ghost of miles

Allen, is that the one with the weird drawing of Twardzik on the cover? 1954 IMPROVISATIONS, or something like that? If so, yes. I have the PJ, the Boston 1952 date w/Bird, the Chaloff material, the Mariano date, the sides w/Baker in France... I think I've got it covered, music-wise, but really hope I can read the Chambers before doing the show. I might even go against our listening guide & postpone the program if I don't have the book yet; its appearance was a prime factor in my timing.

Happy birthday, Mr. Moose! Hope your Christmas loot was doubled and that you had some time to enjoy it! (Mssrs. Spade and Op also say great going on making it another year without being shot down by some gunsel.)

I should add: Von Freeman, THE GREAT DIVIDE Fly, FLY Diana Krall, THE GIRL IN THE OTHER ROOM Johnny Holiday, JOHNNY HOLIDAY (which could count as both a new release and a re-issue)

This is somewhat anecdotal, based on my experiences working in several local CD stores for seven years & perusing articles, jazz radio charts, etc., but there is a brand of jazz--the brand that dare not speak its name--that continues to be somewhat popular & esp. with African-Americans, and that is the dreaded smooth or "urban" jazz. So where does that leave us? I can't stand it, musically speaking (in any form of speaking), but that's the kind of jazz that younger and middle-aged African-Americans tended to buy in the places where I worked. It was mostly the older crowd that bought the music that's talked about here. Lots of white folks buying it as well, and they were all buying it for pleasure (cue the cable-movie sex scene). We can say that bad taste knows no boundaries, racial or otherwise, but I think that's a condescending attitude. "Pleasure," listening-wise, is such a subjective way to frame the discussion of how we approach the "worth" of music... One of my co-workers was a middle-aged black woman, and we used to jibe each other about our respective tastes in jazz. She'd grimace while I was playing Sonny Rollins in the overhead--"That's just so skronky!" (and we're talking the Prestige sides) and then throw on Dave Koz. She hipped me to some early Grover Washington, and I thank her for that, but she also liked lots of later Grover that, uh, well, the friendly jibes continued flying.

Will do!

To what do you attribute the shift, Jim? The party line that's developed among the Murray/Crouch/Marsalis crowd is that jazz turned its back on the public (although I think they revise Ellison's dictum from bop to free as the point at which it did so). Yet same said crowd's efforts, to my way of thinking, will do anything but restore a certain degree of popularity to jazz--not in any way that's living & viable, at least.

Louvin Brothers?

Man! I'm not even a football fan anymore, but Manning breaks Marino's record on a last-minute scoring drive... the Colts convert the two-pointer... and then win on a FG in overtime? Pretty amazing. The Dome must've been rockin'.

Anybody have a copy of this, or know where I might find it? It's a leader date by Indiana tenor saxophonist David Young (same one who played w/George Russell). 1972 release date, Mainstream 323.

Of course it can. You think I'd post this much about stuff like this if it wasnn't? But... but... I thought we were paying you! We should be, anyway.

...therefore you listen? Or you listen, therefore you think? As Ornette says, "dancing in your head." I'm not much for ass/brain dichotomies anyway.

Will do, Mike. I think I have a printout of the bio that Chambers had online and can work with that, in addition to the passage in Gavin's Baker volume... was just hoping to incorporate any new material (and I assume there is some) that appears in the book. We already have the show listed for Jan. 29 in our monthly guide, and I could tape it as late as Jan. 26 or 27.

What's going on with this? A few advance copies that were floating around online have all vanished or been marked up to ridiculous prices. An Alibris seller had one listed yesterday for $17, and I ordered it, but got an e-mail today saying the item was "unavailable." I'll try to call Berkeley on Monday & find out more... have an upcoming show about Twardzik to record, so hopefully I can at least get them to send me the galleys or something.

My two cents: can't pleasure be intellectual as well?

Was that Jefferson Starship with the silhouette-fellatio-effect?

Figured I'd get the ball rolling, now that Christmas has passed... Warne Marsh, ALL MUSIC (but of course!) Woody Herman, COMP. COLUMBIA 1945-47 Woody Herman, ROAD BAND 1948 (Hep) Ahmad Jamal, CHAMBER MUSIC OF THE NEW JAZZ Miles Davis, SEVEN STEPS TO HEAVEN BOX Mary Lou Williams, BLACK CHRIST OF THE ANDES Claude Thornhill, 1949-1953 (Hep) Many more that I'm already forgetting... didn't list any of the RVGs because I already had nearly all of them, but I'm sure they'll show up on other folks' lists. What about the Ayler box? Outside of the tree, very little of that had come out before, correct? Therefore, is it classified as "new release" or "re-issue"? Guess we had the same question about PASSING SHIPS last year.

Inspired by Clem's Revolutionary Ensemble post--what are yours? Here are a few of mine: Frank Kimbrough, LULLABLUEBYE Joel Frahm/Brad Mehldau, DON'T EXPLAIN Joe Lovano, I'M ALL FOR YOU Ben Allison, BUZZ Frank Morgan, CITY NIGHTS ... and the Ayler box, if it's classified as "new release."

Takes awhile for it to load, but... OMG, truly abysmal, in even such a small dose, but also the best laugh of the day so far. "The Holy Grail of Crap" indeed! THE PHANTOM MENACE is a masterpiece next to that.

Oh, my. I wonder how long this will be able to stay up: StarWarsXmasspecial

Man, this is terrible... I hadn't really checked out the news yet today and just saw the reports: tsunami

Thanks, Jim, I'll keep an eye out for that. Wonder if Comstock is on the Carter sides in the Capitol Mosaic box--I'll have to take a look when I get home. That was a damned good band.

Garth, I'm wondering if the title of his 1970s album THE TRIP is a reference to the Synanon "trip" detailed on the link I posted. Until now I just always assumed that it was a 60s drug-cliche title, but after reading about the Synanon trip--guess I should find & read the liners to the album and see if there's any reference there.

MusicalMarine, did you catch the piece on Maugham in a recent issue of the New Yorker? I'll see if I can find it online... I've read only THE RAZOR'S EDGE, but the NY article reawakened my interest. I should give RISE & FALL a whirl, but I haven't even made it through THE WORLD AT WAR DVD set yet. As far as military histories, I'm hoping to find Beevor's FALL OF BERLIN 1945 at a good/used price one of these days--liked his STALINGRAD book quite a bit.

If this were Tolkien, you'd have to sing a song.

The party line that seems to have developed over the years is that Miles was in an artistic cul-de-sac during this period and irritated by music that he couldn't yet fully assimilate--then along came Tony/Wayne/Herbie, etc. There are probably valid reasons for that party line, but did Miles ever end up liking--or respecting--Cecil and/or his music at all?