ghost of miles

Mine came this afternoon--hoping to read it while I'm on vacation.

Oh, Jim's probably not putting one up this year because he's been sucked into the "war on Christmas." Sarcasm aside (not directed at you, Catesta), it'd be nice to see the logo again.

The "war" is not on Christmas, Oh-Willing-Tool-of-Right-Wing-Christian-Fundamentalism; the "war" is on those who for reasons of faith don't buy into the Christian fairytale. Yeah, no kidding. And I'm a so-called "person of faith." (Man, I hate that phrase... makes believers sound as if we are the "special" and priviliged group of citizens). That doesn't mean that I should go around trying to shove my religion's holiday down everybody else's throat. Know why most stores say "Happy Holidays," outside of not wanting to exclude their Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, and Kwanzaa-celebrating customers? BECAUSE THERE ARE TWO FREAKIN' HOLIDAYS!!!!! Christmas and New Year's. Hence the saying "Happy holidays." The fact that it doesn't exclude those who aren't Christian is just a nice little afterthought. These jivesters have managed to turn a happy day of spiritual unity into a divisive political matter. Like everything else they touch, they turn it to hate. In my more Christian moments, I say, "God bless 'em anyway..." in my more secular moments, I say, "Fuck 'em." O'Reilly and his ilk--I'll say it again--are truly the Grinches of the season. What would Jesus say? "Stop turning my birthday into a wingnut fest!!"

Love the original, looking forward to the re-make. But the notion of a sexual attraction between Kong and the Anne character is ludicrous to start with; understandable, perhaps, in the 1933 picture as a symbolic portrait of interracial love (even Kehr points out this element--seeming simultaneously to criticize Hollywood for it and then lament its absence from the current version), where Kong represents the Super Black Male, in an age when film could never depict a romantic relationship between an African-American man and a white woman. Not to say that remnants of the taboo don't still exist today (they clearly do, as witness the controversial "Desperate Housewives"/NFL moment last year), but for Jackson to retain that aspect of the original in 2005 would seem a bit bizarre and goofy. The notion of an animal and a human finding a certain kinship, less so.

Can we mount a campaign and ask Dusty Groove NOT to carry this title?

There'll also be a couple of unreleased tracks... Luke sent me some very good stuff that he's hoping to eventually put out on Smalls. In fact, I'm thinking about doing a Hewitt sequel, as I had to leave a lot of great numbers on the table.

I wasn't aware that he had a stutter, and I did notice it--but really, he sounded fine, I thought. A lot of folks stutter a bit on the radio anyways (even after being in the biz for several years, I still catch myself doing the "Uh" thing at times). He & Marian seemed to genuinely enjoy talking to each other.

I suppose I'm being a Grinch, but this reminds me too much of the bogus "war on Christmas" crap that Bill O'Reilly and other wingnuts have been perpetuating. The irony is that it's jerks like O'Reilly who have now politicized the holiday. Beam me up to the political forum, Scottie!!

Try to catch this if you can when it's broadcast in your area... right now he & Marian are doing a very nice duet version of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square." As much as I love Andrew's compositions, it makes me want to hear an album of standards by him... I think he could suffuse a few of the chestnuts with some fresh feeling.

I think "Couleur Cafe" was the one that I saw. I'll keep an eye out for it and the other one that you mention, couw. Many thanks!

Brownie, I nearly picked up a used CD of Gainsbourg's early jazz recordings not too long ago... may head back to the shop and see if it's still there. Any recommendations in that area?

Have a swingin' one!!

This week on Night Lights it's "Not Afraid to Live: Frank Hewitt." Hewitt, a New York City underground bop-piano legend, played with Cecil Payne, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, and many other jazz greats in the 1950s and 60s and had a role in the storied play The Connection. In the 1990s he was a mainstay at Smalls, a hip Greenwich Village nightclub, where many came to view him as an important part of the bop-piano canon that includes Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Herbie Nichols, and Elmo Hope (Hewitt was a protege of Hope's). Outside of a frustrating cameo appearance on a 1998 Impulse CD, Hewitt did not live to see any of his music released to the public, dying of pancreatic cancer in September 2002 at the age of 66. Luke Kaven, a philosophy graduate student and Smalls regular, managed to win Hewitt's trust and recorded him on a number of occasions; in the past year and a half he's released three CDs of Hewitt's performances, winning Hewitt a growing critical recognition from jazz fans and the jazz press that he never received during his lifetime. We'll hear music from all three of Hewitt's CDs, as well as some unreleased recordings, and some thoughts on Hewitt's life and career from Luke Kaven. "Not Afraid to Live: Frank Hewitt" airs Saturday, December 17 on WFIU at 11:05 p.m. (8:05 p.m. California time, 10:05 p.m. Chicago time). The program will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. Special thanks to Jim Sangrey and to Luke Kaven. Next week: "The Night Before Christmas." Christmas-Eve jazz from Joe Pass, Fats Navarro, Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, Organissimo, and more.

Not jazz, but by a jazzman's daughter--let us not overlook Petra Haden's THE WHO SELL OUT.

Ellington's 1958 revisitation of Black, Brown & Beige.

Happy birthday & thank the Lord for LTBs!! Signed, Ol' Man Crankoos (a fellow Sag... well, I'm sure not a Sage!)

Just finished taping the 12/24 Night Lights, which will air for an hour starting around 11:05 or11:10 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Here's the last set, which should come on around midnight: Organissimo, "A Child Is Born" Frank Sinatra, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" Dexter Gordon, "The Christmas Song" Happy holidays!

Anybody for a game of Risk?

Birthday salutations, Mr. Burke!!

Aw, hell, we're into that kinda stuff! When we're not shoveling fast food down our gullets and taking in too much TV, that is... Seriously, I'll jump on THE BEAR COMES HOME bandwagon. Lots to chew on there, as Kalo points out.

"Now Found" is now archived. We got a very nice studio phone message from Margaret Davis Saturday night--she & Henry were listening!

There'll be music by the Big O on this year's holiday edition of Night Lights (airing on Christmas Eve). In the meantime, upping this program from last year.

There's always John Clellon Holmes' THE HORN, which tends to get mixed reviews from jazz fans, and which might be too directly about jazz for your group. (Or Holmes' first novel GO, considered by some to be the first "beat" novel, even though it's written in much more of a straightahead style... and somewhat underrated, IMO, and also much less directly about jazz.) Re: Kerouac, you still might want to check out Larry Kart's fine essay on JK & jazz in Kart's book JAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF.

Here's hoping you take the day as license to go hog-wild!!