ghost of miles

Yes, no, and no. But he sure lit up the crowd! It was an absolutely crazy day, what with everybody pouring into town for Little 5 and the fantastic weather (gone today, sadly). He really liked Nick's, evidently...good tip from somebody local on the campaign, I'd say, to have him go there.

Barack Obama made a surprise visit yesterday to Bloomington on his way to Terre Haute. He dropped in at the Little 500 bike race at Armstrong Stadium and then took a walk along our main street to Nick's, a venerable Bloomington drinking institution much-loved by students, alumnis, and townies alike. I was tipped off and showed up along with several hundred other people, although the street was a mob scene anyway (world's greatest college weekend and all that). A friend of mine got some good video and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blIHPMiAZ6Y. At the start of the video, his bus is parked between my wife's church and the restaurant that provides production support for Night Lights. I was about 20 feet away from the door at Nick's when he walked in... people were screaming and shouting exuberantly. There was so much excitement and hope and positive energy in that crowd--and most people had no idea he was coming, or didn't know until the last moment, but the town was already flooded with students and visitors for the weekend. A really incredible moment--people who've lived here a long time said they hadn't seen anything like it since the last time IU won the NCAA (and I was here the last time they did, 1987). Jim, feel free to move to the politics section if necessary--I'm just posting it as unique footage of Obama showing up on the streets of my city. It felt like the Pope or one of the Beatles had suddenly decided to take a stroll along our Main Street. Amazing! People all over the city today were talking about it.

Check out Jazzwax blogger Marc Myers' amazingly comprehensive tribute, which includes the interview he did with Urso just a few weeks ago.

We're re-airing Jazz Goes Disney this weekend on Night Lights--it's already archived for online listening.

Definition of rickrolling NY Times article Kinda an 80s thing, I guess...when a younger colleague saw the video he said, "It's a joke, right? That wasn't, like, a real video and real song on MTV, was it?" Oh yes it was...

Hot on the heels of pimping my friend's Bloomington record store Landlocked Music in another thread last night, I just found out this morning that they've been invited to join AIMS, aka the Alliance of Independent Media Stores. Pretty cool list of stores at that link, some of which I'd wager posters here are familiar with.

The issue with that photograph of Miles in the studio in 1978 also has an article about Red Garland's return to the jazz scene. The "quality ratio" of all the issues I got seems really high.

Cool! Thanks, Marcello. Yeah, I started flipping through the six issues my friend gave me while I was standing in the store, and I came across four articles pertaining to Night Lights shows that I'm working on right now. It was quite a literary gold-mine...and when I sat down to read one here at home for a specific interview, I pretty much ended up reading every single item in the magazine.

My record-store friends gave me half a dozen issues of Jazz Magazine that they'd picked up for free at a recent archive record sale. The issues date from the late 1970s and are full of pretty good articles, interviews, photos, reviews... the first one I looked at had a picture of Miles returning to the studio circa 1978 (the session at which he played organ only). Bob Blumenthal, Ira Gitler, and Dan Morgenstern are listed among the contributing editors. How long was this magazine's run? Not sure if the IU School of Music library has this one or not.

There really is something to be said for the social atmosphere of a good record store. I drop by my friend Jason's store here in Bloomington (Landlocked Music, check 'em out if you ever come through town, esp. if you're a vinyl fiend) several times a week, just to browse, shoot the breeze about matters musical and otherwise...and inevitably I come across interesting, off-the-beaten path records. Plus he has coffee, good magazines like Wax Poetics, and lots of cool, dry Hoosier cheer. The jazz section is still a bit small, but everything in it is good (just bought the new Bill Dixon/Exploding Star there the other day).

I got a communique from Sangrey earlier in the day--big storms in Texas, which is where the server's located...apparently that's to blame for our day-long jonesin'.

Nice Urso tribute from Ted Gioia up at Jazz.com.

All kidding aside, it's a very nice/generally civil place and more welcoming than it's given credit for.

Blindman Blues has a nice subforum called "Come and Meet The Gang". Maybe we should start something similar so folks like Denis can have a specific place to introduce themselves ... we would of course have to make sure Chuck doesn't know about it. Not sure how many new members would stick around if he was part of the Welcome Wagon. Come and Meet the Gang? Welcome, Denis. Just beware of the kooks, cranks, cut-ups, militants, dope fiends, iconoclasts, braggadocios, and general ne'er-do-wells...OK, I guess that leaves just Larry Kart and Sangrey.

It's been reported on a couple of listservs that saxophonist Phil Urso passed away earlier today.

American Pop: From Minstrel to Mojo One 9-CD set...there's a pretty comprehensive writeup in the review field.

Timely query for me, as I was just wondering about the CD component myself the other day.

Too Little, Too Soon: Booker Little is now archived.

Schoenberg did the notes, and he is incredibly thorough, as always...sometimes the track has ended before I've finished reading his description of it. The sound is quite good, I'd agree, but...there's something a little less present or crisp about it than some of the other Mosaic remasterings from this era that I've heard in the past few years. Could simply be me, could be the source material to begin with. Certainly better than the ESSENTIAL Columbia cds.

I tried for about 5-10 minutes, but the stream was extremely choppy--at least through my computer on dial-up at home. I'm going to go for the podcast when I'm at work tomorrow.

Thanks to Mr. Lowe for helping us all to stay high--er, ah, metaphorically speaking, of course. :rsmile: Hope you've had a great one, Allen...true appreciation for all of your contributions here. (Not to mention the great bargains on DEVILIN' TUNE sets--get 'em while you can, folks.)

Much more info on the show here. Too Little, Too Soon: Booker Little will air Saturday evening at 11 EST on WFIU, 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville, and on Sunday evening at 10 EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. (Not sure yet about air times on any of the new stations.) The program will be archived for online listening Monday morning at the link above.

Long may you broadcast!

Another pickup this morning: KPBX-Spokane Public Radio, WA will be airing the program on Wednesday evenings from 11 to midnight PDT. Many thanks to all around here who've supported the show--truly, it's helped to keep things alive and moving. I tend to think of this board as the program's "base."

Any Mundy fans might want to check out the Hep cd BENNY GOODMAN PLAYS JIMMY MUNDY, as well as the two Hep cds generally marketed under Benny Carter's name (THEY ALL HAD RHYTHM and GROOVIN' HIGH IN L.A., which include some V-discs and airshots of a mid-1940s Mundy-led big band).