ghost of miles

I usually mollify myself by reading a baseball book or two. Haven't found one yet for this winter, though I've never gotten around to Halberstam's book about the 1964 season... its time may have come, finally.

This week on Night Lights it’s “Down at the 90th Floor: Dick and Kiz Harp.” Dick and Kiz Harp were a husband-and-wife, piano-and-vocals duo who ran their own nightclub (converted from a warehouse and called “The 90th Floor,” after a lesser-known Cole Porter song they performed) in Dallas , Texas at the end of the 1950s. They’ve developed a cult following among jazz-vocal aficionados on the basis of two obscure LPs. The Harps, influenced by artists such as Sylvia Sims, Anita O’Day, and Dick Marx’s Chicago trio, came up with their own sound—a blend of cabaret, torch song, and Midwestern camp—riding strongly on Kiz Harp’s magnetic stage presence and slightly hoarse, soulful voice (a listener described her as “Jeri Southern smoking two packs a day”). Their career ended suddenly and tragically in 1960. In this edition of Night Lights we’ll hear music from both of their albums (available again at 90th Floor Records) and we’ll talk with Bruce Collier, the founder and owner of 90th Floor Records, who recorded both LPs. “Down at the 90th Floor: Dick and Kiz Harp” airs Saturday, October 28 at 11:05 p.m. on WFIU, at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville and at 10 p.m. EST Sunday evening on Blue Lake Public Radio (tune in early for Lazaro Vega). It will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives.

We got this set last year and have now watched about five or six of the movies--just finished watching ISLE OF THE DEAD about an hour ago (nothing like a good Val Lewton flick around Halloween time). The cinematography in these films is gripping, and they nearly always find a perfect realm somewhere between psychological and supernatural, somehow making events believable in a way that makes the stories truly anxiety-inducing... again, as others have pointed out, by what's not there as much as what is. Highly recommended.

Was just about to post that review myself! Congratulations for the great writeup, Michael, and really looking forward to seeing you at Bear's when you hit B-town this December.

Thought some frequenters of the Big O might be interested in tonight's program: Some other recent programs at the archives link listed above: Oct. 20--The Songwriter Sings: Bobby Troup Oct. 13--Gil Evans on Pacific Jazz Sept. 22--Lee Wiley's West of the Moon

The Oct. 9 issue of the New Yorker had an article by Mark Singer on Richard McNair, a man who's escaped from prison several times--most recently in Louisiana this past spring. A cop stopped him that day as he was jogging along the tracks, but McNair convinced him that he was an out-of-town roofer. The cop's car-surveillance video camera captured the incident on tape: Supposedly McNair is now in Canada.

That's right in the middle of our fund-drive--but I'm sure I can make the time to tune in.

But dude! Those cords and cables and shit! What if Ben's friend's brother-in-law starts usin' 'em and shit?

You're right, man. This is some serious shit--we need to think about this.

Dudes! Let's do it! Let's start to talk about starting a band!

Wasn't she just performing in NYC? I seem to recall much recent enthusing about her on Yahoo Songbirds. Thanks for the posting, Pete--I definitely need to check her out.

Happy birthday, Ms. M--please come back soon!

Jim, Isn't this the schism that Ellison et al identify as emerging in the mid-1940s with bop? (Pace Mr. Jones/Baraka's assertion--not without validity--that bop could be danced to--but I'm interested to see you putting forth a modern variant of this line of thought.) Rhythm's at the heart of nearly every musical revolution, but I'm no longer sure it's going to save the world.

Catching some of it right now, Joe (circa 9:30, just got out of the studio)--sounds really good! (Cool to hear you w/a bassist, too.)

"John Gilmore: Away from the Spaceways" is now archived.

A few more Elliott songs have turned up on the Internet. The above article says Kill Rock Stars is planning a spring 2007 release of rarities that ES recorded for the label.

Thanks for the heads-up, Joe--I should be done with taping by then & will definitely try to catch this!

I also can't use Bloomington as a good test example, because we have a # of young musicians here attending the IU School of Music--but at most jazz shows I attend here, the age demographic skews heavily towards older... except for the avant-garde shows, which nearly always seem to have the most diverse audiences.

I know I'm gonna sound like the proverbial stuck record (er, uh, make that the proverbial skipping CD), but if jazz endures (and I think it will), it is not going to sound much like what we've come to expect "jazz" to sound like. For better and for worse.

As Mr. Merton writes in LEARNING TO LOVE, "Even Bob Dylan is not perfect." Matthew, did you know Merton had hopes that Dylan would set a poem of his to music? I don't know if he ever actually sent the poem to Dylan or not... He sure liked to play ol' Bob around the hermitage, evidently.

PM sent re: BROTHER JACK and Shirley's SOUL SISTER.

Red Rolfe--only baseball player I know of who ever wrote a sports column for The Daily Worker. Hard to disagree with much of what Messrs. Kart, Nessa, and Clem say above, but lately I've been spinning the BIG TWO V. 2 Storyville with Marsh a lot and thinking about hunting down V. 1.

Hey, just yesterday I was reading a book by another jazz-loving priest (Merton's journal LEARNING TO LOVE, from the rather tumultuous 1966-67 period). Hope you have a great one, Matthew!

That does help--thanks much, Rostasi! In fact, I seem to recall now that a book dealer once told me a long time ago that baking soda might do the trick. I think what I'll do is seal the book in a container next to some baking soda for 2-3 weeks. Nate, I'm currently reading THE DROWNING POOL, and I mentioned somewhere else (the "Now reading" thread?) that it seemed a bit derivative of Chandler... other posters assure me that MacDonald gets better and better as you read through the 1950s and 60s novels. Been dipping a bit into Hammett again of late with the recently-published LOST STORIES, and just last night I re-read "The First Thin Man." Ever read it? It's the 65-page first draft Hammett wrote and then set aside in 1930. Almost completely different from the version DH eventually published, and I would have loved an entire draft of this one, with John Guild as the main protagonist/detective (evidently a mulatto, and even more emotionally stripped down than THE GLASS KEY's Ned Beaumont, if you can believe that--and no resemblance whatsoever to the "John Guild" that appears in the 1934 version). Medjuck & I have also been discussing/hunting down the handful of short stories DH published around 1932-1933 (I'm still looking for "On the Way").

I recently bought a nicely-priced hardback copy of Ross MacDonald's ARCHER IN HOLLYWOOD (a novel omnibus). Book arrived in excellent condition, as advertised--but there was no mention of the fact that it smells as if it sat beside a hardcore smoker's ashtray for, oh, 10 or 12 years or so. Thought about returning it, but opted instead to leave a complaint in my buyer feedback. Does anybody have any suggestions for getting the smoke smell out of a dustjacket and the book itself? As an ex-smoker, I thought I had a bit of a tolerance (hell, maybe even a perverse nostalgic longing) for a bit of cigarette reek, but this case is pretty bad.