ghost of miles

Tonight on The Big Bands it's the late-1950s music of composer, arranger, and bandleader Johnny Richards. Richards, best known for his work on Stan Kenton's Cuban Fire album, carried a diverse musical resume. He inherited his talent from his mother, a concert pianist who had studied with Paderewski. In the 1930s he wrote film scores for Hollywood, working as Victor Young's assistant at Paramount, and also studied with Arnold Schoenberg. He first led his own big band in the 1940s and went on to write arrangements for Charlie Barnet, Dizzy Gillespie, and Boyd Raeburn before putting in several years with Stan Kenton in the 1950s. He also wrote the melody for Frank Sinatra's 1954 hit, "Young at Heart." We'll hear Richards' later big-band version of that song, as well as his Third-Stream-ish "Annotations of the Muses Pt. 1," selections from his Legende Americana suite (a tribute to the American landscape), and "Omo Ado" from his work The Rites of Diablo. "Johnny Richards in the Late 1950s" airs Friday, August 26 at 9 p.m. (7 p.m. California time, 10 p.m. NYC time) on WFIU. No archives yet--hope to have that up next week.

I went to a jazz bar in D.C. about 13 or 14 years ago, right before I really fell in love with the music, and remember being surprised that the bar strictly enforced silence from its patrons during the sets. Later on I "got it."

I listened to it three times in a row just now--I think it's Gillespie as well. His sound is much like Webster's around this time, but certain phrases have a distinct Dizzy-ish tint & time to them. Thanks much...

Saw him with Gerry Hemingway here in Bloomington a couple of years ago & enjoyed the show immensely. I need to check out more of his music (I have only a CD that he & Hemingway recorded together around that time).

My wife & I have been watching the show on TVLand since moving into our new digs, which came with a very affordable cable package... I hadn't watched it since I was a kid, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up. I have a real appreciation now for all of the African-American historical references that Foxx threw in... mentioning the Club Alabam (hot spot on Central Avenue in its heyday), Billy Eckstine, etc., stuff that went right over my head as a child. Not sure whether Foxx was a jazz fan or not, though I wouldn't be surprised... and I'll bet he dug soul. Last night he ended the show singing "It's Your Thing". Malcolm X mentions Foxx in his autobiography. He was working on the trains when they were both teens and already had a rep for being able to crack people up.

Anybody ever hear Harry James' version?

Jump on 'em, esp. the Krupa/James.

"The Man Before Miles: Freddie Webster" will air on Night Lights on Saturday, Sept. 10.

Will be featuring this along with the new Hep Claude Thornhill (1946-47 V. 2) on The Big Bands Friday, Sept. 9.

Didn't Clem disappear around the time that Catesta moved to NYC?

Organissimo goes WAY OUT WEST? Chap's is a decent restaurant in Douglas, Saugatuck's sister town (smaller, less crowded, prettier IMO). My wife & I hit the Douglas/Saugatuck area about once a year, and we've been waiting for an Organissimo gig in those environs... really looking forward to it! We're going to make sure that we tell the management that we drove 300 miles to see the band.

Let me mull it over for a few years and get back to you.

The Kong Collection You can also get the King Kong 2-DVD set separately... but for nine extra bucks, I'm tempted to throw in the other two as well.

It was track #3 on the Monk/Rollins show that I taped today.

How do you pronounce... Baroness Nica de Koenigsworter's last name?

I think Monk's on record as having said this is exactly what he wanted musicians to do--stay with his melodies (as opposed to playing on the changes). He certainly wrote 'em that way.

I'm taping a Monk/Rollins program tomorrow morning and have been listening to all of their sessions for the past three days (and for the first time in several years). It's addictive, because I seem to hear more each time through... even "Friday the 13th" (a tune which Gitler or whoever was producing the session allegedly exhorted them to keep extending) redeemed itself when I listened to it a second & third time. There's an ease there in Rollins' & Monk's rapport that's remarkable, esp. given that Rollins was what--23 at the time? They recorded together only four times (if you count the BRILLIANT CORNERS sessions as one); Rollins was the only musician that Monk recorded as a sideman with more than once. (Coming in at the last moment for Elmo Hope on the late-1954 "I Want to Be Happy" date.) My favorite tenor w/Monk as well.

Up for broadcast in about five minutes... Bob Porter's "Portraits in Blue" still on right now. Don't know about the BFT--I'd better check that out!

June 19th, now that was a hell of a party... still cleaning up the cigarette butts and beer bottles from that one. Must've been a Juneteenth thang...

RVG must love his work, or love what he's getting paid to do it.

Yep--I ordered that one plus the new Don Redman V. 2 and the new Sounds of Harlem V. 2 several days ago. There's also a new Thornhill out--1946-47 V. 2. Probably the last volume of Thornhill that Hep will put out (don't miss the 1949-53 one if you're a fan--some great stuff from a period of Claude's that most listeners won't be familiar with).

Move that walker over a bit, ol' friend, and I'll sit down and join you for a spell... After moving furniture for the past couple of weeks, I feel just about ready for my AARP card. Do they offer a middle-age pre-order special?

The "mixed things" must have been "great" and "VERY GREAT"... Man, what a record! I can't get enough of that quartet w/Cables.

Some discussion & debate going on about this over at JC in the "Jazz News" forum. Evidently Peyroux's manager has also issued a statement that MP "is safe and well."

The irony, of course, is that Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth was already getting into free jazz, and Chuck D used to namecheck jazz musicians... but at that point jazz was still a music I could mostly only "respect." The love bug bit me about three years later.