ghost of miles

The Jack Purvis set is very good... I also like the Ben Pollacks.

Pre-order placed!

Jim, thanks much for this thread, and Luke, thanks for your thoughts and updates. I'm ordering both Hewitts today and will order the quintet date when it comes out this fall... one more reason to love the autumn.

Listening to this set all the way through for the first time, as I'm doing a show on it later this week, and man, does the NT band grow on me. When I first got into jazz, it was partly through the Decca Basie OT set--and for a long time, I found the 1950s unit too codified by contrast. Don't know if it's because I'm older or have just listened a lot more, but I have much more appreciation for the musicianship and arrangements on these NT records. Somehow this band sounds smooth (in the best sense of the word) and dynamic at the same time, a nice trick if you can do it. And Chris A.'s liner notes are a wonderful mix of description and anecdote; I particularly enjoyed his speculation about Basie's including the quote from "Blues in the Night" on the same day that a story appeared about his wife finding "a delicate letter" from a band singer in Basie's coat. Interesting, too, that Basie was supposed to be one of the first State Dpt. tour acts. Wonder why that didn't come off? I'll have to revisit SATCHMO BLOWS UP THE WORLD to see if that's discussed.

I've picked up a couple of the Tolliver Strata East CDs used from a fellow board member--I'll be all over this Select the day that it comes out. Wow, between this and the Hill set in the spring... it's been a very good year!

This program is now archived.

As a kid I was a huge fan of Carl Barks, particularly the Uncle Scrooge and Gyro Gearloose comics. My father-in-law has the complete Barks set and has said that he's going to pass them along to me at some point. As an adult I've mostly followed Clowes. Anybody here read Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay? A real love-letter to the 1940s era of comic books.

There was a link on the main page, now I can't even find it. Maybe someone put up the link too early? ← A Jack-attack?

Ugh. No soul in that machine.

This week on Night Lights it's "For Lady: Early Tribute LPs to Billie Holiday." Although there had been tribute LPs to other artists before Billie Holiday--Bix Beiderbecke and Fats Waller among them--the concept really took off in the two years before and after Holiday's death in 1959, as six albums dedicated to the iconic singer were released. We'll hear selections from little-known trumpeter Webster Young's 1957 For Lady, as well as Anita O'Day's Trav'lin' Light, Johnny Griffin's White Gardenia, Sam Cooke's Tribute to the Lady, Carmen McRae's Sings Loverman, and Mal Waldron's Left Alone. "For Lady" airs Saturday, July 16 at 11:05 p.m. on WFIU; you can listen live, or wait until Monday afternoon, when the program will be posted to the Night Lights archives. Next week: "The Early Avant-Garde: Teddy Charles." (tip of the hat to Late & garthsj.)

An adaptation of this chapter is online. Apologies if it's already been posted.

Are there any good articles or online sources concerning the last couple of years of Lee's life?

Thread about this over at Jazzcorner as well.

Thanks to garthsj for hipping me to Hunter/McBain's novel about a jazz musician heroin addict.

We love you madly!!!

Hey, Lon, apart from an "old disestablismentarianismist", you´re a freakin´ collector of Ellingtonia. Will I ever find a single Ellington-related disc that you don´t own? ← Perhaps FRANCIS A. AND EDWARD K.?

FINGERPICKIN' has come out on CD. I'm pretty sure that all of the tracks that have Wes on KIZMET were added to either the FINGERPICKIN' or FAR WES CD.

My personal fave for the past couple of years has been Hep. In addition to reissuing major stars of the swing era, they put out CDs covering lesser-known leaders like Jack Jenny, Sam Donahue, and Johnny Bothwell... and they've put out seven CDs covering Indiana native Claude Thornhill.

YES, please! This happened in the middle of the night for us Europeans! Hate to have missed this! Sounds like a great evening! ← Me three... I caught only a few minutes and it made me want to hear the whole damned show!

There's an item about it in the new Downbeat as well.

A great website that I've utilized several times for program research.

I think he's on the Anita O'Day Mosaic box.

Mark, He's a figure who intrigues me as well--shows up on a number of late-1950s big-band dates that I have. Not much about him at AMG:

Excellent! I'm going to be working on some shows, but I'll try to take a break and tune in.

Thanks for posting that, Lon. I've always been curious about the story behind that person.