ghost of miles

Posted this in the Indiana jazz thread, but thought I should post it here as well for those in the Indiana area:

I'm actually going to get to see Baker & Young play this Saturday in Bloomington. David wants to recreate the sound of the band he had at the Topper, a bar in late-50's Indpls; it was this band that was absorbed into the George Russell Sextet:

Hey all, Inspired by some conversation between BruceH & me in the Cole Porter thread (Cole was a Hoosier, from Brazil, IN) and my latest radio project, I thought I'd start a thread on jazz musicians from Indiana. I'm about to commence work on a five-part series that will air on Indiana public radio stations in October 2005; I'll also be compiling a 2-CD set and writing liner notes for a compilation to be released simultaneously by the Indiana Historical Society, which is parterning with my home station on the series. So if you have any stories, anecdotes, interesting facts, etc., please feel free to post them here. BruceH mentioned how many great jazz musicians came from Indianapolis; here's a list off the top of my head, and feel free to tell me if I've left somebody out! J.J. Johnson Freddie Hubbard Wes Montgomery Buddy Montgomery Monk Montgomery David Baker Slide Hampton The Hampton Sisters Leroy Vinnegar James Spaudling Larry Ridley Carl Perkins Mel Rhyne David Young Paul Weeden Jimmy Coe Killer Ray Appleton

Bruce, sure, I'll be happy to, but the series won't be airing until October 2005... I'm submitting the budget next Monday and don't anticipate finishing production until early next summer. I'm also putting together a 2-CD compilation for the Indiana Historical Society, and there will definitely be a couple of Porter songs on that one, done by Indiana musicians. Jim, "Miss Otis" is one of my favorites too. Another, non-Porter song I like, is this one, by Rodgers & Hart:

Porter's fantastic, of course. One of the episodes in my Indiana jazz series will focus on singers & songwriters, and he'll figure heavily in that, you can bet! My favorite right now is "Night and Day," for romantic, sentimental reasons. For more barbed Cole words, I always enjoy "I'm Always True to You in My Fashion" (Ella's version was considerably abridged):

Two more I thought of last night: East of the Sun You Don't Know What Love Is

A lot of people also thought that they were a Clash ripoff--or a Clash/U2 hybrid ripoff. And there's some truth to that, I think. I liked first EP and DECLARATION but dropped 'em after that, partly for the reasons of which you speak.

That's so ironic, Dan--I've been thinking the same thing lately, and just a few minutes ago I was rooting around in old "Is the BNBB dead?" threads... then I saw this thread title and realized you'd already had the same idea. I'm quite grateful for this board, and some celebration is indeed in order--I'll try to swing by at the appointed moment.

You lucky son-of-a-gun, you son-of-a-weizen! How's the booklet for that Brooks box?

C'mon, you guys, smoke some crack... all the other kids are doin' it!

Some new stuff in clearance, including CANNONBALL AND THE POLL WINNERS, Dave Douglas' A THOUSAND EVENINGS ($1.99) and Paul Desmond's PAUL DESMOND QUARTET LIVE ($3.99).

I've been meaning to pick up the Stan Getz album of Bacharach tunes from BMG. (WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW is the title, I think.) Autumn Leaves and On Green Dolphin Street are standards that I, too, don't really tire of... same for a couple of Hoagy tunes, Skylark and The Nearness of You (Mehldau does a nice version on his new record).

I heard a story about it on NPR recently, but still haven't heard the actual boot. Sounds interesting, though.

We've had a number of threads before, here & there, along the lines of, "What standard do you not want to hear for another five years?" My question today is, "What standard do you not get sick of--what standard do you like hearing frequently?" If any? For me, "Yesterdays" seems to bear the test of repeated interpretation...

If you're counting selects, the Curtis Amy & Duke Pearson. Last big set purchased was the Eldridge.

Andrew Hill in the summer of 1995... and what a glorious summer it was!

Following on Larry's suggestion, I'd also recommend Robbie Lieberman's MY SONG IS MY WEAPON (more info here) and the Bear Family box SONGS FOR POLITICAL ACTION, although it costs a pretty penny. The hardbound book that comes with it deals extensively with the folk/left alliance from 1930-1950 (the box-set also has some of the music Josh White recorded around the time of his Cafe Society stay, as well as the complete recordings of the Almanac Singers, the Guthrie/Seeger folkie "supergroup", as it were). This biography of Folkways founder Moe Asch, Making People's Music, also contains interesting stories & background on the subject. Asch did have some involvement with recording jazz artists in the 1940s.

Pretty good. I don't do as much over there, now that I'm at WFIU so much, but WFHB has added the BBC in the morning and local news in the evening. Ryan Bruce, the GM, is a real dynamo and has brought the station a long ways. Let me know what you think of that Stowe piece.

Don Redman, SHAKIN' THE AFRICAN Brad Mehldau, ANYTHING GOES Benny Carter, SAX A LA CARTER Claude Thornhill, BUSTER'S LAST STAND Stan Getz, CAPTAIN MARVEL Modern Jazz Quartet, COMP. PRESTIGE & PABLO

Damn, I'm gettin' old... I remember when "The Stand" came out. C'mon down, and meet your maker... etc. Omagod, it's so 1983! B) Pretty interesting story, Berigan. I'm always intrigued by established artists and authors who put out product under another name... This item really shows the prejudice of the music-biz powers-that-be.

Eric, That Journal article is the David Stowe one to which I was referring earlier. Too bad they don't have a link to it; again, if you'd like to read it, I could mail you a copy. (That magazine is actually published right here in Bloomington.) Thought I should also mention a good anthology edited by Krin Gabbard: JAZZ AMONG THE DISCOURSES. In that book you might enjoy, in particular, Bernard Gendron's "'Moldy Figs' and Modernists: Jazz at War 1942-1946" and Eric Lott's "Double V, Double Time: Bebop's Politics of Style."

Here's the thread on Duke's JumpForJoy 1941 civil-rights musical, about which I just did a one-hour radio program. The program should be archived online early next week--I'll post an update when it is available for listening.

That's right, Lon, I have that book, and I forgot that Gabler's interview is in there. Returning to the issues of Cafe Society and money, one of the reasons Barney Josephson had to shut it down in 1947 was the FBI's hounding of him... He was accused of getting money from CPUSA (the American Communist party) to finance it. Again, Chris may have some interesting insights/corrections/edifications to offer here.

Due out in September: StarWarsDVD

OH!!! OH!!!!! MISTAH KOTT-AIR!!!!!!!! I'll have to read that section, Eric, but I'm fascinated by that very topic. I haven't read John Hammond's autobiography ON RECORD (and Chris & others may have some valid criticisms to make of it), but certainly Hammond was heavily involved in that of which you speak. David Stowe's SWING CHANGES has some valuable insights to offer (and Stowe has written a wonderful essay about Cafe Society as a gathering point for artist-leftists in the late 30's/early 40's; unfortunately it's not on the web, but I have a copy of it and could mail it to you), and Michael Denning's THE CULTURAL FRONT talks extensively of the connections between jazz and left politics in the 1930s and early 1940s. I don't have the Mosaic Commodore sets, but don't they contain lengthy interviews with Milt Gabler? Perhaps there he discusses the left/jazz alignment of that time... also, the From Spirituals to Swing 3-CD Vanguard box is a real treasure trove, if you don't already have it... It reproduces the original 1938 program, replete with ads for socialist bookstores, Spanish Civil War benefits, etc. I realize I may be ranging farther afield here than the subject of your original inquiry... in any case, I'll try to post more books/essays as they come to me, but those are some of the sources that first come to mind.