ghost of miles

This week on Night Lights it's "Jazz Studio 3 & 4: John Graas and Jack Millman," two more entries in Decca's mid-1950s Jazz Studio series. John Graas was a classically-trained French horn player who worked with several famous big bands in the 1940s and who studied with both Lennie Tristano and West Coast music guru Wesley La Violette. In the 1950s he was active on the West Coast jazz scene and also did a stint on Liberace's TV program. In this program we'll hear selections from his "Jazz Studio 3" album, including his compositions "6/4 and Even" and excerpts from his "Symphony 1 in F Minor," as well as a quartet version of "My Buddy" with baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan sitting in. We'll also hear music from trumpeter Jack Millman's "Jazz Studio 4." Millman is another lesser-known West Coast jazz figure who led several album dates in the late 1950s; like Graas, he was steeped in classical influence and also worked with Stan Kenton's orchestra at one time. "Jazz Studio 4" consists of Millman originals arranged by Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Holman, Pete Rugolo, and others. The program airs Saturday, July 2 at 11:05 p.m (9:05 California time, 12:05 NYC time). You can listen live or wait until Tuesday afternoon, when the program will be posted to the Night Lights archives. Next week: "Duets: Two Degrees of Separation."

Hmm... I guess I don't see the distinction being employed much here. Aren't we generally talking about tunes that provide fertile grounds for improvisation? Or tunes that have melodies so compelling and "timeless" (admittedly a dangerous word) that musicians return to them on a regular basis? In that sense, why the distinction between "All the Things You Are" and "I Remember Clifford"? Sonny Rollins mined Broadway and the movies repeatedly for songs that he did, in a way, turn into jazz standards, even if he was not the original composer.

More from the list, though I don't think it adds anything new to the story:

More posted to the Coltrane list:

Sure to be at #1 in Bahrain for many months.

There's a reprint edition of Edward Gorey's War of the Worlds just out.. hadn't seen that one before.

← Clowes was on Fresh Air last week. TG did say something kind of silly--"Are there such things as comic book critics?" Uh.... yeah.

L. Ron Hubbard's autopsy showed that he was taking a psychotropic drug at the time of his death. ← Heretic! You'll probably get sued for saying that if any Scientologist happens to read this thread.

Anybody heard from him? He doesn't have an e-mail function here... I sent him a PM in hopes that he'd receive a notification through whatever e-mail service that he uses.

I'll second chuckyd4 on School Days and throw in (along with many of the titles already mentioned) Vandermark and the AALY Trio LIVE AT THE GLENN MILLER CAFE.

He made some joke about Thomas trying to raise money for the Peabody Institute... said, "I thought Gary was going to come out with a tin cup and wander up and down the aisles, asking for money." The audience gave a surprised laugh, and GT looked p#%#ed. I think--or want to think--that Herbie realized as soon as he said it that it had come out pretty bad. He said some nice things about GT throughout the rest of the show, but GT seemed to be off at the side throughout the evening, rather disengaged.

Budd Schulberg was horrified to find out that modern-day readers study WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? as a "how-to" book for succeeding in Hollywood.

Two of the biggest sources for standards--Broadway and the movies--have not yielded much for the past 40 years or so. (With exceptions, of course.) The musical, in either format, seems much less of a force in the marketplace now than it was in the halcyon days of the mid-20th century. But I'd also agree with Mike that there's a significant body of work by jazz composers from the 1950s and 60s that remains to be mined in a significant manner. Hank Mobley, for starters...

You might be right... I've had inklings along this line as well. Early on, a musician friend of mine called him "the modern-day Illinois Jacquet--and I don't mean that as an insult." But I still feel as if he's ultimately capable of delivering more than he has so far. I enjoy much of what he's done to date. I'm more inclined to agree with Jim that in some ways he's a man out of time. In any event, I'm going to keep listening to him. I don't know if there will be any more "great ones." Not by old-school standards, anyway. Braxton is the youngest one left, IMO, and he just turned 60.

Carter/Pavement

This week on The Big Bands it's "Duke Ellington: the Treasury Shows, July 1945." This edition of our ongoing Ellington Treasury series features performances from an Ellington appearance at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, including "Day Dream," "Carnegie Blues," and a medley of Billy Strayhorn tunes with Strayhorn at the piano. We'll also hear music from a Boston concert that includes the rarely-recorded "Bugle Breaks" from Ellington's musical Jump for Joy, contemporary pop hit "A Friend of Yours," "West Indian Dance" (from the Black, Brown and Beige Suite) and "The Magazine Suite." The program airs Friday, July 1 at 9 p.m. on WFIU. Next week: "That Old Arlen Magic."

Excellent! Another one to add to the wishlist... damn, this is an expensive thread to keep tabs on.

Hey all, Shawn M has started a "catching up with" thread for Greg Osby over at AAJ. Just thought I'd mention it to any Osby fans who might have questions for him...

Furst is great... I've read only the first three and am looking forward to the others.

According to his profile Late was last active here on May 19 and he hasn't posted since April 21. Does anyone know why he's not posting anymore? ← I've wondered about that as well... Hope you're having a good day, Late!

MaxJazz--cool! I'm sitting in for the afternoon DJ next week & will definitely try to spin this if we have it.

Hmmm... is it just me, or is Carter still trying to live up to his early promise? I liked CHASIN' THE GYPSY quite a lot--thought the Baker's release a bit of a letdown. I'm rooting for him, though.

I'm a perennial supporter (with pledges) of public radio, for what it's worth. I do it because I think it's the right thing to do, but I'm not at all sure that really gives me any more of a voice than anyone else though (nor am I sure that people who don't pledge basically should feel they have to "put up or shut up"). In fact I'm sure my contributions don't give me any more clout than non-pledgers. How are the two connected? It's not like when I send in my pledge check I get to pick the play list for one of the local station's jazz shows, heck they don't even ask me for my opinions on what should be played. ← Very well-put, DrJ. At my station we do ask people who call to pledge what their favorite program is--and we do notice if a particular program hasn't done well during fund-drive for several years in a row. Even such a poor performance, though, has never led us (as far as I know) to outright kill a program. Another way of looking at it is that Jsngry, you, and all others have already made a contribution, however small, through the use of CPB tax dollars (the funds we just had the big fight over in Congress). Not that I want to discourage anybody from pledging--far from it! We truly do need listener support. (CPB funds account for about 10-15% of most stations' budgets.) But to say that anybody who doesn't pledge has no right to offer input about programming is not just poor manners--it's also just plain wrong.

What label? I'm eager to hear this.