ghost of miles

Whitney Balliett has a review of the Bix/Tram/Tea Mosaic set and the Sony Armstrong Hot Fives/Sevens set in the new New York Review of Books, along with the Bix-centered novel 1929. I'd provide a link, but it's e-edition only--hell, I subscribe to the print edition and even print subscribers can't read it online. Anyway, it's the Aug. 14 issue, out now.

I guess the club scene is better there than in southern Indiana... OK, we're movin' the party! Oh, guess I need to get the 50 mill first, huh?

Hey, man, if I ever come into an extra 40 mill or so I promise I'll snap it up and re-open it as the official Organissimo Resort Spa! I'll contract Weizen to run the bar and Catesta to keep the grounds up (500 grand a year OK for each of youse?) and Quartet Out and Organissimo as the house bands (500 grand for youse guys too). On the sixth floor we'll have a lively political "chat room" w/myself, Greg, Johnny, and others dangling one another 100 feet above the atrium floor whenever things get out of hand. I actually wrote two cover stories about the hotel for our local alterna-weekly when it was being restored. They're about to approve gambling for the valley (West Baden is right next door to French Lick, Larry Bird's hometown) and I think that's the only way the hotel is going to sell--that and if they can put in a new golf course. Cook has done a lot, but truly re-opening the place might take another 50 million, or so I've heard.

BURNIN' is the one I'm prowlin' for.

This building, the West Baden Springs Hotel, is about 60 miles down the road from me. In the 1920s it was a favored spot of Al Capone and other Chicago gangsters; in the early 1930s the owner donated to the Jesuits, who ran a seminary there for three decades. In the 1980s the building was abandoned and fell into disrepair, but in the past few years the Cook Group has restored it. The atrium is quite amazing, and you really get a sense of 1920s glamour when you go there: Some pictures of it in its 1920s heyday:

Huh? What's up with that? That precludes--everything before 1950 or so? I did a three-hour show on Carter and devoted the first hour to the 1930's and early 40's. How could anybody ignore that period of his career? I can understand a station's wish to emphasize "modern" (i.e., post-WWII to present) jazz, but completely blacklisting anything prior seems silly.

Matthew, I think Fantasy is now issuing this material in a series of CDs. The second one, PARISIAN THOROUGHFARES, just came out, or is coming out. At one time there was a box-set of the Paudras recordings (on the Mythic Sound label), but it's long been OOP. Amen to Georgie Auld, a saxophonist who often gets lost in the historical shuffle. Berigan, do you have the Hep? And, as always, a bunch of great suggestions here. The Verve Farlow seems close to becoming a reality, and Cuscuna says the Keynote is "limping along." I also really like the idea of a Strata East set--some of that material is really hard to find. I'm also excited about the forthcoming Roy Eldridge on Verve, which is a set I've often wished aloud for. Still, in addition to the Keynote I think the set I want most is a McCoy Tyner Blue Note 1967-70. Mosaic has alluded to this set being a possibility, and it's one to which I hope they give a completist, rather than Select, approach.

Oh well, it was $22 total from Mr. Tanno, and I'm glad to put a few extra bucks in his pocket... Actually I'm also glad to know, because I'll check out Red Trumpet more often. Until the past month or two I avoided buying imports, fearing that they'd become the CD equivalent of crack for me--but I'm starting to give way, esp. when titles like BREAKIN' IT UP just refuse to surface in the States. And, like our friend Weizen, I'm beginning to develop a fondness for mini-LPs! God help me...

Serendipity--just found out I might be MCing a concert at this year's Lotus Festival (world music shinding that happens every autumn in Bloomington) by the Cool Crooners, described to me as "Zimbabwe doo-wop. " Right on! Here's their press description:

OK, refined my search a bit and found it after all; it evidently came out this past spring. LowDown I also see that the Mule posted an LA Times review of this book back in the first week of May: LaTimesAlbanythread

All Things Considered carried a feature tonight on LOWDOWN, a memoir by pianist Joe Albany's daughter A.J. I heard only part of it because I was busy running the board and talking to another announcer, but she evidently discusses his life, music, and drug problems, as well as what it was like to grow up in an environment of jazz & junk. Oddly enough I can't find a listing for the book yet on either Amazon or B & N (or, perhaps, not oddly; ATC sometimes runs stories about new books or CDs weeks before they hit the market). Anyway, the audio for ATC supposedly doesn't get archived online until 9 in the evening. Here's the page with the Lowdown story (if you scroll down the page): LowdownJoeAlbany

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...