ghost of miles

He will be... President-elect Wesley Clark won't be inaugurated until Thursday, January 20, 2005. Don't worry, Conn, you'll still get your Clark tax cut! 7/4, hope you're havin' a great one!

Ripe for a Select, I'd say! That is, if Universal would license them... and I still think it would be neat (if unusual) to traverse label/conglomerate boundaries and put the United Artists date on there as well, because I think that would pretty much be every album Cleveland recorded as a leader. Given that the United Artists date would fall under EMI control, I don't think Mosaic would have any trouble licensing it... just a matter of Universal allowing them to group it with the EmArcys. Time for me to drop a line to the old Mosaic feedback box, methinks.

E-mail from a movie buff friend who knows of my affection for old Universal monster flicks: No extras, supposedly, but for that kinda list price (meaning a place like Deep Discount DVD will have it for even less) I'll probably spring.

F#@%in' A, man, this gent just does not get it! How do you spell D-E-N-I-A-L?

Ditto! Man, as membership here climbs, there's a birthday every day... well, I'm all for an ongoing celebration. We could use more of 'em!

Happy b-day, 7/4... or should I say 4/4 today?

Happy birthday to a wonderful poster and warmly regarded colleague in the "Politics" forum!

Most notoriously right before the Battle of Evermore.

Recently I chanced across a marked-down copy of INTRODUCING JIMMY CLEVELAND AND HIS ALL-STARS. Nice date! Quincy Jones did the arrangements, and the supporting cast makes the album live up to its title: Ernie Royal, Lucky Thompson, Jerome Richardson, Paul Chambers, Oscar Pettiford, Hank Jones, Max Roach... I like the originals as much or better than the standards here, too. This one makes me want to seek out some of his other EmArcys, although only one (CLEVELAND STYLE) appears to be in print. Maybe a candidate for a Mosaic Select? Maybe they could even tack the one United Artists date onto the EmArcys...

I figger there's plenty 'a water in the two fifths of whiskey and the pot of coffee that I put away a day.

Recently ordered the Chronological Classics HARLAN LEONARD 1940 CD, as I'm putting together a special on J.J. Johnson, who was influenced by Leonard's trombonist Fred Beckett. The CD came in the mail today, and damn! What a band! Evidently this CD contains all of the sides that these guys made (for Bluebird in 1940), but there's some great, swinging music here... and some early Tadd Dameron arrangements as well. To my ears, a very modern-sounding Kansas City band for 1940... highly recommended:

Thanks, Dan--I didn't realize that the movie was based on a non-fiction book. BTW that movie was filmed in Indianapolis while I was living there. I never ran into him, but supposedly Christopher Lloyd all but lived at the Chatterbox, the coolest jazz bar in downtown Indy. (Erm, actually the only one at that time, but still extremely cool nonetheless! I actually ended up sitting next to Mick Jagger & Ron Wood there one night... a long, strange story!)

Are there any good books out there that deal with the Black Sox scandal? All of the Pete Rose talk has given me thought of re-visiting that era...

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Will do. It'll probably be in late August--the book is due out in July. I'm just excited to have a great reason to delve once again into the works of Fletcher Henderson.

New article from L.A. Weekly. It's basically an account of what Jennifer Chiba (Elliott's girlfriend) told the police:

Angell's post-playoff retrospective articles for the New Yorker are always a bittersweet pleasure for me--savoring the season past, sorry that it's over... This thread is giving me my first spring-training shivers! Oh, and Bernard Malamud's THE NATURAL. Devastating.

I'll second the Voice reviewer's remarks about FURNITURE MUSIC. I just picked it up a month or two ago and it's quite a trip, one of the best non-V5 Vandermark releases I've heard. The Jaap Blonk piece in particular jumped out at me--I played it on the radio & thought it sounded like an EAS signal running amok (and I mean that in a good way! ).

Mixed feelings about this... I love the original w/Mostel and Gene Wilder, but I'll be interested to see these guys too:

This is good news. Oxford has done such a wonderful job of keeping the jazz flame burning. I've traded phone messages with Professor Magee, and we're going to do a program together on the book & Henderson when it comes out. Probably about 75 minutes... I'll post a link later this year if anybody's interested.

One book I've had for several years and haven't read yet is Arnold Rampersad's biography of Jackie Robinson. Fully intending to read it this spring. "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" Yeah, Jackie! (And Basie and Buddy!)

I love Halberstam's SUMMER OF '49--might have to re-read that one come spring. And, of course, THE BOYS OF SUMMER. Has anybody else here ever read Ted Williams' MY TURN AT BAT? I think it's one of the better "as told to" memoirs.

Dibs for me on THE SWINGIN' NUTCRACKER.

That's great news, Johnny. I've played the Non Grata CD a couple of times on my show & like it much... best to you in your ongoing improv endeavours!

Ken Vandermark, FURNITURE MUSIC J.J. Johnson, MEMORIAL ALBUM (Prestige) Bill Henderson, WITH THE OSCAR PETERSON TRIO Tom Harrell, WISE CHILDREN Jimmy Cleveland, INTRODUCING JIMMY CLEVELAND AND HIS ALL-STARS