ghost of miles

Holy smokes... CUBS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For purposes of a radio series (and possible CD re-issue) project, I'm searching for information regarding the Hampton Sisters' releases on the King and Aladdin labels. (They come from Indianapolis, Indiana, and yes, they are the sisters of Slide & Maceo.) I'm also looking for the actual recordings themselves, or decent transfers of them.

Yes! Another reason I have to pick up that CClassics James P. Johnson 1938-42 CD. Chuck, is that the song that Johnson's known to have recorded from the opera/musical that was recently unearthed? I seem to recall this coming up on the BNBB when somebody posted an article from a Detroit newspaper about it...

Actually, Chuck, at Borders (at least while I was there) we did re-price old stock in a downward manner from time to time. Often it had to do with labels moving items from top list-price to a budget line--I recall certain Sony jazz titles being dropped from $16.99 to the Best Value $11.99 price, and I also recall re-pricing the early RVGs, which were originally $16.99. However, stores implement this at their own pace, and there won't be a magical "day" when everything suddenly appears at a new, lower price. Rather, the change will be incremental (unless your local Borders/B & N/Tower/what-have-you puts some poor sap like Jazzdog on an overnight... ).

I keep saying that Berigan is my long-lost evil brother, and he keeps insisting the same about me!

Oh, they could, man... these Yanks are really good, but what quantity do they still have of the magical mojo that saw the O'Neill/Brosius/Martinex era always come through in crucial moments? Plus Boston still has to win Game 5. But I hope we get a Bosox-Yanks series--another chance to resurrect the whole "Curse of the Bambino" affair. (I loved it a couple of years ago when Pedro Martinez mocked it and then went winless for a long time. )

Not really about the Basie box per se, but just today I remembered another early anti-racism song--an anti-lynching song that precedes "Strange Fruit": Ethel Waters' performance of "Suppertime."

Lord have mercy! I remember those endless spools of tan & white BINC stickers... Have to say I'm quite happy to be free of either doing or assigning that task.

Well, Dan, there you go again! Shades of 2001 for the A's--get an AL East team on the ropes and potentially blowing it all again... My Yanks will be waitin' for you Wednesday night at the Stadium! In the meantime, I (like many others, I'm sure) will be following the Cubs with avid interest tonight.

Same question here. I know he royally botched the SUCH SWEET THUNDER reissue, but what about Newport? I know about the Clark Terry solo flap, but what else happened with that one? Man, how on earth was this guy allowed to monkey around with the recordings of an artistic legend and national treasure like Duke Ellington?

Damn! That's not just being sloppy or erroneous, that's being downright duplicitous. What a disservice to both Mahalia Jackson and jazz history.

Looks like the Cubs aren't going to do it today--Jones just homered in the top of the 8th and it's 6-2 Atlanta. At least there's still a game 5, but I really wanted to see the Cubbies take it in Wrigley.

We're sitting pretty close to the New Madrid here in Bloomington, IN. And we're due--we've been due for some time now. I remember my ex-girlfriend calling me from California after the '94 quake. She said she woke up at 4 in the morning with bookcases falling on top of her and thought the world was ending.

Having worked as a music-store manager, I'd say that most stores are probably waiting for the word/date from either Universal or their corporate headquarters to go ahead and re-sticker Universal CDs which previously listed at $17.99--a massive project, I can assure you, at brick-and-mortar level.

Yep. Although I'd love to see one from John Litweiler as well.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, Norah Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar? I'll be damned. Who would have thunk it? B) Where's MusikBoy for a comment when we need him? I hear tell that Musicboy is the illegitimate spawn of Ravi Shankar and Dr. Laura Schlesinger.

Green's GOIN' WEST & Smith's HOME COOKIN' for me, as I have neither one. I'll wait to see if some of the others turn up in BMG.

Sweet, sweet news! I remember being inexorably bummed when Joe Milazzo informed me that these titles had indeed gone OOP... saw 'em years ago when I was just getting into Giuffre, didn't bite, and have been kicking myself remorsefully ever since. Are these already out, Late, or do you have a street date?

