ghost of miles

Obit for Mike Evans: I always really liked the Lionel character--didn't realize Evans was connected with "Good Times." Strangely enough, after I read this obituary the other night, I again picked up Steve Isoardi's THE DARK TREE, his recent book about Horace Tapscott, the Arkestra, and jazz & arts in Los Angeles circa 1960-2000. Around 1974 Marla Gibbs met Tapscott and joined the UGMAA (Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension)... not long after that she landed the role of "Flo", the Jeffersons' maid, and retained that role throughout the run of the show. That gig enabled her to put some $$ into the whole Tapscott/UGMAA/Arkestra scene. BTW, a fair amount of talk in that book as well about the Elaine Brown SEIZE THE TIME album, which Jim has started a thread about elsewhere. I'll have to post some of the book's info there later on.

MG, the feeling's mutual... all the way around. The community spirit that exists here year-round is something to treasure & celebrate. Happy holidays, with hopes that all of us find some great jazz under the tree tomorrow.

Another thought, apropos of nothing immediately at hand, I suppose, but haven't we had genre-busters in jazz before? Nina Simone... Nat King Cole... Sister Rosetta Tharpe... without having invested nearly as much listening time in Monday Michiru as you have, Jim, I hear her being somewhat in that tradition... granted, without the popularity (yet, anyway) that any of those performers managed to achieve.

Weirdly enough, immediately after reading the exchanges between Larry & Jim, I went over to the Yahoo Songbirds list and came upon this posted review: Now Dianne Reeves is somebody who's grown on me greatly as a singer in the past several years. Her Blue Note Christmas CD is the best new jazz holiday album I've heard in a long time. And yet I think she's somebody--in spite of her Grammys, or because of them--who gets knocked by both those who argue for a narrow interpretation of jazz, as well as more outside-minded folk who see her as dully picking at bones in the graveyard. I do think that a too-ideological embrace of inclusivity can lead to a none-too-open rejection of things with musical merit... in other words, that a rejection of prejudice can become a kind of prejudice in and of itself. Not that that's what you're really saying, Jim, but some of the rhetoric does seem to potentially wink in that direction. I don't want rigid boundaries, but nor do I want a "Waterloo-Records-of-the-mind" either, I guess. I've thought for a long time, and continue to think, that the configuration of jazz groups will change & evolve, even though certain formats--the piano trio, etc.--will endure just as string quartets endure in classical music. I think a lot of what Jim's saying is very accurate. But I don't think that a continuing appreciation for jazz presented in its more historical forms of delivery is necessarily a sign of impending death. And anyway, jazz has been a "sect" music for a long time now. I want to see it grow aesthetically, I want to see it reach more & younger listeners, and I think--or like to think--that I'm fairly open-minded about how it does that. And yeah, Ellington has the famous quote about there being only two kinds of music... but I also have no problem comprehending what he did as "jazz" and appreciating it as "jazz." Whatever his feelings about that word and its implications, he, to me, is a great example of an artist continuing to grow, staying true to himself, not (for the most part, anyway) bowing awkwardly or desperately to modern trends as he got older, but still managing to infuse his projects with a fresh vitality. Somehow keeping his guard up and his guard down at the same time.

Oh my God, a student reporter for our college newspaper actually wrote that as a mistake several years ago, in an article on a vocal group called Straight No Chaser... she quoted one of the members as saying that the band's name was inspired by a "Felonious Monk song." Sounds like a rapper, eh?

Yet another SNL digital short from A. Samberg & his Lonely Island partners: Natalie Portman's gangsta rap

Another Andy Samberg SNL short, this one from last December: Lazy Sunday

This week it's "The Night Lights Before Christmas," our annual holiday program, with seasonal jazz from Mal Waldron, Elvin Jones, Bill Evans and Jim Hall, Booker Ervin, Coleman Hawkins, and a special Christmas reading from Louis Armstrong. "The Night Lights Before Christmas" airs Saturday, December 23 at 11:05 p.m.. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. Hoping to have the program posted by late tomorrow morning in the Night Lights archives. Happy holidays to all... next week we'll be re-airing the Jackie McLean tribute from last April.

Hey, that's the day I was born! Thanks for posting that column, Brownie. Very interesting. I'd been thinking about picking up the new version, but I'll definitely hold onto the old one if I do.

Hilarious! Anybody else see the NY Times writeup on this the other day? And yeah, after I watched it the other night the damn tune was in my head all the next day. Speaking of Diner (great movie, need to watch it again), I think the Daniel Stern character is a warning to us all.

