ghost of miles

Just found out she does a cover of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" on CARELESS LOVE... interesting choice of material for that record.

Madeleine Peyroux has done a jazz cover of "Between the Bars" on her recent CD CARELESS LOVE. You can hear a 30-second sample here.

Jim, Yeah, I was aware of the connection, though I haven't seen that illustration for a long time... I wonder when the company stopped using it.

Thanks much for the comment, DatDere. The link to the Pullen-Adams program is fixed now--thanks to you and White Lightning for bringing it to my attention.

Okrent's a joke. He didn't say squat when the Times fired a city stringer because he'd been a spokesperson for ACT-UP years ago... and he wasn't even covering gay-beat issues. Yet they keep Judy Miller, who belongs to a neocon think tank, on as a foreign-policy reporter. Talk about conflict of interest!

A cheap used copy of King Curtis' HAVE TENOR SAX, WILL BLOW/LIVE AT SMALL'S PARADISE.

For me, summer of '95... I was working in a record store and in love with Andrew Hill's JUDGEMENT (dare I say I was so in love with the sound of Andrew Hill?). Read in an industry magazine called THE ICE that Mosaic Records of CT was releasing a complete set of Hill's mid-1960s Blue Note recordings. I thought I'd order it into the store and get a nice employee discount until my jazz buddy Sascha informed me that Mosaic didn't do retail... anyways, a friend of mine who lived in Norwalk went over to the Mosaic office and ordered it for me. It came with a catalogue, and the rest is history... the history of a broken wallet.

BMG now has this along with the other recent BN Connoisseurs... I ordered it today as part of the 60% off and free shipping deal. Eager to hear it!

We're one away from 1000. "999 bottles of beer on the wall, 999 bottles of beer... take one down, pass it around..."

Report: Sosa traded to Orioles

Just found out that in addition to overhauling our big-bands web-page, we'll also be archiving all shows that I record, so that--a la Night Lights--they're available to listen to any time on the web. Here's the schedule so far: Feb. 4--"The Uncrowned King of Swing." Recordings of Fletcher Henderson, including the rarely-heard 1945 version of "King Porter Stomp." Feb. 11--"Big Band Trane." John Coltrane's AFRICA/BRASS, as well as big-band versions of Coltrane material from Woody Herman, Gerald Wilson, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and others, plus George Russell's "Manhattan." Feb. 18--"Jubilee." World War II broadcasts from the Armed Forces Radio Service program for African-American servicemen. Feb. 25--"The Uncrowned Brother of Swing." Horace Henderson's 1940 big band, plus Henderson's arrangements for brother Fletcher's band, and a live broadcast from Chicago in 1954. Mar. 4--"The Ladies Who Swing the Band." Mary Lou Williams, Melba Liston, Carla Bley, Maria Schneider. Mar. 11--"Miss Peggy Lee Big Band." Mar. 18--"The International Sweethearts of Rhythm + Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears." Mar. 25--"Big Band Jukebox." A monthly look at hits and obscurities. Apr. 1--either Georgie Auld or Jack Jenney. Apr. 8--"Duke Ellington Treasury Shows 1." Broadcasts from April 1945. Apr. 15--"Big Band Jukebox." In May there'll be another Ellington Treasury show (broadcasts from May 1945), as well as programs about Sam Donahue's Navy Band and the Glenn Miller AAF. A show devoted to Mary Ann McCall is also on the horizon. All of these will be archived on the WFIU website.

Thanks for pointing this out, Jim... it's a conclusion I've come to as well. The 1942 strike has long been represented in a negative light, primarily because it kept many great bands and musicians off records during an interesting period in the evolution of the music, but from an economic perspective, it must indeed be viewed as a victory for performing artists.

Don't know if these clearance titles have been posted recently, but BMG currently has the RVGs of MILES DAVIS V. 1 and V. 2 for $1.99--as well as Charlie Parker's LIVE AT STORYVILLE and Sinatra's POINT OF NO RETURN.

Thanks, man! I've been holding off on the latest Hutcherson, Silver, and Wilson Connoisseurs... just picked them all up (4 CDs) for $26 total.

