ghost of miles

Some of said intelligent commentary in this particular program comes via Larry Kart--with full accreditation, of course. (And thanks again to Larry for clarifying Blue Note's mix-up of his liner notes for the LP issue of CONSEQUENCE.) "Jackie & Lee" is now archived. For more Jackie, there's "We'll Keep Loving You" and a very early show, "Destination Out".

Right on both counts re: "Uncle Remus," Larry. That Mosaic Herman was a real godsend for Berman fans... not just alternate takes, iirc, but material that either had never been issued or had only come out on 78s long, long ago. BTW last week I pulled out the Mosaic Pacific Jazz Piano Trio set for totally unrelated reasons and noticed that Jimmy Rowles does Berman's "Sonny Speaks" on it.

Heard Michael play that not long ago at Bear's Place, and it's a great arrangement!

PM sent re: Herb Geller, Shelly Manne, and Red-Warne.

Followup post at the New England Jazz History database which makes more mention of the Night Lights show and also Organissimo (including that man of mystery "Christiern" ... btw, I spotted him browsing the board yesterday).

Allen, thanks for the tip--another board member just PM'd me & offered to fax said notes. I also tracked down a 1962 Harvey Pekar article from Jazz Journal; IU has it on microform, so I should be able to get a copy of that tomorrow. It's been great revisiting Berman's work--I love his solos on tracks like "Nocturne" and "Lost Weekend." A friend here at the university loaned me a mess of live broadcasts that I'd never heard before, and I've been making my way through those as well... much more Berman floating around than I'd previously realized. (For anybody who's a fan or interested, it's yet another reason to pick up the Herman Mosaic, too.)

Hey all, I'm working on a Night Lights show about Sonny Berman--taping is scheduled for tomorrow, but I may have to postpone, as the usually-reliable IU School of Music library has hardly any of the articles about him that have appeared over the years. I'm looking for these in particular: Alun Morgan, "The Short Life of Saul Berman" in The Note 14/2 (Summer 2005, pg. 6-8) Bob Melvin, "Sonny Berman" in Joslin's Jazz Journal, 24/4 (Nov. 2005, pg. 5-6) Harold S. Kaye, "Sonny Speaks" in IAJRC Journal, 14/2 (April 1981, pg. 6-8) Ira Gitler talks about Sonny Berman in JAZZ MASTERS OF THE 1940s, Eugene Chadbourne did a write-up for AMG, and there's some discussion of Berman in Loren Schoenberg's great notes for the Herman Columbia Mosaic. If anybody out there has access to any of the above articles, or knows of any others on Berman, could you drop me a PM? Many thanks!

It's good, a peppy but not too-over-the-top version of "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" (I wanted to use it for a seasonal Afterglow program) with nice solos by Frank Wess, Hank Jones, and muted trumpet from Joe Wilder. Haven't heard the rest of the LP, but I'm going to ask our engineer to transfer it to cd-r.

Hell of a bargain--unfortunately for improv artists, it often is. The musicians who come through B-town, who often find a receptive but smallish audience, make more money selling their own CDs after their performance.

I pulled our station's LP copy of the 1957 Savoy release JAZZ IS BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER today for an A.K. Salim track and noted the opening paragraph of the album's liner notes, by one H. Alan Stein: Now, in some respects the Internet in recent years has roughly mirrored certain aspects of the above... for example, the ability of all of us to gather here and talk about jazz in a way that was impossible for many of us before. And the wealth of CD reissues in the past 15 years has given us an opportunity to enjoy, on a large scale, the recordings of many previous eras of the music. Throw in the wide world of Internet radio, which allows me to listen to Steve Schwartz, Lazaro Vega, Michael Bourne, and many others, and there's a bit more replication... But damn, the liner notes above, in their own flagwaving way, convey a sense of the music really happening in the culture to a degree that's since receded.

PM sent re: Duke and Randy Weston.

