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Month: November, 2012

Friday, 11/30/12

only rock ’n’ roll

I’ve got another band for you . . .

—my (25-year-old) son Alex, earlier this week, before playing me a couple tracks off their new album (Lonerism)

Tame Impala, live (“Be Above It,” “Solitude Is Bliss,” “Endors Toi”), New York (Webster Hall), 11/10/12

Will the ’60s ever end?

Thursday, 11/29/12

riveting

Alexander Scriabin, Etude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12 (1894)
Vladimir Horowitz, live, New York (Carnegie Hall), 1968

Wednesday, 11/28/12

enchanted forest

Bobo Stenson Trio (BS, piano; Anders Jormin, bass; Jon Fält, drums), “Olivia,” Sweden, 2009

Tuesday, 11/27/12

Some instruments seem made for certain seasons. Take the viola: it seems most at home when days are getting shorter, shadows longer, nights colder.

Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-), Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1996)
Yuri Bashmet (viola), WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (Semyon Bychkov, cond.)

#1

#2

#3

#4

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

I am a religious Russian Orthodox person and I understand religion in the literal meaning of the word, as re-ligio, that is to say the restoration of connections, the restoration of the legato of life. There is no more serious task for music than this.

Sofia Gubaidulina

Monday, 11/26/12

old stuff

Close your eyes and you’re there—one hand a martini, cigarette the other.

Fats Waller and his Rhythm, live radio broadcast
Yacht Club, 66 W. 52nd St., New York, 1938

Sunday, 11/25/12

Sometimes you can’t help but shout (3:05-).

Rev. James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir (with guest Albertina Walker), live, Chicago, 1972*

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lagniappe

random thoughts

Life isn’t short. It isn’t long, either. It’s nothing more, or less, than a series of moments, each beyond measure.

*****

*That same year Rev. Cleveland and his choir backed Aretha Franklin on Amazing Grace.

Saturday, 11/24/12

Happy 100th Birthday, Teddy!

Teddy Wilson, pianist, November 24, 1912-July 31, 1986

“Rosetta,” 1934

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“Body and Soul,” with the Benny Goodman Trio (BG, clarinet; TW, piano; Gene Krupa, drums), 1935

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“Foolin’ Myself,” Teddy Wilson Orchestra (TW, piano; Billie Holiday, vocals; Lester Young, tenor saxophone; Freddie Green, guitar; Jo Jones, drums, et al.), 1937

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lagniappe

radio

WKCR-FM’s celebration of his centennial, which I mentioned the other day, runs through midnight Sunday.

*****

musical thoughts

John Cage (whose centennial we recently celebrated), Conlon Nancarrow (ditto), Teddy Wilson—they’d make a helluva band.

Friday, 11/23/12

Chicago: 1974 

“Muddy Waters Blues Summit in Chicago,”* Soundstage, 1974

*Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Pinetop Perkins, Koko Taylor, Mike Bloomfield, Johnny Winter, Dr. John, et al.

Thursday, 11/22/12

otherworldly

Maurice Ravel, Jeux d’eau (1901)

Martha Argerich, live (1977)

*****

Alfred Cortot, recording (1920)

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lagniappe

radio

After finishing, at midnight, their 24-hour Coleman Hawkins birthday celebration, the indefatigable folks at WKCR-FM didn’t rest for even a minute. Instead they embarked on a 4-day, 96-hour celebration of pianist Teddy Wilson’s centennial.

*****

Happy Thanksgiving!

MCOTD gives thanks for

Lester Bowie and

Blossom Dearie and

The Dirtbombs;

for Mingus, Miles, Monk,

Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner, Bartok;

for WKCR-FM and WFMU-FM;

for Morton Feldman and

Elliott Carter and

Alfred Schnittke and

Tristan Murail;

for Hound Dog Taylor, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson, Magic Sam;

for The Ex, The Heptones, The Swan Silvertones, The Impressions, The Art Ensemble of Chicago;

for Von Freeman and Art Pepper and Vernard Johnson;

for Friedrich Gulda and Martha Argerich, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Ursula Oppens;

for Ed Blackwell and

for Phillip Wilson;

for Julius Hemphill and

Henry Threadgill and

D’Angelo and

Dorothy Love Coates;

and for all the others—singers, musicians, composers, painters, photographers, printmakers, novelists, poets—who have graced this site;

and for you, who have found your way here, somehow, from Mongolia and Slovenia and Jamaica and Saudi Arabia; from Myanmar and Syria; from Angola, India, Ethiopia; from Finland, Thailand, Ireland, Iceland, and over 100 other countries.

Wednesday, 11/21/12

Happy (108th) Birthday, Hawk!

Coleman Hawkins, tenor saxophonist, November 21, 1904-May 16, 1969

“Prisoner of Love,” 1958 (Art Ford’s Jazz Party, music starts at 1:15)

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“Lover Man,” 1961

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“Body and Soul,” London, 1967

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lagniappe

radio

WKCR-FMbroadcasting from Columbia University, is playing his music—and nothing but—until midnight. (Thank God for college radio.)

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reading table

We’re all in this apart.

—David Ferry, “Found Single-Line Poems,” excerpt (Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations [2012])

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something to get you in the holiday mood

William Burroughs, “Thanksgiving Prayer” (Gus Van Sant, dir.)