ghost of miles

Hey all, I know there's a Sam Rivers discussion going on elsewhere, but this is a kind of offshoot... I'm putting together a "Night Lights" program that focuses on Rivers' time with Miles in 1964, as well as some of Rivers' recordings for Blue Note with Miles sidemen in 1964-65, and wondered what your thoughts were as to why Sam's stay with Miles did not "work out," as it were. The conventional wisdom seems to be that Rivers was not willing to accommodate himself to Miles' aesthetic vision, or that he was more avant-garde in his direction than Miles was willing to be at that time. I'm not sure I really buy that, listening to what I've heard of both Rivers w/Miles in 1964 (two live performances in Japan that exist outside of MILES IN TOKYO) and Rivers' own work for Blue Note shortly thereafter. I mean, there may be some grains of truth there, but such explanations strike me as terribly reductive.

Solid news regarding FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL, by way of Sweet Addy:

Thomas Merton, NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION.

Definitely "Ramblin'"--the bass line is a great hook. Also "Peace."

I loved Von's last... the man is goin' out blowin' (and hopefully goin' out blowin' for many years to come).

I drink about 7-10 cups a day as well, including one or two in the early evening... and then in the mid-early-mid evening... but never at dusk!

Is their audio even better than SACD? Inquiring Greg M's want to know.

Yeah like Ha, Ha! You don't have the resources the Evil Yankees have! No, no, nothing so crude as that... rather a pleasant inquiry as to the significance of recounting any past exploits of said team, owing to... ahhh, don't want to goad the Gouldster.

Hey Berigan, Santa Claus came in the spring one year, don'tcha know...

Got 9 for the same PM from one board member.

Not so fast, buster! LawrenceWelkuncorked

(with manly effort, resists urge to take jab at BoSox) B)

Um... lemme think... oh, I remember! 1978 NY Yankees.

Yep, Bix was last year. As for box-sets, RCA already put out a complete Glenn Miller set, and I doubt they have the economic nerve to tackle Fats' considerable output... how well did the Keepnews-produced volumes sell? It seems--I say seems because it's mostly based on my anecdotal observations--that the major companies are just a bit more wary of putting out complete, large, and/or comprehensive sets these days than they were a few years ago. I do hope that the Hawk gets his due. Basie, I'm sure, will not be overlooked.

(groan) It was destined to happen, but isn't this a bit premature? Has the 80's revival truly run its course? I guess I gotta be more hip to the new nostalgia... don't get caught nappin' on yesterday's fashions!

Wow! Any confirmation on that, Chuck? I did a two-part show on BEFORE MOTOWN a couple years back, and JamesJazz sent me some wonderful material from that time... that's another Uptown I'd buy right out of the gate!

From Edmund Morris' strange piece on Reagan in a recent New Yorker:

I hear ya, impossible. I've been that way myself lately, particularly with all of the outtakes and unreleased songs that have been posted on Sweet Adeline... his leftovers are so much better than most artists' primary offerings. Can't wait for SONGS FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL. BTW, some discussion of Brad Mehldau going on over at Sweet Adeline because of his cover of "Bottle Up and Explode": bottleupandexplode

Maybe it's all an insidious attempt to drive us back to buying the books.

Interview w/Creed Taylor at AAJ: CreedTaylor

A friend of mine who writes for AMG still says this is the first step towards a paid site... if so, not a very adroit one...

Yes, great line! I used it in a promo spot I did for a two-part, six-hour Coltrane special I did a couple of years ago... matter of fact, the community radio station manager and I are getting ready to re-do that program and run it again July 23 and 30. The program includes excerpts from the 1958 interview and Kofsky's 1966 interview as well, along with commentary from Carl Woideck (Coltrane biographer) and David Baker. I'll post a link when it airs.

Mine came in the mail yesterday, and I'm hoping to listen to it tomorrow night. Didn't realize that Frank Kimbrough is on it, which is just another added bonus!

A friend of mine sent me the following message from a horror-film message board: The later Mummy movies were none too good, but I might get 'em anyway for nostalgia's sake (I saw them all on our local late-Friday-night horror show when I was a kid). I definitely want to get the Invisible Man set.

Re-reading David Halberstam's SUMMER OF '49, a wonderful baseball book about the Yankees-Red Sox pennant race that year.