Tuesday, June 21st
never enough
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), “Rhythm-a-Ning” (T. Monk), live, London, 1966
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: bass
2016
Saturday, June 11th
There’s Amsterdam.
There’s Ethiopia.
And there’s Amsterdam in Ethiopia.
The Ex & Han Bennink (drums), Ethiopia, 2002
2016
Friday, June 10th
voices I miss
Albert Collins (1932-1993), live, Switzerland (Montreux), 1979
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), Chicago 28 1957 (Abstractions, through 8/14/16)
*****
tonight in Chicago
The Chicago Blues Festival celebrates the 45th anniversary of Alligator Records, where, in the ’70s, barely out of college, I had the good fortune to co-produce recordings by Albert Collins, Koko Taylor, Son Seals, Fenton Robinson, Jimmy Johnson, Carey Bell, et al.
2016
Tuesday, June 7th
like nobody else
Leroy Jenkins Gut Band (LJ [1932-2007] violin, compositions; Brandon Ross, guitar; David Wong, bass; Newman Taylor Baker, drums), live, New York, 2000
2016
Tuesday, May 31st
Need a lift?
Angelika Niescier (alto saxophone), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Florian Weber (piano), Chris Tordini (bass), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), “The Barn Thing” (A. Niescier), live, Germany (Krefeld), 2013
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), Martha’s Vineyard Rocks 127B 1954 (Abstractions, through 8/14/16)
2016
Monday, May 30th
Vancouver folkie + iconic Memphis rhythm section.
This should never have worked.
But it does, wonderfully.
Frazey Ford, “September Fields” (Indian Ocean), 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
The climate is pretty.
I wrote everything on it.
That’s the activity where it
gets relatively inauspicious.***
And you were sitting there
in the night of life. It sure was good.
My favorite desserts were there.
And when they invite you, it’s like an important document
goes missing. I’ll give you an example:
a twelve-year struggle upstate, in
the slick atmosphere of the breakfast room.
It might have gotten stuck in her farthingale.Otherwise no reply.
—John Ashbery (1927-), “As Someone Who Likes Travel,” fragments (New Yorker, 5/30/16)
To read Ashbery is to read English as a foreign language—which I mean as a compliment.
2016
Wednesday, May 25th
Unfailing clarity, lyricism—how apt to hear him shortly after Mozart.
Sonny Rollins, live (“On Green Dolphin Street,” “St. Thomas,” “Four”), Denmark, 1968*
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lagniappe
reading table
dripping from the flower vendor’s
display
morning dew—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
*****
*With Kenny Drew (piano), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass), Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums).
2016
Sunday, May 22nd
old school
Tommy Ellison & The Singing Stars, “I’m Not the Same Person,” live, Hempstead, N.Y., 2007
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lagniappe
reading table
I hear a river thro’ the valley wander
Whose water runs, the song alone remaining.—Trumbull Stickney (1874-1904), “Dramatic Fragments,” excerpt
*****
random sights
yesterday morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2016
Thursday, May 12th
sounds of New York
Music is, in part, a function of place. Can you imagine these sounds coming out of San Diego?
Charles Gayle Trio (CG, tenor saxophone, piano; Larry Roland, bass; Michael Wimberly, drums), live, Germany (Cologne), 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
It might be lonelier
Without the Loneliness –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 535 (Franklin), fragment
2016
Tuesday, May 10th
never enough
What do I watch when he’s at the piano? His feet.
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano, compositions; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), live, France (Amiens), 1966
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lagniappe
reading table
Thought forms in the soul in the same way clouds form in the air.
—Joseph Joubert (1754-1824), 1786 (The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, translated from French by Paul Auster)
(Thanks to Orange Crate Art for introducing me to Joubert.)
music clip of the day 