ghost of miles

Allen, dig this--newly out from Jazz Oracle: Benny Goodman 1930-1933 Ask and ye shall receive!

Saw an ad for this in the new NY Review of Books. It comes from the University of Chicago Press--looks pretty interesting, particularly for those from Chicago or with an interest in the city's cultural history: The Chicagoan: a Lost Magazine of the Jazz Age

Very late in getting around to posting this--he's playing at the Waldron Arts Center (former police station/jail) here in Bloomington, IN this evening. Show starts around 7:30...I'll be heading over there after I wrap up my fund-drive stint on the board during All Things Considered.

The editor of JazzTimes wrote a response on JPL and gave me permission to post it at the Night Lights site: JazzTimes editor responds to PREX critique

He grew up in that very climate--he's a product of it. I think it's more class-biased to assume that a progressive, bookish, granola kind of guy can't come out of such an environment.

I can't seem to log into AAJ today--it's rejecting my password. Anybody else running into this problem? I seem to recall a recent thread about this, but even a Google search using "AAJ" didn't turn it up for me.

Time to start the "1,000,000 Posts Strong for Organissimo" Facebook group.

We're re-airing Second Magic City: Sun Ra in Chicago this weekend, but it's already archived for online listening.

He works as a rare-books specialist at the Lilly Library here in Bloomington, just across the street from the radio station where I work. Great guy.

Sorry to report that Studs Terkel has passed away.

He's really gotten some mileage out of that photo, but this is the biggest splash yet. Here's the pic, for those who don't want to follow the link: The caption under it at 23/6 reads, "Wants to hear more about the issues."

Some of you may remember my friend, born and raised in rural Indiana, but pretty progressive/bookish/granola in his outlook, who went as a redneck for Halloween several years ago. He had really long hair at the time and gave himself a mullet as part of his look; his buddies took some pictures, one of which has become almost legendary on the Internet. Today it showed up on the Huffington Post's front page (which gets even more traffic than Drudge these days): HuffPo Scroll down and look on the righthand column for the bare-chested, grass-chewin' hillbilly leaning back against a pickup truck. Here's the story to which they're linking.

I also like this one quite a lot and used it to open the Night Lights Jazz Impressions of Paris program this past summer (it comes right after the introductory theme, if anybody who hasn't heard Bird's take wants to check it out). I also really like Cecil Taylor's version, and coincidentally enough used it to open another Night Lights show (Jazz Advance: Early Cecil Taylor) if anybody wants to give that version a listen as well.

Maybe he means the "Quintet" box, which included some live tracks?

Sad news if that proves to be the case. I think I've bought all but 1-2 of the titles they've released so far.

Nope--not sure if he works for the PREX store or just blogs for its site. I tend to be a mushy liberal about this stuff. DB and JT are the jazz-media establishment, such as it is, for sure. I subscribe to them both, just like the author of the article, and while I think some of his criticism is on-target (and some unsubstantiated...the Koransky rap, for instance, is basically just "I don't know who this dude is," without delving into the quality of editorial work), I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that the jazz world would be better off without both magazines. (Not that he says that, exactly, but he does cast them as having a negative impact on jazz itself.) It's been said before, but jazz is a narrowly-circumscribed economic world, and such circumstances probably do lead to more of a tame, somewhat rah-rah approach to reporting and criticism. It's also really hard to do good writing about jazz (as a whole thread here attests)--I have boundless admiration for those like Larry, Mark Stryker, Jim Sangrey, and others who do it with force and insight. And while the author rightfully cites some of the "Golden Age" jazz writing of yore, I've come across plenty of dud/lame reviews in 1950s/60s issues of DB as well here at the IU music library. Larry could offer much better illumination on all of this.

I'm going to post a link to this on the Night Lights site, but thought I'd post it here as well: Jazz magazines bad for jazz? ...the writing and argument is a little rough around the edges, but it's a provocative point (and one I'd guess that some here share, based on prior posts). The author holds up Signal to Noise as an example of something better--calling Clem! These days, I think some of the more quality jazz writing is sometimes found online--Marc Myers for classic jazz at Jazzwax, Ethan Iverson at Do the Math for both modern and classic, or Larry Kart's posts here at Organissimo.

Many thanks for the update and specifics, J.A.W. Scott had mentioned this set about a year ago as a possible autumn 2008 release...glad to know that it's still in the works.

Those inclined to like James already might want to check out the HJ Hep CDs. I recently picked up EIGHT BAR RIFF, a collection of 1940s broadcasts (hardly any overlap with the Hindsight box, btw); Juan Tizol, Willie Smith, and generally good arrangements/playing that go more towards the swing side of James' 1940s sound.

Thanks for the update, Larry. Sounds as if it will definitely be worth the wait.

Thought of him while perusing King Ubu's Nina Simone thread--checked his post history and he hasn't posted since late December of last year. A New Year's resolution to avoid the board, perhaps? I'm going to drop him a line, but just wondered if any other board members had had any contact with him.

Bill, if you like Bothwell, that Hep CD is well worth checking out.

Amazon lists every single track as "explicit," btw...man, those crazee beboppers and their wild quotes!

I was trying to track down Eager's performance of "Sweet Georgia Brown" on a 1947 Saturday Night Swing Session broadcast and was hipped by a friend to this (relatively) recent release: Allen Eager: an Ace Face

Via the Jazz Programmer Listserv: evidently some rumblings that the merger is not going to be a boon for jazz programming choices. So far, only this confirmation: