ghost of miles

I think that would be 4:05 a.m. GMT for the WFIU broadcast, 3:05 a.m. for the WNIN broadcast. Pretty late/early... if you can't catch it live, it should be available by Monday evening (UK time) at the archives link posted above & in my signature.

Clem, it wasn't an issue with lyricism for me--I really liked his pared-down style in AMERICAN TABLOID & in LA CONFIDENTIAL. It was what I felt to be an inflation/exaggeration of that style. (Apropos of this, I opened COLD SIX THOUSAND the other day to look up a certain passage and stumbled across this: "Pete gulped. Pete swallowed. Pete choked his gum back." I mean, that's just ludicrous, and what drove me crazy about the book when I read it... it seemed like Ellroy was degenerating into "See Spot run" territory.) The story was pretty good, though I recall it seemed as if JE telescoped the last year or two... I got the feeling I was reading part of his infamous outline, rather than his narrative. Agree w/you that there's an end-of-the-line feeling to it, but evidently JE's resurrecting the same characters for the final book. (Wonder if he'll ever get around to writing his Harding/early 1920s book... that would be a good read, I think. The 1920s seem like a good era for JE to explore.) I remember another anachronism from COLD SIX: Pete B. chewing Nicorette gum. Not important in terms of critical estimation, just creates a passing raised-eyebrow effect when you're reading.

This week on Night Lights it’s The French Connection. This 1971 crime drama was based on a real-life early-1960s New York City investigation that resulted in what was, at that time, the largest heroin bust ever in the United States . The film, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Schneider as characters modeled on narcotics officers Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, was a box-office smash and won five Academy Awards. The soundtrack was composed and recorded by trumpeter Don Ellis, who had worked with musicians such as Charles Mingus, George Russell, and Maynard Ferguson before going on to form a progressive late-1960s big band renowned for its complex time signatures and its use of electronic and rock elements. (A critic once called Ellis “the Stan Kenton of the 1970s.”) In his score Ellis attempted to capture the sounds and feel of New York City circa 1970; ultimately he created not only a musical backdrop of urban drama, but also the sense of a system going dangerously awry, a country in the throes of Vietnam and on the verge of Watergate. (At times it sounds like Stan Kenton having a rather unpleasant psychedelic experience—and I mean that in a good way.) “The French Connection” airs Saturday, December 2 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU, at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville, and at 10 p.m. EST Sunday evening on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. The program will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. Special thanks to board member White Lightning for suggesting this program. French Connection factoid: Friedkin’s first two picks to play Popeye Doyle, the role eventually taken by Gene Hackman, were comedian Jackie Gleason and New York City columnist Jimmy Breslin. Hackman won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance. Next week: "The Arrival of Victor Feldman."

Saw Dennis Gonzalez' remarks over at Jazzcorner and wanted to echo them--you're a very sharp interviewer, Lazaro. Great questions--smart, insightful, and concise--radio-friendly and engaging. And it was a pleasure to hear Henry on violin. I remember him talking a bit about playing that instrument as a kid when he was here last year.

Wow--just came across this today. Much of it is a magazine re-telling of MY DARK PLACES, but the last two pages provide some info on why we haven't heard much from Ellroy for the past several years. I think I've said this before, but I wondered where he'd go as a writer after MY DARK PLACES, which seemed like a dangerous excavation of the psyche; and THE COLD SIX THOUSAND was, IMO, a very disappointing followup to AMERICAN TABLOID. Plus Ellroy's style was veering into the realm of self-parody, bogging down in ridiculous amounts of alliteration, the punchiness seemingly becoming more inflated and less substantial. Not surprising that a guy who once told a friend of mine to "pursue your hideous obsessions" would again find himself verging on addictive madness... but I liked this piece more than anything else I've read by him in quite awhile, and it seems to reclaim the classic Ellroyian style: James Ellroy comes home

"Universal Indians," oh yeah! HG back on bass--LV, it's on LOVE CRY. Lovin' the phenomenon of Internet radio...

Listening right now--Henry's on violin!

It came out a couple of times, on a 1984 Book of the Month Club 4-LP set and on a Joyce LP called MISCELLANEOUS. If anybody has it, particulary in MP3 form, can you contact me via PM in the next several hours? Many thanks!

