ghost of miles

Tonight on The Big Bands it's "That Old Arlen Magic," an homage to American songwriter Harold Arlen. We'll hear performances from Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, the Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra, Billy Eckstine and Ella Fitzgerald (each backed by a Billy May-led big band), Gerald Wilson, and more. The program airs at 9 p.m. (7 p.m. California time, 10 p.m. NYC time) on WFIU. And... since our regular jazz DJ is on vacation this week, I'll be filling in for him on the two-hour program Afterglow that follows immediately after... Afterglow is devoted to late-night jazz ballads and American popular song, so I programmed Ahmad Jamal's "It Ain't Necessarily So," Mel Torme's "A Stranger in Town," Rickie Lee Jones' "Ballad of the Sad Young Men," Miles' "Summer Night," Dinah Washington's "Romance in the Dark," Dexter's "More Than You Know" off the Mosaic Select... it's that kind of show.

Mike, I think you're actually like most radio listeners in that regard. Freeform IMO is best-suited for community and college radio stations. Even there, in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they're doing, it can get real annoying.

My best birthday wishes to a mighty third of the ultimate power trio!

Thanks for the news, Jaffa!

My understanding is that we will probably not see this until very early next year.

Should be archived now! I'll try to get the playlist done later today.

Sorry for the delay, GP! I've been swamped with radio work this week, but have asked the webmaster to go ahead and archive the program... I hope it's up by tomorrow! David

They're now reporting 40 dead, 300 wounded. My thoughts, prayers, and condolences to our UK friends.

Brownie, thanks much! That's a great resource... I've bookmarked it.

I'm doing a tribute show to Michelot today--wish I had the HUM recordings! I do have the JiP leader date and quite a lot of the other material he appeared on in the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as the Round Midnight soundtrack. Hopefully some station with better resources will provide an even more comprehensive tribute to the talents and contributions of Mr. Michelot. Long live the Three Bosses!

Anybody see the New Yorker cover this week? It's so sad that my wife finally took it off the table--we both didn't want to look at it anymore.

Sad news... but thanks for posting it, Mike. I'd only recently been enjoying his leader date from the Jazz in Paris series.

Anybody have a recommendation for a good one? I've always been interested in him; thinking about watching the movie Our Town tonight, and have finally gotten the bug to read a bio.

I'll be playing some Armstrong today when I sit in for Joe on Just You and Me--music from an August 1945 Jubilee show with Ella Mae Morse and Frank Sinatra, music from the New Orleans soundtrack (thanks, Jazzbo!), "Summer Song" from The Real Ambassadors, and a few other items. Happy "ceremonial" birthday, Satch!

I'd buy the day it came out.

Keep it public, WD45!

Hey, glad that you especially caught it! It won't get archived until Tuesday because of the holiday. I'm sure that you'll find a lot of interest in the collection at Ball State.

I think it's because the Capitol box is not a "complete" box, just a selection--and MC said in the liner notes that some artists were excluded either because their Capitol recordings were too voluminous, or because they were being held back for future projects. I loved disc 1 of the Slack Select. Disc 2 didn't do as much for me--but will give it another spin later this week, along with disc 3.

This week on Night Lights it's "Jazz Studio 3 & 4: John Graas and Jack Millman," two more entries in Decca's mid-1950s Jazz Studio series. John Graas was a classically-trained French horn player who worked with several famous big bands in the 1940s and who studied with both Lennie Tristano and West Coast music guru Wesley La Violette. In the 1950s he was active on the West Coast jazz scene and also did a stint on Liberace's TV program. In this program we'll hear selections from his "Jazz Studio 3" album, including his compositions "6/4 and Even" and excerpts from his "Symphony 1 in F Minor," as well as a quartet version of "My Buddy" with baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan sitting in. We'll also hear music from trumpeter Jack Millman's "Jazz Studio 4." Millman is another lesser-known West Coast jazz figure who led several album dates in the late 1950s; like Graas, he was steeped in classical influence and also worked with Stan Kenton's orchestra at one time. "Jazz Studio 4" consists of Millman originals arranged by Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Holman, Pete Rugolo, and others. The program airs Saturday, July 2 at 11:05 p.m (9:05 California time, 12:05 NYC time). You can listen live or wait until Tuesday afternoon, when the program will be posted to the Night Lights archives. Next week: "Duets: Two Degrees of Separation."

Hmm... I guess I don't see the distinction being employed much here. Aren't we generally talking about tunes that provide fertile grounds for improvisation? Or tunes that have melodies so compelling and "timeless" (admittedly a dangerous word) that musicians return to them on a regular basis? In that sense, why the distinction between "All the Things You Are" and "I Remember Clifford"? Sonny Rollins mined Broadway and the movies repeatedly for songs that he did, in a way, turn into jazz standards, even if he was not the original composer.

More from the list, though I don't think it adds anything new to the story:

More posted to the Coltrane list:

Sure to be at #1 in Bahrain for many months.

There's a reprint edition of Edward Gorey's War of the Worlds just out.. hadn't seen that one before.

← Clowes was on Fresh Air last week. TG did say something kind of silly--"Are there such things as comic book critics?" Uh.... yeah.