness this year (things hopefully improving on that front), which will almost certainly be his last. Also good to see Andruw Jones hitting two HRs today in a Yankees uniform... man, I still remember that guy giving me absolute fits during the 1996 World Series, when he was a 19-yr-old rookie for the Braves. Glad to see him knocking them out for us now, as opposed to against us. And hey, I thought the AL East was tight, what with NY/Boston/TB all within 1.5 games of one another, and the last-place Orioles only 4 back... but take a look at the AL West right now: Texas Rangers 26 24 .520 -- Los Angeles Angels 25 25 .500 1.0 Seattle Mariners 24 25 .490 1.5 Oakland Athletics 23 26 .469 2.5

Great walkoff win by the Yanks tonight! Man, that felt like a 2009 game... so glad to see Posada jumpstart the 9th with that pinch-hit double (and then run out to join the celebration after Tex's gamewinning hit). And Curtis Granderson... Curtis Freakin' Granderson!

At 28-15, Cleveland is the only team in the American League right now with anything resembling a dominating W-L record. In that same vein, the AL East continues to be a real logjam. Assuming Chicago holds on to their miraculous turnaround lead against Boston, the standings will look like this at the end of the night: New York Yankees 24 20 .545 -- Tampa Bay Rays 25 21 .543 -- Boston Red Sox 24 21 .533 0.5 Toronto Blue Jays 23 22 .511 1.5 Baltimore Orioles 20 24 .455 4.0

Right now, Miles Davis' "Blue in Green"... good music for making a late-night funk go down a bit easier.

Old school: Cubs at Fenway for the first time since 1918

A certain gent of literary repute interviews novelist Jonathan Lethem.

May 20th--the ultimate Nessa release date. :party:

Marty--I don't have MLB.TV, just the radio package, so I couldn't watch the game, but some posters at PA felt Colon did look like he was beginning to tire after 8 innings, and that normally it's just a no-brainer to give the ball to Mo in the 9th (especially a rested Mo). (OTOH somebody claimed that Colon hit 97 MPH in the 8th inning.) Others thought Colon should've been allowed to start the 9th, with Mo on reserve in case a baserunner got on. Tough call, I guess, for Girardi... you'd never think it would be a tough call to bring Mo into that kind of situation. DaveJames: Yes, A-Rod certainly seems to be back in the groove, and he nearly ran over Tex in the 15th inning coming home on that hit by Cano. Also regarding the Yanks' larger dilemma: Same stability that built NY dynasty now undermining it Jsngry: I know Feliz gave up a game-tying homer in the 9th, but the back-to-back pickoffs that followed were pretty cool. All AL fans: I'm struck by what seems to be a rough parity in the American League so far, at the 1/4 mark of the season. Take out top W-L team Cleveland (at .650) and bottom W-L team Minnesota (.325) and the remaining 12 teams' W-L percentages range from .415 to .537.

Yanks-Orioles game has now gone so long that A.J. Burnett just entered the game... as a pinch-runner.

Duke Ellington's "Way Low" (from the new Mosaic set), which is full of mood and nuance and features a superlative clarinet solo from Barney Bigard. Also from the same set (and disc), "The Sergeant Was Shy," a track of which Larry has written wonderfully and at length: The Sergeant Was Shy

I'll definitely check it out--looks like an excellent show & a great one for Night Lights to be paired with.

Brother Ray! Is this from that recent Rare Masters CD?