ghost of miles

No surprise that I've greatly enjoyed the Yankees' bombs-away start to their season. Their offense may prove to be better than expected in the wake of Juan Soto's departure, though that's highly dependent on some of the younger players realizing their potential at the plate (Volpe, Wells, Rice, Dominguez), Judge and Goldschmidt staying healthy, and Jazz continuing to thrive in his New York setting. The rotation is a whole 'nother story, and therein lies the bigger vulnerability. Past Rodon and Fries, it's pejorative-worthy at this point. Even with Gil's eventual (hopeful?) return by early summer, there'll be little to no depth for the inevitable injuries. I gather that Milwaukee's in a much worse position regarding the health of their rotation? It's taken me awhile to get into the spirit of the new season this year (for various reasons)...pretty much ignored spring training and have little sense of who's seen as strong in the AL this year, though I've noticed Baltimore and Boston namechecked the few times I've glanced at anything online. And of course the new evil empire in southern California is supposed to reign supreme in the NL and inevitably in the WS as well...and they may well do so, but first they have to actually do it. Anyway, thanks a lot, NY.

Huge fan of Cherry Red’s work in all genres and have just started digging into their new British Jazz 1966-72 set. Thanks for the heads-up on this release.

Taking this in while awaiting the new Vanguard piano Mosaic. Sure does make me miss our friend BillF.

discs 8 and 9

Up for James Moody's centennial today. Blues For Moody: A Musical Remembrance

Still working my way through this one, with V. 17 (Saba/MPS) yet to be opened, and my local store now hipping me to an imminent V. 18 Jazz Behind the Iron Curtain V 1 & 2 coming in early summer. Such a fantastic series and glad that it continues.

Also starting an Alan Furst novel for the first time in quite awhile.

Thanks, this is one I want to get to sooner rather than later.

Excited to see that Rivera is writing a full-fledged biography of Newton, according to the NYRB's author note. I wish I could share a subscriber gift link to the whole piece, but I can't seem to locate that capacity on the NYRB website. Rivera mentions the paucity and scattered nature of available Newton music, but the Jasmine two-CD anthology apparently remains in print and is probably the best overview of Newton's music out there on physical media (not that it really has any competition).

Amazing! As you know, Mark, I've long contemplated doing a Night Lights show about Newton, and have that short biographical pamphlet that a Virginia history society published about him. Glad now that I haven't gotten around to it yet, as it seems there'll be a lot more information to draw on, thanks to the efforts of Matthew and your assistance. Can't wait to read the NYRB article after work this evening... thanks for posting it here.

Co-sign. Especially distressing to see non-problematic and longtime members (Paul Secor, Soulpope, etc) leaving the board because of a moderator’s tone of discourse. (We lost another valuable and civil contributor because of *two* moderators, one of whom is no longer active.) I stick around regardless because this is still my favorite jazz forum, a lot of great content gets posted here, and nobody’s perfect. So spare me sanctimonious edicts and condescendingly homey asides—I get that I’m free to leave at any time. (I have no inclination to do so.) I’ve been wary of stating this and honking off the resident sheriff, but given that Medjuck, surely one of our kindest and gentlest posters, has said something, I feel the need to back him up. A moderator driving away longtime civil members and always positing it all as delusions, vanity, a misguided showdown of pride, a misunderstanding, or some other personal failing on the members’ part is not a healthy pattern. This forum has had a remarkably long run, even if it’s not as active or as populated as it used to be. Given that 22 years is about a century in social media time, it’s amazing that it persists. That’s in large part because of its member core, so yeah, it’s a bummer to see people like Paul and Soulpope leave because of discourse clashes with a moderator. The forum will fall victim to time as all of us will, and the world will go on as it always does, etc. All the more important to speak your piece while we’re here.

Me as well. Hoping to do a 1950s sequel to the earlier Night Lights show I put together about Powell, and this set will be essential to its creation.

Picked this up used at Jazz Record Center—an excellent overview of Green’s 1960s Blue Note sides: Cue broken record, but I continue to enjoy well-curated anthologies like these, even when I already have just about every track that they contain. It’s especially useful with an artist like Green who turned in so many outstanding sideman appearances for the same label, making it easier for a collection like this to represent the breadth of his recording for Blue Note. I would’ve enjoyed a fifth disc of 1969-72 selections as well, but that would have muddied the “jazz years” concept of the set as described in the booklet by Bob Blumenthal.

Sorry to hear this as well. I had pleasant email exchanges over the years with him while placing direct orders, and always expressed my gratitude for the excellence and the breadth of his reissue work. Hep’s eight-volume series of Claude Thornhill’s 1941-53 recordings, for example, is and will likely remain for some time the best documentation we have of the band that helped birth the cool, etc. And glad that he kept at it long enough to get that Wilder compilation out. Forever thankful for how Alastair enriched my enjoyment of the midcentury swing era with his well-annotated, good-sounding curations. Though I didn’t know him at all beyond the lighthearted asides he often employed in his email replies, I always felt that his releases came from a place of great love for the music.

This is the excellent single-disc compilation that I listened to while preparing the show:

An oldie but goodie.

Has the Sept 14, 1972 Paul's Mall broadcast ever been considered for inclusion in the Bootleg series? I won't link to it per board policy, but it's readily available online and has apparently circulated for a long time. The On The Corner box covered studio sessions from 1972 to 1975, but there's been precious little live material from that period released in the Bootleg collections, correct? I think some stuff on the Newport 1955-75, but otherwise no post-1970 live performances. I'd snap up a new volume of concert material from that era...any word as to what, if anything, might be next in the series?

Last week's Night Lights program, The Revolution Will Be Recorded: The Flying Dutchman Story, took a look at producer Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label and is now archived for online listening. It includes music from Gil Scott-Heron, Duke Ellington, Oliver Nelson (lots of Oliver Nelson!), Leon Thomas, Gato Barbieri, Louis Armstrong and others, as well as excerpts from some of the spoken-word recordings that the label released. There was so much to cover that I'm going to do a sequel next year.

A happy 22 years to being here on Organissimo. There's life in this ol' hoss yet!

The Powell and the Braff-Larkins alone make this a no-brainer for me. Hopefully there’ll be a third set that includes some or all of the omitted material mentioned above.

One of my faves in the Bootleg series: