ghost of miles

I think the possible analogy I drew before the playoffs--the 2000 Yanks--is even more apt. Same horrible September, same nearly invincible October.

Saw it on late-night TV a few years back... struck me as very self-indulgent. Much prefer Ornette's soundtrack, which I snagged as a Borders musicseller around the same time (re: Chuck's post, didn't the guy who made the film say something to the effect of, "Ornette's music was too beautiful," or some such? )

Another thumbs-up for this set--it & the Anita were both "wish-come-true" Mosaics for me. If you do a title search under "Eldridge" in the Mosaic forum, you'll pull up several previous threads where there was some discussion of it.

Any word on possible forthcoming volumes in the DETS Treasury series?

Clem, Don't know Mr. Spottswood, but he sounds like a very interesting/heavy guy. Here's a link to that Bear box: West Indian Rhythm

Holy crap!

Many thanks, compadres. Not really related, I suppose, but looking over this thread (and my query re: the early Afro-Cubans material, which I think came out on Decca), I was reminded of what a radio friend told me yesterday: Bear Family's about to put out a huge box of 1939-41 calypso music that came out on the Decca label.

The Cardinals were such a great team in the mid-1960s... I'd like to read a book about that team. Gibson was my favorite player for awhile when I was a little kid, even though he was in the twilight of his career; one of the first baseball cards I ever got was a Topps '74 of BG. Halberstam covers the '64 team in one of his books.

I love the L.A. QUARTET and AMERICAN TABLOID, but after reading MY DARK PLACES--also great--I thought, "How the hell is he gonna keep writing after that?" I think it's always a bit perilous for a writer to excavate as much of his/her psyche as Ellroy did in that one... and I thought THE COLD SIX THOUSAND showed some degenerate tendencies towards self-parody (that whole "see-Spot-run" style JE's been operating in since WHITE JAZZ..."Pete flew fast. Pete flew low. Pete flew solo," etc.). I'll read the next one, whenever it comes out, but don't have high hopes for it. When it comes to the books, my faves are probably TABLOID and THE BIG NOWHERE. Did they strip BLACK DAHLIA's storyline down as well as the writers did in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL?

I completely agree that DJ should reach out to A-Rod (btw, Marty, I think it was Dan's viewpoint & not mine you were quoting earlier about Rodriguez). Jeter should do the manly thing and let bygones be bygones...throw A-Rod a bit of a lifeline. I think it'd make a world of difference. Rodriguez already deferred to Jeter when he came to NY in the first place--at that time, most thought him a better-fielding shortstop than Jeter, but they kept Jeter at ss and moved A-Rod to third. This "Saint Derek" and "Bad, Bad A-Rod" business has gotten to be ridiculous.

1959: Jazz's Vintage Year is now archived for online listening.

Don't know what Marty thinks, but I like Torre a great deal as well--still, I'd say his odds are less than 50-50. Given that he has only one year left on his contract, maybe the Boss can be talked into keeping him on on for one last go-around... but the Yanks' record in the last three playoffs is abysmal, from the end of Game 4 against the Bosox in 2004 onward. Plus what if some other team snaps up Piniella in the meantime? I would not bet on Torre's staying at this point.

Bet there were some good jazz gigs in town that night too. (Although it was a Monday--were most NY jazz bars/clubs open on Monday evenings in the mid-1950s?)

THE great era of New York baseball--Willie, Mickey & the Duke etc. Long live the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field.

More on NY:

Report out today: Much as I like Torre--and as much as I hate Georgie's expectation that the same team should be able to win every year--three successive collapses in the AL postseason is a bit much, given the talent on this team. Frankly, the Yanks should give up on winning the AL East every year and restock the farm system. The late-1990s team had a special chemistry that you can't just create automatically, and the nucleus of that team came out of the farm system (Williams, Rivera, Pettite, Jeter, Posada--other key players, such as O'Neill & Brosius, came from shrewd trades). Ever since 2002 NY has reverted to the Steinbrenner days of yore, trying to fill in gaps and "build" the team with high-priced players past their prime. I will say in Torre's defense that at least NY has made the playoffs every single year that he's managed (as pointed out in the article above). Wonder if Georgie remembers the vast wasteland known as 1982-1994? (Granted, no wild card in those years, and NY would've almost certainly made the playoffs in '94 if it hadn't been for the lockout). Again, though, much of that success built on the mid-1990s nucleus, which neither Torre nor Steinbrenner had anything to do with. Ah well, time for me to start heating up the ol' hot stove... I'll be rooting for Detroit from here on out, and I'd be happy to see the Mets take the NL.

