ghost of miles

Tristano release date now December 20th, per the Mosaic email that I'm sure many of you received as well. (The email says a discography for the set is now posted, but I'm still getting a "coming soon" message when I click on the link for it.)

And didn't Richard Groove Holmes score a hit with it in the mid-1960s?

Picked up my copy of the new Omnivore release at Landlocked and will be listening later today!

Looks great--thanks for the heads-up, just added to my book/CD budget for next July when it comes out. (Gives me some time as well to finally finish George Lewis' book!)

Second Jim's recommendation of Lighthouse '68. Includes one of the better jazz-goes-Beatles 60s moments IMO with their rendition of "Eleanor Rigby."

Bumping for Veterans Day today, and because we're re-airing this week: The Duke Is On The Air: Duke Ellington's Summer 1945 Treasury Shows

Via NPR (of course!): Local stations across the country celebrate Public Radio Music Day Grateful that the public radio station which I work at and listen to gave me the chance to start Night Lights and take over our weekday afternoon jazz show. What commercial station would afford me the opportunity to play the "Pursuance" passage from the new live recording of A Love Supreme this afternoon, as I'm planning to do? Or devote an entire two-hour programming block to paying tribute to a beloved local jazz musician and educator? I'd be the first to admit that, broadly speaking, public radio music programming isn't always all that it should be or as good as it should be... but it's also a place where you can hear Lazaro Vega and Ken Dryden, for starters, or Kevin Whitehead reviewing Albert Ayler releases on Fresh Air, or Felix Contreras, Nate Chinen, and Christian McBride honoring living jazz artists as well as those who've just passed on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. (And sure, I'm being a propagandist here, but it's propaganda in which I truly believe. Maybe that makes me an "advocate.") Anyway--big, big thanks and gratitude to everybody who listens and supports public radio and public radio music programming in one way or another. Planning to do my best over the next few years to help justify that support!

... or else spring right out! Re Zoot Sims' legendary "Stan's a nice bunch of guys" quip, think of the possibilities in our age of virtual replication... a whole gaggle of AI humanoid Stan Getzs. A veritable Four-Brothers-Of-Stan-Getz-Only! A 15-piece big band of Stan Getzs backing Kenny G on "The G From Ipanema." An army of zombie-bot Stans who turn on their soprano-sax master and shuffle after him in pursuit, till he falls to his death from a high precipice as he tries to escape. Or something like that.

I got a promotional email about this as well, Ken. Let me choose my words with care--"a fucking abomination" is what comes to mind.

Bob Blumenthal just posted this news to a jazz listserv, via a NY Times notice. Glad that so many of McNeill’s albums got reissued in recent years before his passing: Lloyd McNeill R.I.P.

One more go-around this past week for Hope Lives: A Portrait Of Elmo Hope.

Thanks to Jsngry for his recent post rehipping my ears to this:

Will do! Though you can listen to it at any time in the link that I posted. Pulled out this warhorse tonight for revisiting:

OMG yes. I actually bought this at the record store where I was working when it came out in 1994, and still have it all these years later (a little worn from use and wear!). I did a whole Night Lights show about the set that we'll be re-airing in several weeks. I also inherited the original 78 collection from a friend's spouse--it's missing the front of the booklet but otherwise in great shape, the 78s near mint. And you know, it was *marketed* as a sort of box-set, a real forerunner to how the major labels and Mosaic would later anthologize and present the music, and how boutique labels continue to do so today (Mosaic still at it, obviously). Anyway, a beauty of a release, for sure. Right now I'm on disc 1 of Craft's recent Bill Evans overview. Very nicely done, so far as I can tell--I haven't dug into Neil Tesser’s liner notes yet or glanced through the booklet much, just put on the first CD, and it's a well-sequenced track list of early Evans trio sides.

What's the deadline for JD deciding whether or not to opt out? I'm thinking that he'd have an even better market if MLB adopts the universal DH, which seems likely--but won't happen until a new CBA is adopted, correct? It's hard for me to imagine an NL team pursuing him if he has to play in the field all the time.

Oh so agreed!

That website is amazing--pretty sure it was around and that I utilized it back in 2007 when I did the Night Lights Second Magic City: Sun Ra In Chicago program, but a glance at the link today reveals that it's been updated considerably. I also picked up the Sun Ra Transparency box set from a fellow board member a couple years back, but have yet to delve into it. What was your ultimate verdict on the recent Sun Ra's Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City book?

Shameless self-promotion of a previous Night Lights show devoted to this very year: 1961: New Jazz Frontier Jsngry, thanks for the reminder of that 1961 Sun Ra outing--I actually picked up a BMG Record Club copy (!) of that CD many years ago. Will give it a fresh listen this evening.

The 1997 Vanguard box-set was one of the most exciting new-release events of my life. Iirc it came out on Sept 23, Trane’s birthday. The record store I worked at didn’t receive our expected shipment that day, so I bought it at another store in downtown Bloomington and spent the entire evening listening to it. I still listen to it all the way through every several years; might have to start again tonight after reading Ratliff’s article.

I concur with Bill’s enthusiasm for this one—it’s a classic! I learned so much when I read it—quite a few years ago at this point and I keep meaning to give it a rereading. So many of the musicians Gioia interviewed for that book are gone now; invaluable that he was able to create that chronicle with their input.

The fact that this show was essentially a collaboration between a Yankee and a Red Sox fan should serve as a beacon of hope to those who fear that the spirit of American bipartisanship is dead. I do truly hope, though, that it serves as a gateway to both the music of Percy France and Dan’s amazing website about him.

I think you’re quite possibly right about the Yankees pursuing Seager, especially because they could easily shift him to third in another year or two when Anthony Volpe hits the majors. Rizzo I’m not so sure about; depends on what the market’s like for him. NY’s already got several big long-term commitments to players over 30 (Stanton, Cole, and LeMahieu) and presumably will be adding Judge, who turns 30 next year, to that list. On a league-wide scale there’s the whole impending CBA issue—another factor that could influence the market for free agents (let alone have a potentially damaging impact on the 2022 season in general). I don’t know enough about it to make a prediction, except to say that it probably won’t be pretty.

A good friend of mine who's quite a jazz fan told me that his father, who's a doctor, recently had Lou as a patient!