ghost of miles

Has Columbia slated any of this material for release? I thought some of it had been... seems as if there might even be box-set potential, too.

I'm picking up BLUES IN ORBIT next Monday--will get the other two soon. (I have the old PIANO IN THE FOREGROUND import CD, and it's just as good as Lon says it is...) Also not to be overlooked, coming out next week: Duke Ellington, TREASURY SHOWS V. 10 --from Worlds Records e-mail

Good news! This will put all those bootlegging pirates on E-Bay out of business...

Adam has asked me to pick the Album of the Week for Aug. 8-14. I've chosen Billie Holiday's first studio recording for Verve, re-issued on CD as SOLITUDE: Jackie McLean's DESTINATION OUT was my other choice, but looking back over the AOTWs, I see a fair amount of classic Blue Note dates, and very few vocal albums. (And hopefully my mentioning it here might inspire someone else to choose it in the future!) SOLITUDE is still in print as an individual CD, and it's also part of the Billie Holiday Verve box. In my mind it's one of Holiday's best efforts for Verve & curiously overlooked in her general output. (The 1957 sessions with Ben Webster, which I also love, seem to get much more attention.) Musicians on the spring 1952 date include Flip Phillips, Charlie Shavers, Barney Kessel, Oscar Peterson, and Alvin Stoller. I'm a fan of Holiday's work all the way up to the end (the MGM session LAST RECORDING), but on SOLITUDE her voice seems to have much of the Verve-era character while retaining more of her technique. I particularly enjoy hearing her re-visit "These Foolish Things," which she had recorded in the 1930s as well, and the title track; other highlights for me include "You Turned the Tables On Me," "Love for Sale," "If the Moon Turns Green," and "Autumn in New York." There's such a mood to this album; it almost feels like a concept record, something akin to what Sinatra would be doing on Capitol very shortly. Plus I just like the damned cover. B)

The JUMP FOR JOY special will be airing on board member Joe Moore's station KFSR this Thursday night at 8 p.m. California time and again on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. California time.

Glad you guys liked it! The program will indeed be archived--hopefully as soon as next week. I'm still trying to set aside some time to work on the web page.

Geez, on an album of Commodores, Billy Joel, and Jobim tunes, it just kinda stuck out, know what I mean? B) I've still got EXCITABLE BOY on vinyl--bought it when I was a 12-yr-old nipper in late 1978.

ALIVE is a great party record--I featured it on New Year's Eve last year (including "It's Your Thing") and it went over quite well with the audience. VISIONS intrigues me because Billy Wooten's on it. Was he on any other Green LPs? Listened to the first track of EASY after starting this thread on Saturday, and yep, it's pretty vapid. I'll listen to the rest of it next week at the end of my shift.

Is the digipack version available in the States? Can't seem to find it online.

Duncan has a new book out: Jazz in Black and White The cover of the Tristano Mosaic box comes from a picture he took at the Indiana Theater in 1959. Great guy, and still very active here in the Indiana jazz community.

I'm not expecting IDLE MOMENTS, if you know what I mean... But I love sifting through this stuff, because every once in awhile you hear something worthwhile. Probably won't be the case here, but that's one reason why 1970s jazz intrigues me... a lot of interesting things happening behind the stereotypical facades that have been erected.

Just came across this 1978 album while I was looking for another Green LP in our station's library. Evidently it's been re-issued on CD: Take a look at the set-list! Not surprising, really... although the Zevon tune did cause me to cock an eyebrow: 1. Easy 2. Just The Way You Are 3. Wave 4. Empanada 5. Nightime In The Switching Yard 6. Three Times A Lady With Hank Crawford, Jorge Dalto, Karen Joseph, and Buster Williams. Might try to give it a spin later on after I'm off the board.

"A Brief Convergence: Miles Davis & Sam Rivers" will be broadcast tonight at 11:10 p.m. (9:10 in California, 12:10 in New York), with a "special thanks to members of the Organissimo jazz internet discussion board for their thoughts & reflections on Sam Rivers' tenure with Miles Davis' band" embedded in the production credits. Setlist includes "Oleo" (7/15/64), "Stella By Starlight" (7/15/64), "Autumn Leaves" (7/12/64) and several tracks from Sam's FUSCHIA SWING SONG. You can listen live here: WFIU Next week: "Blowin' In From Chicago," a program devoted to past & present Chi-town musicians, including music from Dinah Washington's AFTER HOURS WITH MISS D, the new Von Freeman, and the Gilmore/Jordan BN collaboration.

Anybody heard Grant Green's VISIONS, on which Wooten plays?

Looks like they're gonna have to drive a stake through Lance's heart to finally finish him off...

What about this one, which Chris Albertson & Chuck mentioned in a previous thread I started about a forthcoming Fletcher Henderson bio?

What will that crazy EU think of next?

Make sure it's a place with high ceilings for any growing Dutch folk.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.--Philo

Yes, it's wonderful--just played it on the radio about two or three months ago. My liking for Ralph Burns was what pushed me over the edge on picking up this set, and I didn't regret it. I don't mind Woody's vocals, but I do skip over the Dixieland stuff.

Happy birthday to a swell poster!

Brownie, this still probably doesn't fall within the parameters that you mention, but Allen Lowe's THAT DEVILIN' TUNE and AMERICAN POP: FROM MINSTREL TO MOJO, 1953-1956, seem to have received very limited distribution. I had to buy mine through Cadence. He's an excellent writer, one to whom I was hipped by our own Joe Milazzo, but his books are damned hard to find.

A few nights ago I was walking home and noticed that somebody was watching "Jeopardy" in their front living-room. Not necessarily all that odd for my artsy/bookworm-ish neighborhood, but I still thought, "That's cool, people still watch that program." Shows how clueless I've become since we gave up cable TV: Story from the previous day:

Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington's "Main Street," as it were, viewed from the western edge of the IU campus: The Arboretum, between the two buildings where I work (Main Library and Radio/TV Building): Hoagy Carmichael's grave, about 150 yards from where I live. Found all of these on the web, but I actually know the guy on the left--he's a DJ at WFHB:

Rachel, I love the canal! My grandfather used to take me up to Holcomb Gardens at Butler when I was little, and the canal has fascinated me ever since. The Indiana Historical Society sells a couple of books about the canal: one is a collection of poems and photos by a man who used to frequent the Indiana Avenue neighborhood in the 1940s and 50s; the other is a more general history of the canal. When I was a kid the section that your photo shows was pretty much an open ditch; they really beautified it in the early 1980s. I love walking along it whenever I go up to the IHS now.