ghost of miles

Bill, it was on from noon-1 PST...sorry, should've put that in my post. For anybody interested in the show, it's still posted for online listening: We Shall Overcome: Civil-Rights Jazz I know there are some issues with Tacoma--but it sounded cheaper than Seattle, plus Dash Hammett used to live there. (OK, silly reason... biggest motive was that Borders, where I worked at the time, had a store there and would've paid all of my transfer/moving expenses.) The area I love the most out there is the whole Olympic Mountains range.

KXOT-Tacoma, WA just licensed this through PRX last night and is broadcasting it right now... kinda psyched, because I love the Pacific Northwest (almost moved to the Tacoma area 9 or 10 years ago). Night Lights greetings to Bill Barton, Johnny E, and all other Big O Pacific Northwesters!

Thanks for the heads-up--I'll definitely be getting this one.

Part 3 is now posted. Apologies that it's taking me so long to transcribe this--we talked for about an hour and 45 minutes. Hoping to have the conclusion up late tomorrow or Monday.

Same as Chuck--several orders placed in the last 4-6 weeks, and no problems or apparent delays.

Good ol' Lonson! Say, is that a mint vinyl copy of Andrew Hill's SMOKESTACK that you're hiding behind your back?

Fixed your board handle in the original post--sorry 'bout that! I ended up using three of the Roulette sides, all in the first half of the show--two off NO COAST, one off the first album. (Also used the Roulette "Dance to the Lady" as a bed for the intro commentary.) So many, many thanks again. BTW, haven't put this part of the interview up yet, but Handy told me Mosaic is working on putting out some previously-unreleased sessions with him and Michael White... a bit vague on the details, I think it might be a Mosaic single, but evidently sessions from the Columbia period.

Great set all right--Cootie Willliams, Helen Humes, Albert Ammons, Jay McShann, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Mary Lou Williams... beware of Amazon's listing for this, btw. Most of what's being offered is the single-CD "best-of" compilation.

You can see his profile here. Thanks--his name doesn't come up on the member list (unlike here... only a tiny handful of people have ever been banned, but you can still find them on the list... a la the infamous Greg M). It also appears that some posts must have been deleted, as the most recent ones are from July 2007 and are perfectly innocuous. Whatever... I gotta say, too, that when the occasional dispatch of a truly psychotically-amok poster has been done here, it's come with a grain of humor:

I'm signing up as well--PM sent.

John Handy is one of the few surviving saxophone heroes from the 1950s and 60s golden age of hardbop. A featherweight boxing champion as a teenager, Handy tested and honed his jazz skills throughout the 1950s on the San Francisco jazz scene, where he was a regular at the city’s famed Bop City club. At the end of the decade he went to New York City and became a key member of Charles Mingus’ group, appearing on some of the bassist’s most notable records (including a legendary solo, on tenor sax, on Mingus’ elegy for Lester Young, “Goodbye Porkpie Hat,” which can be heard on the Night Lights program Turn Out the Stars). Drawing on a wide array of influences such as Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Benny Carter and early Eric Dolphy, he forged his own style as an alto saxophonist, particularly through a flair for playing in the upper register and an unique form of tonguing that created what Metronome described as “a fast, fluttering sound.” In 1965 his unusual quintet, featuring Michael White on violin and Jerry Hahn on guitar, was a huge hit at the Monterey Jazz Festival, landing Handy a recording contract with Columbia Records and vaulting his group into second place behind Miles Davis in a 1966 Downbeat poll. Handy was an early advocate for jazz education and taught for many years at San Francisco State. His musical interests are broad; he has composed works for orchestras and early in his career performed Bartok’s Night Music with classical pianist Leonid Hambro. His interest in world music has led him to collaborate with Indian musicians Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan as well. Handy’s also tasted commercial success–his 1976 R & B-flavored “Hard Work” was a chart-smash single. As a tribute to Handy for his 75th birthday (Feb. 3), Handy With The Horn includes music from the saxophonist’s little-known 1960s Roulette leader dates and his mid-1960s Columbia sides, in addition to a recording made with Mingus in 1959. The program will air this evening at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU, at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville, and at 10 p.m. Sunday evening EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. It will be posted Monday morning for online listening in the Night Lights archives. You can read the transcription of a telephone interview that I did with Handy on the blog page of the website; Part 1 and Part 2 are already up, and I'll be posting the remainder of the interview later today and tomorrow. Special thanks to Organissimo posters Clunky and Felser for their assistance with this program. Photo of John Handy by Mark Sheldon Next week: "Suite History." Extended musical depictions of African-American history by Duke Ellington, Oliver Nelson, and John Carter.

