ghost of miles

Hey all, I'll be re-running a two-part Coltrane special as I bid farewell to my weekly community radio program. Tonight it's "John Coltrane, In His Music, In His Words: The 1950s," featuring interviews with Trane scholar Carl Woideck and with Coltrane himself (the August Blume interview from '58). I'll also play some of Coltrane's early R & B sides, including the rare Gay Crosse and Coatesville Harris recordings. Listen here or there if you're interested; program runs from 6 p.m. (7 New York, 9 California) to 9 p.m.

Good choice--I'll pull this one out.

Hardbopjazz, you should never have asked... now the jazz demons have been loosed. God help us all...

But isn't Paul already--but... wha... It's all right there on the back of SGT. PEPPER, I tell you!

I just had trouble logging on for about an hour or so... am I here yet?

Just picked up THE BIG CLOCK last night--haven't watched it yet, or any more from the Warner noir box beyond OUT OF THE PAST. ADR, haven't heard about new DVD plans for DOUBLE INDEMNITY. I keep hoping, however, that they'll find the "lost" ending that Wilder cut, in which you actually see MacMurray make the trip to the gas chamber. There are still photos of it in James Naremore's book on film noir, MORE THAN NIGHT.

I picked up a 2-CD Don Cherry Sonet in Ann Arbor about five years ago.

That's what I thought too, Jim! The comment I couldn't "source" many posts back was indeed from the INVOLUTION liners, which are partially replicated in the Mosaic booklet... either Sam was misquoted the first time around, or he came to view the experience with Miles differently. Fascinating stuff... in any event, I went back and listened to FUSCHIA SWING SONG last night. God, what an album!

Saw mention of this in Cuscuna's liner notes when I re-read the Rivers Mosaic booklet last night. It was a Left Bank gig; has it ever surfaced on tape?

Just started David Leavering Lewis' WHEN HARLEM WAS IN VOGUE, a book about the Harlem Renaissance. For anybody who's interested in early-20th-century Harlem, you might want to check out Jervis Anderson's THIS WAS HARLEM (which covers 1900-1950) and A RENAISSANCE IN HARLEM, a collection of WPA/Federal Writers' Project pieces which focuses on everyday life in Harlem during the 1930s (some of the writers include the then-unknown Dorothy West and Ralph Ellison).

Thanks for posting that, Brad. This is getting a lot of attention--there's an AP story that's in Yahoo's newsbox today as well. I think ES's last year was a bit better than the way it's described in the NY Times article (much of what they're referring to went down in 2001 & '02). And man, Joanna Bolme. Elliott once said that he'd only been in love once, and he was referring to her (she's supposedly who "Say Yes" is about; in fact, many of his songs, IMO, are about her).

One of the things I love about Bloomington, Chris, is that I'm likely to run into several people I know when I take a walk downtown. It's just big enough that not everybody knows your business, but that running into a friend isn't at all uncommon. I'm sure others have that experience in urban neighborhoods that have their own sense of identity (Chicago, for instance, which seems full of "villes" unto themselves), but it's a routine part of life here for which I'm grateful.

Whew! Okay... for a while there I was worried for ya.

I definitely agree, Lazaro. As intriguing as it is to think of what direction the band might have taken with Rivers, it was obviously in both artists' interests to pursue the paths that they did. I just find the whole Davis/Rivers chapter fascinating; I'm calling the program "A Brief Convergence." Rivers on POINT OF DEPARTURE? Wow... I can imagine that more than I can his joining the Messengers.

Another question, in addition to Lazaro's very telling ones: why is Sony not including the 7/12 and 7/15 concerts in the forthcoming 1963-64 box? And are there any other musical/audio documents of Miles & Rivers together from earlier that year? P.S. Just read your post--great story, MartyJazz! Yeah, I like that "Oleo" track quite a lot and intend to play it on the program.

Weizen, what the hell you going to NYC for? Don't you know that city's fulla Democrats and dangerous liberal-types?

This comes from the website that Guy mentioned: Okay, but here's another pickle: if Rivers was too "outside" for what Miles was up to, why was he working as a musical director for T-Bone Walker, according to Peter Kaz? I love T-Bone and I know that a paying gig is a paying gig--maybe I'm showing my non-musicianship here, and Sam would've approached a frontline soloing gig w/Miles in a much different vein than a musical director chair for Walker. FWIW, Rivers doesn't sound as outside to me on the 7/12/64 concert as the above implies. But perhaps my ears are wearing the "40 years later" filters.

If I come across the source, I'll post it. To paraphrase another board member, Inferno affirmative!

Guy Guy, I'm planning on re-reading the Rivers Mosaic booklet tomorrow as I work on the show. Thanks much for the link & the other comments. Late, despite my reverence for Rivers, I realize that he is indeed human and that his 2000 comments might be tinged with revisionism... yet maybe this issue is much simpler than I'm trying to make it, and Miles just wanted somebody to keep the chair warm for Shorter. But I seem to recall Rivers himself once saying that his own musical inclinations at the time were more "out" than what Miles wanted... I'll have to see if I can track down the source for that comment.

For cultural-commodities freaks (i.e., most of this board), I wonder how much of a difference the Internet has made. You can now live in the middle of nowhere and order books, CDs, DVDs, etc., without any problem--no need to drive to a Borders or what have you. You can also "socialize" to some extent in places like these. Doesn't really replace the real thing, of course (though for some I suppose it does), but the whole phenomenon might make country living more palatable for a few folks--a way to stay connected while being away from it all. I've often fantasized about living on some rugged, isolated part of the Olympic Penisula, but I know I'd still be hitting Organissimo and ordering music, films, and literature like a madman from time to time.

Late, No doubt my statement was terribly reductive in and of itself. I'm so distrustful of much jazz history "conventional wisdom" that sometimes I'm inclined to dismiss theories and/or ideas that are solidly grounded in reality. The Rivers 2000 webchat may put the question paid in some respects, but I still wonder--I mean, if Miles had loved Sam's playing & how he fit in with the group, would he still have wanted Shorter back? Would it, or did it, cause a dilemma for Miles at all? (Seemingly it didn't.) Is that all that Rivers' stay with Davis was--a stopgap measure until Shorter was done with the Messengers? I'm the last person on earth to doubt Sam Rivers' word; he strikes me as close to a holy man of jazz. And I'm still trying to imagine what the Messengers would have sounded like with Rivers on tenor. Who did replace Shorter, after John Gilmore's abbreviated spell w/Blakey?

On the one hand... --Frank O'Hara, "Meditations in an Emergency" On the other hand, I love living in Bloomington--a small, friendly, pretty town that also offers a world of culture--much of it free or very cheap--because of Indiana University. (The School of Music alone gives us so much in the way of classical and jazz performances.) In some ways it's the best of both worlds; the owner of a local bookstore frequently tells me how he would have to pay several thousand dollars a year and take a cab or the subway to attend performances which he sees for free here (and to which he usually walks). Still, I see the jazz listings in NYC papers and groan... Side note: I just learned today that Adam Herbert, IU's new president, is Jason Moran's uncle. How cool is that? Hope it increases our chances for bringing Moran here as a leader--he came through with Greg Osby a couple of years ago and pretty much stole the show.

I just did some Googling and came up with this Jazz at Lincoln Center webchat that Rivers did about four years ago: Full webchat here. Rivers was supposed to join the Messengers?!

Me too, Brownie! I'd like to do a Jackie & Roy show, actually... Jim, thanks for stimulating my interest in the Hi-Lo's. One of our local DJs played their "April in Fairbanks" song this past spring, providing me with a much-needed laugh during some difficult times. I'll look into their Starlight work.