I'm pretty sure it'd be bad form to ask Mosaic if they'd sell me a box and booklet to go with my eBay discs. So I'm just gonna have to take your word for it... I don't think they do this anymore for in-print sets... only for OOP.

this is something I seriously need to do too. Congratulations!! Well, it's a little strange, I have to admit. I feel pretty disconnected now from TV culture and hear about it word-of-mouth (such as Desperate Housewives... what's all the hoopla about that, anyhoo?). But I don't really miss it. I get more of a kick out of buying DVD boxes of old shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The World at War, and Peter Gunn (thanks to relyles), and watching a few episodes of those at my leisure... and I have high hopes that a DVD release of Hill Street Blues is imminent. But yeah, I'll trade cable for $500 worth of jazz CDs any time! It's weird... whenever I go to my father's house and watch TV for an extended time, say, on a holiday, I end up feeling something that I can describe only as a spiritual hangover.

this is something I seriously need to do too. Congratulations!! Aw, he's all talk! Just wait 'til he & Mrs. Ghost have a few kids and they start getting sitters to swing in so that they can have a night out to check the new Fahrenheit 911, Part 12. I'm sure she'll be happy to sit there all night flipping through National Geographic and a few old Mosaic catalogues. More like old New York Review of Books and Mosaic catalogues. Hey, it's no problem finding literate, liberal babysitters in Bloomington... yes indeedy, what we got here is a re-gu-lar oasis of enlightenment. Course'n you gotta keep the kiddies away from the medicine cabinet... they're a little too curious when it comes to mood-altering substances!

I've got all of them throurh Vol 10 and was very happy with them until Vol 10. The sound on it is horribly compressed. Also the notes identify the last song on cd one as A Train when in fact it's Things Ain't What they Used to Be. Maybe the death of the founder has led to shoddy work on the part of Storyville. I have volumes 1, 2, and 10, and 3 & 4 are on their way... you're right about V. 10's sound. Hopefully V. 11--if it ever comes out--will not suffer from the same problems. Aren't there 24 double-CDs planned in all? I'm thinking about featuring some once a month on The Big Bands this year--doing a show of April 1945 broadcasts in April, a show of May 1945 broadcasts in May, etc.--right up through the 60th anniversary of V-J Day. (After which the name of "War Bonds" was changed to "Victory Bonds.")

Liked DEATH OF A TENOR MAN quite a lot, SOUND OF THE TRUMPET not quite as much, and stopped reading BIRD LIVES after the first couple of chapters. Something about the protagonist's attitude started to wear on me... interesting concept, though. I'm also intrigued by Moody's non-fiction book on jazz exiles in Europe, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

This week on Night Lights it's jazz from late-1940s/early-1950s Boston, featuring alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano, pianist and arranger Nat Pierce, and baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff. The Boston scene was a thriving one, enhanced in part by the presence of the Boston Conservatory of Music, which stood out for its acceptance of black musicians (Sam Rivers and Gigi Gryce were among the artists who studied there--I highly recommend checking out Mike Fitzgerald's Gryce bio RAT RACE BLUES for its portrayal of the Boston music scene during this era). We'll hear selections from CHARLIE MARIANO AND THE BOSTON ALL-STARS, Nat Pierce's BOSTON BUSTOUT, and Serge Chaloff's BOSTON 1950, in addition to some sides from Chaloff's collected works on the Mosaic label (a future show will focus on Chaloff exclusively). The program airs at 11:05 Saturday night (8:05 California time, 10:05 Chicago time) on WFIU; you can listen live here or (by Monday afternoon) in the Night Lights archives. (Note: this show is in place of the previously-announced program about Dick Twardzik, a pianist from Boston. Jack Chambers' forthcoming biography of Twardzik has been delayed until late-spring or early-summer; the Twardzik program will air sometime in late summer.) Next week: "But I Was Cool: the Early-1960s Recordings of Oscar Brown Jr."

The Pullen-Adams is now archived.

Found this on a cool big-band site that I just discovered: Petrillo ban There's a joke in Evan Hunter's QUARTET IN H that references Petrillo and the recording ban... can't remember it at the moment, but I'll try to post it tomorrow.

My wife and I "de-cableized" several years ago. Hey, it's $500 more a year to spend on jazz CDs, and the ol' brain rot decelerates. There are at least several African-Americans that I'm aware of who post here. I once chided a poster for saying of James Carter, "The boy can play," only to find out from another poster that said poster was African-American... which certainly did make a difference.

No way, man--I will resist the tired old cheap shot! Besides, I'm having breakfast with a "spook" on Sunday. Library supervisor/jazz DJ. Hoping that the jazz DJ gig will soon turn into a fulltime one.

ABOUT THE BLUES.