ghost of miles

Black Boy (American Hunger) from this Library of America volume. About 100 pages in—harrowing and written in a riveting manner. His rendering of his childhood experiences is vivid and makes the weight of racism upon him and those around him disturbingly visceral.

Up in memory: Caravan: Martial Solal, The Early Years

Possibly already noted elsewhere, but there’s an interesting teaser for Ricky Riccardi’s upcoming young-Louis bio in the booklet for this Gennett set. In mentioning Armstrong’s legendary July 4, 1900 birthday and his supposedly correct birth date of August 4, 1901, Riccardi adds that “my evidence points to July 4, 1901.” So perhaps Louis was a July 4 baby after all—and let the debate begin as to whether or not 1901 marked the true first year of the 20th century. (I’ll just be on my way now.) Anyway, excited to read the book itself, which will be out the first week of February. Sounds as if he was able to draw on a lot of previously-untapped sources (like Lil Hardin Armstrong’s unfinished memoirs, which had not surfaced before, correct?) that will give us an expanded perspective of Armstrong in his youth. And Riccardi writes so well about Armstrong and his music in general.

Up for one more go-around after rebroadcast last week: ECM: Birth of a Label

So many good collections in the old Mosaic Select line:

Just starting this:

Much appreciation for this detailed write-up, and I also agree that the entire package is pretty much a must-have for anybody who's a fan of these recordings. Ricky Riccardi did a great job with the notes (really looking forward to his final Armstrong biography volume, which comes out in February and covers this period of Armstrong's life and career).

To my untrained ears it is an improvement over the Off The Record set, which itself was quite an improvement over previous issues. A relatively new board member has a much more detailed analysis here.

Burning Ambulance just posted this list to their Bluesky account. A good overview! 50 best jazz albums of 1974

Here’s a Bluesky jazz starter pack that I created: Birth of the Blue: Jazz on Bluesky V. 1

That's a fave of mine from the Atlantic period. Right now:

Co-sign, love that early Ellington set. Pulling it off the shelf for another visit. Playing now:

Thanks so much—I have that anthology and will dig it out. Seems as if perhaps Verve was testing the waters for a line of fusion-era releases? (Perhaps as a counterpart to the generally more-straightahead Take 2 series.)

Back of the CD seems to indicate this is part of a “Verve Chronicles” series. Was there such a thing, akin to their Take2 line? And if so, were there any other releases? I’ve done some Google searching but haven’t been able to turn up anything yet.

Spoiled rotten this week between the Tyner/Henderson and this one:

He would have been a great guest on Piano Jazz (which iirc didn't start production until after his illness and death).

As part of the Columbia Albums 1971-75 set:

One of my favorite box sets of any genre. Congrats on scoring a copy!

Up today for Paul Desmond’s centennial: After Brubeck: Paul Desmond in the 1970s

Yawn indeed—he was a landslide unanimous winner, first Yankee to do that since Mickey Mantle after his triple-crown 1956 season. Bobby Witt Jr (who’ll win one himself, sooner rather than later) was a unanimous pick for second place. Ohtani was a unanimous pick as well on the NL side and becomes the twelfth player in MLB to win three times, and only the second to win in each league (preceded by Frank Robinson).

This Rhino set covers the early 1940s through the early 1970s fairly well across 6 CDs: The R & B Box: 30 Years of Rhythm & Blues Viewpoint from one label: The King R & B Box Set The Okeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957