If you ever get word of those Jazz Orchestra U.S.A. sides ever resurfacing, garthsj, please give me a holler! Was the Weill reissue originally on Columbia? The CD came from Koch, iirc....

They banned Lonson? Man, that speaks volumes about that place. I can't even find his name on the member list--were his posts all expunged along with his registration? Ridiculous! I've been reading Lonson's posts here, there, and on the old BNBB for, oh, five years now, and I have never seen him write anything that would come even close to meriting a warning, let alone being banned. He's one of the nicest, most-liked members of the online jazz-board community. Some serious dysfunctionalism over there...

Noal said I could go ahead and post his e-mail address, so that any interested party can contact him directly: cohens2@mindspring.com It's a very good jazz bio--one of the best I've read. And it's extremely unlikely that anybody will ever tackle Gryce again.

Thanks for reposting that detailed and insightful review, Larry--I obviously need to start checking Songbirds again on a more regular basis. I just ordered JAZZ UP YOUR LIFE and will pick up the others you mentioned when the budget allows.

There's a previously-unreleased 1971 Brotherhood of Breath concert out: Eclipse at Dawn Saw it at my local record shop today & plan to pick it up next week.

If anybody's interested in picking up a copy of the now-quite-scarce Gryce bio, RAT RACE BLUES--I just got a note from co-author Noal Cohen saying that he's unexpectedly come into possession of several more. He's offering to sell them at $17 a pop plus a small shipping fee--drop me a PM if you'd like to contact him.

Thanks for hipping us to this sale--gave me a chance to finally pick up the Marsh-Konitzs and grab a few other titles of interest: Warne Marsh & Lee Konitz Quintet, Live At The Montmartre Club Jazz Exchange Warne Marsh & Lee Konitz Quintet, Live at the Montmartre Club, Jazz Exchange VA, The Wax Label Sessions Howard McGhee & Teddy Edwards, Wise In Time Johnny Griffin & Art Taylor, In Copenhagen VA, The Jubilee Shows Nos. 96 & 71 Kenny Drew Trio, At the Brewhouse VA, The Continental Sessions, Vol. 3 Dorothy Donegan, Dorothy Donegan Trio ...that live 2-CD Goodman set is very good (don't mind the terrible liners), as are the Marsh-Mitchell Big Two titles.

Bob Belden has a nice tribute to Ivery in this month's JazzTimes with a note of thanks at the end for Assistance from Jim Sangrey.

Part 2, in which Handy talks about his unusual method of tonguing, how he came to play with Charles Mingus, and the origins of “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” is now posted.

Papsrus, check out V. 3 of Allen Lowe's DEVILIN' TUNE series, which covers 1934-1945. It's a 9-CD set, and he frequently sells it (and the other volumes) here for insanely reasonable prices. Comes with a very good booklet about the period, too, drawn from his book of the same name.

Hey all, as a supplement to this week's Night Lights show Handy With The Horn, I did a telephone interview last week with alto saxophonist John Handy. Part 1, in which he talks about early encounters with Dexter Gordon and Art Tatum, why he went with the alto over the tenor, and working with bassist Albert Stinson in the late 1960s, is now posted. I'll be posting the rest of the interview on the Night Lights site throughout the rest of this week.

Been listening to this set just about every day since I got it--all the way through 3 to 4 times now. Yeah, it's great to hear the Swingin' Herd bring the 1940s book into the Jet Age, and the modern material (Mingus' "Better Git It In Your Soul," Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man") sounds fantastic too. Evidently a lot of this band came through Herb Pomeroy's ensemble.

Interesting--I just watched THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE again and certainly recall that bartender scene. My wife watched most of the film with me and speculated that the karate-fight scene may have been the inspiration for the Clouseau/Kato battles in the Pink Panther films.

Thanks, Mr. LK--had a feeling you'd be the go-to man on this one. I love that Shecky Greene joke as well. I should ask one of our former jazz DJs, Dick Bishop, about Jilly's piano bar; I'll bet he dropped by a few times in his youthful goin'-to-Chicago jazz days.