ghost of miles

Thanks for posting that, Brad.

NY Times obit: Joan Didion, 'New Journalist' who explored culture and chaos, dead at 87

Winter Jazzfest sent out this notice earlier today, announcing the postponement of most in-person performances: Hello Winter Jazzfest Friends and Happy Holidays, As you well know, the world is facing yet another challenge of our resolve and our spirits from the highly contagious Omicron variant of SARS CoV-2 (aka Covid-19). After much internal deliberation, hearing from the musicians, you, our audience, friends in the medical community and our staff, we have decided that the most responsible decision for the general welfare of all of you, is to currently postpone most IN-PERSON events for 18th Annual NYC Winter Jazzfest to later dates. Even if we were to follow all current NYC & NYS guidelines with vaccination requirements and masking enforcement, we know many of you will be anxious to attend and given the heightened transmissibility of this variant, we feel that this is the most prudent way to proceed. The safety of our patrons, our staff, all musicians and of YOU is our main priority. We are arranging for several shows to be streamed during the original dates of the festival, from January 13-22 and will invite you to join us then. We will also let you know as soon as we have new dates planned for our postponed events. And see our refunds section below for further details for ticket holders.

"Shake Hands With Santa Claus" did indeed make the cut!

This year's Night Lights entry in the holiday annals, with a cameo appearance from 77 Sunset Strip's Edd "Kookie" Byrnes: Santa-O! A Very Hip Christmas

In honor of what would have been jazz artist and educator David Baker’s 90th birthday today, I’m posting an extended interview that I did with him in 2007. In part one, David talks about the early days of the Indianapolis jazz scene, playing with Wes Montgomery and with George Russell at the Five Spot in New York City, why he had to abandon the trombone for cello, and the beginnings of the jazz-studies program at Indiana University: The Basics Of David Baker: A Conversation, Part One

We re-aired Jazz His Way: Frank Sinatra this past week, and it remains archived for online listening.

Glad you enjoyed it, Eric! The late-1970s show is tentatively slated to air at the end of next month.

A near-mint copy of the DeFranco-Clark set that I found online last week for less than three figures arrived today... and a friend gifted me his Commodore V. 3 last year, so I think I’m done seeking OOP sets? 🤔😄 Though the Edmond Hall/James Johnson etc tempts me, as does the Green-Clark box—even though I have all or nearly all of the music in those two compilations.

Wow--much appreciation for the timing of your post, Mark, as I'm beginning work at the end of this month on a Night Lights show about jazz on Columbia in the late 1970s, as a kind of sequel to the Great Columbia Jazz Purge program that I did a few years ago. Only able to skim the article right now, as I'm on air, but it looks as if it will be very helpful for depicting the state of things at the label circa late 1970s. (I also bought Bruce Lundvall's memoir, which should provide even more background.)

Up today in memory on what would have been Barry Harris' 92nd birthday: Bud's Buds: Barry Harris And Toshiko Akiyoshi

Not bad for a guy who'd been dead for 40 years!

"Summertime" and "My Funny Valentine" are two songs that I always think of in this regard, and then inevitably I hear versions that somehow seem to breathe new life into them.

We re-aired Soul Eyes: The Early Mal Waldron Songbook this past week, and it remains archived for online listening.

I've listened to about 3/4 of this Jazz Night In America episode and it's quite good--interviews with Charles Tolliver, Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Greg Tate, plus some Strata-East recordings I hadn't heard before. I've had a Night Lights Strata East show on the drawing board for years, but this one is more wide-reaching than anything I would've been able to put together: Strata-East At 50: How A Revolutionary Record Label Put Control In Artists' Hands

NY Times obit

Hope that Allen stays on the upswing—that’s enough to take the wind out of anybody. Found myself wanting to revisit some excellent live late 1930s Artie Shaw:

Statement from Michael Weiss: Today, with sadness we mourn the loss of a great man. With joy we celebrate the life of a great man. Background: I met Barry Harris in 1979, receiving a piano lesson while Barry was in Indianapolis for a concert. After moving to New York in 1982 we established a close musical and personal relationship. Over the years he would call me or I would call him with a musical challenge, an investigation, or a conundrum – he at his piano and me at mine. In the 1980s I performed several times at Barry's Jazz Cultural Theater as a member of the Junior Cook/Bill Hardman Quintet. We collaborated on numerous projects, including concerts in tribute to Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and an extensive co-interview recorded and transcribed for the liner notes to the Complete Bud Powell on Verve. In 2012 Barry commissioned me to transcribe his complete compositional output. Despite a thirty year difference in age, there was a bond, a kinship, a sharing of the same musical aesthetic and values. Barry was my musical soulmate. As a pianist: Barry orchestrated melodies and constructed his improvisations in an easy-going, unhurried, free flowing narrative – a lyricism delivered with a laissez-faire attitude, never resorting to virtuosity for its own sake, yet complex or as simple as needed. But his rhythm was profound – he grabbed the beat in his phrasing that tugged at your very soul. He was a brilliant and effective musical orator. As an educator: Barry’s own codification of the bebop language stands alone, apart from most of the trite attempts at jazz theory in the academic world, because it goes to the heart of what makes a melody melodic. He married the horizontal and the vertical in a unified whole of tonality: melodies existing inside chords and chords existing inside melodies. As the best practitioner of his theoretical concepts, Barry mined extraordinary beauty in exploring all the harmonic and melodic possibilities he could derive. To the very end he remained curious - always looking for new answers and looking for new questions. As a person: He gave tirelessly of himself as a teacher and as a human being, always wanting to help others. For this he was revered and loved throughout the world. Anybody who has known Barry well over the years, probably feels like they had a special and unique relationship with him, and I'm no exception. But he was just Barry.

Mark Stryker's NPR obit. This has been a rough couple of days. Never got to see Harris perform, but did get to hear him talk at Jazz Congress a couple of years ago. The term "master" may tend to be overused, but not for him. A grandmaster, in fact, of jazz knowledge and of life. Glad that he had such a long run, and was teaching till the end.

Tate’s 1999 review of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication: Californication

Pitchfork obituary

Shocked to learn through Nate Chinen's tweet that Greg Tate has died. In the pre-Internet days of the late 1980s/early 90s, I used to buy the Village Voice semi-regularly, and always enjoyed his writing there. Somewhere I've got a copy of Flyboy In The Buttermilk... will have to dig it out for a revisitation,.

Anybody happen to have chatted with the Mosaic folks on the phone in the past week or so regarding this release? Just wondering if the Dec. 20 release date still holds.