ghost of miles

I'll be on in about an hour and 10 minutes, with a three-hour show... will probably do a part two next Wednesday, as three hours hardly does justice to the man. WFHB1 WFHB2

Simon & others interested in WWI art: WWIart I am unspeakably ill-informed regarding most visual art... hence I will offer my bumbling opinion that the illustrative art of graphic novelists Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware speaks to my American times.

Somewhere--either here or on Jazz Corner, I think--I remember somebody posting about asking Hamid Drake to sign a drum cymbal that Elvin had already signed. Hamid said, "Oh no, I can't sign next to THE MAN!" The poster encouraged him to anyway, and he eventually did... but I was touched by Hamid's obvious reverence and respect for Elvin. If anybody can ever hope to carry the whitehot torch borne by Elvin, it's Hamid.

This one is a good one... Yes, Jensen has been through Bloomington a couple of times and definitely deserves wider recognition.

The fortysomething pitchers are tearin' it up!

I'm going to do a tribute show to him tomorrow night on the radio here in Bloomington. Pulling out a lot of the 50s material with Thad, in addition to the Rollins Vanguard, the Coltrane era, and the Mosaic set.

Terrible news, if not unexpected. Elvin had so much fire in his blood that I sometimes thought he'd burn on forever... his music certainly will.

More on the way: The Big Clock Black Angel This Gun for Hire Criss Cross

Wow! OUT OF THE PAST is also coming out as part of a 5-DVD Warners noir box that will list for $49.95: Amazon has it priced at $34.95! NoirDVD

to both of these gentleman. Jackie McLean, in particular, has long been a jazz love of mine... DESTINATION OUT and LET FREEDOM RING rocked my world when I first heard them, and to this day he remains my favorite living alto saxophonist (even ahead of Konitz) and right up there w/Parker & Pepper when it comes to my alltime faves list. The man has the soul of jazz in his sound.

Yesterday my wife & I were grocery-shopping, and the piped-in radio station was playing the Doobie Brother's "Takin' It to the Streets." I found myself wondering what a jazz interpretation of that song might sound like, in my never-ending daydream of an expanded jazz canon... Any relatively modern pop songs you can think of that might lend themselves to a good jazz recasting?

My wife & I have really gotten hooked on this show over the past couple of years--it runs in our market from 8-10 on Sunday nights, and we often catch it on our way home from somewhere. It's hosted by, yes, that Little Steven--of Springsteen/E Street and Sopranos fame--and it's very entertaining to listen to. A lot of 60's Nuggets-type material, punk, and some contemporary rock as well. Little Steven goes for the hipster DJ sound, laidback & funny, and does it quite well. Here's the homepage for the show, including the cities & broadcast times for the show: UndergroundGarage The site appears to hold archived recordings of the program, so you can give it a listen if you've never heard it before.

Excellent news about the Carr. He was from Indianapolis and will be included in the anthology I'm putting together for the Indiana Historical Society. His partner Scrapper Blackwell lived until 1962, when he was murdered not far from the downtown hospital.

Chico: "She no-looka like a young boy to me, boss!"

THE STRANGER (1946) with Orson Welles. Not based on Camus' novel--rather, a story about a Nazi Holocaust mastermind hiding in a New England town. A strained plausibility at times, but great noir nonetheless. With Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young; picked it up for about $6 at Borders as part of the www.oldies.com series, which reprints a lot of B-movies from the 1930s-60s for cheap.

Ordered the Marx Bros. and the Universal Monster set yesterday--they'll make for great late-night viewing all summer long.

Yet more reason for us to shower you with gratitude! Happy birthday to a sterling jazz writer whose liner notes & articles have afforded me much pleasure & inspiration... w/hopes that my own budding efforts may some day bask at least in the shadow of your work.

Didn't see it myself--Ben Ratliff's NY Times review via the Coltrane list:

I've been listening to a lot of Dinah on Mercury lately--THE SWINGIN' MISS D and DINAH in particular. BMG just picked up AFTER HOURS WITH MISS D, so I'm hoping to get that one as well. Her jazz/blues/torch mix just sounds so right!

Missed this thread before, it is a great movie! And Jane Greer.... Yes, Jane Greer's a--ahem, well, an attractive woman. Hopefully THE BIG STEAL, another movie she did with Mitchum, will eventually make its way to DVD. LAURA was slated for DVD release last November; Amazon had it listed for pre-order, and then it mysteriously vanished (how appropriate, eh?) just before street date. Thankfully we hung onto our VHS copy... hopefully any rights issues will get worked out eventually.

Score! You might check with Mosaic and see if they have any replacement boxes left that they can sell you. (Does Mosaic still do that--at least with OOP sets?)

Thanks for everybody's input on this--I'll definitely be picking it up!

It's a sax-bass-drums trio, consisting of Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier, and Jeff Ballard. I read about it in the new Downbeat & am thinking about giving it a try:

Thanks for the tip, David.

Uneven, IMO, but enough works here for me to call it "promising"--ironic word, I know, for an artist as established as Krall. I agree with RonF that "Narrow Daylight" is a highlight, and it's too bad that they didn't include "I'll Never Be the Same" on the American edition. "Almost Blue" is another track that worked quite well for my ears. I'll have to re-listen to the Cole tribute; it's what turned me off from Diana Krall, but that was many years ago, and maybe I'd hear it differently now.