ghost of miles

Up for broadcast in 15 minutes.

B3-er, I don't think I've gotten my August issue yet, but I'll mail it to you after I'm done reading it.

This past weekend--Season 1 of Python on DVD. "Upper Class Twit of the Year" still funny the third time around. Also watched the two-disc re-issue of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN that Berigan alluded to in another thread. It's fascinating to watch films from that 1950 period like this one and SUNSET BOULEVARD, with their respective self-referential takes on Hollywood--an interesting historical vantage point, as the glory days of the studio system were starting to wane. What was the first self-referential Hollywood film? The first Crosby/Hope road movie?

In days of yore, coffee and a smoke was the best breakfast around as far as I was concerned. These days, it's granola, strawberries and nonfat vanilla yogurt, orange juice, and coffee... coffee... coffee all morning long. But on Saturdays my wife and I go out for breakfast and I put away a big serving of French toast (made w/whole wheat bread) and home fries with onions... all chased by many cups of coffee. That's my favorite breakfast.

Dancin' with myself in the now-reading thread again... BOOGALOO, by Arthur Kempton. Mixed feelings about this so far and will post more tomorrow night after I've finished it. ROOSEVELT'S SECRET WAR, by Joseph Persico. Just started this one, which seems to be taking a fairly positive view of FDR & his covert efforts to bring us into WWII. And delving periodically into the first book of Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy.

Love Geri Allen's work on that one. RoyBrooksROYBROOOKSRoyBrooks!!! Yeah, he ain't bad either. My nomination, should the honor ever fall to me:

Aric, See here: PattonSelect

Yes, I think that's the winner. For the past couple of years I've been picking up more and more books on the history of radio, and this one looks to delve into a world that's received short shrift in most of the texts I've read so far.

Did a Google search and found the following: MakingofBlackRadio (ignore the Publishers' Weekly review--obviously for a different book) WinnerTakesAll and this page: RadioBlack

Hot damn, I think I found me a gusher! Thanks, Jim, I'll check that out. Hell, I wonder if this ever ran on WFIU--I'll have to ask at the station. Sounds great. From where I'm sitting right now, I can see that library... Maybe I'll walk over on my break. You made that too easy!

I didn't know about the Watrous big-band albums. Hope those see the light of some eventual day.

Hey all, I'm sitting in again tomorrow afternoon at our local public radio station. In musing about what to play, I realized that three of my favorite re-issues--Billy Mitchell's THIS IS BILLY MITCHELL, Allen Eager's IN THE LAND OF OO-BLA-DEE (technically not a re-issue), and Charlie Rouse's SOCIAL CALL--all feature tenor saxophonists who are relatively unsung. Hence I'll be featuring them Monday afternoon from 3:30-5 p.m. EST on this link: WFIU I'm calling the program "Three Tenors."

I finally broke down and ordered the Japanese import of Barry Harris' BREAKIN' IT UP from Mr. Tanno. I may do the same with some other Argo titles if Universal doesn't appear to be more forthcoming in the next year or so.

Getting a little obscure here, but I really enjoyed the piano playing of Albert Dailey on Uptown's recent re-issue of Charlie Rouse's 1984 LP SOCIAL CALL. Dailey died before the album actually came out; according to the liner notes, he recorded a debut leader record for Columbia in 1972 entitled THE DAY AFTER THE DAWN. I'd like to hear it, but I doubt that it's high on Sony's list of priorities...

God how I hated/loved that one. Brings back a FLOOD of memories, for sure!!! / I've forgotten - did we ever dertermine why Chuck was such a jerk??? Any ideas???? Yeah, that was one of the great ones, wasn't it? My memory's vague, but seems like somebody kept asking Chuck discographical questions and then got peeved when he suggested that they buy a discography. He's so pushy that way. Geez, you'd think the guy was sitting around planning CD releases of some fabulous Bird/Diz concert and had better things to do or something.

Charlie Rouse/Red Rodney, SOCIAL CALL Sam Cooke, THE MAN WHO INVENTED SOUL Joe Pass, SOUNDS OF SYNANON Barry Harris, BREAKIN' IT UP Various, SECOND ANNUAL ESQUIRE JAZZ CONCERT 1945 Billy Mitchell, THIS IS BILLY MITCHELL

You're right about THE RIGHT TOUCH, Aric. I picked it up as a $6.99 cut-out several months ago out of a Barnes and Noble bargain-music bin, and it's top-notch Pearson. Not sure what the rationale is for leaving it out, or what the reasoning is behind the forthcoming John Patton configuration... I haven't divined yet the science of these two Select sets.

'Cause we're a winner, babe... movin' on up!--his Eminence Curtis Mayfield

Yeah, I've done some reading about Shanghai, from mid-19th century up until the Communist takeover in 1949... Stella Dong's SHANGHAI: THE RISE AND FALL OF A DECADENT CITY 1842-1949 provides a good overview, focusing on the more glitzy aspects of the city's history, while BEYOND THE NEON LIGHTS: EVERYDAY SHANGHAI IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY, by Hanchao Lu, looks much more in depth at the backalley life of lower and middle-class Shanghai. YELLOW MUSIC was so specialized and so academic that I have a hard time recommending for anybody but a true fanatic about this subject. BLUE NIPPON, which focuses on Japan, but which includes Shanghai because it was such a destination for professional Asian musicians in the 1930's, is much more accessible and interesting; both books come from Duke University Press.

Oh man, oh man... is this the same "live-at-the-Haig" record that Ted Gioia touts so avidly in WEST COAST JAZZ? If I'm remembering right, he cites Shank's playing here as being "hotter" than it often was on his studio records--not to start that old canard again or anything.

I'm in the midst of reading Arthur Kempton's BOOGALOO, and periodically he alludes to the world of mid-20th-century American black radio. Has anybody here come across an entire book devoted to the topic? I'm interested in reading about stations and personalities of all formats: blues, gospel, jazz, soul, etc.

Perhaps a tad off-topic, but I'd really like to read a good, comprehensive book on the Shanghai jazz scene of the 1930's. Buck Clayton spent some time over there and talks about it a little in his memoir... Two books, BLUE NIPPON and YELLOW MUSIC, touch on the place and era, but don't go into it in depth.

What about GONGS EAST? I've got the CD re-issue on Discovery... but was that WB originally? I'm hoping for a CD re-issue of the soundtrack to SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS. News of the Downbeat feature only whetted my appetite even more.

I love the Proper DAWN OF DOO-WOP box, although that's prob. considered more "40's vocal harmony" than pure doo-wop per se. I bought the first Rhino box a few months ago but haven't cracked it yet... but yeah, I've felt a doo-wop surge coming on in the past year. I esp. like the more haunting, late-at-night numbers. Anybody around here ever hear Mercury Rev do "I Only Have Eyes for You"? Killer!

I think I underwent a somewhat similar experience after downing a fifth and a half of Pisco the night before.