ghost of miles

The Music Nobody Knows: The From Spirituals to Swing Concerts aired again this past week and remains archived for online listening.

NPR’s Jazz Night in Americ did a show about Strata East a couple years back.

Working this very moment on a Night Lights show about Max in the 1960s that will air next week!

jaimie branch, Fly or Die Live

An outstanding posthumous album from jaimie branch. Damn, what a loss.

News of his death just posted on Facebook by writer Pat Thomas. >>It's with a heavy heart that I announce the death of my friend, mentor, and collaborator Les McCann (I occasionally was also his butler). I reissued several of his classic albums on CD or LP, coauthored-coedited (with Alan Abrahams) Les' book of photography: "invitation to openness" and most recently contributed liner notes (with Scott Galloway) to a triple-LP set of vintage live recordings "Never a Dull Moment" - Les was a fantastic photographer, bawdy comedian, provocative raconteur about his fellow musicians and according to 1970s era secretaries at Atlantic Records - provided masterful oral encounters. Many of his solo albums are essential - but most folks will remember him for his signature version of Gene McDaniels "Compared to What" and with Eddie Harris - the iconic live album "Swiss Movement" - as powerful and dynamic as "Live at Leeds" and "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!" - Les' Van Nuys apartment was often the place to be for me during the past decade - he often sat naked while smoking a joint, watching sports TV, answering the phone and painting evocative surrealistic watercolors.<<

Sure do miss this guy.

We're re-airing Santa-O! A Very Hip Christmas this week on Night Lights, and it remains archived for online listening. Some obscurities here such as Eddie South performing "Snowfall" (with a young Billy Taylor on piano) and a broadcast performance from the Boyd Raeburn big band featuring David Allyn singing George Handy's song "Picnic in the Wintertime." Also Maynard Ferguson's "Christmas For Moderns," Billy Taylor again with an arrangement of "Joy to the World" for David Frost's Christmas album (done when Taylor was the musical director for Frost's TV show), Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and Johnny Mercer joining forces for some caroling, a vintage air-shot of Anita O'Day doing "The Christmas Song," Bill Evans playing (and singing!) "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," Babs Gonzales putting his unique spin on a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and much more.

Having just turned 58, I am now described in my profile as a "Rising Star." What is this, a DownBeat poll? 😄

No, just a recurring thing with me. 😄 I was a huge Rush fan as a kid and actually got to see them on the Moving Pictures tour in 1981. Michael Chabon recently touted that Geddy Lee book, which has piqued my interest in it.

Oh yeah! I went on a late-70s Rush binge myself recently. Right now—same era, come to think of it:

LP only for all three volumes iirc. Those sets are massive!

Some Hoosier connections there, given Katzman and Med Flory’s presence. Currently playing:

Hey gang, just a quick note about several discrepancies between Mosaic’s labeling for sessions in the booklet and the jewel case/insert liner session labels. C24 Earl Bostic on pg 27 is labeled as A11 on the jewel case and in the larger booklet’s discography. There are then duplicate A12 session labels on pg 27-28. The first is correct, and the second should be A13, as listed on the jewel case and in the booklet discography. Fortunately all of Loren’s notes seem to be there! I was just a bit confused when I went to read his comments on these sessions and thought I’d try to offer a little clarification. Man, what an amazing set thus far!

From the linked article: “He finished the year with 120 innings over 21 starts, both career-high marks.” Wowza. Age 30, and those are career highs? He’s an outstanding pitcher when healthy, but yeah, durability issues for sure.

Don Byas featured here on “How High the Moon”:

$680 million of Ohtani’s Dodgers contract is deferred Wow. I mean, sure, he can afford it, given his enormous endorsement earnings, as the article points out. But still an eyepopping amount in any context.