ghost of miles

Up.... Ghost, how was the quality????From the reviews I just read at amazon, sounds like a very weak set, with Horse Feathers still a choppy ass copy...I was going to get this set, and the W.C. Fields one, but now wondering if I should save my money in hopes of them someday doing these films right.... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...?v=glance&s=dvd Berigan, if you're saving your pennies, I'd wait until a better edition comes along. I'm glad to have the films on DVD (we just watched MONKEY BUSINESS the other night), but nothing's been added... and though I haven't watched HORSE FEATHERS yet (an enormous favorite of mine), I've heard the same thing, that it's the same incomplete print that's circulated for many years. A shame, since RKO/MGM did a much better job with a weaker set of films--I guess Universal figures they can just trade in on the high quality of the movies themselves.

Finally archived. Coming up: Jan. 15--Miles Davis: the Jack Johnson Sessions Jan. 22--Songs Everlasting: the Pullen-Adams Quartet on Blue Note Jan. 29--Boppin' in Beantown (late 1940s/early 1950s Serge Chaloff, Charlie Mariano, Nat Pierce, etc. The Dick Twardzik program originally scheduled for this date has been delayed to coincide w/publication of Jack Chamber's forthcoming biography) Feb. 05--But I Was Cool: Oscar Brown Jr. Feb. 12--Strictly Romantic (Johnny Hartman, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Helen Carr, John Coltrane, Blossom Dearie, Jackie Paris, Clifford Brown, Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Fred Astaire...) Feb. 19--Meet the Jazztet Feb. 26--Word From Mingus (collaborations w/Langston Hughes, Jean Shepherd, and Melvin Stewart)

Article in the NY Times this a.m. on the impact of electronic study aids: chess

Serge Chaloff, THE COMPLETE SERGE CHALOFF SESSIONS. Been several years since I dusted off this one, and man! It's 65 degrees here & and I've got the windows open and late-40s Serge boppin' on the stereo.

"Cubana-be, Cubana-bop."

Wow! Who woulda thunk it? This era somehow now seems so much more... profound.

But when was the Golden Age of Crap?

It came out, and it's fantastic! I, sadly, wasn't yet acquainted with the Pullen-Adams Quartet.. picked it up recently and have been all but inhaling BREAKTHROUGH and SONG EVERLASTING for the past several days. In fact, just taped a Night Lights program this morning that will air a week from Saturday... will post a link when it's broadcast.

Just came across two LPs in the station library with which I was unfamiliar: 1972's MOVIN' ON (which has evidently been re-issued on CD by both 32 Jazz and Collectables) and 1973's BROTHER WHERE ARE YOU? How do these hold up against his early-1960s work? I'll be doing a Night Lights program about Brown on Feb. 5.

Rooster, just curious--did you restrict it to all-acoustic because that's your preference? Generally mine, too, but such a restriction shuts out a lot of jazz that did sell well during the 1970s--Weather Report, for example, or even (dare I say it) Mangione. Off-topic, but I'm also intrigued by what the contemporary reaction to Miles' 1970s work was. The prevailing narrative of the past few years seems to be, "This material was greeted ambivalently/negatively etc. and only now have we wise moderns come to realize how good it was." Haven't done any research, but I find myself a bit skeptical of that formulation.

?! I hear ya, Lon--I've got V. 1-4 and have been on the verge of ordering V. 5. Another for AFTER HOURS WITH MISS D, btw.

here?

SJ, are you friends with Michael McGerr? He's a friend of mine who teaches here at Indiana University--pretty sure he's mentioned you to me before. In any case, glad to have you aboard!

Word. Aric, go look at your Princess Diana calendar. Shades of the Billy Root birthday thread.

Are you sure that's not a Joni Mitchell calendar?

Jo' better move? Me, I vote for Kay Kyser.

Welcome aboard, LWayne! The water's great around these parts.

That made the KB series? Oh my. I think I posted this elsewhere, but Albert Haim asked to archive my WFIU Bix program on his Bixography website. You can listen to it & othe Bix material here: Bix Beiderbecke: Never the Same Way Twice or just click on this: WFIUBixprogram The program got a very nice comment from Bixography regular Norman Field in the discussion forum: Enough of tooting my own cornet... B-) There are some stills from a 1926 Goldkette film posted on Albert's site, including one of Bix and a man in a monkey suit: Another w/Bix, Brown, and Murray:

A true classic. Might make a nice inscription for the tombstone of this thread.

All right, Johnny! You & your wife will be in my thoughts... post the news whenever you get a chance.

Jazzbo, btw, I didn't mean to cast intellectual aspersions on those who are interested in the history of the period--quite the opposite, as I am developing an interest myself. I simply think the market for relics from that time is being driven by wealthy and often ideologically conservative American religious folk. (Not blaming them for the creation of this fake... just saying that the crooks are exploiting their desire to find archaeological confirmation.)

I'll definitely pick up the Mary Lou and the Manne right out of the gate. You can never have too much Joe Gordon, I always say... at least, whenever I'm talking about Joe Gordon.

I think some of this stems from wealthy American Christian individuals and groups who are obsessed with finding archaeological evidence to support Biblical narratives. Lest anyone interpret that as an anti-Christian remark, I hasten to add that I consider myself a Christian; I'm just not going to base my faith on whether or not somebody can dig up an old urn in the Holy Land. In any case, there's great demand for such items, which no doubt tempts schemers like this guy to "find" them.

What about Lady Will Carr? I know she was a real musician (see booklet to the Uptown Mingus collection)--however, the booklet says some claim her name was used at times by Billy Strayhorn and Mingus himself. My DJ colleague says he was told that Nat King Cole also used it on occasion--any truth to these rumors? As for the real Lady Will Carr, I hope to run across that 4 V's Jubilee broadcast some day--sounds as if it was an interesting quartet.

Is the Brownie's Eyes series still available only through Philogy?