ghost of miles

In the autumn of 1962 three jazz giants—Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach—met for an album session that has become legendary. (So legendary, in fact, that it’s inspired an audio storyboard—see this site). Years later, Roach observed, “We (Roach and Mingus) were supposed to be the hot young guys, but we were scrambling” to keep up with Ellington. It’s “Money Jungle” this week on Night Lights, airing Saturday, October 8 at 11:05 p.m. (9:05 California time, 12:05 a.m. New York City time) on WFIU. We’ll also hear selections from an Ellington piano demo of selections from The River Suite, taken from the new Storyville release THE PIANO PLAYER. This edition of Night Lights will also air on WNIN-Evansville an hour before the Bloomington broadcast. Next week: "Porgy & Bess: the 1950s Jazz Revival."

Just beware of "warm welcomes."

Hey, Aftab, great to have you around again. Nice middle name for the kid!

In the spirit of October: 'Tis Autumn (Night Lights 10/04/04) October's in the Air (The Big Bands 09/30/05)

Hank, Sent you a note re: Lou Donaldson's SAY IT LOUD.

Yeah, me too!

I think some of Duke's criticism may have stemmed from how under and ill-represented the African-American experience still was on stage in the mid-1930s (and even black musical theater, which had had a run of sorts in the 1920s, was very much on the wane when P & B came out). Even though P & B met with very mixed reviews when it debuted in 1935, it still got a lot of attention, owing to Gershwin's authorship of the music... I wonder if Duke was somewhat resentful that Symphony in Black went so little noticed by comparison. Gershwin did go down to the Charleston/South Sea Islands area to spend some time in 1934 as he worked on the opera, and from most, if not all, accounts, he was welcomed into the musical church community, first as an observer, and then as a participant.

Best wishes for a great day, Marcus!

Enjoy... hope jazz and baseball are high on your agenda for today!

Great to have you aboard, Felser. The friendships and knowledge here are things I value on a daily basis.

Found it--Michael Denning references a 1935 New Theatre interview with Ellington in THE CULTURAL FRONT (a fantastic book, btw): Denning also quotes Ellington in the same interview as saying, "Grand music and a swell play, but the two don't go together... the music did not hitch with the mood and spirit of the story." Denning posits that Jump for Joy was in some ways a response to Porgy & Bess.

BTW, wasn't Ellington pretty critical of the original Gershwin score? I'm sifting through books and my old Jump for Joy notes, because I'm pretty sure he said some scathing things about it in the mid-1930s. (Ironically enough, he had some small involvement with the 1956 Bethlehem recording.)

Working on the Night Lights show and came across this passage in Miles' autobiography:

I had to borrow the LP from a historian/professor here at IU, who hipped me to the album. Hopefully it will emerge on CD some day. ← I picked up that RCA Camden version at Stereo Jack's back in June. ← That's pretty ironic--Stereojack is buds w/the professor/historian I borrowed the LP from. As for favorite version, after listening to a bunch of them, Miles/Gil still just barely noses out the Bill Potts for me. ← After three listens, I, too, would put the Mundell Lowe right up there in the same league as Miles/Gil and Bill Potts.

JD, grandmother, and mother-in-law:

He lives!

Just play "Misty" for him!

"October's in the Air" is now archived. Hoping to get some of this summer's shows--Gil Evans in the 1960s, the other Ellington Treasury shows--up on the web-page later this week.

And now you guys all have your own little AMG links, with "Years Active" and all that jazz. Played a couple cuts off THIS IS THE PLACE on the radio today... Opened the show with "Pumpkin Pie" and threw in "Tenderly" near the end. Sounds better than ever. And yeah, they ARE fun to see live.

We're collecting money for stressed-out Bosox and Yankee fans in need of psychological and "recreational" counseling. Actually, my NPR station is gearing up for fund-drive, and our jazz director is trying to choose between the two for our premium "thank-you gift." That's why I was intrigued by this thread.

"The Victor Young Songbook" is now archived.

Man, that was fast... his illness had become public only recently.

Looks like Legge shows up on an early-1950s Miles broadcast from Birdland, according to the In a Silent Way site:

Up for broadcast in just a few minutes.