music clip of the day

Music, like people, comes in all kinds. Some is easy to embrace, some thorny. I wouldn’t want to live without either.

Milton Babbitt, May 10, 1916-January 29, 2011

About Time, Alan Feinberg, piano

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String Quartet No. 2, Composers Quartet

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lagniappe

His music can be playful, too.

Semi-Simple Variations, The Bad Plus

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If you know anybody who knows more popular music of the ’20s or ’30s than I do, I want to know who it is. I grew up playing every kind of music in the world, and I know more pop music from the ’20s and ’30s, it’s because of where I grew up. We had to imitate Jan Garber one night; we had to imitate Jean Goldkette the next night. We heard everything from the radio; we had to do it all by ear. We took down their arrangements; we stole their arrangements; we transcribed them, approximately. We played them for a country club dance one night and for a high school dance the next.

—Milton Babbitt