ghost of miles

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!

Listened to this again over the weekend, as I'm preparing to tape the July 7 Afterglow which will feature it--and, barring a slew of magnificent KIND OF BLUE-type masterpieces over the next six months, this definitely goes on my top 10 list for 2006. Great CD; congratulations, Frank!

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.

Have not read any of those--not even sure I was aware of the Collette (though I do have the musical/autobiography CD). Thanks for the recs; will look them up for sure.

Already have! I actually interviewed Steven Isoardi, who helped put it together, several years ago for my old community-radio program. It and the accompanying 4-CD box-set are wonderful documents of mid-20th century Los Angeles jazz; I'm hoping THE GREAT BLACK WAY will provide further illumination on the era and its culture in general.

I'll definitely be picking this one up--in conjuction with Isoardi's book about Horace Tapscott and the later jazz community in L.A., should make for a pretty good compendium of Los Angeles jazz/cultural history:

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

Up for re-broadcast this evening on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio (10 p.m. EST). Internet listeners can hear it now in the archives (Sept. 10, 2005).

Up for re-broadcast this evening at 11:05 EST on WFIU.

To answer my own question: an Amazon reviewer from May of this year quotes Shandling as saying on TV that Season 2 will be out in November.

My wife & I are fans of Dick van Dyke, but so far we've picked up only Season 3... need to fill out the collection one of these days. Any word on whether or not more Larry Sanders will ever come out?

Can't wait till it hits the market...

Anybody else notice that there's a new Replacements anthology out that combines both the Twin Tone and Warner eras--and that has two new songs recorded by the reunited 'Mats?

Thanks for the input, Marcoliv. The craziest coincidence.. this morning I was scouring our rather haphazardly organized pop/folk vinyl section in search of a selection for a Profiles guest when I stumbled across... the LP of 2 A.M. PARADISE CAFE. Wtf, eh? Probably be a few work days before I can find time to listen to it, but I'm still flabbergasted that I accidentally unearthed a copy in the station's library; it was in no kind of alphabetical order at all, and I wasn't even looking for it.

Not implying that they were--just that I wouldn't be surprised if Manilow offered them pretty good pay. They certainly deserved it, if he did so. Just ran a search on Yahoo Songbirds, and there are a number of posts back in February citing positives for this album. Songbirds in general aren't too disposed towards crossover records like this (at least, in my recent experience of post-reading... perhaps other members here also on that list could disabuse me of that notion), so that moves it a little more into the "will get" category for me. I'll have to look it up in my Mulligan bio after I'm off-air and see what Klinkowitz has to say about it.

The curiosity that dare not speak its name! Gotta admit that if I come across a cheap used copy of this that I'll be very tempted. I'm sure Manilow offered big $$ to get those guys to play with him, but nevertheless... evidently Mel Torme & Sarah Vaughan put in guest spots as well. The songs were previously unrecorded Johnny Mercer lyrics for which Manilow wrote the music--now that dampens my curiosity a bit. And my guess is that the players on the date ended up more confined, sounding more "produced," than they normally would in a true jazz setting. Nevertheless I'm curious.

So I was paging through my Gerry Mulligan bio, and came across the track listing for Barry Manilow's 1984 gonna-go-jazz LP 2 A.M. Paradise Cafe. I remember sneering at this record in the new-release racks when I was a teenager; wasn't a jazz fan at the time, and certainly not a fan of Mr. Weekend-in-New-England, so I thought, "Ah, time for the washed-up pop star to make his career move." Which was probably true, actually... especially in light of Manilow's recent recording activities. But today I looked at the lineup on the album: Gerry Mulligan-baritone sax Mundell Lowe-guitar Bill Mays-piano George Duvivier-bass Shelly Manne-drums And that's apparently it... no strings or backing orchestra. Anybody ever hear it? Any good at all? I know this came out close on the heels of Linda Ronstadt's collaborations with Nelson Riddle. Seems to me like the early 1980s anticipated our contemporary "Rod Stewart sings the standards" times.

I have an Evan Hunter/Ed McBain novel about a junkie trumpeter, but I can't recall its title. I'll keep an eye out for those books... I'd be interested in a lengthy survey or article about this subject. I think the recent book on jazz in literature focuses more on the treatment of jazz in mainstream fiction, as opposed to fiction that's jazz-based.

I'm guessing that's a screw-up. I believe "Hard Work" is John Handy's hit. No clue who does the late 60s "Stolen Moments". Guy Thanks--though you never know what's going to fall out of the closet and clunk Ravi on the head.

Are those Coltrane tracks on disc 4 previously unreleased? "Stolen Moments"--he did a version of that?

I'm almost always interested in reading fictional depictions of jazz musicians written during the 1935-65 era (swinging roughly from Benny to late Trane). Tonight at our downtown used bookstore I came across a 1947 novel called LITTLE BOY BLUES, the third in a "jazz trilogy" by a Mr. George Willis, author of the previous jazz novels TANGLEWEED & THE WILD FAUN. Evidently Willis was a drummer with some small midwestern bands who drew on his experience to write the novels (this according to the dustjacket copy... of course Mr. Willis could be an absolute construct, or at the very least a pseudonymn). Here's some copy from the jacket... "George Willis writes with intense vitality and artistic skill of the tough and exciting, sordid and glamorous world of the jazzman. Here are the one-night stands, the hurried loves, the smoke-filled jam sessions, the constant, heartbreaking struggles to make the big time...Based on authentic, firsthand information every line of LITTLE BOY BLUES beats with the throbbing, insistent compulsion of bigtime jazz." (Smokin'!) The writing in the book seems to about match the jacket copy... in the sense of capturing that overblown Hardy Boys style of yore. Anybody else ever come across this writer in any survey of mid-20th century American jazz literature?

There's some wonderful stuff on that Pepper Select, aloc--lately I've been getting into his Contemporary recordings, and thinking about doing a show based around them. And glad you enjoyed the Lighthouse All-Stars show, Werf. I'm really psyched that the program's on in western Michigan--that area's near & dear to my heart. "The Lighthouse All-Stars" is now archived.

Know that there are fellow weirdos among you.

For me--passing on the Phil Woods set as it was going OOP.

Up for broadcast in about 20 minutes on WNIN and in about an hour and 20 minutes on WFIU.