only rock ’n’ roll
Cloud Nothings, “Psychic Trauma”
Live, Houston, 2013
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Recording, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
August Kleinzahler (1949-), reading “Portrait of My Mother in January”:
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The older I get the more grateful I am not to be told how everything comes out.
—William Maxwell (1908-2000), novelist, New Yorker fiction editor, etc.
sounds of Chicago
Klang (James Falzone, clarinet; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone; Jason Roebke, bass; Tim Daisy, drums), live (studio performance), 2009
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lagniappe
art beat: the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago
Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Untitled (Purple, White, and Red), 1953
This painting and I have been getting together, several times a year, for decades. Admittedly, our relationship is rather one-sided. But, if anything, its indifference to me only deepens my feelings for it.
old stuff
Kansas City Six (Buck Clayton, trumpet; Lester Young, clarinet; Eddie Durham, electric guitar; Freddie Green, rhythm guitar; Walter Page, bass; Jo Jones, drums), “Pagin’ the Devil,” 1938
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lagniappe
reading table
in blossoming trees
suddenly he’s hidden . . .
my son—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
what’s new
Neneh Cherry, live (studio performance), New York, 2014
“Blank Project”
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“Weightless”
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These songs are on her new album, Blank Project, as is this track.
“Out of the Black” (feat. Robyn)
testify
Jackson Southernaires, “Can’t Make It By Myself,” live, Jackson, Miss., 1996
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lagniappe
reading table
Barn’s burnt down—
now
I can see the moon.—Mizuta Masahide, 1657-1723 (translated from Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto)
A pianist plays the piano.
A violinist plays the violin.
A percussionist plays . . . how much time have you got?
Augusta Read Thomas (1964-), Resounding Earth (2012); Third Coast Percussion
1st Movement
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2nd Movement
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3rd Movement
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4th Movement
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Augusta Read Thomas, talking about Resounding Earth:
only rock ’n’ roll
The Ex, “Double Order,” France (Orleans), 2013
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lagniappe
found words
From the Chicago Reader music section (2/20/14):
. . . hails from the same quasi-grimestep/post-IDM interzone that’s home to artists as disparate as . . .
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This Liverpool trio plays what it calls ‘caveman doom’ . . .
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. . . retrofuturist murder ballad . . .
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. . . works the same territory that grindcore and sludge bands cleared in the 90s.
what’s new
Vijay Iyer (pianist, composer, bandleader, Harvard professor, MacArthur “genius” grant winner, etc.), Mutations, 2014
sounds of Chicago
Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things (MR, drums; Jason Roebke, bass; Greg Ward, alto saxophone; Tim Haldeman, tenor saxophone), “Wilbur’s Tune,” live, Paris, 2010
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Mike Reed’s Myth/Science Assembly (MR, drums; Tomas Fujiwara, drums; Josh Abrams, bass; Greg Ward, alto saxophone; Ingrid Laubrock, tenor saxophone; Taylor Ho Bynum, trumpet; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone; Nick Butcher, electronics), live (rearranging a found Sun Ra fragment [excerpt]), Chicago (Chicago Jazz Festival), 2011
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Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly (MR, drums; Josh Abrams, bass; Greg Ward, alto saxophone; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone), live (studio performance), Chicago, c. 2009
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If other Chicago musicians are “busy,” what’s Mike Reed? In addition to leading various groups, he owns and operates Constellation, a performing arts center. Then there’s the Pitchfork Music Festival, which this summer will feature, over the course of three days, Beck, Giorgio Moroder, Kendrick Lamar, Grimes, et al. He books and produces it.
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