ghost of miles

Interesting fact in this AP story just off the wire (highlighted in bold):

The Night Lights engineer is a Colts fan but grew up in "Da Region" and followed the Bears as a kid. He said last week that such a Superbowl match-up would present him with a happy dilemma. I suspect he won't be alone in the northwestern Indiana area.

Thanks for the rec, Larry--I'll pick this one up. That Rugolo was already on my wish list, so it's good to read a positive review from you. I'm going to be listening to that Collette audio autobiography in the coming week.

Hey all, we just added two pages to the Night Lights website: Night Lights community Night Lights artists The "community" page is a sort of friends/allies site--links there to Nate Dorward's blog, sheldonm's great jazz photography site, Stereojack's record store, Chris Albertson's wikipedia entry, the Blue Lake Public Radio site, etc. The "Artists" page is a collection of websites for various jazz greats who've been the focus of Night Lights shows (in the instance of multiple sites for artists such as Coltrane, Duke, etc., I tried to pick the one that seemed to me the best... suggestions/additions/revisions welcome as always). The new-page links are only on the home site right now, but our webmaster will be adding them to the navigation bars next week. We're also going to update the Jazz News of Note page much more frequently... feel free to e-mail or PM me with suggestions for that as well. We talked about possibly trying to make it into a "Jazzmatazz" sort of page, but I don't have the time or resources right now to undertake such a project. Right now the only releases posted there are ones everybody on this board already knows about--the Mosaic Selects, the next round of RVGs, etc.--but I'd like to put up more news about items such as the Elaine Brown/Horace Tapscott Seize the Time reissue. In any event, we'll be stocking this page more regularly from now on. Also very seriously thinking about starting a YouTube jazz cache page, with links to jazz videos that have been posted there (and other videos of cultural interest from the 1945-1990 era). Last but not least, hoping to finally, finally update the Book Nook page with post-Aug. 2004 additions such as Larry's book, Dan Morgenstern's anthology, and about half a dozen other titles. I'll be sending the webmaster that info this weekend, so with luck it will be up by Wednesday or Thursday. Thanks much in advance for any feedback that might be offered.

Isn't this where the Cafe Rouge was? Hotel Pennsylvania to be torn down

I played a cut off each (albeit an excerpt in the case of the Dorham), but have you heard THE MESSAGE or IN ACTION? I like them even more than the Blue Note.

Ahem. The price of popularity, I'd wager.

"The Best Tenor You Never Heard: J.R. Monterose" is now archived.

That was a good one. I've got this one up on the wall at work.

for this set, but esp. for ANGEL STREET, the album which makes up most of disc 2. Having listened all the way through twice now, I'd say FOREIGN INTRIGUE does the least for me... the band & Williams' writing seem to get better and better as the music progresses. I'll keep an eye out for that Tokyo recording.

Yes, I read this last night on the JPL list & thought the same. Thanks for posting it here.

"The Chums of Chance"--I love it. Brings back memories of my grandfather's Don Sturdy adventures, which I devoured as a kid. Luc Sante's review in the NY Review of Books (online here) has really made me want to read this book. When it comes to Pynchon I've read only "the short one" (Crying of Lot 49), but I'm growing more & more inclined towards picking this one up (and doing some deep knee-bends, perhaps, between chapters). Anybody else tackle it yet? I seem to recall Clem making some mention of undertaking the Great Odyssey.

Too young to really remember the AFL, but I sure read about all of those early pre-merger Super Bowls when I was a kid (anybody else ever have those little NFL history hardback books as a kid?). But I was way into the ABA... I remember listening to Indiana Pacers-Kentucky Colonels games on my transistor radio after I'd gone to bed. George McGinnis (Big Mac, hometown hero) for the Pacers, Artis Gilmore for the Colonels... and Julius Erving was in the same league too, playing for the Sixers. Good 1970s memories! I'm with my brothers (who are much better-versed in such matters these days than I): much prefer NE at home to SD on the road, and anyway, my gut says that the jinx is up in the Colts-Pats rivalry.

Up for MLK Day 2007--the program is still archived. Also don't forget jazzshrink's mention of WGBH tonight. Happy MLK Day to all.

Trying not to follow this (although it's getting harder & harder, living in Indiana), but I know my brothers were really pulling for NE to win. Not only does that mean a home game for the Colts; it also means not having to face Tomlinson, with the feeling being that the Colts D would not be able to stop a primetime running back three games in a row.

PM sent re: Bley/Peacock ANNETTE Motian BROADWAY 3 Solal JUST FRIENDS

Been reading the van de Leur while working on a future Afterglow show about Strayhorn & wanted to second Larry's recommendation here for those who are interested in his music. Very in-depth analysis & useful in particular for refuting the "DE & BS couldn't tell their work apart" narrative that's taken hold.

Good advice re: Mosaic. They often have a number of replacement discs left over from OOP sets.

Finally, finally, finally. I've been trying to track down Chico's SUCCESS music for ages... would've bought it in 8-track-tape form if necessary. Thanks so much for posting this, TTK.

Will undoubtedly be worth catching--I used to tune in "Eric in the Evening" on my little Internet desk computer when I worked nights at the library. Lots of respect for how much WGBH devotes to jazz.

He was still quite highly thought of around these parts. There are going to be some very sad members of the B-town jazz veteran community this week.

Yes--and Chuck's posted some memories from Monterose's early-1960s Iowa days. (Wasn't Nelson Algren teaching up there around that time, too?) I was only able to get up to 1964 with this show... will probably do a sequel centered around the later recordings somewhere down the line.

Weird and sad--I was just starting to work on a show about her for March. I'd just started to develop an appreciation for her music away from JC in the past several years... a lesser-known side to her story was that she came out of the great late 1950s/early 1960s Detroit jazz scene. (Alice McLeod, right?) The march of death has been brutal of late.

I'm aware of his actual name and the derivation of the nickname, but this seems to be one of those cases where the "incorrect" version has become accepted--Mike Fitzgerald, who's as fierce a stickler for accuracy as anybody I know, lists him as "J.R.," as does the Blue Note album and most other jazz sources that I've come across--hence my use of what seems to me to be the more widely-coined "J.R." Fortunately, I did refrain from using this image for the post:

This week on Night Lights it’s The Best Tenor You Never Heard: J.R. Monterose. J.R. Monterose is a saxophonist rarely heard even by jazz fans, and his most well-known recording, Charles Mingus’ Pithecanthropus Erectus, is one that Monterose himself later all but disowned. He recorded only sporadically as a leader and withdrew from the jazz world several times, woodshedding or playing in towns distant from the music’s metropolitan centers. His sound, although influenced by other tenor horns such as Chu Berry and Sonny Rollins, was all his own, airy and full of weight at the same time, and rife with pleasing, weaving turns of phrase and a compelling, hard-edged honesty. Monterose was active as a sideman during the mid-1950s (a full discography of his career can be viewed here), playing and recording with Mingus, vibraphonist Teddy Charles, pianist George Wallington, and trumpeter Kenny Dorham. We’ll hear several of those recordings and others from dates led by Monterose himself, up to the 1964 album IN ACTION. “The Best Tenor You Never Heard: J.R. Monterose” airs Saturday, January 13 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It also airs Sunday evening at 10 p.m. EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. The program will be posted Tuesday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. Next week: "A Few Words About Jazz."