ghost of miles

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?

Doing some online research about Synanon while I'm on the board this afternoon at WFIU, and came across this: From this site.

Playing some material off HOLY GHOST on Night Lights this evening--"Green Dolphin Street," "Spirits Rejoice" (w/Peacock and Murray), "Children" (w/Don Cherry), "Japan/Universal Indians" from Newport '67, music from Coltrane's funeral, etc., as well as remarks by Ayler and Don Cherry. It's on WFIU at 11:05 tonight (8:05 California time, 10:05 Chicago time, 11:05 NYC time) and will hopefully be archived by Tuesday morning. Next week: "Resolution: Jazz From Rehab," featuring Joe Pass' SOUNDS OF SYNANON and Elmo Hope's SOUNDS FROM RIKER'S ISLAND.

Had a very HEP Christmas--got the following: Artie Shaw, ARTISTRY OF Claude Thornhill, 1949-1953 Charlie Barnet, 1941 TRANSCRIPTIONS Slim Gaillard, LIVE 1946 Ray McKinley, CLASS OF '49

I salute you, sir, for your indefatigable writing, research, and discographical work. Look forward to reading whatever you publish next--you are one of a number of people who regularly raise the intellectual temperature around these parts.

Some recent reading: Larry Kart's JAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF Dan Morgenstern, LIVING WITH JAZZ Gene Lees, SINGERS AND THE SONG II Ira Wolfert, TUCKER'S PEOPLE Gunther Schuller, THE SWING ERA Jonathan Lethem, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE Only one I've actually finished is the Lees... the others all still in progress. Time, give me more time!

More on Hagen, from the AMG bio. He played w/Isham Jones, Goodman, and Dorsey in the 1930s:

I've had a recent curiosity about the composer of the theme music for The Dick van Dyke Show. Learned the other day that it was Earle Hagen--looked him up on the web and found the following listing on Space Age Pop (a fun website, btw): Earle Hagen He wrote "Harlem Nocturne," which was news to me, as well as the theme for The Mod Squad and The Andy Griffith Show. The whole transition of jazz writers, arrangers, and performers to the 1960s studio scene really fascinates me. Has anybody written a book or lengthy article on the topic?

It was a very HEP Christmas: Artie Shaw, ARTISTRY OF (1949 classical recordings + rare Gramercy 5) Claude Thornhill, 1949-1953 Charlie Barnet, 1941 TRANSCRIPTIONS Ray McKinley, CLASS OF '49 Slim Gaillard, LIVE 1946 + (received in advance): Dan Morgenstern, LIVING WITH JAZZ Dick van Dyke show season 3 on DVD 2 lbs. Yellow Dog coffee (from Uncommon Grounds in Saugatuck) Hey, I'm set for the next month!

My wife grew up on Long Island and speaks w/great fondness of the Yule Log. Me, I'm a simple Midwesterner--"whatcha wanna watch a log burnin' on TV fer?" :rsmile:

Don't forget Art Pepper .... almost 17 years!!! 1960-1977 .. Garth, I forgot that Pepper was in prison for much of the 1960s, but was he in at all during the 1970s? I'll have to go back to STRAIGHT LIFE, which also has lengthy ruminations on his stay at Synanon.

Thanks, Larry. Pretty sure we have Jazz Review at the IU School of Music Library; I've gotten articles from it before (Gunther Schuller wrote a lengthy piece entitled "Jazz Renaissance in Indiana" that appeared in it around the same time).

He was also putting down Cecil around the same time--didn't DB give him a Taylor record for a blindfold test? He said something like, "Take it off, man! Is that what the critics are digging? They'd better stop drinking coffee," or something like that. Clem--I love "What Are You Waiting For, Mary?" and have to say that Crosby also really makes that piece for me as well. To me he's an early avatar of white hip. I remember your stating elsewhere your intense disappointment with Giddin's Bing bio--do you have any recommendations for other writing about early Crosby?

Larry--a couple of nights ago I was reading your book & playing "spot the influence," and the two I came up with were Martin Williams (true story!) and (I mean this as a compliment) some of Norman Mailer's better critical pieces.

I think he was working as a janitor and living at the YMCA. According to the liner notes for SOUNDS FROM SYNANON, there was an article on Synanon in a July 1961 issue of Downbeat, so I'm going to go to the music library & look it up.

Smooth never makes the cut here at WFIU. Joe Bourne hosts the afternoon weekday jazz program, Just You & Me, from 3:30 to 5, and also does The Big Bands every Friday night at 9. (Full disclosure: I frequently sit in on both programs.) We also have a great two-hour jazz/popular-song program called Afterglow, hosted by the venerable Dick Bishop, that follows The Big Bands. The only syndicated jazz program that we carry is Marion McPartland's Piano Jazz, which comes on just before Joe and Dick's Friday night shows. And, uh, there's this *cough cough* Saturday evening program called Night Lights that focuses on artists and themes of the 1945-75 period in American jazz. There might even be a website for it or something, if you look around... Definitely send us the next Organissimo CD! I still plan to buy one & support the band, but I think Joe would like you guys as well.

Yes indeed--the best jazz board on the Internet just got even better.

If you're going to do something on Twardzick, may I recommend the Vladimir Simosko book on Serge Chaloff. Quite a character for what you seem to be looking for! Thanks, Brownie, I'll try to hunt that one down. Have heard of it but never seen it--did Simosko do some of the writing for the Mosaic liners?

Uh... uh... that was actually on the afternoon weekday program, which wasn't taped. Please don't ban me!

Thanks, Allen, that's a good point. Not all that far from my neck of the woods either. Who was off the scene for long periods owing to drug-related prison sentences? Dexter in the 1950s... Ammons in the 1960s, as well as Hawes...

Ironically enough, Chet's on tap for Jan. 8, but it's actually a program that deals with his pre-addict recordings (the recent EMI reissues). Yes, I've read the Gavin, and it's indeed harrowing (also some material there about Twardzik, whom I'm featuring Jan. 29--I understand the Chambers bio is finally out, though I have yet to see it). Seems as though a common narrative in the 1950s and into the early 60s (thinking of both Baker and Art Pepper here, as well as Billie Holiday) was to publish a confessional-style piece in which the musician rues his or her descent into hell, etc., and then gives thanks for having conquered his/her demons, etc. I'm sure that much of this stemmed from societal attitudes towards addiction at the time, seemingly underlined by the notion that addiction was something one simply overcame in a single blow. The Synanon/Riker's Island albums intrigue me in part because of the music (particularly on Riker's Island) and in part because of the more liberal/social-worker approach they advocate when it comes to treating addicted musicians. They seem to represent a first step (as it were) towards moving away from the "weak/sinful/character flaw" line of thought.

I'm preparing a Night Lights program for New Year's Night entitled "Resolution: Jazz From Rehab" that will focus on Joe Pass' SOUNDS FROM SYNANON and Elmo Hope & co.'s SOUNDS FROM RIKER'S ISLAND. Any articles about or from that time concerning jazz musicians and drug use that those here might be familiar with? I'm going to mention Art Pepper's time in Synanon, and Morgenstern's LIVING WITH JAZZ hipped me to Charlie Haden's spell there as well (knew about Haden's early-60s fight against addiction, but had no idea he'd been through the Synanon program). Also didn't know till I read Hentoff's liner notes that Walt Dickerson was behind the RIKER'S ISLAND session.