ghost of miles

Damn, that's a tough one... "Former Gene Harris Fanatic will let you guess.." Hmmm... Ahhh.... lemme think... HEY!!!

The new Mehldau has grown on me. It's--hate to say it--"pleasant." Not stultifyingly pleasant, but there's nothing here that haunts me say, the way the live versions of "Moon River" and "Young and Foolish" from earlier trio records did. As somebody else said, I wish he'd been a bit more daring in his interpretations. Here's a review from Pitchfork, an online publication that generally covers the indie/alternative scene. I think they reviewed the Mehldau because of the Radiohead cover and because of his associations with Jon Brion & Beck's rhythm section:

Hope it's finally coming... I haven't heard the Holiday tribute, but the reviews I've seen have been pretty middling.

What, no love for REACH OUT?

A SLICE for me, please.

Garth, You and I read a lot of the same books! B) I still haven't read the Finkelstein, which is considered a classic by some--I keep hoping that it will turn up in the local used bookshop. I thought that Neil Leonard did write a later book on jazz; in fact, I think I have it! JAZZ: MYTH & RELIGION. I recently mentioned it to Lon. Still haven't read the 1962 book, though. The social, economic, racial and cultural forces that accompanied the creation & dissemination of jazz are fascinating and deserve to be a part of the jazz narrative. Here's a recent one that I enjoyed: Publisher blurb:

The recent one-hour documentary that I did on Ellington's 1941 musical Jump for Joy is now archived for listening at WFIU: JumpForJoy

That's interesting, Lon. Somebody posted about this movie to the Proust list, and described it as being somewhat "Proustian"! I grow intrigued... will have to check this one out.

Definitely go for it, Rooster. Do you do web design? Do they have a website? You could offer to work on developing & honing that as well... man, you seem like a natural for this position!

I was just perusing the thread about the forthcoming Miles Cellar Door boxset (okay, I was on the verge of hyperventilating, I admit it ), and realized that picking it up will probably push my Miles CDs to about the 100 mark--a mark that I think only Duke has hit so far for me. I think I have about 80 Coltrane CDs, so they're kind of the Big Three for me, I guess. Partly because I love just about every phase of their respective careers, and two of them--Miles and Duke--had such long careers on record. It's always interesting to me to learn what artists obsess certain people--one person I know would answer this question with Carmen McRae. She has about 90 Carmen McRae CDs; I didn't even know that many of them existed!

Prestige Atlantic VV Live in Japan European Tours (Pablo) Miles/Coltrane (Columbia)

The program is now archived online: Jump for Joy: Duke Ellington's Celebratory Musical

Just got this through the Coltrane list, though I'm pretty sure it's been anthologized before:

Warne Marsh, ALL MUSIC Husker Du, NEW DAY RISING Artie Shaw, IN THE BEGINNING Billie Holiday, LADY SINGS THE BLUES Duke Ellington, UPTOWN

Good news about Pullen-Adams--I love what little I've heard. Glad to see Mosaic moving a bit into the 1970s/80s realm.

Listening to "Terms of Psychic Warfare" right now, and suddenly struck by how Dylan-ish Grant Hart could be at times. (Thinking of "Books About UFOs" as well.) Didn't really follow him after the breakup--Bob Mould just a bit (I liked one of the Sugar albums). Big Al, you ever read GET IN THE VAN? It's a not-too bad compendium of pieces about a dozen or so American indie bands from the 1980s and early 90s, Husker Du included.

Recently I finally picked up the CD version of one of my favorite 1980s albums, Husker Du's NEW DAY RISING. Anybody else hooked on this band's white-noise melodicism? Man, I loved these guys--at one time I had the LPs of EVERYTHING FALLS APART, ZEN ARCADE (a double), NEW DAY RISING, FLIP YOUR WIG, and CANDY APPLE GREY, as well as the 45 of "Eight Miles High" (which, fortunately, I hung onto). Bob Mould and Grant Hart each had unique songwriting strengths, and from 1983 to 1987 they recorded an incredible amount of material (not quite on the Black Flag level of three albums a year, but impressive nonetheless). Saw 'em in Indianapolis in 1985 (got into the bar with a truly bogus ID) and they smoked through a 2-hour set that ended with a hair-raising, nearly-apocalyptic "Eight Miles High." By the time WAREHOUSE: SONGS AND STORIES came out, I had drifted away from them, well into my Sonic Youth phase, and to this day I still haven't heard that last record, though friends give it mixed marks. BTW, I believe "Eight Miles High" has been re-issued as a CD5, along with a single from FLIP YOUR WIG that includes their cover of the Mary Tyler Moore theme.

Yeah, memory lane here, that's for sure--hadn't thought about that crew in ages. The VJ I liked came a bit later--"Dave," the sarcastic, shadowy English persona on 120 Minutes. (Not Kevin, whose bright-eyed, goofy/giddy manner used to bug the crap out of me.)

Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. The music, commented upon so eloquently by Lawrence Kart and Jim, is marvelous, but I'm also struck by how good the sound is, even on my computer here at work.

Probably too much to ask for, but I wish Fantasty had put all of the Bud Powell Mythic Sound material out in one set, even if they didn't want to use everything that Paudras had included in his box. Joe Castro--there's a name I hadn't thought of in awhile.

Now it's coming out stateside: TinkerDVD A friend of mine has ordered it and we're going to have a Tinker-fest next week. I just finished the book this morning and am on the prowl for the other two books in the trilogy.

jazz"withstrings" Is it just me, or was Artie Shaw one of the most successful bandleaders at integrating strings into a jazz ensemble? I love the 1941-42 band, and right now I'm finally enjoying his Hep CD IN THE BEGINNING, which features his 1936 band that was augmented by a string quartet. On the Shaw sides, the strings rarely, if ever, seem to overpower either the band or the soloists--they enhance rather than distract, at least for me.

Lon--what about THE SYMPHONIC ELLINGTON? That's one of my favorites, though not really obscure. I'll second Nate's comments on the Konitz/Axel String Quartet record. And Paul, one of the cellists on EASTERN MAN ALONE was David Baker. That record was done in Indpls. in 1967, and I plan on mentioning it in my Indiana jazz series.

That's good news, I think. Anything that improves U.S. distribution for Hep is a happy event in my book. Just got Artie Shaw's IN THE BEGINNING yesterday, the last part of a purchase I made from Collector's Choice, which is currently selling many of the Heps for $12.95 or 3 for $35. I've heard very little of this particular edition of Shaw (the first big band, with a string quartet augmenting it); only disappointment is that this CD, which claims to contain nearly all of the band's recordings, doesn't include "Interlude," one of the most famous early Shaw pieces.

Hoping to finish TINKER when I get home from work tonight--after stopping at our local used bookshop to look for those two titles.