ghost of miles

Chuck played that same dub of the Cherry material for me several years ago, and it is indeed amazing. I'd buy a Cherry/Lacy release the day it came out. I'd be quite happy to pay a higher-than-usual list price for it, too.

This put me in mind of the part in Miles' autobiography when he tells Bill Evans what he has to do to, uh, get into the band. Weren't Lennon & McCartney on record as hating jazz? Although (as someone else pointed out on another listserv) what they "hated" may have been 1950s British trad jazz... not something I'm terribly fond of myself. Whatever Copeland's sincerity or insincerity, it is true that jazz was no longer a music of rebellion by the time he was growing up--at least in most quarters. Something pivoted between 1954, when you have Brando's motorcycle gang snapping their fingers to bop on the jukebox in THE WILD ONE, and 1956, when you have jazz represented as a snobby, elitist, egghead music in JAILHOUSE ROCK (not to mention BLACKBOARD JUNGLE's infamous jazz-record-trashing scene).

I think that extra Basin Street West material shows up on the Mosaic reissue (though not the studio material of which you speak).

It's Will Friedwald, who's done quite a lot of writing on jazz vocals.. not sure when he started writing for the Sun. The odd thing about that Freddie Redd article is that he never seems to get around to mentioning the upcoming Monday night performance (which surely inspired the column in the first place). More on that here.

My friend who runs Landlocked Records here in B-town just passed along this e-mail from the distributor/label:

I really liked that one myself--anything McNeil's on or does tends to intrigue me. I'd be curious to hear what he does with the Shaggs, though I'll confess to being burned out on that whole "phenomenon" (and the "untalented" phenomenon in general, in indie-rock and other circles).

Great music! And good to know that it's available again...still a shame that Mosaic wasn't ever able to get that Complete Keynote CD set off the ground.

Larry's right--read Hadju for the life story, and van de Leur for the music (wasn't van de Leur at least partly behind some of those "lost-Strayhorn" CDs put out by the Dutch Jazz Orchestra? I have only the first one, but some beautiful music there). FWIW the two authors seem to have had a friendly, mutually-supportive relationship; in fact, I think van de Leur even says much the same as me & Larry in his introduction.

Why, it's a special thanks just for being you! Well, actually, that's true, too... but I quoted something that you said/posted around these parts about Massey as a composer. Ironically enough, when the show aired Sunday evening on Blue Lake, it immediately followed Lazaro's interview with Ornette, in which Lazaro quoted you. In the future I'm going to refer to you as "Musician and sage Jim Sangrey"...

Queen of the Organ

If it's the same one I'm thinking of (2-CD "Complete"), yes. Leon Roppolo on "Tin Roof Blues" always sends me...

As noted elsewhere, I've been enjoying reading Loren Schoenberg's notes again for the Herman Mosaic, so I'm happy to see that he's done the booklet for this set as well.

A new compilation, from what I've heard... I'd be very surprised to see a new studio album.

Yeah, JT's self-broadcast looked pretty dumb... I agree, Johnny. RHCP's performance was lame, but at least they acknowledged Ornette... and I heard that solitary shout, too! I think Ornette stopped and said, "Thank you." Anybody else see the Police at the start of the show? Sting's bulked up... I'd hate to run into him in a dark concert hall.

Stevebop posted this to the Jazz Programmers' List:

Yeah--I used Massey's own version of it in the show. It's also on Lee Morgan's LEEWAY.

"Soulful Days: the Cal Massey Songbook" is now archived. Special thanks to Jim Sangrey.

Exactly... my wife & I both commented on that as we were watching. I think Ornette was a "new artist" to them as well.

Beautiful to hear the audio of that, Lazaro. You had a great rapport with him. My wife just called me in to see Ornette presenting the "Best New Artist" award on the Grammys, so great timing. Ornette at the Grammys--it's like a holy man entering the temple of Babylon.

A van down by the river.

I've long wished that Mosaic would do a Konitz Verve set (and hire you to write the notes, Larry). I know a fair amount of that material has come out over the past 10-15 years on CD, but much of it has gone OOP again. Labels like Gambit do make it problematic for Mosaic, though... they gotta figure that the customer pool for something like a Konitz Verve is only so deep.

Hey, just heard you quote Sangrey... I quote him in the Cal Massey show that follows, too! Jim, you gotta start charging...

I've been revisiting the Woody Herman 1945-47 Columbia box... lots of musical gems here that I'd never heard before (before this set came out, all I had of the Columbia material was the 2-CD BLOWIN' UP A STORM compilation, which is worth checking out for the Ralph Burns liner notes in addition to the "Best of" sides gathered within). Those interested in the young trumpeter Sonny Berman should seek this Mosaic out as well.

Lazaro interviewing Ornette coming up in just a few minutes on Blue Lake.

I invite anybody not acquainted with the Phillips or RCA recordings to check out this show and this show. The Phillips program (drawn from the 2003 box-set) is under September 4, 2004 in the archives; the RCA show is under April 29, 2006. Probably my two favorite periods of Nina recordings, though I like a lot of the Colpix material as well.