ghost of miles

Picked up a new DVD reissue of a film that I have fond memories of watching with my father when I was a boy: Emperor of the North Incredibly violent but compelling Depression-era train tale made in the early 1970s, with Lee Marvin as a superlative bum, Ernest Borgnine as a sadistic railroad employee, and Keith Carradine as a hobo-wannabe just bordering on punk (in the prison sense of the term).

Excellent! In the words of those immortal hair-metal bards Cinderella, "Don't know what you've got till it's gone."

Nelson Algren, NONCONFORMITY.

A good, melodically-infectious band called Roughwave at the Landlocked record shop here in Bloomington.

Man, thanks so much for passing that along, Lazaro. Hopefully she'll check out the "Contact" tab on the site, because I could send her some material that didn't end up on the show. It would be nice to see some label do for Webster what Jazz Oracle did for Jack Purvis a couple of years back.

It's a fight between Duke Ellington's "I've Never Felt This Way Before" and the Stone Roses' "Standing Here".... slight edge to the Roses, as they're such absolutely great summertime music, and the weather here today is right in tune with their sound.

One of Wilder's earliest screenplays is Garbo's NINOTCHKA. Love that film! In addition to the films listed, also really dig THE APARTMENT (1960).

This week on Night Lights it's "Strange City: The Secret Music of Herbie Nichols." When pianist Herbie Nichols died of leukemia at the age of 44 in 1963, he left behind dozens of unrecorded compositions. Some of them were entrusted to friend and trombonist Roswell Rudd, while others remained undiscovered for decades, until the efforts and detective work of a group known as the Herbie Nichols Project found them in the Library of Congress and elsewhere. For the past 10 years the Herbie Nichols Project has been performing and recording Nichols' music, much of it never put on vinyl by Nichols himself. (Nichols recorded only a handful of LPs for the Blue Note and Bethlehem labels in the mid-1950s.) We'll hear music from all three of their CDs--LOVE IS PROXIMITY and DR. CYCLOPS' DREAM on the Soul Note label, and STRANGE CITY, the most recent recording (2001), released by Palmetto. In addition, Project co-leader and pianist Frank Kimbrough will talk about the group and the Nichols compositions that it's recorded. This program is a repeat of a September 25, 2004 broadcast, and therefore already archived for listening under that date. It will air at 11:05 p.m. EST Saturday night on WFIU, 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville, and at 10 p.m. EST Sunday night on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio FM 90.3 and 88.8. The best biographical pieces on Nichols to date can be found in A.B. Spellman's 1967 book Four Jazz Lives. Roswell Rudd's liner notes for the original Mosaic box-set of Nichols' Blue Note recordings are fascinating as well, but hard to find these days. Frank Kimbrough and Ben Allison contributed a combined musical/biographical essay to the 1997 Blue Note commercial re-issue of the same recordings. The website for the Herbie Nichols Project can be found here. Next week: "Nat King Cole's St. Louis Blues."

I'll try that--I'm not a fan of the new system either.

The track that grabs me the way I guess "The Sidewinder" is supposed to grab most folks is "Yes I Can, No You Can't," the opening number off The Gigolo. That one could go on and on, as far as I'm concerned... good one to blast in the car while driving around during the summer.

I'd buy it too, as I also dig TF's work around this time--but I'm also buying the Hill material as well. The new house is starting to fill up already...

Ecstasy vs. cocaine.

for Sonny. I'm listening to LIVE IN LONDON V. 3 right now and eagerly awaiting his new one.

Wanted to hip folks with an interest in Cleveland/midwest jazz to Joe Mosbrook's longstanding episodic series... he's a great guy, gave me some help with the Freddie Webster Night Lights (check out his own Webster segment): Jazzed In Cleveland He has a book out on the subject as well, though I think you have to contact him directly to buy it.

Jim, Sounds like a good lesson for a jazz musician--or any other artist--or simply a human being. Thanks, as always, for your words, even in the context of an NBA thread.

Buell Neidlinger? I'm inclined to say, BEW-el NEED-linger... would I be inclined wrong?

I'll double Chuck's vote for the 1934-40 material. Did the DRUM reissue project get aborted because it was a Schaap affair?

Booking info Looks like they tap WICR, which was playing THIS IS THE PLACE quite a lot. I'm thinking "Tufty" is most likely the same Tufty who played/plays in the Zero Boys--Indianapolis' claim to fame in international punk rock circles.

OK, another Indy venue for Organissimo to consider--the Frank and Joe Show is playing there this week (they're currently in the station, doing an on-air interview w/Joe Bourne): Radio Radio This is also in the Fountain Square area, one of the coolest neighborhoods in Indy IMO.

Actually, Allen has confided to me that it is an 18-CD set of "laughing records." I'm biting on the $90 offer. Too good to pass up.

Boy, the speed on this sure beats Sony's Miles series!

I think Juneteenth, which did indeed have its roots in Texas, has come to have a much broader meaning for African-Americans that goes well beyond the state itself. But believe it or not, my friend Nate Sutton--who hails from the Lone Star State--is helping me with an upcoming Night Lights show entitled, "It Came From Texas." I kid you not!

We'll be hitting our 7th next week, which is actually our 14th, in a way--we got married on the 7th anniversary of our first date. Very, very happy, and best wishes to you, JP--as well as you, Weizen, and all other happily married board members.

My understanding is that Sonny himself doesn't want these unissued recordings coming out.