If I had a dollar for every guitar player I’ve ever heard who had an original sound and approach, I probably couldn’t afford dinner.
David Fiuczynski Group,* live, New York, 2010
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*DF, guitar; Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone; John Medeski, keyboards; David Ginyard, bass; Skoota Warner, drums.
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.
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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.
serendipity
Last night, while I was doing some law work, these guys—I’d never heard of them before—jumped out of the radio.*
Los Pirañas, “Bambo Ha Muerto Devorado Por El Pecado (Version Alterna),” live, Colombia (Bogotá), 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
I am not poor, I am not rich, nothing’s here but nothing’s lacking, I have little, I want nothing: all my treasure is in Minerva’s tower.
—Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
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*Give the Drummer Some (WFMU-FM [Give the Drummer Radio Stream] Tues., 6-7 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m.-noon [EST]).
last night
He opened his show, at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, with this.
Daniel Lanois, “The Maker” (D. Lanois), live, Toronto, 2012*
*With James Wilson (bass), Brian Blade (drums).
two takes
“Lulu’s Back In Town” (H. Warren & A. Dubin)
Fats Waller, recording, 1935
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Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), live (TV studio), Norway (Oslo), 1960
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world. It depends on your imagination.
only rock ’n’ roll
The Stooges (1967-)
Most musicians are no more able than anyone else to talk about what they do in ways that are fresh and absorbing. This guy, to these ears, is something rare: a compelling player who is, as well, a provocative thinker and talker.
Vijay Iyer (piano), playing and talking, 2010
kinetic
Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone), Rez Abbasi (guitar), Rich Brown (bass), Rudy Royston (drums), “Killer,” “Playing with Stones,” Washington, D.C., 2012
Some singers are so distinctive that when you’re in the mood for them no one else will do.
Blossom Dearie (1924-2009), “They Say It’s Spring,” 1958*
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lagniappe
reading table: Albion Beatnik Bookstore, Oxford, England
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*BD, vocals, piano; Herb Ellis, guitar; Ray Brown, bass; Jo Jones, drums.
sounds of Chicago
Want to hear a great solo? You’ve come to the wrong place. This isn’t about solos; it’s about interplay.
The Rempis Percussion Quartet,* live, Chicago (Hideout), 2010
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*Dave Rempis, saxophones; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Tim Daisy, drums; Frank Rosaly, drums.
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