alone
Need a jump-start?
Cecil Taylor (1929-), piano, “Looking (Berlin Version) Solo,” live, Berlin, 1989
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
When you are playing, whether you know it or not, you are dancing.
*****
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-)
Strangeness, in today’s musical world, is sadly undervalued.
Daniel Higgs (vocals, banjo), live, London (Cafe Oto), 2011
#1
#2
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lagniappe
art beat: Tuesday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Cranes at Umezawa Manor in Sagami Province (from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji)
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reading table
Speaking of insomnia, last night I came upon this.
Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
In a world this fast what you need, sometimes, is something this slow.
Shirley Horn (1934-2005), “Summer (Estate)” (B. Martino & B. Brighetti), live, Switzerland (Bern), 1990
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Space is a valuable commodity in music. Too many musicians rush through everything with too many notes. I need time to take the picture. A ballad should be a ballad. It’s important to understand what the song is saying, and learn how to tell the story. It takes time. I can’t rush it. I really can’t rush it.
*****
art beat: more from the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago
Statuette of a Female Figure
Cycladic, probably from the island of Keros
Early Bronze Age, 2600/2400 B.C.
two takes
Music for Airports, “1/1” (B. Eno, R. Davies, R. Wyatt)
Bang on a Can All-Stars, live, Düsseldorf Airport (Germany), 2011
*****
Brian Eno, recording, 1978
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (while waiting for the jury in my federal bribery-conspiracy trial to return a verdict, which, alas, they did)
Bowl, 150/50 B.C.
Greek, Hellenistic, Eastern Mediterranean
Glass, mosaic technique
two takes
“Take Five” (P. Desmond)
Ceramic Dog (Marc Ribot, guitar; Shahzad Ismaily, bass & percussion; Ches Smith, drums), live, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2013
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Dave Brubeck Quartet (DB, piano; Paul Desmond, alto saxophone; Eugene Wright, bass; Joe Morello, drums), live, Germany, 1966
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry Tree, 1834
Once I start listening to this I don’t want to stop, ever.
The Original Gospel Harmonettes (featuring MCOTD Hall of Famer Dorothy Love Coates), “He’s Calling Me,” 1955
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lagniappe
art beat: Tuesday at the Chicago Cultural Center
Hale Woodruff (1900-1980), Old Farmhouse in Beauce Valley, 1928 (featured, through June 16th, in Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College)
*****
random thoughts
It seems to be difficult, if not impossible, for me to grasp the apparent fact that the distance between, say, 2010 and 1960, when I was eight years old, is just as great as that between 1960 and 1910.
late yesterday afternoon
After a court hearing and a client meeting, I stopped at the Chicago Cultural Center, where this piece—on a scale many times larger than this—is installed through May 5th. One-word review: go.
Shawn Decker, Prairie
*****
As with an outdoor prairie, what the current installation looks like—and sounds like—depends on where you’re situated. Here’s one view:
passings
Ravi Shankar, sitarist and composer, April 7, 1920-December 11, 2012
With Ali Akbar Khan (sarod), et al., “Bangla Dhun,” New York (The Concert for Bengladesh), 1971
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lagniappe
art beat: Art Institute of Chicago
Here’s my one-word review of the newly opened gallery of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, where, Tuesday morning (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building), sunlight was streaming through the windows: stunning.
post-election special
Weary of words?
John Luther Adams, The Light That Fills the World (chamber version, revised 2001), excerpt
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lagniappe
art beat: Saturday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Paul Strand, The Court, New York (1924)
Film and Photo in New York (through 11/25/12)
The body knows things the mind will never understand.
D’Angelo (with Jesse Johnson, guitar; Pino Palladino, bass; Chris “Daddy” Dave, drums, et al.), “Chicken Grease,” live, Switzerland (Zurich), 2012
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lagniappe
art beat: Saturday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Morris Engel, Harlem Merchant (1936)
Film and Photo in New York (through 11/25/12)
music clip of the day 