ghost of miles

Just finished the Hamill book (original topic of the thread)--it's a fine, brief meditation on Sinatra's origins and impact as second-generation immigrant-American icon.

No, it would have made him 80. Thanks for the catch of my "do the bad math" note--fixed.

Temporarily set aside LUSH LIFE to read Adrian Tomaine's graphic-novel-in-stories, SHORTCOMINGS (almost as good as Daniel Clowes' GHOST WORLD) and am now in the middle of Pete Hamill's WHY SINATRA MATTERS (a thumbs-up for any other Sinatra fans...a good 200-page treatise that gives a sense of FS's origins and makes sparing but apt use of Hamill's late-period friendship with the Voice).

Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches eulogy (some very good links here to a Dickerson interview and article that the blogger/author wrote) Night Lights post WBGO blog writeup Jsngry, I hear that PEACE is another very good Dickerson trio Steeplechase album. The only later album I have is TO MY QUEEN REVISITED (with Albert Dailey on piano).

Talk about being a pothead!

Working on a brief writeup for the Night Lights site and listening to some of the recordings as I do so--after Andrew Hill and Cyrille, I'd forgotten how good George Tucker is on the original QUEEN. IMPRESSIONS OF A PATCH OF BLUE holds up really well (Sun Ra on celeste!), too; one of Jerry Goldsmith's slighter scores, but Dickerson makes good, brooding use of the material. I also didn't realize how little he'd recorded (at all?) in the past 25 years. Certainly grateful for what he did leave us.

I love that record with Sun Ra, Bill B. Need to spin that one again myself...as well as TO A QUEEN.

Just posted to the Jazz Programmer Listserv:

We'll be reairing Jazz, Spiritually Speaking this weekend at the same times and links listed in the first post, but it is already posted for online listening.

A Chicago quartet featuring saxophonist Keefe Jackson and cornetist Josh Berman, accompanied by Marc Unternaherer on tuba and Frank Rosaly on drums, will be performing Saturday, May 24 at the Cinemat in Bloomington. Show starts around 8 p.m. with two local opening acts. I'll be there, making haste from my station gig...

Attention Betty Carter fans: Stevebop's Jazz From Studio 4 will be featuring her recordings tonight on WGBH. I'm hoping to tune in for some of the four-hour fiesta (gotta admit to having a bit of format envy!).

I've posted this news, along with sheldonm's press release, at the Night Lights site, but check out sheldonm's own Great Day in Indy web-pages for even more info. He's gathering as many Indianapolis jazz musicians, past and present, as he can for a photo that will emulate Art Kane's "Great Day in Harlem."

Richard Price, LUSH LIFE.

Thanks again for the interest, all. The Carla Bley Songbook is now archived.

I had a very similar experience recently at the Borders here where I used to work. Bit of a bummer to see all the jazz-artist cards that I made for the section sitting there with no CDs to represent them.

Thanks for the thumbs-up, Joe. Forgot to mention that it's partly in honor of Carla's 70th birthday (tomorrow, May 11).

If anybody has this OOP title on CD or vinyl, could they drop me a PM? Many thanks!

Ironically enough, Lon, I've been listening to a lot of Dolphy the past two days and have found myself particularly hooked on "Something Sweet, Something Tender" from OUT TO LUNCH. Also hooked on two non-jazz, unreleased Elliott Smith tracks: "Stickman" and "True Love."

You will carry his spirit on as you raise your family, Jim. Your children are as lucky to have you as you were to have him.

http://www.monastery.nl/bulletin/asexpol/171bley.jpg Carla Bley is renowned today for her big-band writing and its wide-ranging use of musical and emotional elements, but it was small-group recordings of her work in the 1960s by musicians such as Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, George Russell, and her husband Paul Bley that introduced her to the jazz world. In her teens Bley abandoned home, religion, and school, eventually making her way to New York City, where she worked as a hatcheck and cigarette girl in jazz clubs such as Basin Street and Birdland. She also met Paul Bley, a young up-and-coming Canadian jazz pianist she’d end up marrying and moving with to Los Angeles. There the Bleys became a part of the late-1950s avant-jazz scene, highlighted by Paul Bley’s stint with Ornette Coleman’s quartet—and Carla Bley, taking in all of the adventurous sounds that she heard, began to compose, beginning the evolution of a style that one writer would later describe as “ hyper-modern jazz…asymmetrical compositional structures that subvert jazz formula to wonderful effect, with unpredictable melodies that are often as catchy as they are obscure.” “I was lucky,” Bley has said. “People started playing my music as soon as I began to write it. I don’t know why. It just happened.” The Carla Bley Songbook airs this evening at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It will also air at 10 p.m. EST Sunday evening on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. For additional broadcast times around the country, see the "Carriage" section on the Night Lights links page. (Not positive, but I think we're debuting tonight on Oklahoma Public Radio.) The Carla Bley Songbook will be posted for online listening by Monday morning in the Night Lights archives.

Oh good Lord--had no idea that the original Mr. M had returned. I'm so glad I don't cruise the Politics forum anymore.

The controversial, provocative, and polarizing Jazz Impressions of Brubeck is now archived.

Linking here to an extended audio segment and book review that I did for WFIU. The audio segment includes an interview with the author of the book and some clips from the '68 campaign. Jim, feel free to move to politics if necessary...not posting to start a discussion, just to let folks know about the piece if they're interested.

In the 1950s and 60s the Dave Brubeck Quartet became one of the most popular jazz acts in the world–one of the reasons why the group ended up doing a State Department tour in 1958 at the height of the Cold War that took them to countries such as India, Poland, and Iraq. The music inspired by this and other international forays came out on albums called Jazz Impressions of Eurasia, Jazz Impressions of Japan, and Bravo Brubeck. These tours also made Brubeck a spokesperson for values that for him were heartfelt: a love of jazz and liberty, and a belief that the two were intertwined. “No dictatorship can tolerate jazz,” he said at one performance. “It is the first sign of a return to freedom.” Brubeck, who recently was honored by the U.S. government for his long-running jazz ambassadorship, was a pupil of the classical-music composer Darius Milhaud, who told his young student “to travel the world and keep my ears open.” The pianist did just that, and his subsequent jazz-impressions albums contain some of the most interesting music in his jazz legacy. Jazz Impressions of Brubeck airs this evening at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU. Check "Carriage" on the links page for airtimes on other stations around the country. The program will be posted for online listening Monday morning in the Night Lights archives. Next week: "The Carla Bley Songbook."

I'll second Lon's rec--I already have SECRET SESSIONS and went for LAST WALTZ only because it was so cheap (and because, God help me, I'm enough of an Evans devotee to opt for that much late-period BE). If you already have some of the Vanguard and pre-Vanguard material, SECRET SESSIONS is a good overview of the 1960s and early 70s. It's a much broader view of Evans' career than WALTZ, which covers gigs done just a week or so before his death.