Saturday, June 29th
White folks are cool, too.
Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, live, Washington, D.C., 2013
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: bass
2013
Saturday, June 22nd
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
#1
#2
#3
*DF, guitar; Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone; John Medeski, keyboards; David Ginyard, bass; Skoota Warner, drums.
2013
Thursday, June 20th
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
**********
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.
2013
Wednesday, June 19th
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
**********
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)
*****
*Give the Drummer Some (WFMU-FM [Give the Drummer Radio Stream] Tues., 6-7 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m.-noon [EST]).
2013
Monday, June 17th
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).
2013
Tuesday, June 11th
two takes
“Lulu’s Back In Town” (H. Warren & A. Dubin)
Fats Waller, recording, 1935
***
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), live (TV studio), Norway (Oslo), 1960
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world. It depends on your imagination.
2013
Friday, June 7th
only rock ’n’ roll
The Stooges (1967-)
2013
Thursday, June 6th
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
2013
Wednesday, June 5th
kinetic
Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone), Rez Abbasi (guitar), Rich Brown (bass), Rudy Royston (drums), “Killer,” “Playing with Stones,” Washington, D.C., 2012
2013
Thursday, May 23rd
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*
**********
lagniappe
reading table: Albion Beatnik Bookstore, Oxford, England
*****
*BD, vocals, piano; Herb Ellis, guitar; Ray Brown, bass; Jo Jones, drums.