Larry, any chance Da Capo would pick up your book as a paperback reprint? I concur with Mr. Sangrey re: this Coltrane "tome," as our friend Hardbop used to say; would rather wait for a Porter revision, but even that doesn't seem particularly imperative to me at this point.

This week on Night Lights it’s “Jackie and Lee: a Hardbop Dynamic Duo,” featuring the mid-1960s Blue Note recordings of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and trumpeter Lee Morgan. Both veterans of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, McLean and Morgan joined in the studio on several occasions to produce some of the most searing hardbop records Blue Note ever put out. Their trenchant, biting attack, an ability to convey a kind of street lyricism, and a sardonic humor in Morgan’s approach coupled with an edgy pathos in McLean’s led jazz writer David Rosenthal to call them “a frontline match made in hardbop heaven.” We’ll hear selections from the Morgan album Infinity and the McLean LP Consequence, in addition to sides from Morgan’s Cornbread date and the Grachan Moncur album Evolution. “Jackie and Lee” airs Saturday, May 12 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 morning in the Night Lights archives. You can watch Lee Morgan with the Jazz Messengers in 1965 here. Next week: "Jivin' With the DJs."

Won't matter in 10 years when A-Rod passes Bonds.

Just got a promo of this (the America session) in the mail this a.m. and am listening now... sounds great so far. Opening track is "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Haven't liked said song this much in a long time!

Out tomorrow: Already snagged a copy from my local dealer... anybody who likes Elliott's Kill Rock Stars period (Elliott Smith and Either/Or) would dig this compilation. Favorite tracks so far for me: Angel in the Snow New Monkey Going Nowhere Go By Placeholder Seen How Things Are Hard Pretty Mary K (other version... not an alternate take, but a completely different song) See You Later (solo version of a song he did with Heatmiser)

Same with the Johnny Mercer--"roughly two weeks," I was just told. I'm ordering it, the new Cohn Select, and the Chu Berry.

I pulled out CHASIN' THE GYPSY the other day for a show & realized I haven't heard much about him in the past couple of years. Is he still on Sony? He did that Pavement tribute and an organ-trio record, but his profile seems to have dropped somewhat... I know some viewed him as the Great Hope and others as the Great Hype back in the day (mid-1990s); I'll confess to being a fan who's lost track the past several years (never have checked out the Holiday tribute, which might be really good, for all I know... just put off by the concept, which has been done to death & seemed like a label idea). Any news on what he might be up to these days? His Sony site looks dormant.

Jazztrain, my friend (with whom I believe you have a more than passing acquaintance ) saw the same post at Bixology; also says mention of the set was made last night on Rich Conaty's The Big Broadcast.

A friend of mine reports that Mosaic may be doing a Red Nichols set. Anybody else heard this or have more info?

Chromatic, I don't know the answer to that question, but check out this very recent post at the New England Jazz History database by Chet Williamson. The second post in the reply field is from a relative of Higginbotham's and lists some surviving family members... maybe they would know, if you could run down their contact info? A colleague of mine here at the station ran across this post last week because of its reference to the Night Lights program... evidently Williamson is going to post a second entry; he might know as well where Higginbotham died. One of the best sources of info on Kitchings, btw--if you haven't come across it already--is in Sally Placksin's American Women in Jazz.

Forgot to mention that this is airing tonight on Blue Lake at 10 p.m. Yes, these are great dates--I thank Jim Sangrey for turning me on to them. A double-disc V. 3 came out shortly after this show last year... don't know if those tracks are yet available through Sonny's site or not.

Biography? I was quite a fan as an adolescent. Right now: Gerald Clarke's Judy Garland bio, GET HAPPY.

We will be re-airing this program Saturday night on WFIU. In the meantime, it's already archived for online listening under the date of May 20, 2006. Also, Rollins himself is now offering many of these tracks for purchase through his website. Next week: "Jackie and Lee."

Bob Enevoldsen's last name? (Thanks, btw, to all who've replied... there are several book and online guides for classical pronouncers, but so far I've found only one very incomplete online resource for jazz names).