The eagle has landed! I'm listening to "Sweet n' Slow" right now and it sounds gooooood.

That's exactly the camp my hunch tells me to fall into as well, Lon. I'll definitely pick it up in the next few months...

I've got Isaac Deutscher's three-volume bio of Trotsky and have dipped into it over the years, rather than reading it all at once. (And let me tell you, the long descriptions of the intraparty ideological battles that raged in the 20's--well, they can get a little soporific even for a history nerd such as myself.) Also meant, though, Conn, that anybody can talk about any historical personage who fascinates them--not just Trotsky. I guess another reason Trotsky fascinates me is the ultimate failure of Marxism in practice. It seems to me that we on the left have to confront that failure head-on. I know some will say--with accuracy--that what we saw in the 20th century was not Marxism, or certainly not Marxism as it was intended--but why, in that case, did it not evolve? I don't think you can blame Stalin alone. There's something inherently fatal in how it was put into practice. My belief is that it lacked a system of checks-and-balances; the Party had to be all-powerful to allow the revolution to survive, but this almost certainly ensured that corruption & tyranny would emerge. And the leader of that party then became, in effect, God (why is it that a cult of personality seemed to come about in almost every Communist state?). How do you practice benevolent restraint of forces & people that want to exploit capital and power to their advantage over others? I'll be the first to admit that I don't know, other than my general advocacy of nationalized sectors of public importance, which I suppose puts me squarely in the classic Western European socialist/liberal camp (the Stalinists and the Trotskyists would've hated me ). As I've stated elsewhere, capitalism isn't without its great historical sins as well--slavery, the slaughter of North American Indians, etc., etc. Nonetheless I think we leftists have to analyze the old ways & errors of revolutionary thought and action if we're ever going to propose new, more egalitarian systems for the 21st century.

You know you'll hook me with this one, Conn. I once started a thread about historical eras on the old BNBB. For topic 1, how about "Naval Strategies of WWII?" ar, ar. Conn500 vs. Weizen, Round 2. Well, some of the first topics that came to mind might belong in the "Politics" forum. For instance, I'd be interested to see a civil discussion about the ultimate reasons for the demise of the Cold War--was it Reagan's policies, as conservatives frequently attest? Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, as liberals are inclined to argue? A combination, or something else? But it could turn partisan... I mean, the series that ran on CNN several years ago sparked protests from some on the right, and I notice that it still hasn't come out yet on DVD. So.... How about simply, name a favorite or compelling historical personage and discuss why he/she appeals to you? That should give everybody a chance to jump in, no matter what their particular knowledge or passion. For me, one such figure is Leon Trotsky (oops, back to the Cold War, ta da!). A brilliant thinker & strategist, he was nonetheless apparently clueless when it came to dealing with Stalin. One wonders how the course of history might have changed had he won his power struggle with Uncle Joe. I have no illusions that Trotsky would have proved to be the messiah of Marxism, but he was surely a less suspicious, paranoid & power-mad type than Stalin, and it's difficult, for example, to imagine him staging the show trials and purges of the 1930s (purges, I might add, that hurt Stalin immensely later on when the Germans invaded & his officer corps was still severely depleted). Trotsky wrote much on art and literature in his spare time, even as he was being hurled around the Soviet Union in a railroad car during the early, civil-war-torn years of the USSR; he was an astute cultural critic as well as a political leader and one of the great "what-ifs?" of history (prob. a good topic in itself some day).

1936-51, so it's early-to-mid Basie--"Old Testament," as those particular editions have usually been referred to. It's a fine set for Basie lovers old or new, but I'd also highly recommend THE COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS, a 3-CD set that covers Basie from 1937-39. I'm kinda eyeing the Pablo Basie box, as I have nothin', nothin' from that period. Any opinions regarding that era?

Hey, hey, hey! The Mulligan has shipped! And Tod is postin' in the Mosaic forum!