ghost of miles

Glad to see that Bluestockings is apparently hanging in there. I tried to plan a trip to their now-former Allen Street location this past January but ran out of time. Seems to me the biggest issue in the Strand story is the PPP loan, if a number of employees were laid off anyway. (Of course the larger PPP story is a huge mess rife with stories of abuse on a much larger scale, given the lack of oversight that I've read about.) The Strand may not be your standard "mom and pop" store, but it's been owned and run by the same family for 93 years... so it's not exactly like a corporate behemoth that moved in and leveled the landscape. Btw there's a good documentary about NYC bookstores that my girlfriend and I watched at the beginning of the spring lockdown period: The Booksellers

I just checked the Strand’s Wikipedia entry and it says that Fred Bass—son of the founder, and father of current owner Nancy Bass Wyden—did indeed buy the building for $8.2 million in 1996. Unless he bought it outright, though, the family may still be making monthly mortgage payments on it, especially if they refinanced at some point. On a vastly smaller scale, we have a somewhat similar situation with a wonderful independent bookstore here in Bloomington, the Book Corner, where the owner owns the building as well.

Last week’s Night Lights show was a centennial-year tribute to pianist Hazel Scott, a classically-trained prodigy who rose to fame from New York City’s Cafe Society nightclub at the beginning of the 1940s. Scott appeared in five movies, found popular success with her “swinging the classics” interpretations of music by composers such as Rachmaninoff and Chopin, and in 1945 married the charismatic minister and newly-elected Congressional representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr, forming an African-American power couple whose lives were covered extensively in the black press. But Scott’s outspokenness as a civil-rights advocate cost her jobs in Hollywood and a pioneering role as the first African-American woman to host a TV show. To Be Somebody: Hazel Scott includes some of Scott’s earliest recordings, two of her “swinging the classics” sides, two numbers from her movie appearances, two tracks from the 1955 trio album that she made with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, and more.

Oh man! I’ve gone there every single time that I’ve visited the city in the past several years—and oddly enough was just gazing fondly at a Strand purchase with the store sticker on the back of it a couple of hours ago, remembering what a joy it’s been to go there. It was going to be one of several definite stops for my planned May 2020 NYC trip with my girlfriend, which has been put on indefinite hold. Thanks for posting this... I’ll try to order some books through their website. P.S. Iirc the family that runs the Strand also owns the building. Hopefully that increases their chances of riding out the next few months... while they’ll still be on the hook for property taxes and utilities, at least I assume they’re not paying rent.

... and on to disc 4 of this set, as accompaniment to the early parts of Ricky Riccardi’s new Armstrong book. I still recommend this one to people wanting to check out 1920s/30s Louis:

The latest entry in the Spiritual Jazz series:

Comment in the Prestige Records Story box-set booklet from Ron Eyre, sales director for Prestige in the late 1950s/early 1960s, that seems pertinent to this thread: There were two elements to the Prestige catalog. You had the soul-funk area with the organ groups and the honking tenors. And then the young Turks (Bob Weinstock) was doing on New Jazz. I was always anxious to push the New Jazz artists because some of those guys were getting good reviews. Bob taught me a lesson. He said, “Gene Ammons has never gotten more than two or three stars in Down Beat, nor has Eddie Lockjaw Davis. I don’t need Down Beat to sell Gene Ammons or Shirley Scott.” It was a point well taken.

Revisiting this excellent 4-CD Prestige anthology:

This is an excellent label box-set that I’ve been revisiting over the weekend. I picked up a number of sets like these—the Contemporary, Riverside and Debut boxes—when they were getting bargain-priced on their way to OOP status. The booklet is very well-done, with lots of background info on Prestige and the artists it recorded. Highly recommended if you run into a cheaply-priced copy.

Disc 3 of this set, which is still some of my favorite Cecil Taylor ever put to disc. Great notes for this set as well by Buell Neidlinger and others:

Indianapolis guitarist Charlie Ballantine’s new tribute to author Kurt Vonnegut:

Revisiting this CD right now and yeah, definitely landing on my top-10 list for 2020 historical releases.

An excellent book about some overlooked African-American artists of the McCarthy/Cold War era:

Mookie Betts now the first player in World Series history to hit a home run, steal two bases, and score two runs in the same game. Not that familiar with the Dodgers' pitching staff beyond Kershaw and Buehler--are they using an opener tonight, I take it?

Mookie's catch last night reminded me of this recent media-attention-getting play: https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/10/16/cpbl-taiwan-baseball-lin-che-hsuan-home-run-robbery-video

It sure was--I followed it online last night while working on various tasks around the house. Agree with Matthew that the DH rule may have helped out Roberts... is MLB considering making that permanent for the NL after this year? I'm normally an AL partisan, though I have no antipathy for the Dodgers, and while I have great respect for the organization and the team's performance on the field, I find the Rays to be the most insufferable, whiny "underdog" team (one that by normal rights would be sympathetic and likeable) that's ever come down the MLB pike.* (And they're sure as hell no "underdog" to anybody who's followed the AL East over the past dozen years, despite their ongoing we-don't-get-no respect schtick. Outside of one mediocre stretch in the mid-teens, they've either made the postseason or been in the running every year since 2008.) So I'll just be pulling for a great series. Without a deep sense of data for both teams (though I'm much more familiar with the Rays this season, owing to their AL East membership), I'd say slight advantage Rays, but that's based only on what I've seen in a limited number of games. And Kevin Cash has done an excellent job of managing his pitching staff throughout these no-day-off matchups. Wouldn't be surprised to see this one go the full seven as well. *(Note of apology if I've overlooked the presence of any longstanding Rays fans in these threads.)

We re-aired The Last: Final Recordings Of Jazz Greats this past week, and it remains archived for online listening.

This album as part of the Ellington Reprise set:

I know we have a separate box-set bargain thread, but upping this one to mention that Kathy Sloane's book about the Keystone Korner club, which comes with a CD of live performances from the club, is currently selling new for $6.90 + $3.99 shipping. It's a $40 list price title, and an excellent volume about the club's history (full disclosure: I'm friends with editor Sascha Feinstein, who also selected the tracks for the CD--a daunting task, as you might well imagine): Keystone Korner: Portrait of a Jazz Club

Appreciation again for mentioning the panel--it was interesting to hear the stories and details that came out of that discussion. I wonder if there's potential for a book about the Left Bank, similar to Kathy Sloane's Keystone Korner: Portrait of a Jazz Club that Indiana University Press published a few years back (and which can currently be purchased for $6.90 new through that Amazon link----that's a bargain price, especially considering that it comes with a CD of live recordings from the club).