ghost of miles

Afterglow show I did a couple months ago: The Best-Known Unknown in Show Business: Thelma Carpenter You can also hear "My Guy's Come Back" in this program: The Year We Won the War: 1945 (starts at 38:38 into the show)

Oh yeah, of course--well, there's an obvious one I overlooked!

Hey all, I'm working on an Afterglow program for Prez's centennial that will at least partly focus on records he made with vocalists. In addition to Billie, Una Mae Carlisle, and Helen Humes, any other singers that he recorded behind?

Just $20 away... be the person who single-handedly shuts this thread down! (Uh...excluding Jim A. or Use3D, that is... )

Got a reply to my customer-serv e-mail that the order had shipped--looking at the Concord site, it appears all 11 CDs are coming. Box is in Indy right now, so hopefully I'll get it Monday afternoon.

Thanks so much, NOF. We're just $40 short of the goal now, so anything at all would help... would love it if a couple of Big O posters put us over the top.

If you can find it for a reasonable price, I'd strongly recommend the 5-CD Self-Portrait box, which covers Shaw's entire career on record and has good notes from Richard Sudhalter and Artie himself.

I'm envious--really dig the new CD, would love to catch her live myself. Thanks for the report, Tranemonk. Was she playing solo w/guitar, or did she have a band backing her? I'd be interested to hear how the new songs came across live without the orchestration (there's a video of her on YouTube from 2008--awful quality, but you still get a sense of the performance--doing "Baby I'm a Fool" solo on guitar, and it sounds great, even without the strings behind her).

An endorsement from you makes me even more eager to read it, Frank.

Just got this the other day, and while David Ayers is right about the sound of Hank's tenor on the reissue...I just have to say that after working 11+ hours yesterday, running errands that included going to a monstrously-sized and frantically-busy grocery store, and not getting home till 9:15 in the evening, I put this CD on, listened to it, and understood once again why life's not only worth living, but how moving and beautiful it can be as well. Thank you, Mr. Mobley.

One last plea...we stalled out a few days ago about $80 short of the goal... just a few $10 or $15 contributions would do it. Much gratitude for any help you can give: Support Night Lights

Wow--thanks for the heads-up, Nate. I was just thinking about Herbie the other day and how good it would be to read a fullblown bio of him... will keep an eye out for this one.

PM sent on Lou Rawls.

No, didn't come across that one! Is it the same song that Louis Jordan recorded in 1940? (Written by Sammy Price...that one's in the show) I did play James Newton and Anthony Davis' instrumental "Juneteenth," which Lazaro hipped me to several years ago. (Nod of special thanks to you in the show's credits, LV.)

Excellent, good news--thanks for passing that along, Lon. Hopefully my order will show up today or tomorrow. EDIT: Or maybe not. Just got off the phone with a Concord customer-service rep, very friendly, but apparently my order, placed on June 10, is still in process at the warehouse.

I hadn't looked at this thread in awhile (didn't want to tempt myself to go back to the well), but I was also concerned about not getting a confirmation e-mail and called last week the day after I'd placed my order. The woman I talked to said they'd definitely gotten my order and it would be processed either on Friday (June 12) or the following Monday. Given what I've read here, I think I'd better call again today and make sure it did get processed and went out.

Up for the holiday.

on the new one--been playing it a lot so far this summer.

Has there been a good single-CD comp of Forrest's work with the Shaw orchestra? Right now (judging from what I see on Amazon) it looks like the best bet is to get the Jasmine box, which devotes nearly all of disc 1 to those recordings...surprised Collector's Choice hasn't put something out. Been awhile since I listened to it, but I seem to recall some good live Forrest w/Shaw tracks on this Hindsight box: King of the Clarinet 1938-39 ...which is a set I'd enthusiastically recommend to anybody who's a Shaw fan, whether they care for vocals or not.

Just connected w/no problem via the link on the Night Lights site.

Late 40s/50s slang term, roughly equivalent to cool. Just read an interview with Charles McPherson the other day circa '68 where he used it a couple of times. EDIT: Zora Neale Hurston's Harlem slang dictionary dates it back to the 1930s and defines it as meaning "perfect". Glossary of Harlem slang

This week's Night Lights show, The Juneteenth Jazz Jamboree, is up for online listening. Music celebrating freedom and the holiday from Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Carmen McRae, James Newton, Louis Jordan, and more...plus background on the holiday from emancipation-holiday historian William Wiggins. The Juneteenth Jazz Jamboree

Sadly, I can't even think of Shaw's vocalists right now from the 1938-1945 period outside of Helen Forrest...Tony Pastor? And there were a couple of others, I think...Billie Holiday too, of course, for 1938, but she's documented only on "Any Old Time". I'd guess the Ellington set will have Ivie. (Hope they do, esp. since those two Hep volumes are so hard to come by these days; in the meantime, I think there's quite a lot of Ivy on that great 4-CD DKE 1930s import.) Al came later, in the 1940s.

I've been so busy/preoccupied that I forgot the date...but my wife just reminded me. Happy Bloomsday! ...lend me a few bob?

Nothing. Some of their other sets (the Beiderbecke/Trumbauer/Teagarden set, for instance) have lots of vocals. Why don't you ask them why they're leaving out the vocals on this one? The reasoning on the Goodman set was that almost all of the vocal material had been issued separately by Collectors' Choice or other labels. I haven't really checked on how much of the Helen Forrest etc. from Shaw's band is available elsewhere...but I'm guessing that including the vocals would make either the Shaw or Goodman boxes 12-13 CDs, which might be a bit unwieldy for cost/price/economic purposes in the present climate. In a way, I can understand leaving the vocals out, but still, I think doing so creates a distorted picture of the Shaw band, and the era. iIwould say that the vocals tracks are essential to a valid understanding of any of the big bands, and to leave them out goes against the very reason Mosaic was created, as quoted from their website: We want Mosaic Records Box Sets to be as important, and as complete as we can make them. Our sets include every significant track that falls within the scope of a given project, presented in an organized, chronological manner. We go into the vaults of as many record labels as necessary to examine all the original session tapes. In addition to all previously issued material, Mosaic box sets are usually rich with unreleased tracks and valid alternate takes. It's no accident we're considered the label for fans and collectors "who want it all". It's nice that this set is being created, but I feel that this continuing trend, in terms of traditional big bands, weakens the historical and artistic viability of what Mosaic is doing. I don't want to go on rant, but still, I think Mosaic can do better. Still, in these financial times, this is way better than nothing. I hear ya, Matthew, and ideally I'd like a complete set, vocals and all, as well. I remember somebody (at this board or another one) talking about how they'd taken the Mosaic Goodman they'd bought and created cd-rs that incorporated the vocal tracks into the sessions, in chronological order...pretty painstaking work, I'd imagine, plus you'd have to actually already have all of the vocal sides and a discography. But where there's a will there's a way for jazz diehards! In the meantime, I'll join the chorus of gratitude for anything at all coming out (plus I'm a big Shaw junkie & will love hearing the material I haven't encountered before... I've got SELF-PORTRAIT and the Heps that cover this period, but I'm still sure there'll be sides that are new to me).