ghost of miles

Wondered the same thing myself recently in another thread--somebody replied to the effect that he was pretty busy with writing projects. Still, a loooooong spell of absence by Mr. C's standards. He still seems to be posting fairly regularly at WWIB (I've always assumed that all of the contributors are C himself, though I could be wrong... in any event, WWIB is a great read, even if--especially if, perhaps--you're not a native New Yorker/Brooklynite).

Ironic--I went looking for this thread just to see if there was any mention of that very release. It arrived several days ago and I'm listening to it now--so far, liking it much better than many other "jazzing the classics" pieces from this period. The arrangements sometimes sound as if they're going to get cloying and then don't...lightly swinging in the best sense. BTW, Basie/Lester fans should definitely check out the Hep JUBILEE ALTERNATIVES disc. Nice studio snapshots of Prez with the 1943/44 band...he's on about half the tracks.

Not an instrumental interpretation, but there's a moving vocal version on Columbia's 1960 ON THE TOWN soundtrack (reissued on CD) that features the song's lyric writers, Adolph Green and Betty Comden. You might also want to check out the Tony Bennett/Bill Evans version found on their first collaborative album.

Cool--hope it's up to a Pearson fan's standards! I'm still planning to do a sequel about his big-band recordings that will incorporate some Pearson interview remarks (courtesy of a fellow board member and DJ).

We'll be re-airing The Duke Pearson Songbook this week, but it's already archived for online listening. Airtimes and station links around the country listed here.

Only somewhat related, but I really miss the Jazz Factory. My wife and I drove down there a couple of times to catch shows and really enjoyed it.

Did you mention him in DEVILIN' TUNE, Allen? For some reason, I think I knew that you're a Green fan. You should check out the RAINTREE COUNTY score...actually quite good. Forgot to mention for Lee Wiley fans that I included a recording of her doing "Easy Come, Easy Go" with Green's 1930s orchestra.

Finally finished Rick Perlstein's NIXONLAND and am now getting started on Nick Salvatore's biography EUGENE DEBS: CITIZEN AND SOCIALIST ('tis the season to be liberal and all that). Debs came from Terre Haute, about 45 minutes west of here (as did Claude Thornhill).

My wife and half of her department were laid off last April, so things have been a bit tight for us already. I'm definitely watching pennies now, almost literally... trying to bike to work as much as possible (very easy to do here in Bloomington), eat out less, always shop at the grocery co-op on member discount day, and definitely cut back on the CD/book/DVD buying. (Last week I bought the Andrew Hill/Chico Hamilton CD on an impulse and immediately felt guilty afterwards.) I'm up to my ears (so to speak) in music I haven't gotten around to listening to yet anyway, not to mention music that I'd love to revisit, and the same thing goes for books and DVDs. My workplace is pretty financially sound, as such workplaces go, but I am concerned about what might happen at the start of our next fiscal year (July 2009). My 401K has taken a huge hit, but I'm still so far away from retirement that I'm not too concerned about that. Still scheming to get the Goodman/Braxton Mosaics by the end of November, but it's going to take some freelance writing work to make that possible. We have our anxieties, but in the grand scheme of things we're still pretty lucky at this point. We have a long ways to go on paying off our house (and we're both still paying off large student loan debts), but if worst came to worst we could divide it back into two apartments again and rent the upstairs out. In short, trying to lead a much leaner life, but I think there's some good meaning to be found there. A big difference, though, between leaner times and desperate/dire straits.

I've posted an Afterglow program that I did last year on the songwriter Johnny Green ("Body and Soul," "Out of Nowhere," "I Cover the Waterfront") on the Night Lights site, since today would have been his 100th birthday: The Johnny Green Songbook Part 1 The Johnny Green Songbook Part 2 Some of the music at the beginning of Hour 1 is non-Green. The Green tunes feature Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Mary Ann McCall, Dexter Gordon, Nat King Cole, and many others.

Bought this this weekend at Landlocked Music here in Bloomington, and it didn't disappoint...yeah, that version of "Shaw Nuff" is a trip!

Link on Heffley's website is no longer active. Just scan your mouse over the "Click here" line and the link should show up as active--I just went to it. For some reason, it doesn't look to be active when you first glance at it, but it is.

All right, Bruce! Great to hear from you again...and hope to hear lots more in the weeks to come.

Completely agree, based on my knowledge of Marc and of his blogging. Jsngry has identified a very real (and very annoying) syndrome, but it doesn't apply in this case. That said, I hew closer to Jsngry's evaluation of KOB than I do Marc's.

Marc is a friend and IMO probably the best blogger out there on the classic-jazz era. I think KOB deserves the status that it has, but it's nice to see some attention drawn to the '58 sessions (which, in my record-store-clerk days, I used to push on jazz customers as a "prequel" to KOB).

This is pretty funny--from the weekly newsletter of Bloomington record store Landlocked Music, titled "How to Invest Wisely":

I bought a copy of this about 10 years ago in B-town, and the record-shop owner acted as if he was selling me some primo weed (he bragged about his "connection" who was able to get him several copies of the set). Like John L, I'd be willing to send mp3s or info from the booklet if that helps.

GROOVADELPHIA moved up a notch to #29 on the JazzWeek chart this week (was #25 two weeks ago): JazzWeek chart

A graphic-novel mystery: Mat Johnson's INCOGNEGRO. Plus Farah Jasmine Griffin's book on Billie Holiday (interesting approach, but rather disappointing so far).

Yes. I haven't listened to it in awhile but will pull it out later tonight at home. I always seem to pull out a Hawes CD every few months or so.

Sounds great, LV!

KU, check out the Jasmine 2-CD Newton set. Undoubtedly lots of overlap, but it's hard to beat the Jasmine for a fairly comprehensive overview of FN's career.

I know he's working on some heavy-duty writing projects. In other words, he DOES have a life outside of the board. His blog is also down/not in use. Really? I visited WWIB yesterday and it looked fairly active...guest-bloggers, maybe? (Hard to tell w/WWIB...I always assume that all of the pseudonyms/monikers are Clem.) Anyway, that's cool, glad to hear he's so busy (I still haven't finished reading all of NEW YORK CALLING) and thanks for the update, CT.

I've been remiss in issuing birthday salutations--best wishes for a great day and many more, relyles. I always enjoy your contributions to the board.