This program will air tonight at 10 EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio.

Can't recall which edition of the Yanks it was--probably the 2000 team--which just sucked & sucked throughout September & continued to suck after several "let's-get-it-together" pep talks from Torre. (I remember Jeter or somebody else saying something to the effect that it's really demoralizing to get yourself all revved up, say, "Yeah, let's turn this around!" and then still get clobbered 15-1, 11-2, etc., by mediocre teams.) I think they finished with 87 wins, or some rather anemic figure by late-1990s NYY standards. When the playoffs began, they suddenly seemed to find their groove again, and went on to win the WS. Unfortunately, looks like my earlier post was prophetic--the Tigers found their groove again just as the Yanks lost theirs. NY peaked too early in the autumn.

This week on Night Lights it's 1959: Jazz’s Vintage Year. The year of 1959 saw an unprecedented spate of jazz masterpieces. Among the albums released or recorded that year were Miles Davis' groundbreaking Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's blockbuster Time Out, John Coltrane's leap forward Giant Steps, Ornette Coleman's avant-garde salvo The Shape of Jazz to Come, Charles Mingus' revolutionary-in-the-tradition Mingus Ah Um, and Bill Evans' piano-trio template Portrait in Jazz. We'll hear music from all of those albums--for more on the year 1959, see the timeline below. "1959" airs Saturday, October 7 at 11:05 EST on WFIU and in a slightly different fund-drive edition at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. (Note: the Blue Lake edition of Night Lights this week is "The Jazz Scene." The fund-drive version of "1959" will air on Blue Lake Sunday, October 22.) Next week: "The Jazz Workshops Part 1." 1959 timeline: January—Fidel Castro takes over Cuba. Alaska admitted as 49th state to U.S. Pope John XXIII proclaims Second Vatican Council. February—Buddy Holly dies in plane crash. March—Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx make their final TV appearance together. Uprising in Tibet against Chinese occupation; Dalai Lama flees to India. Mystery writer Raymond Chandler dies. Movie Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon, premiers. Lester Young dies. First sessions for Kind of Blue. John Coltrane attempts first sessions for what will eventually be released as Giant Steps. April—NASA announces selection of seven astronauts for first U.S. orbital flight. May—Japanese-Americans regain citizenship. Sidney Bechet dies. Ornette Coleman records The Shape of Jazz to Come. Charles Mingus records Mingus Ah Um. June—Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans” begins a six-week stay at #1 on the pop-rock charts. U.S. postmaster general bans D.H. Lawrence’s LADY CHATTERLY’S LOVER. America launches first ballistic-missile-carrying submarine. First sessions for Time Out. July—The so-called Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate.” Billie Holiday dies. August—Hawaii becomes 50th and final (to date) U.S. state. September—WCBS in NYC bans “Mack the Knife” in response to teenage stabbings. TV show “Bonanza” begins 14-year-run on NBC. Soviet space probe Luna 2 becomes first man-made object to reach the moon. Khrushchev tours America; becomes angry when he is refused admittance to Disneyland. October—“Twilight Zone” debuts on TV. Pan American becomes first airline to offer regular flights around the world. Errol Flynn dies of heart attack at age 50. Dr. Werner von Braun begins to work for NASA. November—Charles van Doren admits to House subcommittee that he knew answers in advance on quiz show “Twenty One.” Ford discontinues Edsel. Chubby Checker introduces the Twist on “The Dick Clark Saturday Night Show.” December—Walter Williams, last surviving veteran of the Civil War, dies at the age of 117. First color photograph of Earth received from outer space. Bill Evans records Portrait in Jazz.

Agreed w/Chuck about the rhythm section--another fave is "Monique," which features only them & Gilmore. I played a fair amount of RIKERS on the Night Lights "Resolution: Jazz From Rehab" show, if you want to hear some of it online. Some previous discussion about Riker's in this Elmo Hope thread.

Just picked up the Bill Holman/Mel Lewis Quintet JIVE FOR FIVE cd from this label and am going to spin it on my way up to Indianapolis this afternoon. Got interested in it because Wayne Shorter covers Jimmy Rowles' "502 Blues" on one of his mid-1960s Blue Note albums.

You should be able to reach Cuscuna through Mosaic (info@mosaicrecords.com). I used a track from the London Blakey broadcast for the upcoming Night Lights show.

"If I Should Lose You," very nice. Is this off a relatively recent recording? Very moving version of "I Like the Sunrise" w/Jason Moran on one of the Premonitions, I think.