ghost of miles

When I read your notes, Allen, I thought you'd come across a lost Bix composition--"I Am a Swan''--but then I remembered that that's what Bix said. BTW, thanks for the bonus Buddy Bolden cylinder that came with it!

There's a possible RCA set in the works, but not by any of the above-mentioned artists. No green light to say more about it at this point... and the Goodman Sony-licensed set is apparently still on the back burner. Still crossing my fingers for a Duke box next year.

I didn't end up getting a chance to catch it--will have to check the FA archive. A friend mentioned (as did GA elsewhere) that Boyd produced P-Floyd's "Arnold Layne," and I'd totally forgotten about that... he talks a fair amount about Floyd/Syd in one of the bios that I read.

Hey, thanks for the info, sheldonm... we've already got a 75th b-day Night Lights show for Slide in the hopper. I'll make sure Joe Bourne gets this info for his weekday afternoon show here at the station.

"The International Sweethearts of Rhythm" is now archived.

He also produced Fairport Convention and an R.E.M. album (Fables of the Reconstruction). I'll try to check it out; I think FA is in fund-drive mode this week, so not sure whether we're carrying this particular show or not.

In the announcement e-mail they sent out today, they refer to building a separate website for Mosaic Contemporary. I suppose that could simply mean a new page on the existing Mosaic site, but still had a kind of "other side of the tracks" sound to it.

I think VF was 10 when he sat in with Glenn Miller's band; the English press called him "Kid Krupa." Did a show on Feldman not too long ago that taps some of the LPs mentioned in this thread.

This week on Night Lights it’s “The International Sweethearts of Rhythm.” The Sweethearts of Rhythm, considered today to be the most renowned of the 1940s “all-girl” bands, emerged in the late 1930s from the Piney Woods School, a foster-child institution for African-American children in Mississippi. The “International” part of their moniker was inspired by the Chinese, Hawaiian, Mexican, and Native American heritage of some of the members. By 1941 the Sweethearts were playing the Apollo Theater in Harlem and garnering rave reviews in the African-American press; the advent of World War II, which led to the propagation of numerous all-girl bands, only lifted the Sweethearts’ profile even higher. Their hard-swinging sound won them fans such as Count Basie, Jimmy Lunceford, and Louis Armstrong, and in 1945 they toured Europe, playing for military audiences who had followed them through Jubilee broadcasts. We’ll hear some of those Jubilee broadcasts as well as some of the rare studio recordings that the band made. Their story is told at length in Antoinette Handy’s The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Sally Placksin’s American Women in Jazz, and Sherri Tucker’s Swing Shift (an excellent book that looks at all of the all-women bands of the 1940s). You can see a video of the band performing “Jump Children” here. “The International Sweethearts of Rhythm” airs Saturday, March 17 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 EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. The program will be posted Monday evening in the Night Lights archives. Next week: "Here Comes the Sun: Nina Simone on RCA."

Up for this coming Sunday:

The Johnny Mercer should be out in late April. Haven't heard anything yet about future possibilities beyond what's listed on the Mosaic page.

Wasn't Jimmy Forrest's "Night Train" popular with strippers in the 1950s?

I still have only the first, Clem, but have some $$ on the way from a gig in April that should enable me to pick up L-O-V-E, or whatever the second set is called. Lots of great Nat I'd never heard before (& it's amazing how well much of the material turned out, considering how prolifically Capitol was recording him--six albums in 1958 alone). Yeah, a 1950-54 set would be great, because a lot of that music falls into a gap between the Mosaic and the existing Bears, and a lot has never come out on CD at all--some of it, I think jtaylor (board member involved with these sets) says hasn't even ever showed up on LP.

What about WGBH, Allen? Any shows there that would go for it? You might also check with Johnny E & find out what stations/shows were receptive to the Reptet.

Have you tried Lazaro and Blue Lake Public Radio in Michigan?

If this pans out, I'll be making a happy revision to my '08 jazz budget.

Gotcha--much admiration for the Silkheart label, but I'll confess unfamiliarity (obviously) with Mr. Williams. I'll keep an eye out for it, though; that's the kind of title Jason might even have in stock down at Landlocked. Just pulled out another one I should've copped to immediately--Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a Jubilee broadcast of "Down By the Riverside" with Lucky Millinder.

BTW, the CD that comes with that new Isoardi book about Horace Tapscott includes a really good version of a Tapscott small group doing "Motherless Child" circa 1995 with Dwight Tribble on vocals.

Yeah--shows what happens when you read a post after taking out your contact lenses. I was pulling out my Booker Ervin CDs thinking "WTF, Booker recorded 'Go Tell It On the Mountain'? How did I miss that one?" Booker T. was actually a student here at IU in the mid-1960s. Our former station manager was one of his teachers over at the School of Music... told me recently he had no clue as to who Booker was, just that he often said he'd be missing Friday or Monday classes because he had to go down south for the weekend on a business trip... (recording hit singles, of course--should've gotten some kind of extracurricular credit for that, don'tcha think?)

Yes indeed, a bit upstream the thread... GOIN' HOME one of the first albums that came to mind. (Don't know if that was its original title--I have the Black Lion CD. Wasn't this session the flipside to WITCHES & DEVILS?) This show's for the upcoming Easter weekend. Recorded the same day as Witches and Devils but NEVER the flipside. That's what I meant--bad choice of metaphor on my part (esp. amongst this crowd ), but my understanding was that this was AA's "nice" session, and that WITCHES & DEVILS--done the same day--was intended to be the more "out" session. And yeah, the Shepp/Parlan you're suggesting is the one I alluded to earlier... I have a buddy here in town who's trying to dig out his copy from the vast vault known as his collection right now.

Yes indeed, a bit upstream the thread... GOIN' HOME one of the first albums that came to mind. (Don't know if that was its original title--I have the Black Lion CD. Wasn't this session the flipside to WITCHES & DEVILS?) This show's for the upcoming Easter weekend. Thanks for the rec, Allen. I remembered that Armstrong did some spirituals back in the 1930s for Decca (also in the 1950s with LOUIS & THE GOOD BOOK); also Ellington for the FDR memorial broadcast, and then there's the Fats Waller material as well. A friend of mine mentioned a Teagarden LP from the 1950s too.

Chuck recommended it a few months ago... I'm going to tap it for the annual November Hoagy Afterglow.

So the secret's out... btw, I like your signature! (Speaking of Earl Hines, recently got that 2-CD set that includes PLAYS HOAGY CARMICHAEL, HANDY, etc... great stuff!)

Thanks much, Brownie--looks like the local library has a copy of that on the shelf, so I'm going to hop on my eco-friendly vehicle (a.k.a. "bike" ) and go down there to pick it up. Pulled Grant Green's FEELIN' THE SPIRIT, Ayler's GOIN' HOME, Haden/Jones' STEAL AWAY, and UGMAA doing "Motherless Child" off the shelf when I left the house today... hunting around right now for a copy of Shepp/Parlan. A last-minute taping substitution, as you might gather...

Hey all, I'm working on a Night Lights program about jazz interpretations of spirituals... does anybody know of a good book/article/reference resource on spirituals and their origins (referring to specific spirituals)?