ghost of miles

Oh hell yeah, Lon! John Edward Hasse and I wrote the booklet essays… thanks for listening and posting! Right now:

Sorry about last night, but at least we got it done for you today. Always happy to defeat Houston, whatever the cause! Yeah, it’s just the latest lapse with this organization in recent years, and certainly one of the worst. Joshua Diemert, one of Pinstripe Alley’s best writers, and no generator of hot takes, has a good post up about l’affaire de Rizzo: Anthony Rizzo’s concussion situation is malpractice

Disc 5, Singles Session + Blues in the Night. Sounding particularly good at one in the morning:

Hold on to your hats, fellow ‘Mats fans—a box set edition of their classic 1985 album Tim is on the way, featuring a new mix (the original was infamously cloudy), the entirety of the Alex Chilton-produced sessions, and a smokin’ live 1986 show at Chicago’s Metro. Rhino’s prior three Replacements expanded-album sets have been uniformly excellent, and I’m in on this one as well: The Replacements: Tim box set

A 2004 concert recording, out from Storyville later this month, and one that I’ll be picking up: Mulgrew Miller: Solo in Barcelona

Early-80s Elvin with Pat La Barbera, Kenny Kirkland, and Reggie Workman:

A brief but positive, four-star review in the September issue of DownBeat, getting top marks in their round-up of new big-band releases. … and All About Jazz’s review from earlier this summer.

Panicking man receives notification this his first out of three free articles on JazzTimes.com

Fortunate to live about an hour's drive from one of the 19 IMAX theaters here in the U.S., at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. They just extended their sold-out run of Oppenheimer showings for another week, enabling me to pick up August 11 tickets for my brother and me. I've already seen it at a standard theater here in Bloomington and have been raving about it to friends ever since; can't wait to see it at the IMAX. Yes it is!

Apparently the Astros are in talks with the Mets regarding Verlander. What's cooking for your favorite team as the trade deadline approaches?

I have all of those sets! The Monk and especially the Powell box are beat to hell from my carting them around in a bag so much during my early years of DJing, when I was frequently biking back and forth to two different radio stations. Only thing I didn’t care for was the occasional deliberate jumbling and disordering of the booklet text, which was evidently in typographical fashion during the mid-1990s (the Miles Davis Plugged Nickel set was the worst in this regard iirc).

New bio of Connie Converse: … and the book that was the basis for Christopher Nolan’s brilliant new movie Oppenheimer:

An excellent compilation of Renee Rosnes’ Blue Note work.

That’a a good ‘un! Intro to the booklet by David Baker iirc. Right now, one of the first jazz box sets I ever bought, along with the Bud Powell Blue Note and Roost set that came out around the same time:

Numerous reports from my fave record store here in Bloomington of similar problems with the CDs. Mine plays on my old player at home (for the most part, though the other night it went wobbly on the last track), but the players in the on-air studio here at the station won't read it at all. Quite a punt on quality control! Iirc the first disc of The Complete Bud Powell on Verve clocks in at 80:00 exactly, but I've never had any issues with playing it, and I've had it for nearly 30 years now. (Good Lord, that's a long time! Doesn't seem that long ago...)

Sony’s Fifty Years (an expansion of their previous Forty Years collection) provides a good overview of Bennett’s career, spanning 1950 to the early 2000s.

Anybody think the Angels will move Ohtani come August 1? I think it’s unlikely, especially now that he has a shot at Judge’s AL HR record. Also hard to imagine the kind of haul the Angels would want, even for a two-month rental. He could become MLB’s first six-hundred-million-dollar man when he hits free agency. I predict he’ll land with either the Dodgers or the Mariners.

Disc 1. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy the Horace Silver contingent (Farmer, Mobley and Hayes) on Dial “S” For Sonny.

I’ve got a much more old-school, pre-Harry Potter definition of a muggle… as in, “I’m gonna enjoy a muggle while I listen to the new Sonny Clark Mosaic this evening.” 😉

Up again in honor of Clark’s birthday today and the release of the new Mosaic set: Clark’s Last Leap: Sonny Clark 1961-62

My copy’s out for delivery on Sonny’s birthday today. Apt timing! Looking forward to hearing all of these albums again through the filter of a Mosaic set, and hopefully its release will garner some renewed attention to Clark and his recorded legacy.

New York Times obit A beloved, inspiring and iconic artist. He gave us a lot with those 96 years.