Yeah, I liked the Shank & played it on the radio. Are these all-new recordings?

I have a New Yorker cartoon pinned up on the bulletin board next to my desk, with two bedraggled, chained-up prisoners sitting forlorn on a jail-cell floor, one of them saying to the other: "It wouldn't be so bad, if they'd just pipe in some jazz." Lately I've really been enjoying the back-page cartoon-caption contest.

Buy only one book or CD per week and concentrate more on reading/listening to what I already have. Exceptions allowed for programming needs, of course.

Miles: Why did you play so long, man? Trane: It took that long to get it all in.

"A Jazzy Quartet" is now archived.

Thanks for the notice--I'll be putting in an order for both sometime after Jan. 1.

Feeling extraordinarily mortal. Some time off, though, so that's nice... enjoying the new Ellington Mosaic, a new batch of Heps, and about to crack the Tony Williams Select. Tonight my wife & I are going to watch a holiday-ish movie we've never seen before, It Happened on 5th Avenue. We have our first Christmas tree in the new house--"the big boy," the employees at the lot called it ( ) and it's striking a very Victorian pose in our library/living room. I'm grateful for all I have in my life and becoming more acutely aware that I haven't given back nearly enough to the world, esp. in light of much more fortunate I am than many others. Along with listening to the new Duke Mosaic, I've been rereading REMINISCING IN TEMPO, the oral history--and in a weird way it's a rather appropriate book for this time of year, in that so much of the humanity of Ellington and his band members comes through, as well as that of the people they encounter (Barney Bigard's story on pg. 220-21 of the hardback edition is a humorous and oddly poignant account of how the band got served in a restaurant outside St. Louis circa 1940; that's one example).

You?! What about me??

Second these, and I'd also add Jervis Anderson's THIS WAS HARLEM (a broader history of the 1900-1950 period, but very useful), George Hutchinson's THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE IN BLACK & WHITE (he also has a new bio out on Renaissance writer Nella Larsen, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet), and David Levering Lewis' WHEN HARLEM WAS IN VOGUE.

Thanks for the correction, Lazaro. Didn't realize B. Lake was doing that, but I'm glad the Christmas show will get an airing up there. Chuck, yeah--I didn't get a chance to fit everything into this show that I wanted to, including Artie's sides with the New String Quartet circa '49... good chance I'll do a followup down the road, and I'll look to include those Goodman/Budapest recordings as part of a flipping-the-coin set. Alocsis, in answer to your post elsewhere, there's a Max double-quartet side at the very end of this show. Hoping I can squeeze "Bird Feathers" into the eventual followup.

But don't you think that it is the small-group nature of these recordings that make them especially attractive? That is one reason why I for one find them so attractive. Oh, sure, but I think they'd like to do the big-band material as well. Cuscuna said several years ago, when I inquired about a possible 1930s full-orchestra set, that Sony wasn't quite willing yet to part with some of the "jazz giant" holdings they had. Maybe they licensed these small-group sessions because a large number of the recordings have been on the market for 15 years. In any event, in the booklet to the new Mosaic Sonny Greer is quoted as raving about how great the late-1930s band was, better in his opinion than the Blanton-Webster unit. I may e-mail Scott Wenzel and find out if they're contemplating having an eventual go at that era, although I'd imagine they're focused on getting out the Goodman set first.

This week on Night Lights it’s More With Four: Jazz and String Quartets as we explore historical recordings of jazz artists and ensembles with string quartets, ranging from Artie Shaw’s augmented orchestra of the late 1930s to Max Roach’s “double-quartet” of the 1980s. We’ll also hear music from saxophonist Lee Konitz (with arrangements by Bill Russo), vibraphonist Joe Roland (playing Miles Davis’ “Half Nelson”), pianist Andrew Hill, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and more. Jazz meets a classic classical format this week on “A Jazzy Quartet,” airing Saturday, December 16 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville; West-Central Michigan listeners can hear it Sunday night at 10 p.m. EST on Blue Lake Public Radio. The program will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. Next week: "The Night Lights Before Christmas."

Hmm... maybe tonight's (for which I'm about to post a topic), "A Jazzy Quartet," featuring jazz soloists or ensembles playing with string quartets. Maybe last week's "The Arrival of Victor Feldman," and the late-November shows on Mary Lou Williams' Zodiac Suite and "The Avant-Garde Plays the Great American Songbook." Hope that helps!

E-mail sent!

Is that the title of a forthcoming book? Happy birthday, Jim, and thanks much for everything. CD-R will be in the mail to you this Saturday by way of a b-day present.