ghost of miles

Sellers? Sellers?! Surely you jest, sir—why, the 2021 Yankees are a record-setting team! Yet another colossal bullpen meltdown in what should have concluded a road sweep of Houston + the Covid debacle has left me thinking they’re all but dead in the water for even a WC spot. Not sure who they’d move in a seller scenario, though—a lot of potential chips are either injured or have decreased in market value. And I haven’t jumped aboard the small crazywagon of NY fans calling for Judge to be traded (though one could make a logical argument for it, given his age and approaching free-agent status in a year and a half... he’s never going to be as valuable as he is right now. But he’s pretty much the face of the post-Jeter Yankees—they’ve got a freakin’ special section for Judge fans in the RF stands, so I really don’t see that happening.)

Up for Mary Osborne’s centenary today, and because we’re re-airing the show this week in honor of it: Mary Osborne: Queen Of The Jazz Guitar

Got it on order at Landlocked here in Bloomington, along with the Hargrove/Miller and Bill Evans releases that come out the same day. About five years ago I saw a used copy of the 32 Jazz reissue of The Free Slave at Dusty Groove's Chicago storefront for $25 and passed, after some hesitation--I was aware of the album's reputation, but the price was just a bit steep for me, or so it seemed at the time. Now I'm like, "What was I thinking?!" Maybe this new release will help bring about new life on CD for TFS (from Japan, perhaps?).

Albums like this make me think Billy Taylor’s compositional and pianistic verve were overshadowed by his accomplishments as an educator, broadcaster, etc:

Yes, I loved both the context-setting and the participants reflecting and reacting to seeing the footage so many years later. And the musical performances are riveting. Some of Nina Simone’s performance has been floating around on YouTube for years—I remember linking to clips in the web-post for a Night Lights show about her RCA era.

Complete agreement here with both you and Bertrand—in general, NO desire to hear that song done by anyone anywhere at any time, but if you had to pick somebody to do it, Abbey would get my vote. Saw Summer Of Soul this past weekend—my first venture into a movie theater since January 2020. Damn, what a film... go see it!! (Or dial it up on Hulu) Some of the Nina Simone footage has popped up on YouTube from time to time over the years, but it’s crazy to think that nearly all of those taped performances were gathering dust for 50 years. I thought the documentary did a great job of putting it all in the context of 1969, and it was moving to watch some of the attendees and artists reacting to what they were seeing again five decades later.

A new NYRB Classics reprint of this novel by William Gardner Smith, a writer who’s long intrigued me—many years ago I tracked down a copy of his South Street, the only book by him that I’ve read to date. Anybody interested in depictions fictional or otherwise of the mid-20th century Black expatriate community in Paris might want to pick this one up: And

The playlist for today's classic-jazz show: Clarke-Boland Big Band Latin Kaleidoscope

Disc 1:

I don't think you'll be disappointed! Fascinating artist in general.

Well worth the $2 I paid for it used! Seems like a nice overview of that Gramavision period, with which I'm otherwise unfamiliar. Nothing earth-shattering on first listen, but I enjoyed it enough to put it in my second-spin-before-filing pile.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Can't believe I didn't look at this thread until now... I've long toyed with doing a Night Lights show called "Son Of Sidewinder," albeit probably as a truncated funder program.

That's according to the email they sent out today: >>The much-anticipated Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap is officially on the way! Tomorrow, June 30, we will announce the public release of the Anthology, due in stores on August 20. Copies of the set will be mailed to Kickstarter supporters beginning the first week of July. << (Bold font in original email)

Nate Chinen's appreciation for WBGO: Burton Greene, Pioneering Free-Jazz Pianist, Dies At 84

Apparently this is finally shipping in early July to Kickstarter campaign supporters, and to stores in late August. Track listing and other info available here. (Mods: feel free to move this thread to the box-set subforum. Not sure why I didn't start it there in the first place.)

Can't wait to see this. Out in theaters October 1 and streaming all that month on HBO Max as well:

Just ordered from Amazon US--out this Friday, apparently.

I’m in trainwreck-watching mode re the Yankees—main drama now is whether or not they keep their seasons-above-.500 streak alive. They’re not even currently in contention for the second wildcard spot. And I’m full of I-told-ya-so (to AL East watchers in general) about the Red Sox and the Rays, though I honestly did expect NY to be slugging it out with them at this point. Cora and Chaim Bloom are as good at maximizing talent as the Yankees are bad at it (outside of the occasional exception such as Gio Urshela—but for every Gio, there are several players they seem to screw up or fail to develop effectively), and the Rays can always be counted on to field a 90+ wins team. And yeah, agree that Houston right now looks like the best bet to take the AL pennant.