La Violette's an interesting cat--Gioia wrote about him some in West Coast Jazz. He influenced a # of the West Coasters, evidently.

Very cool, Lazaro--thanks for posting. I'll be sure to tune in for this.

Leaving aside the "one that went OOP before I could buy it" rejoinder, I'd say the Charles Brown. I like to throw that one on late at night when I'm in a funk.

This program is now archived.

Yes--some of those early Manne records (THE THREE & THE TWO) and other LPs by the folks named above have been discussed a number of times here on the board. There was a lot more to the West Coast sound than jammin' at the Lighthouse (nothing against that, either--I have & like a lot of those sides as well).

I've developed quite an interest in Albany over the years & would like to hear this. His daughter's memoir, discussed elsewhere on this board, is quite a read. Allen Lowe knew him & I'm sure will have something to add to this thread when/if he's heard this music. (Allen, was it Albany you quoted as saying, "I'd never go into a basement with Charlie Parker?" )

Mosaic says they'll look into a James MGM set. BTW, I also asked about the Goodman, and they say they're still contemplating a set of pre-WWII big-band material.

Starting some preliminary work on a J.R. Monterose Night Lights program. I've already got JAYWALKIN', the Blue Note, THE MESSAGE, IN ACTION, and LIVE AT THE TENDER TRAP. Have the Charles, Mingus, Eardley, and Jazz Prophets material as well... and I think we may have the Munich on LP at the station. Any other recs from the dates listed in Mike's discography? Thanks much, as always.

Been listening today to this one: ...and it's "very fine" indeed, as you say, Chuck. Liner notes say James did nine albums all together for MGM... I have one other CD, THE SILVER COLLECTION, which has no overlap with the Verve comp above (all material on both CDs drawn from the MGM recordings to which Chuck refers). Evidently a couple of the LPs were attempts to go "modern," to some extent, and tracks like "Walkin'" on the Jazz Masters anthology sound pretty good in that vein. I'm going to e-mail Mosaic and ask if they've ever thought of doing something from this period of James.

Excellent news if that proves to be the case! Thanks for the update, Roger.

"I'm tellin' ya, I see a coat like that, I wanna eat hot dogs and potato salad off of it!!"

Up for broadcast later tonight on WNIN and WFIU at the links above--forgot to mention that there is a previous Mary Lou Williams Night Lights program, devoted to her sacred music, that's posted online here. Some discussion of the Mary Lou Williams Collective (headed by Geri Allen) re-recording of The Zodiac Suite (a fine CD in and of itself) here and here.

You can find other recent Grimes-related releases on his website.

Hey, if you want rage in a red sport coat, have I got the guy for you! Of course, Mr. Knight's second-preferred sport is bowling-for-referees:

This week on Night Lights it’s “Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite.” In 1945 pianist, composer and arranger Mary Lou Williams debuted her first extended work, The Zodiac Suite, with musical movements for each sign of the zodiac. Williams was 35 years old, already a veteran of the swing era; she was playing regularly at New York City’s Café Society, hosting a weekly radio program, and had begun a fruitful recording relationship with Moe Asch’s label (which would eventually become Folkways). She was also at the center of a circle of emerging bebop greats that included Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. In the midst of this busy period she composed The Zodiac Suite, a series of modernistic sketches that were dedicated to various friends and fellow musicians. In addition to the recordings she made for Asch’s label, she also performed the work live on several occasions; we’ll hear excerpts from two of those, one a December 31, 1945 concert at New York City’s Town Hall, the other a 1957 appearance at Newport with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. We’ll hear a number of the original Asch sides as well. “Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite” airs Saturday, November 25 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU, 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville, and at 10 p.m. EST Sunday evening on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. The program will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. You can read more about Mary Lou Williams and her career here. Next week: "The French Connection."

What I find rather ironic about the fallout from this is the talk that Richards' career is "over" "finished." Uh--just glancing at his credits in IMDB, I'd say it's been "finished" for about six years now. OTOH, as my brother observed, this does put the lie to the cliche "there's no such thing as bad publicity."