ghost of miles

Also just now remembered Nat Hentoff's liners from the 1960 album LEEWAY: So that would place Massey as first having heard (& presumably met) Morgan around 1953 or 1954. Maybe McCoy Tyner could shed more light on their early friendship? Alun Morgan refers to Massey's going to Europe with Shepp in 1969 and being interviewed by Francois Postif for Le Jazz Hot. (Liner notes to BLUES TO COLTRANE.) That's one interview I didn't track down or read, but here's some bibliographical info: François Postif: Cal Massey, in: François Postif: Jazz Me Blues. Interviews et portraits de musiciens de jazz et de blues, Paris 1998 [book: Outre Mesure], p. 279-282 (I; Reprint, from: Jazz Hot, #264 (Sep.1970)

I'll check my notes & articles on Massey in my Night Lights files when I go back to work on Monday... Massey was in Philadelphia off and on throughout the 1950s, so I'm assuming that's how he & Lee hooked up (he also allegedly introduced Coltrane to McCoy Tyner).

It's what the Continental Op uses when he puts the slug on a bad guy. How many "lost stories" do we have to go, JM? Best wishes to you on this day.. hope you get to spin some Duke, read some Dash, and enjoy an extra-long birthday weekend!

Saw these guys in Bloomington just a couple of weeks ago, and it was a great show (plus the always-awesome IU Soul Revue opened for 'em... flash me back to the 70's, Jack! I wish I'd been of age for that soul-big-band scene...) And yeah, Grant Jr. is a surprisingly good vocalist--they did "Just My Imagination" live and stretched it out a good 10-15 minutes overall. Definitely an act worth catching if they come through your town. Reuben autographed my LOVE BUG and BLUE MODE cds... I was a happy man.

This week on Night Lights it’s Come On Down to Central Avenue as we explore the sounds of the mid-20th-century Los Angeles jazz scene with historian Steve Isoardi (editor of the oral history book Central Avenue Sounds). Jam sessions, bebop, r & b, big bands, visits from Hollywood celebrities—as the center of African-American culture in L.A., Central Avenue had it all. We’ll hear the music of artists such as Dexter Gordon, Howard McGhee, Hadda Brooks, Charles Mingus, Gerald Wilson, Lionel Hampton, and many other eventual jazz greats who got their start on the Avenue, or who spent significant time there…. and we’ll verbally stroll through the vibrant streets of the Central Avenue neighborhood circa 1945 with Mr. Isoardi. “Come On Down to Central Avenue” airs Saturday, February 17 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 10 p.m. EST Sunday, February 18 on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. (WNIN-Evansville is doing their spring fund-drive this week and will air our spring funder, "Bop! Go the Big Bands.") The program will be posted late Monday in the Night Lights archives. Next week: Steve Isoardi joins us again for "One More You Wrote Through Us: Horace Tapscott."

That's when all the gnome party-people come out.

Mr. Moto V. 2 out this past week. My copy should be showing up early next week... my wife & I blew through the V. 1 films the first couple of weeks that we had them. And some Larry Sanders fans are unhappy about this. I'm inclined to go along with the "better-than-nothing" line of thinking, having waited years for Season 2 to emerge on DVD... LS was a show I made time for when I'd stopped doing such things for the most part regarding TV.

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.