ghost of miles

We re-aired The Big Bands’ Little Bands this past week on Night Lights, and it remains archived for online listening.

Been wanting to pick up the CDs of these for some time, but hard to find at a decent price. Revisiting this beauty right now:

Aw, damn. Horace Clarke, oddly enough, is one of the reasons I became a Yankees fan in the first place—his card was at the front of a deck of Topps cards that I bought in 1974. And yeah, definitely an emblematic player from that late 1960s/early 70s era of mediocrity.

Not saying that Bill Evans’ contributions to jazz were as significant as George Russell’s. I am saying that just as it’s hard to imagine Kind Of Blue without Russell’s harmonic thinking, it’s hard to imagine KOB without the influence of Evans. And that’s not to take away Miles’ accomplishment as a leader—no Miles Davis, *definitely* no Kind Of Blue. But even Miles himself said that “I built that album around the piano playing of Bill Evans.” And of course that’s one of the things that made Miles so great—using the right musicians to help create whatever sound he was after, or letting what they were doing help determine that direction in the first place. No Wayne or Herbie or Tony Williams, no ESP/Miles Smiles etc. This can turn into a diminishing-returns line of thinking that ultimately boils down to no things-exactly-the-way-they-happened = no things-exactly-the-way-they-happened. But I’d say Evans’ contributions to KOB, compositionally and otherwise, are pretty key to how that record turned out.

Big Ten votes to cancel fall football season ... following on the heels of the Mid-American Conference. I doubt they’ll be the last, either. Maybe spring football instead—around the time we hit the 300,000 deaths mark in this country. (Actually we’ll probably pass that number well before the spring.) As the Washington Nationals’ Sean Doolittle has so aptly put it, “Sports is the reward of a functioning society.” Ironic that the same bombastic blowhards who constantly wrap themselves in the flag (sometimes literally) and their ideology in general are doing so much to accelerate this country’s decline.

Not as close as your suggestion, but I've also thought about revisiting Tony Scott's Sung Heroes, which offers the only example I can think of off the top of my head of the Evans/LaFaro/Motian trio playing with or backing another musician. Wonder if Miles would have done "Nardis" with them? (He never actually recorded it himself, iirc) I tend to lean towards concurring with your statement re KOB. Russell is also the one who suggested that Miles hire Evans in 1958--not as significant as his thinking on harmony, but another bridge to KOB. I'm inclined to also say that No Bill Evans = no Kind Of Blue.

Working on a Night Lights show about Miles and Bill Evans, and came across a remark by Paul Motian that I somehow completely missed the first time I read both of the following texts? In John Szwed’s So What biography of Miles, he alludes to a comment that Paul Motian makes in the booklet to The Complete Bill Evans On Verve. Here’s the quote: Motian: Well, you know, we were supposed to make a record with Miles, the trio with Bill, myself, and Scott LaFaro. Bill Kirchner: Really? Motian: Yes, we were going to record. We were talking to Miles about it, it was all set up, and then Scott got killed and the whole thing got forgotten. ?! What label would it have been on? I would assume Columbia—that they wouldn’t have been willing to let Miles do a one-off for Riverside (Evans’ label at the time), and that they would have carried more weight as a bigger entity than Riverside. More importantly, what would it have sounded like? Motian doesn’t mention a specific timeframe, but the quote seems to imply that any discussion of such a date was going on not long before LaFaro’s death in a car accident in the summer of 1961. Intriguing to think about what would have resulted from what I presume would have been a quartet session. Wondering how LaFaro and Davis would have got on, musically speaking. (Did they ever record or perform together? Nothing’s coming to mind at first thought.)

Beginning to dip into a recent Jazz Oracle order from Tommy’s Jazz. Always a pleasure to get reacquainted with Jimmy Dorsey’s alto sax playing, and some Bunny Berigan to be heard here as well (probably also included on Mosaic’s Berigan set, which I’ve been meaning to revisit for some time):

As a kid in Indiana in the late 1970s, I got hipped to a lot of good music by Creem Magazine. My girlfriend and I watched this excellent documentary last night—highly recommended for anybody interested in the music and music journalism of that era:

Did any of the alternate takes show up on the non-Mosaic individual CDs that came out such as Cell Walk For Celeste, etc?

Just arrived, listening to disc 1. I have some of this material on individual CD reissues, but very happy to have the complete Mosaic treatment, with Buell Neidlinger’s commentary in the booklet... and this is some of my favorite Cecil, period:

An excellent British psych-folk collection:

Trotting out this archival Night Lights show today on social media in honor of the great man: Satchmo, Take Two: Louis Armstrong At The Movies The world may not seem that wonderful, especially right now, but it's always at least a little bit that way if you're listening to Louis Armstrong.

I ordered it through Chalkys as well this past Saturday evening. Email notice at 6:25 this morning that it was being shipped, followed by a second one three hours later saying the release date had been postponed and that I'd be getting a refund. So I guess I was a little too late to the party... oh well, here's hoping it gets an eventual release. Thinking that surely there must also be some promo copies in circulation.

Aaron Judge currently on pace to hit 45 HRs in a 60-game season.

Unbelievable! I picked up this CD several years ago because I knew that I eventually wanted to do a Night Lights show about the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival. This morning I put it on for the first time, as that show's coming up in a few weeks, and came here to post that I was listening to it... had not checked this thread in some time. What a weird coincidence! I'm about halfway through the first set, Bit T is introducing his mother as I type.

We re-aired Electrifying: Charlie Christian this past week on Night Lights, and it remains archived for online listening.

My next-door neighbor is a devoted Mets fan, so I'm privy to the base's existential sufferings.

Yeah, and what a terrible way to do it. I saw a lot of concern from Mets fans online during the several hours when his whereabouts were being reported as unknown.

This is weird and slightly concerning: https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-yoneis-cespedes-missing-20200802-o3qkwtymgfdxhnksv6mfowel7i-story.html EDIT: I am pasting in the link because, once again, embedding it in the standard manner only loops me back to this thread. Is anybody else encountering this issue?

Cardinals-Brewers game postponed after positive tests in the Cardinals organization. EDIT: tried to post a link to the story, but clicking on the link only leads me back to this thread. Had a similar problem with posting a link in another subforum recently. Not sure if it’s an issue on my end or not... has this happened to anybody else?

Been revisiting the Ramones’ early albums of late. Tonight it’s Road To Ruin.

Welp... this is not good: All Phillies team activities put on hold after coaching staff member, clubhouse attendant test positive for Covid-19

I always play jazz by Indiana musicians on the Thursday show and will be spinning Mr. Spaulding's recordings today in honor of his birthday. Please give me/us a heads-up when you do so!