ghost of miles

Yes, Lee's small-group sides w/Barbour here are the highlight of the set for me. I really like the Christy material as well, but "intimacy" is the perfect word, DrJ.

Carl Woideck makes a fairly convincing case that it's Coltrane on at least "No Better for You." Sounds like Trane to me as well... Trane definitely played with him, but there is still debate, as you said, over which, if any, recorded sides he may have made with the Crosse band.

Several of the Gay Crosse sides show up on a Bear Family box that covers the 1945-55 Nashville R & B scene. (Some Phineas Newborn on it as well.) The best example of Coltrane soloing with Hodges (IMO) comes from a June 1954 California dance date. THE LAST GIANT uses "Thru the Night" from that performance, but an even better example is Coltrane's out-and-out gutbucket solo on "Castle Rock." Not sure what titles this date has circulated under, but it contains 7 tracks and is 29 minutes in length. There's also a Coatsville Harris record from around this time that includes two Coltrane solos--but I'm getting off on an "early Coltrane R & B" topic here.

--from Worlds Records e-mail There's been a lot of discussion on the Duke-Lym list-serve about this sound quality (or lack there-of) of this latest release. Complaints of too much compression. I haven't heard it yet so I can't comment. Medjuck, what were some of the comments? What I'm noticing is a tendency for the music to fade back and then in again--very annoying, as the music itself is wonderful. It's actually more irritating than surface noise, which I can always live with.

Am about 150 pages into Brinkley's TOUR OF DUTY and highly recommend it, especially in light of the lies that a GOP-supported group is trying to spread about John Kerry's very distinguished service record. Brinkley spoke with every person who truly served with or under Kerry; his book is well-documented ,and doesn't even include a firsthand account with Jim Rassmann, the Special Forces soldier--and future registered Republican--whom Kerry pulled from the river while under fire. Brinkley thought Rassmann's name was spelled with one n and was unable to locate him. Rassmann picked up the book in an Oregon bookstore last January, found his name in the index, read Brinkley's account, and started crying. Several days later he flew out to Iowa and joined the Kerry campaign. Aside from that, it's also a compelling read of a troubled period and Kerry's involvement in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, as well as his efforts to put the POW/MIA issue to rest and to help restore relations between the United States and Vietnam. (That's how he became friends with John McCain, who came to his defense today.) Brownie, thanks for that recommendation!

Thanks much for the advice--will do!

Ontario... I ran away there when I was 12 w/notions of living off the land. I think you're doing it the smarter way. Can you make it for two weeks without all of us pestering you about that Parker/Gillespie release? Enjoy!

Happy birthday to a great guy whose love and knowledge of not only jazz, but literature and religious history as well, is a constant inspiration and one of the many, many reasons why I've inhabited the BNBB and continue to inhabit this wonderful place that is made even brighter by your presence. Satchmo sez:

I heard Lovano talking about this record on WGBH a few months before it came out, and he sounded genuinely enthusiastic, so maybe he sensed that he'd just come up with a good one. I like the Schuller collaboration and the QUARTETS double-CD, as well as the first trio CD w/Elvin, but had avoided the Sinatra songbook--and I like Sinatra. I think I was just burned out on "songbook" projects when that one happened to come out. Will give it a listen if I come across it. I've heard only a handful of selections from I'M ALL FOR YOU, but they certainly live up to Joe's praise for the CD.

A poster here on the board has generously & graciously offered to lend me a hard-to-find LP for a radio program that I'm doing. What is the safest way to ship the vinyl back to him, ensuring that it doesn't get damaged at all?

Listing on Amazon, replete with cover: Bouncin'WithBartok Definitely getting psyched about this.

Down for a few hours...horrible, horrible. How many dead? Did Alexander Haig assume command? Isn't he dead? Nevertheless, I'm in charge here...--Ghost of Alexander Haig

You better put one of these on. At least until all the smoke clears. Hey, that'll also come in handy if & when I re-enter the Politics forum... B-)

Down for a few hours...horrible, horrible. How many dead? Did Alexander Haig assume command?

I was gone for a station staff meeting... what'd I miss? B-)

I have FALLING IN LOVE (based on Jim's rec), EVERYBODY'S SOMEBODY'S FOOL (a comp of his early-50s Decca recordings), and a one-CD sampler promo from the Savoy box, and I like 'em all much. BTW Bob Porter featured Scott's 1950s recordings on "Portraits in Blue" last Saturday. Don't know if that program's archived or not, though. P.S. Was it ever determined for certain whether or not it's Scott singing "Embraceable You" on the Parker ONE NIGHT IN BIRDLAND release?

Yes, indeedy!

VERY sad news for me, as I'm a Shank fan & have a keen interest in Port Townsend--would like to live there some day, in fact. I was hoping to catch the festival next year. I also wonder if this is part of the trend to "pop-ify" jazz festivals. Hey, I appreciate the multitudinous quality of the music & music in general, but lately I've looked at the listings for some "jazz festivals," and sometimes only a third or a quarter of the acts are jazz! I guess directors gotta do what they gotta do to survive...

Brownie, The culture and the ideological battles of 1950s France are fascinating to me--any recommendations for books either in English or translated into English about that era? (My French is only good enough for scanning, not really for lengthy sit-down book-reading.)

I feel sorry for him, and I'm someone who lived in Indpls. when a lot of folks spewed hate in his defense during the rape trial. When it comes to athletic decline, boxers have it worst of all in some ways, I think.

Great news regarding the Marx Brothers! SilverScreenDVDset The box will include THE COCOANUTS (1929), ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930), MONKEY BUSINESS (1931), HORSEFEATHERS (1932), DUCK SOUP (1933), and an extra disc of bonus material. My November 9th suddenly got much brighter...

Thanks, Mike. It's been awhile since I read Kahn's book, and I had some fuzzy memory of a statement to that effect.

I'm interested in running down live performances of all of the KIND OF BLUE compositions that might have been recorded circa 1959 or '60, even going into 1961... I know that "So What" was caught live numerous times, as was "All Blues"... but what of "Freddie Freeloader," "Blue in Green," and "Flamenco Sketches"? (I have the Bill Evans Trio doing "Blue in Green" live at Birdland in 1960, but would like to find a Miles Quintet or Sextet version from around this time as well.)

A tribute to past & present Chicago jazz masters, including two cuts from the new Von Freeman CD THE GREAT DIVIDE and music from Dinah Washington, Ira Sullivan, Sun Ra, Bill Henderson, and the Vandermark 5, plus (of course) Clifford Jordan and John Gilmore. Also included: "Faces in the Jazzmatazz," Ken Nordine's ode to Chicago jazz haunts. Periodic & additional chapters to come, since Chicago can't possibly be covered in one one-hour segment. 11:10 tonight (9:10 California, 12:10 East Coast) on WFIU.

Still reading Lewis' WHEN HARLEM WAS IN VOGUE, but have been shamed by my brother into finally starting Steinbeck's GRAPES OF WRATH (somehow never got around to reading it). Just ordered Douglas Brinkley's TOUR OF DUTY: JOHN KERRY & THE VIETNAM WAR, and hope to read that next weekend. Anybody here ever read Bernard Fall's HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE and STREET WITHOUT JOY? I've wanted to read him ever since coming across mention of his work in Michael Herr's DISPATCHES... supposedly some definitive writing on the French experience in Vietnam.