ghost of miles

Not really relevant to the thread at hand, but one of my favorite exchanges in MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL is when King Arthur asks the French castle guards if their master would be interested in accompanying him on his quest for the grail and they tell him "He's already got one." "Are you quite sure?" "Oh yes, it's very nice!"

My wife subscribes to ARCHAEOLOGY, and I think there was an article about this & Golan a few months ago. Evidently he's a somewhat sketchy character... isn't there another relic controversy with which he's involved?

Good one! A real bohemian classic. E.M. Forster, ROOM WITH A VIEW. My wife and I re-watched the movie last night (one of our favorites) & I thought I should finally get around to reading the novel, which supposedly puts more of an emphasis on some of the class issues.

Absolutely! I'm surprised that this never appeared as a box, particularly in Japan -- how often do you find a vol. 1 through vol. 5 collection that's only appeared as separates? Well, I suppose the Bud Powells.....4 vols., right? . You mean the Powell Blue Note & Roost box? I think that's 6 CDs in all (the individual titles)... the Manne Blackhawks btw are indeed great, esp. for Joe Gordon fans.

Several recent Pacific Jazz re-issues of Chet Baker will be the focus of this week's Night Lights, including CHET BAKER ENSEMBLE, CHET BAKER SEXTET, and CHET BAKER SINGS AND PLAYS. These recordings were all done between 1953 and 1955, when Baker's star was ascending and he was relatively untroubled by the drug habit that would plague so much of his later life. Players include Bud Shank, Bob Brookmeyer, Jack Montrose, and Bob Gordon. Two Bob Zieff-penned compositions from a Dec. 1957 session will be featured as well. The show airs at 11:05 p.m. this Saturday (8:05 California time, 10:05 Chicago time, 11:05 NYC time) on WFIU; the webstream can be found here. On Monday it will be posted in the Night Lightsarchives. Next week: "Miles Davis & the JACK JOHNSON sessions."

May this year be the best one yet, AB!

Me too. Perhaps you & I should establish an informal pact of cooperation to defend him if he ever hits the political forums? You know how rough those europeans and guys from Indiana can be! B-) Not to mention the dangerous mixed-breed that occurs when Europeans and Hoosiers mate--the dreaded EUROBILLY.

Glad you're enjoying it, Brownie! I got the Pass a couple years back from Mr. Tanno... the CD adds a bonus track to the original LP.

"Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to... BORROW THE CAR KEYS!!"

I think your first post was right on, MM. I've had the same thought myself a few times... not to be arrogant, smug, or self-satisfied about it, but I think the music itself is a highly intelligent (and enjoyable) art, and tends to draw people who are a bit more reflective in general. Glad to have you aboard, too. Where were you deployed? I've never served, but I know what it's like to be isolated with a bunch of folks whose tastes run different--I worked a salmon-harvest season on a processor off Alaska back in the late 80s, and all the guys on the boat listened to Guns 'n Roses and Too Short non-stop. I got along well with 'em, but they all thought I was a little weird because I liked to read!

Ah! Not at TD's, eh? I miss the record stores in Ann Arbor--used to hit them when I went up for Borders management seminars. Good running into you last night--I'll see you next Sunday!

"Resolution: Jazz From Rehab" focuses on two unique early-1960s albums made by guitarist Joe Pass and pianist Elmo Hope. Pass' 1961 Pacific Jazz LP SOUNDS OF SYNANON was his debut as a leader; although he'd begun to play professionally as a teenager in the late 1940s, stays in prison and rehabilitation centers for drug addiction had hampered his career throughout the 1950s. All the personnel on the album were residents at Synanon, a Santa Monica, California recovery center that had been featured earlier in the year in Downbeat. Other jazz musicians that would pass through its program in the next few years would include Charlie Haden and Art Pepper, who wrote at length about Synanon in his autobiography STRAIGHT LIFE. Despite the program's success in treating addicts, from the late 1970s on it began to succumb to ever-increasing managerial authoritarianism, criminal charges, and loss of its tax-emption status. More information on the history of the Synanon program can be found here. Pictures of Joe Pass giving a copy of the LP to Steve Allen and playing with the Sounds of Synanon band can be seen on this web-page. SOUNDS FROM RIKER'S ISLAND was a 1963 album project conceived by vibraphonist Walt Dickerson and a producer named Sid Frey. The ensemble, led by pianist Elmo Hope, consisted primarily of musicians who had struggled in one way or another with addiction; it included drummer Philly Jo Jones and tenor saxophonist John Gilmore (making one of his rare appearances away from Sun Ra's Arkestra). Nat Hentoff's liner notes argued for a more humane treatment of musician-addicts; the title was an allusion to the place where such artists usually found themselves if arrested for narcotics violations in New York City. Both albums now stand as early social documents of recovery culture in the United States, at a time when addicted jazz musicians were routinely stigmatized and condemned by the media and society. You can listen to the program, which was originally broadcast on WFIU on January 1, 2005, by clicking here.

Stefan, I'm a fan of that album as well! Several years ago I e-mailed Mosaic about Dakota Staton, and Michael Cuscuna replied that they were considering some sort of Capitol/UA set... but haven't heard anything since. I'll e-mail them again, as I, too, would like to hear more of this material.

here? quiet! look at that last post from B3er in that thread, we don't want to piss him off, besides I promised him to ease off on crazy amounts of posts last Summer. See, that's what I meant!

here?

You beat me to it, Chris--a pattern I've also noticed in many new jazz releases of the past few years, where "The Creator" is often cited for thanks and/or involvement in the proceedings.

Well, all, I'm finally able to report that I'm being given a second jazz radio program at WFIU--or, rather, inheriting a longstanding one, The Big Bands, which airs every Friday night at 9 p.m. on WFIU here in Bloomington. I'll be taking over starting the first Friday of February, and suggestions, as always, are welcome. For Feb. I'm planning shows about Fletcher Henderson (there's a new bio by an IU professor), the Jubilee broadcasts, and Fletcher's brother Horace. Thank God I can now write off all those Hep purchases as "investments"! B-)

Amazon is once again listing Laura for pre-order. Looks like this time it's actually coming out...

There is a smidgen of information on this page (scroll up a bit). Hasn't been updated in a few years, however... but there's a contact link.

Exactly my thoughts, DrJ. I've been listening to this set a lot in the past week, and I much prefer it to BITCHES BREW (not that I don't enjoy that set as well)... This might be my favorite electric Miles of all. Certainly I think he's at the top of his trumpet-playing game here.

Unless I missed one elsewhere.... Here's to you, Herbie. I think about you every year on this date and am always grateful for your gentle gift of compositional beauty:

You and Herbie Nichols, man!

"Holy Ghost" is now up on the site.

Go get it anyway... and mail it to me. Curses! Foiled by the moderator--again!