ghost of miles

Great record--I'd been searching for it for years, ever since reading David Rosenthal's mention of it in HARD BOP. (If memory serves me correctly, there was a certain tone of pathos in the way Rosenthal described the record's concept.) Recently a board member hooked me up with a copy. Weird, too, that John Gilmore, who doesn't turn up on very many non-Sun Ra albums, should be here as well. Francois Paudras' story in DANCE OF THE INFIDELS of Bud Powell finding Elmo Hope in mid-60's New York is very touching. (And presumably true, too--I don't write off everything in that book.)

Er, sorry. Thought this was a thread about the Organissimo board... well, toodle-oo, chaps, I'm off to the club, after putting in an hour of hard labor on my forthcoming memoir, BREAKFAST AT NOON: A MAN OF LEISURE LOOKS BACK ON LIFE.

Duke Ellington, THE V-DISC RECORDINGS Anita O'Day, I TOLD YA I LOVE YA, NOW GET OUT J.J. Johnson, JAI AND KAI (Savoy) Mary Lou Williams, 1949-51 (Classics)

Man, he lived and played a long life, though, didn't he? An incredible career and an incredible artist. I'll go home tonight and listen to "Harlem Wednesday" from JOURNEY TO NEXT--just one of the many, many wonderful compositions this musician bestowed upon the world.

It's come out on a double-LP of the second annual Esquire Jazz Concert (1945) and also on DUKE ELLINGTON: VOLUME 5, FRIENDS (part of a box set?). It's Anita O'Day singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" with the Duke (just over five minutes in length), and I'm hoping to procure a CD-R copy of it for a two-part radio program I'm doing on Ms. O'Day. If anybody has it and is willing to trade, I'd be happy to copy something OOP in exchange... drop me an e-mail or PM if you're inclined, and thanks in advance to anybody who responds!

Still in a state of disbelief, but through an unexpected series of conversations, it now transpires that I'll be interviewing Anita O'Day via telephone for a two-part radio program in August. I'll be sure to post the link when we broadcast...

I was going to start a separate thread about this (and probably still will), but through a strange series of events that transpired over the past several days, it now turns out that I'll be interviewing Anita O'Day for a two-part program that's scheduled to air on our local public radio station on Tuesday, Aug. 19 and Wednesday, Aug. 20. Please understand that O'Day is my second-favorite jazz singer of all time, right behind Billie. I ran cackling with joy across the parking lot after I got the e-mail reply from her manager--and Lord, am I nervous! I went home and listened to "Let Me Off Uptown" right away. I'm freakin' out, guys!

God help me, Mny, I took up another last night and am more than halfway through it, as I set aside U.S.A. and the Harlem book for the weekend. I've had a 1970's Modern Library edition of this book for a long time, but some recent discussion on the board concerning McCarthyism inspired me to pull it out, and I ended up being completely engrossed: E.L. Doctorow, THE BOOK OF DANIEL. It's a fictionalized account of the Rosenbergs, told by a fictional son. (Note to jazz fans, a Mnytime-factoid, if you will: the actual Rosenberg children were adopted by Abel Meerepol, who, under the nom de plume "Lewis Allen," wrote the lyrics to "Strange Fruit.")

Love Oscar Brown Jr., love him! A big second to all of P.D.'s recommendations, and hopefully BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL will make it to CD. And yeah, if FREEDOM NOW SUITE hasn't been re-issued in the States again, you might try Amazon UK--that's where I scored my copy a couple of years ago. Another fave: "Jeanine," a Duke Pearson tune to which Brown put words. And how about the classic "40 Acres and a Mule"?

(Sigh) Damn, am I gonna go broke this year. Of course it's not too early to start the birthday/Christmas list...

New record just set:

Shrugs, here's a link to the set on AMG: Duke1946-47

They're actually transcriptions recorded for broadcasts, rather than broadcasts themselves. It's a great set, and you can often find it online for about $25 or so... Some material on there, such as "Magenta Haze," that I don't think Ellington recorded anywhere else. In fact, it's the first Ellington on CD that I ever got, a Christmas present from my wife years & years ago.

Rooster, I haven't seen much beyond David Rosenthal's mention of Hill in HARD BOP and the booklet that accompanies the Hill Mosaic. But yeah, I'd like to read a bio too.

Or what happened to Michael Jackson...

Can you imagine? And the guy essentially went straight from age 19 to 39... coma

What exactly does the Garland Prelude box encompass, and where can you get it?

Herbie Nichols--January 3. I actually sort of observe his, Coltrane's, and Powell's birthday. Tend to light a candle and spin some of their CDs... I really have a spiritualistic reverence for the three of them.

I'd never heard of these before, but the other day I got a Critics' Choice Video and DVD catalog and came across them while browsing: and The catalog describes the plot of THE BEIDERBECKE AFFAIR as thus: "An amateur detective is on the trail of a saleswoman who sold his girlfriend a defective Bix Beiderbecke record in this comedy thriller. 2 DVD or 4 cassettes; 5 hrs., 12 min. (5 hrs., 12 min.? It's longer than GONE WITH THE WIND!) This is the plotline for THE BEIDERBECKE CONNECTION: "Married high school jazz teachers and jazz aficionados inadvertently become involved with an ex-con who wants to destroy the world's currency." (This one clocks in at a breezy 3 hrs. and 20 minutes.)

These are on my Hep want list, WL (which totals 25+ so far). Are they all live performances? I'm wondering if there's any overlap with the '45 Carter band sides that appear on the Capitol Sessions Mosaic set. I picked up the Moten set used a year ago and love it. Man, I'm just so into this label right now!

Another movie from '39 that I like--not one for the ages, I suppose, but nonetheless--is ANOTHER THIN MAN. It's one of my favorites in the THIN MAN series.

John Coltrane--September 23. Bud Powell--September 27.

Hey, Tod, best wishes and get well soon. You haven't been hobnobbing with a certain Republican operative in the Virginia region, have you? I hear those guys are extremely contagious... They get you drunk and pretty soon you're voting all kinds of crazy tickets!

Yes. One time I was sitting in the dark around 4 in the morning, listening to Coltrane's solo on "Blue in Green"... Man, just thinking about it right now makes me shiver again, and this was years ago. IN A SILENT WAY sometimes has a similar effect, as does Eric Dolphy, Ron Carter and Mal Waldron's recording of "Warm Canto". This one, too, for a wildcard:

And you don't? My friend, I think you're the most voluminous reader on this board! I, at least, stand in awe of your literary intake... My problem is that I get interested in too many titles & topics at once. I forced myself not to start LIGHT IN AUGUST because I was starting these other volumes as well (God help me, I will never call a book a "tome" again, and you know the reason why). I'm trying to restrict myself right now to books that I need to read for literary and radio projects.