It’s Wednesday night here at BCB After Dark: the heppest joint for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and join us. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. There are still a few tables available. The show will start shortly. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last night I asked you if the Cubs trading again for right-hander Michael Soroka was a good idea. You weren’t too keen on the idea after last year and 66 percent of you were against the idea.
Normally on Wednesday night I give you some jazz and talk about movies. But I’m having some major computer issues tonight, so I’m going to have to beg off the movie stuff.
Tonight we’re continuing our look at the career of Miles Davis as we approach the 100th anniversary of his birth next week. Miles first got noticed in the mid-forties playing trumpet in Charlie Parker’s group, but by the late-forties Miles began to rebel against the frenetic pace and constant chord changes of the bebop of the era. He wanted to slow things down and simplify them, which he believed would give jazz artists more freedom to improvise and be more creative.
So Miles hooked up with pianist Gil Evans, who had similar ideas, and Miles and Evans put together a nonet. With nine musicians, Miles had more freedom to include more instruments than he would have with a quintet, but less cumbersome than a big band, which were becoming economically infeasable by 1949.
Truth be told, the lifespan of the Miles Davis Nonet only lasted several weeks in 1949 and 1950. But before they all went their separate ways, the group managed to record a series of 78s in this new “cool” style of jazz. Truth be told, Miles wasn’t the only one moving in this direction, but he was probably the most influential. Those 78s were collected in an LP, released in 1957, called The Birth of the Cool. It’s still today one of the most listened-to and influential jazz albums of all time. And yet, it’s only the first of about half a dozen Miles Davis albums you can say that about.
Here’s the entire Birth of the Cool album. It’s missing “Darn That Dream,” which was recorded at the same time but not included in the 1957 release. But it was added to a 1972 re-release and has been included in pretty much every release of the album since.
Welcome back to everyone who skipped the music and movies.
Because I’m having some issues tonight, I’m going to keep my comments brief. You’ve now seen a quarter of a season with the Automated Ball/Strike (ABS) system. What do you think of it?
Major League Baseball went with an ABS “challenge” system after trying out different approaches in the minor leagues. I know that many of you think there should be full ABS, but most people in the minors didn’t seem to like it all that much. For one, the technology meant there was a beat between when the catcher caught the pitch and when the system could tell the umpire what the pitch was and for him to then call it a ball or a strike. It wasn’t a long beat, but it was a noticeable one. There were also pitches that were touching the zone and hitting the dirt that neither the batter, catcher or umpire thought were strikes. Maybe that could be fixed by fine-tuning the strike zone, but every time you mess with one part of the system, you’re going to have unintended consequences.
But I am going to let you vote for full ABS if you want. I’m also going to let you vote for tinkering with the current system (adding more challenges), leaving it as it is or getting rid of it altogether.
So what’s your take on ABS?
Thank you for stopping by, both tonight and all week. Please get home safely. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.