ghost of miles

My sentiments as well, AB. I also thank his wife for letting us know... peace to him always.

How on earth does Jazz Profiles continue to air, then? Or any program that's devoted to a single artist? Do they have to go through the waiver process for every single show?

Up--I'm taping a Night Lights program tomorrow based around both RIKERS & SYNANON.

Miles to Wynton Marsalis? Ding ding ding! A free month's worth of fast food and porn-surfing to Mr. Catesta. B-)

"Man, get the f*%# off the stage!"

The Dick van Dyke Show, season 3. Couldn't hold off on the Marx/Paramount and picked that one up as a "gift for self" when it came out.

Man, it was a brutal year. Thanks for the link--Jimmy Coe was right in my own backyard, but I was thinking he'd passed away last year. Too much sad news to keep up with on this front.

Elvin Jones Steve Lacy Pete Jolly Ray Charles (however we classify him) ... who else? I'm already forgetting, which is sad.

Wasn't Armstrong a huge fan of Lombardo & other sweet bands? And I don't think he was alone among African-American musicians of the 1930s. (Hell, Allen, I might've read that in your book--don't be surprised if you encounter your own wisdom/knowledge being parroted back to you here!)

Happy birthday, Mr. Moose! Hope your Christmas loot was doubled and that you had some time to enjoy it! (Mssrs. Spade and Op also say great going on making it another year without being shot down by some gunsel.)

This is somewhat anecdotal, based on my experiences working in several local CD stores for seven years & perusing articles, jazz radio charts, etc., but there is a brand of jazz--the brand that dare not speak its name--that continues to be somewhat popular & esp. with African-Americans, and that is the dreaded smooth or "urban" jazz. So where does that leave us? I can't stand it, musically speaking (in any form of speaking), but that's the kind of jazz that younger and middle-aged African-Americans tended to buy in the places where I worked. It was mostly the older crowd that bought the music that's talked about here. Lots of white folks buying it as well, and they were all buying it for pleasure (cue the cable-movie sex scene). We can say that bad taste knows no boundaries, racial or otherwise, but I think that's a condescending attitude. "Pleasure," listening-wise, is such a subjective way to frame the discussion of how we approach the "worth" of music... One of my co-workers was a middle-aged black woman, and we used to jibe each other about our respective tastes in jazz. She'd grimace while I was playing Sonny Rollins in the overhead--"That's just so skronky!" (and we're talking the Prestige sides) and then throw on Dave Koz. She hipped me to some early Grover Washington, and I thank her for that, but she also liked lots of later Grover that, uh, well, the friendly jibes continued flying.

To what do you attribute the shift, Jim? The party line that's developed among the Murray/Crouch/Marsalis crowd is that jazz turned its back on the public (although I think they revise Ellison's dictum from bop to free as the point at which it did so). Yet same said crowd's efforts, to my way of thinking, will do anything but restore a certain degree of popularity to jazz--not in any way that's living & viable, at least.

Louvin Brothers?

Man! I'm not even a football fan anymore, but Manning breaks Marino's record on a last-minute scoring drive... the Colts convert the two-pointer... and then win on a FG in overtime? Pretty amazing. The Dome must've been rockin'.

Of course it can. You think I'd post this much about stuff like this if it wasnn't? But... but... I thought we were paying you! We should be, anyway.

...therefore you listen? Or you listen, therefore you think? As Ornette says, "dancing in your head." I'm not much for ass/brain dichotomies anyway.

My two cents: can't pleasure be intellectual as well?

MusicalMarine, did you catch the piece on Maugham in a recent issue of the New Yorker? I'll see if I can find it online... I've read only THE RAZOR'S EDGE, but the NY article reawakened my interest. I should give RISE & FALL a whirl, but I haven't even made it through THE WORLD AT WAR DVD set yet. As far as military histories, I'm hoping to find Beevor's FALL OF BERLIN 1945 at a good/used price one of these days--liked his STALINGRAD book quite a bit.

If this were Tolkien, you'd have to sing a song.

The party line that seems to have developed over the years is that Miles was in an artistic cul-de-sac during this period and irritated by music that he couldn't yet fully assimilate--then along came Tony/Wayne/Herbie, etc. There are probably valid reasons for that party line, but did Miles ever end up liking--or respecting--Cecil and/or his music at all?

Playing some material off HOLY GHOST on Night Lights this evening--"Green Dolphin Street," "Spirits Rejoice" (w/Peacock and Murray), "Children" (w/Don Cherry), "Japan/Universal Indians" from Newport '67, music from Coltrane's funeral, etc., as well as remarks by Ayler and Don Cherry. It's on WFIU at 11:05 tonight (8:05 California time, 10:05 Chicago time, 11:05 NYC time) and will hopefully be archived by Tuesday morning. Next week: "Resolution: Jazz From Rehab," featuring Joe Pass' SOUNDS OF SYNANON and Elmo Hope's SOUNDS FROM RIKER'S ISLAND.

Had a very HEP Christmas--got the following: Artie Shaw, ARTISTRY OF Claude Thornhill, 1949-1953 Charlie Barnet, 1941 TRANSCRIPTIONS Slim Gaillard, LIVE 1946 Ray McKinley, CLASS OF '49

I salute you, sir, for your indefatigable writing, research, and discographical work. Look forward to reading whatever you publish next--you are one of a number of people who regularly raise the intellectual temperature around these parts.

Some recent reading: Larry Kart's JAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF Dan Morgenstern, LIVING WITH JAZZ Gene Lees, SINGERS AND THE SONG II Ira Wolfert, TUCKER'S PEOPLE Gunther Schuller, THE SWING ERA Jonathan Lethem, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE Only one I've actually finished is the Lees... the others all still in progress. Time, give me more time!