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Category: bass

Thursday, January 7th

passings

Paul Bley, pianist, November 10, 1932-January 3, 2016

Live, 1970s?

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With Charlie Haden (bass), live, New York, 2000

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With John Gilmore (tenor saxophone), Gary Peacock (bass), Paul Motian (drums; or Billy Elgart, side 2, tracks 2-3), Turning Point, rec. 1964/1968

Side 1

Side 2

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Live, Norway (Oslo), 2008

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lagniappe

reading table

I held a Jewel in my fingers –
And went to sleep –
The day was warm, and winds were prosy—
I said ”Twill keep” –

I woke – and chid my honest fingers,
The Gem was gone –
And now, an Amethyst remembrance
Is all I own –

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #261 (Franklin)

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Monday, December 21st

Why start the new week with the same old stuff?

Julia Wolfe (1958-), Believing (2001); Bang on a Can All-Stars, live, South Korea (Tongyeong International Music Festival), 2014

lagniappe

art beat

Regular readers may recognize this drawing, which was posted last year. The artist is a client of mine, Walter Unbehaun, a seventy-something bank robber whose story is told in the January issue of GQ magazine (Kathy Dobie, “The Curious Case of the Homesick Bank Robber”). This drawing makes an appearance:

[H]e’d created a strong bond with his lawyer. He considered ‘Rich’ a friend, giving him two finely wrought pencil sketchings. One was of an ancient and deeply wrinkled Peruvian woman, the other of a plump African woman wearing glasses.

Walter Unbehaun, African Preacher (Kankakee County Jail, 2014)

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2015

Tuesday, December 1st

sounds of Chicago

And more.

Left Hand Frank and His Blues Band, “Linda Lu”
Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1, 1978

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lagniappe

art beat

Marc PoKempner, Chicago (Divorced Women’s Club), 1988

(I’m taking a break—back in a while.)

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2015

Monday, November 30th

sounds of Chicago

More from Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1 (1978).

Jimmy Johnson Blues Band, “Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home”

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2015

Friday, November 27th

sounds of Chicago

Some things last. Nearly forty years ago, I co-produced this track, while working at Alligator Records. It remains one of my favorites. The hour was late. The lights had been turned down. But the tape kept rolling.

Carey Bell’s Blues Harp Band, “Woman In Trouble”
Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1, 1978

*****

Here’s more of Carey, years later (2000, Switzerland [Bern]).

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)

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2015

Thursday, November 26th

two takes

Lee Morgan (trumpet) with Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Harold Mabern (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass), Billy Higgins (drums), “Yes I Can, No You Can’t,” 1966

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S. Mos, mash-up (Tupac Shakur, “Holler If Ya Hear Me” [1993]), 2011

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lagniappe

reading table

And everything turns and turns
and the unknown turns into the song
that is the known, but what in turn
becomes of the song is not for us to say

—Mark Strand (1934-2014), “The Webern Variations,” excerpt

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2015

Sunday, November 22nd

old school

Jackson Southernaires, “Walk Around Heaven,” live, Jackson, Miss., 1990s

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lagniappe

random sights

this morning, Oak Park, Ill. (son’s dog, Roscoe)

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2015

Saturday, November 21st

sounds of Mali and France

Amadou & Mariam with guest Bertrand Cantat, live, France (near Belfort), 2012

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lagniappe

reading table

We dream – it is good we are dreaming –
It would hurt us – were we awake –

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #584 (Franklin), excerpt

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2015

Friday, November 20th

Milford Graves (drums, vocals) with Amiri Baraka (words), Roswell Rudd (trombone), Charles Gayle (tenor saxophone, piano), William Parker (bass), live, New York, 2013

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As you get older, you ain’t afraid to say something.

—Milford Graves

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lagniappe

art beat: yesterday, Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago)

Douglas Ewart, George Lewis, Douglas Repetto, Rio Negro II, 2015 (The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now [through Sunday])