Thursday, February 15th
sounds of Iceland
Gyða Valtýsdóttir, “Imago,” live, Iceland (Seltjarnarnes), 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: cello
2018
Thursday, February 8th
another take
Once I enter this world I never want to leave.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Musica Nova Consort, live, Israel (Tel Aviv), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
Going home,
the horse stumbles
in the winter wind.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
2018
Thursday, January 25th
never enough
If I could play like this, I’d never stand up.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, Prelude; Eva Lymenstull (baroque cello), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
I like this story from the N.Y. Times—a composition by a child in the third grade: ‘I told my little brother that when you die you cannot breathe and he did not say a word. He just kept on playing.’
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), Letter to Robert Lowell, September 8, 1948
2018
Wednesday, January 24th
sounds of New York
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (JB, trumpet, compositions; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Ajemian, bass; Chad Taylor, drums), live, New York (Rye Bar, Brooklyn), 2016
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Improvised music is like basketball: a great player makes everybody better.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2017
Friday, December 29th
love it or hate it
Brian Ferneyhough (1943-), String Quartet No. 6 (2010); Arditti Quartet, live, 2010
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, San Francisco (Lands End)
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*****
2017
Saturday, December 23rd
Tonight, at 1 a.m. (EST), one of the year’s great musical events begins: the annual Bach Festival—now in its 40th year—broadcast on WKCR-FM (Columbia University). All Bach, all the time, until midnight New Year’s Eve. Hope, beauty, inspiration: they aren’t luxuries; they’re necessities.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Mass in B minor (excerpt, “Dona nobis pacem”); Berlin Philharmonic (Ton Koopman, cond.) with RIAS Chamber Choir (Justin Doyle, chorus master), live, Berlin, 10/28/17
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Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 6 in D major; Mischa Maisky (cello), live
2017
Saturday, December 16th
3n
Hear In Now (Mazz Swift, violin; Tomeka Reid, cello; Silvia Bolognesi, bass), “Requiem for Charlie Haden” (S. Bolognesi), live, Italy (Basilica di San Silvestro, Trieste), 2015
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Which is more important: what we listen to—or how?
*****
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
2017
Wednesday, December 13th
more
Joe Morris (guitar) and Daniel Levin (cello), live, New York, 12/8/17
(Taking a break—back in a while.)
2017
Tuesday, December 12th
sounds of New York
Daniel Levin (cello) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), live, New York, 2015
2017
Wednesday, December 6th
Think you’ve heard it all?
How about a septet with six string players and a drummer?
Tomeka Reid Septet,* “Tokens” (T. Reid), New York, 2017
*TR, cello, composition; Christopher Hoffman, cello; Mazz Swift, violin; Sarah Bernstein, violin; Jason Kao Hwang, viola; Adam Hopkins, bass; Tomas Fujiwara, drums, percussion.
music clip of the day 