ghost of miles

Yes, Tex took a ball off the knee several days ago and seemed to lose his newfound April mojo almost immediately. Lots of concern over at PA right now about Hughes' utter lack of location as well as velocity. (Where have you gone, Andy Pettitte? Yankee fans turn their lonely eyes to you...whoo, whoo, whoo.) Too early for me to say much else about the team so far, but the two awful starts in a row from Hughes certainly constitute a red flag, simply because there's no stuff to his stuff.

J.A.W. is right re: Prestige Carnegie. That's one to seek out on LP rather than CD if possible.

Very interested in this topic myself, TTK--was just talking to a friend about it last week (PM forthcoming). Definitely check out the first three volumes of Circle's DKE World transcriptions (though V. 3 straddles a 1943 and a 1945 session). You're already hip to the 1943 Carnegie Hall concerts (January on Prestige, December on Storyville), I'm sure, but look for the Storyville CD of Duke's 1943 Hurricane broadcasts. (And there's a lot more material from that stand that circulates... I wish a reputable label could gather it all together and issue it as a nice set.) Several of the Treasury 2-CD sets (which cover 1945-46) also include a few broadcasts from 1943. EDIT: there are seven 1943 DKE recordings featuring Betty Roche on this Night Lights show: When Betty Met The Duke. Roche is definitely (IMHO) a generally underrepresented-on-record DKE orchestra member worth seeking out.

After today's "start," Hughes' ERA rests at a stratospheric 16.50, making Lackey's current 15+ look rather ace-like by comparison.

I still think that Boston's just getting the suckitude out of their system early... plus tomorrow afternoon they'll be facing Phil "Dude-where's-my-velocity" Hughes (or is that "Dude-I-wish-two-strikes-made-an-out?" ) at Fenway. As always, I'd be happy simply to see NY take two of three from the Bosox on the road.

Riverwalk Jazz has a nice take on Hughes' poetry and jazz up this week, featuring readings of Hughes' poems by singer and actor William Warfield: Jazz and the Poetry of Langston Hughes

Much as it cheers me to see the mighty 2011 Bosox off to such a bad start, I figure they'll snap out of it just in time for the Yanks' visit to Fenway this weekend. Seems to me they're just getting their five-game losing streak out of their system early on. Dave James, yeah, hated to see that one slip away against the Twins the other night... this year's bullpen should just about never blow a 4-0 lead going into the 8th inning. Not sure what was up with Soriano and the walks... last year he walked only 14 for the season and never more than two hitters in a single inning. Hopefully just an aberration. In better news, Mark Teixeira's hitting .333 with 4 HRs and seems to have put the kibosh on his April woes for this year; in not-better news, Derek Jeter's already dropped his re-tooled swing, and he and Brett Gardner are a combined 5-34 so far.

A friend tipped me off to this DEMS report that Volume 15 is in the works.

I'm hoping that one of our fave AL teams around this joint--Boston, Texas, New York, what have you--gets to the World Series and makes mince-meat outta that character Cliff Lee.

I'm inclined to agree w/Chuck as well, and I can't really hear their influence in the late 1970s/1980s jazz that I know (but there's a lot that I don't know). As an aside/one-off, there was this Woody Herman album, which I have yet to hear (but would like to):

I didn't take away a great feeling about A.J.'s performance yesterday either, but it's very, very early (some folks at PA expressing concern about Phil Hughes' velocity, though). The offense sure is looking great! Tex appears to have finally overcome his April doldrums. But yeah, that starting rotation...oy vey. We'll see how things shake out.

Butler's back in the championship game--incredible!

This week's Night Lights show, a tribute to the great bassist Scott LaFaro, is now posted for online listening: The Jade Bass: Scott LaFaro It includes recordings LaFaro made with Victor Feldman, Booker Little, Pat Moran, Stan Kenton, and Bill Evans, as well excerpts from performances with Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman, and an interview with Jeremy Allen, bassist and faculty member at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. LaFaro would have turned 75 this coming Sunday if he were still alive.

Ramon Hernandez made it a happy Opening Day for the Reds: Three-run walkoff HR Another interesting note from that game: the Brewers hit back-to-back homers to start the game... first time that's happened on Opening Day in 42 years. And Albert Pujols grounded into three double plays for the Cards today.

Glad Curtis Granderson was healed in time to play on Opening Day! And that bullpen line looks sweet for NY... oh man, so happy that MLB is up and running once again.

Here's an audio story and a review I wrote about Butler creative-writing professor Susan Neville's excellent book covering last year's tournament run: Butler basketball and the Big Dance of Life

We re-aired The International Sweethearts of Rhythm this past week and it remains archived for online listening.

Yep--they put the Core 4 on there last year around this time.

It's too bad they have to play each other in the semi. I would have liked to have seen the possibility of both of those teams in the final. Me too--that would have been a beautiful finale! I didn't realize till just now that Shaka Smart is even younger than Brad Stevens... 33 years old! (Stevens is 34.) When was the last time you had two coaches under 35 in the Final Four?

Butler vs. VCU in the Final Four--who woulda thunk it?

Bob Parlocha on WFIU here in Bloomington.

Tom, some overlap here with what you've already heard, but this Night Lights show covers Ayers' 1960s jazz recordings: Vibin': Roy Ayers in the 1960s

It's just speculation, but isn't that part of the fun of spring training? Rodriguez was able to train at 100% this past winter (for the first time in two years) and has looked great so far. Jeter's hitting better too; I think they're both poised to improve on last year's performances. And yes, Montero's only hitting .212, and his defense has been getting very mixed notices, but I still think he'll be second-string until Cervelli comes back; hence my remark about seeing him at the MLB level. (And I may get to see him play in person, if he's back at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre by June 2, when my brother and I are taking in a minor-league game at Indianapolis.) Ivan Nova's looked good, A.J.'s looked good (until his most recent start); OTOH, I still think Phil Hughes is a question mark to repeat as an 18-game winner. Posada's at DH and I'm not all that concerned about him; plus Granderson, Swisher, Tex and Cano are all in their prime, and Brett Gardner may well be batting leadoff this year, which will be a very good thing. Just nice to feel a bit more positive after the gloom-'n-doom that was NY's offseason.