ghost of miles

Many happy returns (to the Organissimo board, we hope)!

Ken, I would hope & think that to be the case; the language, however, sounded to me as if these sets are on the way to being deleted by Concord/Fantasy. Here's the opening part of the e-mail: Further on down the Jimmy Rushing FIVE FEET OF SOUL cd is listed, and that's one that Blue Note has announced it's deleting. I suppose a quick call to Mosaic could clear up any confusion... I already have both the Wes and Tatum boxes, and I think just about all of that material is available as single CDs. Wanted to give a heads-up, though, to any folks who might want the boxes. I thought that Ellington set had gone OOP awhile ago. Maybe it's just been on the warning list for a long time.

Very good, long-running show that a friend of mine hipped me to a couple of years ago; somebody else has recently mentioned it over at Jazzcorner, which put me in mind of posting about it here: The Big Broadcast I think posters such as Jazzbo & Berigan in particular would be drawn to this program, if they don't know of it already.

Just got an e-mail from True Blue that seems to indicate the Wes Montgomery Riverside and Art Tatum Pablo solo boxes will soon be deleted "by the manufacturer."

Anybody have a track & personnel listing for MALLETS-A-PLENTY? I have a CD-R of it, but nada info.

Hope your birthday ruled!

Lloyd at Mosaic says four of the Singles will ship in the next 1-2 days... and the Blakey and Charles Lloyd ones will go out at the end of the month.

This program is now archived. Thanks for the comments, ep1 and aolC. I'd like to do more with Ornette; he still doesn't get enough airplay on jazz radio, IMO... and that may be the first time that I've played him on Night Lights, so I guess I better rehab my own damn glass house before I start casting any stones, eh?

Upping this thread for the historical heck of it.

Very compelling critiques of the book being offered here; I'm hoping to find time to re-read it. I think Jim's "part of the puzzle" nails it pretty well. It's been eight years since I read the book, but my memory is that DeVeaux set out to explore the economic and racial factors behind the rise of bebop because he felt they'd been generally ignored--and I do think there's some validity to the argument that for too long we simply had the "Bird and Diz descended from the clouds and bestowed bop upon us" narrative. From what I've read it was more difficult for black bandleaders to make a successful go of it in the early 1940s, for many a reason (as I recall, DeVeaux posits this as one of the motivations for the popularity of the small-ensemble setting that favored bop). From the vantage point of 2006, and the insightful remarks offered here, it seems possible that DeVeaux may have inadvertently crafted a response somewhat guilty of the very scholarly sins that he's critiquing, but I'd still agree with his thesis that previous histories have neglected important aspects of the story. Larry, what airchecks of the Eckstine band exist? All I have is a single CD with 11 tracks, AIRMAIL SPECIAL on the Drive Archive label, which purports to be from February and March of 1945. Are there more?

This week on Night Lights it's "Songs of Peace." We'll hear instrumental themes using "Peace" as a title from John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Horace Silver, as well as Louis Armstrong's 1970 take on John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance," Bill Evans' improvisation on Leonard Bernstein's "Some Other Time" that came to be known as "Peace Piece," Mahalia Jackson's a capella version of Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday," and more. "Songs of Peace" airs Saturday, April 15 at 11:05 p.m. EDT on WFIU-Bloomington and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. The program will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. For more jazz for the Easter weekend, you can listen to our archived March 26, 2005 program "Mary Lou's Mass: Music for Peace." The show is devoted to the 1960s sacred jazz of pianist Mary Lou Williams, whose instrumental "Miss D.D." is the opening theme for Night Lights. Next week: "Full Nelson." Oliver Nelson's 1960s big-band studio recordings.

Certainly compared to folks like Bogart, Gregory Peck, or even Alan Ladd. I guess that's what he gets for dying relatively young (not to mention being under contract at Fox, usually considered to be the corny, hick studio in comparison to the other majors). 83 is relatively young??? He made some damn good films in the 40's, too bad he wasn't given the same quality of roles later on....Did ya know his brother is Steve Forrest of S.W.A.T. Fame???? My mistake. I somehow assumed that the fact that he wasn't in a noteworthy film after the 1950s meant he died early. I read up a bit on Andrews when I was on a kick for him a year or two ago... he had a pretty bad drinking problem that may have contributed to his commercial decline. He did manage to eventually stop completely through AA.

Wow--when did this come out on DVD? I was looking for it a year or two ago... I do think that Andrews is just a tad underappreciated. (Just saw LAURA yet again, this time at our oldtime downtown theater--one of those films I can watch over & over again.)

Good jazz writing demands a high degree of integrity, insight, and (I would argue) respect for the musicians about whom one is writing. That respect works both ways--the writer needs to call 'em as he or she hears 'em. I guess I don't understand your complaint, FT; was Larry's remark too clever a summation of what he heard in Brookmeyer's playing? Gratuitous slams against artists are uncalled for, whether they come from a Bob Brookmeyer or some poor sap who can't blow "I Got Rhythm" on a kazoo. Having read much of Larry's book, I'd say he is one of the least likely jazz writers to ever indulge in such a practice. Far better worthies than me (including Jim Sangrey, who surely is one of the best barometers around for measuring snide fallacies and general b.s.) seem to think so as well.

I'm going to call Mosaic tomorrow & see if they have a semi-specific shipping date estimate... website now says mid to late April.

JAZZ MASTERS OF THE FORTIES and SWING TO BOP contain a fair amount of references to NYC, since so much was going down there... not quite exactly what you're looking for, though. Ann Douglas is working on a book about NYC in the 1950s that will cover jazz as well; hmmm, how many other near-misses can I come up with? I'd be fascinated to read such a book as well, and one may well exist that I'm overlooking.

Sounds great! I'll definitely check this out--thanks for posting it, Lazaro. Love reading about Chicago jazz history... The author of the first plug, Sascha Feinstein, did his graduate work here at IU. His journal BRILLIANT CORNERS is a good read for those interested in jazz essays, fiction, and poetry.

A nice early Cole trio version of "Lush Life" on that W. Herman 1949 CD--also used the second half of that COAST TO COAST disc (the WNEW broadcast) for a recent Afterglow. Rumor is that there may be more, similar unissued Cole that we'll get to hear some day.

Whew... I'm an ex-smoker, but now I remember what it was like to go without a cigarette for six hours.

Brighter days are on the way! Keep on postin'....

"We'll Keep Loving You: Jackie McLean" is now archived.

Glad you liked that one too--hey, re: Jeri & "Haunted Heart," you sure you're not thinking of Jo Stafford, who had a hit with it, and who was married to Paul Weston? I don't think Jeri recorded it, though I don't have all of her albums/singles and can't be absolutely sure. I played a little bit of Jo & Paul on the "Even White Girls Get the Blues" show. Maybe I should do a Jonathan and Darlene Edwards show...

I didn't realize that Isoardi was doing a book on Horace. (He helped Horace with SONGS OF THE UNSUNG and also had a large hand in the CENTRAL AVENUE SOUNDS box-set.) Will definitely seek it out.

From the L.A. Weekly, posted over at JC:

BTW, I'd also agree that jazz musicians who've dismissed rap out-of-hand, whether in the 1980s or the present, are doing much to consign themselves to the ol' dustbin of history. Same with electronica. The whole notion of the jazz ensemble, I think, will possibly end up changing as a result.