Thursday, 9/20/12
shhhh . . .
Joe McPhee, “Old Eyes” (for Ornette Coleman), live, New York, 2009
shhhh . . .
Joe McPhee, “Old Eyes” (for Ornette Coleman), live, New York, 2009
street music: New York
Acapella Soul
“When We Get Married,” 2009
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“Ooo Baby Baby,” 2012
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“Just My Imagination,” 2011
Kaija Saariaho, Fall (1991, from the ballet Maa); Nuiko Wadden (harp), Ryan Streber (electronics); Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, Mass.), 2010
One of the joys of having grown children is going out with them to hear live music, as I did the other night, meeting my older son Alex after work at a Chicago art gallery (Corbett vs. Dempsey) for a solo performance by this harpist.
street music: London
Dave Crowe, beatbox, 2011
Sister Rosetta Tharpe with the Chicago Blues All-Stars (Big Walter Horton [harmonica], Willie Dixon [bass], et al.), “That’s All,” “Didn’t It Rain,” live, 1960s, Germany
What a treat to hear Walter, with whom I worked back in the ’70s while at Alligator Records, playing with Sister Rosetta.
riveting
Anton Bruckner (1824-96), Symphony No. 5 in B flat major; Berlin Philharmonic (Wilhelm Furtwangler, cond.), live, Berlin, 1942
(Yeah, I realize this performance took place in Nazi Germany during World War II and, no, I don’t have anything profound, or even interesting, to say about how such beauty and such horror could coexist.)
old stuff
Count Basie Orchestra (feat. Jimmy Rushing [vocals] & Herschel Evans [tenor saxophone]), “When My Dreamboat Comes Home,” live (radio broadcast), New York (Savoy Ballroom, Harlem), 1937
The other day, driving to Rockford for a hearing in a murder case, listening to this for the first time, I couldn’t quit hitting the repeat button: “and once again the fields of gloom are adroitly plowed under.”
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
What music from today will folks be listening to in 2087?
A piano to play, books to read, coffee to drink—what more could you want?
Jeremy Denk, talking and playing, New York, 2012
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Playing Gyorgy Ligeti’s Piano Etudes, Book 1
No. 4: Fanfares
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No. 5: Arc-en-ceil
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No. 6: Automne à Varsovie
earthy (horns) + ethereal (vibes) = enthralling
Peter Brötzmann (saxophones, tarogato) and Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), live, New York (Le Poisson Rouge), 9/5/12
Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Tonight these guys will be at the Hideout, a little club on Chicago’s near northwest side, which is where I’ll be too.
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lagniappe
reading table
Four trees – upon a solitary Acre –
Without Design
Or Order, or Apparent Action –
Maintain –The Sun – upon a Morning meets them –
The Wind –
No nearer Neighbor – have they –
But God –The Acre gives them – Place –
They – Him – Attention of Passer by –
Of Shadow, or of Squirrel, haply –
Or Boy –What Deed is Theirs unto the General Nature –
What Plan
They severally – retard – or further –
Unknown –—Emily Dickinson
Her stuff, I’ve found, can be habit-forming.
Grimes, live (studio performance), 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
washing my laundry
with my clothes on . . .
summer rain—Kobayashi Issa, 1821 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)