sounds of Chicago
Not until this morning did I realize how much I needed this.
Hamid Drake (percussion, MCOTD Hall of Fame) and Michael Zerang (percussion), 30th Anniversary Winter Solstice Concert, live, Chicago, this morning (6:30 a.m., CST)
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
testify!
United House of Prayer Shout Bands, live, published 2011
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lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Ireland (Dingle Peninsula)
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reading table
Do you sometimes imagine that you’re getting used to the emergency? I think I can guarantee that you’re not, burdened by states of mind that will be comprehensible only retrospectively, when they no longer pertain. The world going on nonetheless, as the world will, feels bizarrely conditional, subject in thought and action to a blanketing subjunctive mood: things as we wish they were. We are waiting this out with nostalgia for lost freedoms, fear and empathy in the present, and, perhaps, vague anticipation of eventual survivor’s guilt. Never has social privilege seemed more unfair while being clung to so tenaciously. Some of us—artists—are undergoing the siege in ways that can alert us to the subjective dimensions of an objective calamity. We should want those people to keep it up as best they can.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art World: The Melancholy Gestalt of Isolation” (reviewing 100 Drawings from Now, Drawing Center, New York), New Yorker, website (12/14/20), 12/21/20 issue (“The Fix We’re In”)
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streaming
Tomorrow, 6:30 a.m. (CST): the 30th annual winter solstice concert by Chicago-based percussionists Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake (MCOTD Hall of Fame).
sounds of Chicago
Mars Williams presents: An Ayler Xmas Vol. 4 (Night 1) (Mars Williams, tenor saxophone, toy instruments; Josh Berman, cornet; Jim Baker, piano, viola, ARP synthesizer; Krzysztof Pabian, bass; Brian Sandstrom, bass, guitar, trumpet; Steve Hunt, drums; Peter Maunu, violin), live (performance begins at 3:45), Chicago (Constellation), last night
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
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reading table
Such a moon—
the thief
pauses to sing.—Yosa Buson (1716-1784), translated from Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto
Remember holiday cheer?
Emmet Cohen Trio (EC, piano; Russell Hall, bass; Kyle Poole, drums) featuring Tivon Pennicott (tenor saxophone) and Alphonso Horne (trumpet), live, 12/14/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
two takes
“Coming on the Hudson” (T. Monk)
Thelonious Monk (piano), live (studio), Paris, 1969
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Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Johnny Griffin, tenor saxophone; Ahmed Abdul-Malik, bass; Roy Haynes, drums), live, New York, 1958
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, outside Chicago (Glen Ellyn)
alone
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Triadic Memories (1981); Louis Goldstein (piano), 2000
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Chicago
Little Rootie Tootie (Juli Wood, tenor saxophone; Dustin Laurenzi, tenor saxophone; Katie Ernst, bass; Greg Artry, drums) playing Thelonious Monk, live (performance begins at 13:00), Chicago (Constellation), 12/12/20
MVP?
The drummer (Greg Artry): he lifts everybody.
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
farewell! farewell!
hands waving
in the mist—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
alone
Why not begin the week in an abandoned French castle?
Hélène Vogelsinger, “Reminiscence,” live, France, published 11/5/20
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
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reading table
Because there is no me
and because I feel
how much there is no me.—Anna Swir (1909-1984), “A Double Rapture” (translated from Polish by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan)
another take
“Mary Don’t You Weep” (trad.), Caravans (feat. Inez Andrews), 1958
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
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reading table
The Star’s whole secret – in the Lake –
Eyes were not meant to know.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), from 450 (Franklin)
alone
There are a handful of pianists whose every note I’m hungry to hear—he’s one. (Caution: Do not listen to this as “background” music; if you do, your ears will wither and fall off.)
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950, piano), playing (as detailed below) Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Ravel, published 12/5/20*
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
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Program (courtesy of YouTube):
0:00 Bach-Busoni: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
4:07 Bach-Hess: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Scarlatti: Three Sonatas: 7:35 G Major K.9 10:25 G Minor K.450 13:47 D Minor K.14
Chopin: 17:03 Sonata No.3 in B Minor Op.58 41:52 Waltz No.2 in A-Flat Major Op.34 No.1 46:25 Etude Op.25 No.5 49:40 Etude Op.10 No.5
Liszt: 51:24 La Leggierezza 55:56 Gnomenreigen
Brahms: 58:36 Intermezzo in E-Flat Major (abbr.) Op.117 No.1 1:01:44 Intermezzo in A Minor (abbr.) Op.116 No.2 1:04:31 Intermezzo in C Major Op.119 No.3 1:06:08 Capriccio in D Minor Op.116 No.7
1:08:22 Ravel: Alborada del Gracioso
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