ghost of miles

Mulligan Select, disc 3. Man, who wrote the original liner notes for REUNION?

This week on Night Lights it’s “Gigi Gryce, Part 2: Rat Race Blues.” In the late 1950s alto saxophonist and composer/arranger Gigi Gryce began his second music publishing company, as well as a fruitful new alliance with trumpeter Donald Byrd that resulted in half a dozen recordings made under the name of the Jazz Lab. Personal and professional shadows were starting to lengthen, however, and by the early 1960s Gryce had vanished from the jazz world altogether. He spent the last 20 years of his life teaching in the New York City public school system, and his second wife didn’t even know that he had once been a jazz musician. In this program we’ll hear more remarks from Michael Fitzgerald, co-author of the Gryce biography Rat Race Blues, as well as music from Gryce’s work with the Teddy Charles Tentet, Oscar Pettiford’s big band, the Jazz Lab, and Gryce’s last recordings as a leader, including the rarely-heard Reminiscin’. “Gigi Gryce, Part 2: Rat Race Blues” airs Saturday, February 18 at 11:05 p.m. on WFIU. You can listen live or wait until Monday afternoon, when the program will be posted in the Night Lights archives. For more information on Gryce’s life and music, visit Michael Fitzgerald’s website. Next week: "Black Vocal Harmony Groups of the 1940s."

Valerie, I highly recommend this book on the whole story behind "Strange Fruit."

Adam, thanks much for posting this... I'm esp. interested in the "Kong's New York, 1933" featurette (I was really impressed by the NYC '33 settings). Was there much disappointment over the ultimate U.S. box-office take? I assume that global receipts, DVD sales, etc. will still ensure that the film turns a good profit.

Tonight on Afterglow the featured CD is June Christy's June's Got Rhythm, a 1958 collaboration with husband and tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper, and a more uptempo companion to their other collaborative project, Ballads for Night People. We'll hear an adventurous treatment of "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" and several other songs from the original album, plus one of the bonus tracks on the CD reissue--the Gershwins' "Looking for a Boy," taken from Christy's jazz album for kids, The Cool School. Other tracks this evening include Larry Golding and Madeleine Peyroux's new take on W.C. Handy's "Hesitation Blues," a "Mal Waldron Songbook" set featuring interpretations from John Coltrane and Waldron himself, another Jules Styne set--this one of his World War II songs--and Dexter Gordon's rendition of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Afterglow airs this evening at 10:10 (7:10 California time, 9:10 Chicago time) on WFIU. Next week's feature: Ike Quebec, The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions.

Yes, it's been an extremely mild winter, but--as others have pointed out--no evidence there whatsoever of a global warming trend. That evidence has been accumulating for the past few decades, and the warming trend is accelerating. There are very few scientists who DON'T attribute this in large part to the increasing industrialization of the earth. And it's going to get much, much worse quite quickly, particulary as countries like China embrace the automobile. 50 years? Try more like 10. What are we doing about it? Nothing. Actually, some in the business community are becoming concerned about it, because the impact on the bottom line will be potentially catastrophic. If you're a business person thinking long-term, you can't afford to indulge in the head-in-the-sand ideologue tactics of the present administration. You have to deal with reality.

Yep. Universal just did a couple of Billie and Commodore comps last year riffing on this connection. They even included an old-style "interview" with Billy Crystal which consists solely of his answers (you, the local DJ, pipe in the questions).

Who are the Four Hamptons? No relation, I suppose, to the Indianapolis Hamptons?

Wonder what CDWolf will have it for. Groan...

Victor, Yes, the Charlie Parker master takes came in a sardine can. Have a great day!

May you be feted (via recordings) by many legendary giants of jazz!

Watched the "Gatorbait" episode from the Season 1 DVD of Hill Street Blues today. The show really holds up, and I'd forgotten how multi-ethnic it was. Only troubling aspect is the rather humiliating treatment of Furillo's ex-wife; her function was primarily as "hysterical female" comic relief, although I seem to recall that the writers developed her character into something better as the show went on. That aside, I found myself getting hooked all over again, by the multitude of distinct characters and the sprawling storylines.

Attn. Julie fans: there's a new EMI UK twofer out, JULIE/LOVE ON THE ROCKS. Listening to it right now; good stuff! I'd love to know the personnel for "the Jimmy Rowles Orchestra" on JULIE.

Man, I can't wait--I love Nelson's big-band records. Hey Jim, whaddaya say we start a lobbying campaign for Mosaic Singles to reissue BLACK, BROWN & BEAUTIFUL? With or without that crazy cover...

Sounds like a good one....I'll check the archives! btw, where's he been lately? Unfortunately, Mike is on extended hiatus from the board. I'm sure a number of us here miss his contributions--hopefully he'll be back at some point. "Gigi Gryce, Part 1: Social Call" is now archived.

Missed this thread ( ) but will not miss the fine music of Mr. Montrose, which fills several slots in my CD library. Thank God for recordings, and thank God for musicians like Jack Montrose.

She was way hotter as a commie. You should hear my good friend The Red Menace on the subject! I ordered a copy of that book that you mentioned a few posts (a few years, rather) back. I've had it out of the library for a looooooonnngg time and thought I might as well get a copy... very interesting read. BTW, NINOTCHKA opened about a week before Artie Shaw stormed off the bandstand at the Cafe Rouge in NYC.

Don't know at all about Marsh, but I think you can hear, to some degree, the impact of cocaine on Bill Evans' playing in the 1979-80 recordings. No doubt about it, drugs can give a short-term boost to some artists' creativity. It's the long-term interest payback that gets to be a bitch.

I think Funky 16 Corners is an Indianapolis-based project. They do a lot of research on the 1960s/70s Indiana soul scene.

There's an old movie theater in downtown Bloomington that's been restored and is now used for a variety of purposes. Once a month they show a classic Hollywood film on Sunday afternoon--yesterday it was NINOTCHKA. I'd never seen it before, so my wife & I went (sat alone in the balcony--felt like a 1940s kinda date!). Very entertaining film, and ideologically very strange at times... plus, I liked Garbo's character much better before her Western transformation! That stovepipe hat she ends up buying looked ridiculous, as was the white gown... ironically enough, the plainer Soviet duds she wore looked far more stylish by today's standards. Great dialogue--the screenplay was co-written by Billy Wilder, and I believe it was one of his earliest projects.

Hamid Drake?! That cat's a rising star--I read about him in Downbeat!! All right, all right.. I'm bein' a wiseacre. Look forward to hearing this as well.

Up for broadcast in about 45 minutes.

Good tidings to you!

Getting ready to start Thomas Merton's THE SIGN OF JONAS, and dipping into both Will Friedwald's JAZZ SINGING and Alec Wilder's AMERICAN POPULAR SONG.

Jazz Crusaders, disc 2.