ghost of miles

Every year around Thanksgiving and Hoagy's birthday I do a Carmichael show on Afterglow. This year, with the Mercer centennial at hand, I devoted the program to digging up as many Carmichael-Mercer collaborations as I could find (not as many as you might think), recorded by Nat King Cole, Helen Forrest, Louis Armstrong, and Carmichael and Mercer themselves. In addition to running down Eddy Arnold's recording of their late-period "Song of Long Ago," I also got some significant help from IU's Archives of Traditional Music, which gave me permission to use some things from their Carmichael collection--Hoagy and Johnny demoing "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" and two other songs for the film KEYSTONE GIRL (which was ultimately never made--I tell the story of how the song eventually found its way into HERE COMES THE GROOM, for which it won an Academy Award), and a couple of other unreleased late-period Hoagy-Johnny collaborations: "A Perfect Paris Night" and "Fleur de Lys." Afterglow founding host Dick Bishop joins me again to discuss Mercer and Carmichael as well. Moon Country: Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer

J.H., any rumblings about Philadelphia in the market? Or what they're looking at in general for their pitching rotation next year? No rumors. They did just sign Juan Castro as a back up middle infielder. They need a 3rd baseman since they declined to pick up the option on Feliz. According to this hot-stove report, they're pursuing Adrian Beltre for 3B.

If anybody has the booklet to the Herbie Nichols Mosaic, could he or she contact me off the board? Many thanks!

This has been on YouTube before: ...man, I'd forgotten how many pitches Mookie fouled off during that final at-bat.

Well, thanks much, Matthew--you of all people ought to have appreciation for a good redemption story, though! Just kidding. I'm still feeling a bit giddy from what a magical postseason it was, and Angell really nails it for me; this year made me fall in love with baseball again. (Some readers may find his concluding para a tad corny, but I thought it was great, a cultural allusion that invoked some of the emotion that I felt watching these games throughout October and early November.) One last thing re: Angell's piece and Rodriguez--he points to that sixth inning in the last game of the regular season as the key to A-Rod's postseason: Home Run #1 Home Run #2

Another nice description from Angell's extended recap of Damon's key at-bat and double-stolen-base in the 9th inning of WS Game 4: He also says that Clyde Lee reminded him of Hal Newhouser.

Roger Angell's postseason baseball wrap-up for the New Yorker is out (Nov. 30 issue)--if you're a New Yorker subscriber you can read it right now in the online digital edition. I always look forward to these pieces, and (as you can imagine) I was especially anticipating this year's. Headline and subheading are: "Daddies win: can we love the Yankees now?" And Angell has this to say about A-Rod: Beautiful!

J.H., any rumblings about Philadelphia in the market? Or what they're looking at in general for their pitching rotation next year?

I can understand why the presence of organ would deter J.A.W. from buying this set. That said, I'm nearly through the first two discs of it, and the organ, when it does appear, is generally unobtrusive and doesn't ruin Bing's singing or the general mood of the music for me. It's just such a pleasure to hear Crosby singing these songs in a small, intimate, somewhat-jazzy setting. If you like Nat King Cole or Charles Brown's late-1940s vocal trio sides, I think you'd like this set as well.

Yep--played that one on the show, actually.

We're re-airing Donald Byrd: the Hardbop Years this week; it's already archived for online listening.

WGBH is axing their blues programming.

Oh, no, not that I'm aware of--it's Leon Thomas, who sang on the original "Creator," on the Pops record.

I actually really like that album (LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND FRIENDS). Some of the tracks go on a bit too long IMO, but for the most part I think Satchmo sounds at home with those tunes.

Many happy returns, Bill! And thanks again for all of the support.

Listening to "Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" on the MySpace site right now--nice! I'll check out the whole CD, Larry...thanks for the rec.

Thanks for the heads-up...I'll probably try to place an order tomorrow morning. Would love to have the Crosby here by Thanksgiving Day.

I'm guessing that just about everything I have is OOP, but here are some dates/CDs to look for: *Bud Powell, EARLY YEARS OF A GENIUS 1944-48. This is the first volume in the Paudras Mythic Sound series and has the recording of "West End Blues" that Allen mentions, more material with Cootie Williams, and half a dozen airshots from a 12/19/1948 Royal Roost date that included Lee Konitz, J.J. Johnson, Cecil Payne, Max Roach and others. Been ages since I listened to it and I don't recall the Konitz/J.J. broadcast being quite as incredible as the assembled starpower might suggest, but you do get to hear some Bud solos. The Royal Roost material shows up on another CD as well somewhere, I'm pretty sure. *Charlie Parker and the Stars of Modern Jazz at Carnegie Hall, Christmas 1949. One Bud track, but it's a good one--All God's Children Got Rhythm w/Curley Russell and Max Roach. Lots of great bop-progressive bop combos on this one, and Bird's quintet (w/Red Rodney) wraps it up by blazing through five Savoy-era numbers. *All of that Parker-Blakey-Powell-Fats Birdland material came out on a double-LP in the late 1970s called ONE NIGHT IN BIRDLAND, reissued on CD in the early 1990s (iirc) in Japan...it floated around U.S. stores for awhile. That music has come out on a # of Parker compilations over the years. *Charlie Parker and the All-Stars w/Diz, Bud, Tommy Potter and Roy Haynes, from Birdland, March 31, 1951. Another really good set--they do "Blue 'n Boogie," "Anthropology," "Round Midnight," and "Night in Tunisia." This and the 1950 Birdland performances were bunched together on a 4-CD set called COMPLETE BIRD AT BIRDLAND 1950-51 a few years ago. *All of the Powell live-at-Birdland airshots from 1953... they came out on 4 ESP discs, also on 2 discs from another label (Fresh Sound?). Great topic--I had a similar obsession myself a few years back and tried to track down as many Powell live recordings as I could from the same period. It would be nice if there was a good Savoy overview of his key sideman dates, but probably won't happen any time soon (or ever).

Bassist John Neves' last name?

Wow, can't believe that you saw that band, Allen! I don't think they were together all that long...who was the drummer? Was it Harris?

A one-hour tribute to Mr. Mercer with recordings from Mark Murphy, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and many more, as well as an interview with Afterglow founding host and Mercer devotee Dick Bishop: Too Marvelous With Words: Johnny Mercer, America's Poet Laureate

Mal Waldron's FREE AT LAST is the very first album that ECM ever released--been wanting to hear it for a long time. Thanks for the heads-up.

I was also really intrigued by the band with Pat Patrick, Wilbur Ware and Beaver Harris (pg. 409-412). Evidently Patrick recorded them in performance at the Jazz Workshop in Boston. Pretty amusing anecdote about why Monk ultimately kicked Harris out of the band.

We're re-airing Jazz Impressions of Brubeck this week on Night Lights; it's already archived for online listening.

Working on Night Lights/Afterglow stuff, drinking Mexican coffee, listening to Wadada Leo Smith.