ghost of miles

Mine arrived this afternoon and I had time to listen to most of Disc 1 and read the booklet before I had to go to work. Beautiful! Ben Young's liner notes fill in a lot of Lyons' background that I didn't know about, and the music--what I got to hear of it--was amazing. Can't wait to check out the rest of it after midnight tonight...

Either way it's still an interesting discussion. I've sometimes heard the Blakey Birdlands referred to as the birth of hard bop, and I've also sometimes seen Bud Powell's 1949 session with Sonny Rollins (what were they billed as? "Bud Powell and His Modernists?" In any case....) given the same label. Everybody will say, "You can't nail down the start of a movement to a specific date/session/player," and while that's often true, trying to do so can dig up some interesting, overlooked moments in the making of the canon. I'm thinking that hard bop's roots/precedents have to predate even the Powell '49 session... haven't listened to the Blakey/James Moody NEW SOUNDS disc in some time, but I might pull that out tonight and give it another listen.

Al Grey, SNAP YOUR FINGERS J.J. Johnson. J.J.'S BROADWAY Webster Young, FOR LADY Bud Powell, COMP. BLUE NOTE & ROOST (disc 1) Randy Weston, GET HAPPY

Wesbed, are you sure you didn't read that ANABirdland was the beginning of "hard bop?" Bebop was at least 10 years old at this point (actually older, if you trace the roots, etc.--the classic point-of-departure has been the 1941 Minton sessions in Harlem). Some day I'd really like to do an "echoes of bop" show that would focus on the bebop precedents set in the 1930s.

Doublin' on my PM earlier--hope you scored big at the record store!

I've been having a craving to go back and watch some of the classic Universal horror flicks that I always used to see on our local late-Friday-night fright flicks feature (hosted by a character named "Sammy Terry"--get it, yuk yuk). Picked up a copy of the OOP DVD of THE MUMMY (1932, with Boris Karloff) and watched it last night, and it really held up. Great atmosphere, and Karloff's performance really carries the picture. Our library here has most of the cheesier followups on VHS, and I'll probably give some of those a viewing (THE MUMMY'S HAND, THE MUMMY'S TOMB, etc.; but if you come across the DVD of the original for a reasonable price, I highly recommend picking it up. There's a good documentary (albeit with a corny title, "Mummy Dearest") and some of the usual DVD extras:

Too true, Lon.

Wow! A friend played me an old vinyl version of this the other day, and it cooks! On one track Fred Wesley plays a mile-long solo that just goes on and on, and you don't want it to stop!

Right-o, B3-er, old chum! We just need a Jeeves to extract us from our numerous scraps, romps, and devil-may-care follies!

Don't forget Mae West! I fall somewhere between Lon and Jim on this one. "Acquired taste" was exactly the phrase that came to my mind as well when I perused this thread earlier, but I think I've acquired it more and more. Who was the vocalist on "Strange Feeling?" Was that Hibbler--seems like it was somebody else, but I liked him, at least for that particular song.

It's been down for several days and isn't due up till Sunday. AAJdown

Well, you guys got me pretty worked up about that JAZZ IN AFRICA CD, so I went ahead and ordered it too... Our annual Bloomington world music bash (the Lotus Festival) is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I usually do some kind of world-jazz show the night before it starts, so this sounds as if it will be a nice addition. I'm going to be MCing for a group called The Cool Crooners, a sort of jazz/doo-wop group from Zimbabwe--should be a fun time.

I had the same thoughts as you, relyles, regarding RAINING ON THE MOON. It is a pretty strong record overall. I've seen Parker and Drake several times here in Bloomington (once with Peter Brotzmann!) and have always felt that I was in the presence of modern-day greatness.

I've had similar (mis)adventures with both White Lightning and John L regarding PMs in the past two days. Also got that "Error: mail send" message several times when I posted a new topic or a reply in a thread. In all cases, though, the messages/posts did go through.

I'll bet you have, Lon, without realizing it... I've heard the Byrds' "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n Roll" star for years, ever since I was a kid, and only recently when I was studying the liner notes to one of their re-issues did I learn that it was Masakela on trumpet! Was Mel Torme's TORME supposed to be part of this round? Hopefully it's coming in the October batch... Supposed to be a damned fine Torme record (yes, I am a fan ).

Bad news about the delay, but glad to hear that the advances sound so good. BTW, beautiful Von Freeman-Jason Moran duet of "I Like the Sunrise" on Freeman's last Premonition CD.

Talk about reaching critical mass! That place is gonna blow (in more ways than one ). AAJ and JC are both very good boards where I tend to lurk much more than I post. As for this place, what we need is some humble, underpaid flunkie who'll cut and light our cigars for us while we ruminate on various topics jazz and non-jazz. "Dammit, Weizen, my good man, if your GOP brothers would just acquiesce to a lift of that pesky Cuban trade embargo, we could be smoking in style!"

Yeah, I know, John, I had the very same reaction when I read those notes!

WL, I'm planning to pick up CRISSCRAFT, which I think just got re-issued by Savoy. (Hell, how can I resist when AMG says its "tones" are Sophisticated, Intimate, Amiable/Good-Natured, Rollicking, Passionate, Reverent, Reserved! B) ) You're right, Hawes does show up on some of those jams... The Fresh Sounds CD I have is the 1959 session that came out on Impulse with the Dorham Jazz Prophets date (both originally ABC?). Wynton Kelly is the pianist. Didja get my PM?

Recently I've been hitting the Criss Prestige sides hard (and Late's AOTW choice only spurred me on even more). What is it about Criss' playing on these albums that make me return to them again and again of late? Even something like I'LL CATCH THE SUN, which seems to be written off as one of his lesser efforts in that (late-60s) era, still comes across to me with a magical vitality that infuses even material like the title track and "Don't Rain On My Parade"--and when he gets his hands on "I Thought About You" and "Cry Me a River," look out. Damn, I wish he'd gotten to record with Hampton Hawes more. In any even, records like PORTRAIT OF CRISS, THIS IS CRISS, and SONNY'S DREAM are in my CD player all the time these days. The other night I listened to the 2-CD Imperial set, and while it's a fine collection of 1950s Criss (hell, the only collection, I think, outside of the Fresh Sounds CD and some of the stuff that turned up on Xanadu), the Prestige years sound like a great leap forward to me. I still haven't heard THE BEAT GOES ON and ROCKIN' IN RHYTHM, but that's just one of the many, many things I have to look forward to...

Miles Davis, LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD John Zorn, SPILLANE Jackie McLean, DESTINATION OUT darkside I've got another CD at home that collects some of the original soundtrack themes from various film noirs, but can't remember the title offhand... will post it tomorrow.

I'll see you double!!

Yeah, I've been on the hunt for this one for some time--hope you picked it up!

Joe Pass, GUITAR VIRTUOSO (disc 4) Various artists, GENNETT RECORDS GREATEST HITS Avishai Cohen, LYLA Don Friedman, WALTZ FOR DEBBY Lee Morgan, SEARCH FOR THE NEW LAND Billie Holiday, SOLITUDE

I'm on a pre-ordering roll myself--doing all 3 Mosaics tomorrow, and just pre-ordered both the forthcoming Basie set and the new translation of SWANN'S WAY. (One of these things is not like the others... )