never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Suite No. 3 in C major for Unaccompanied Cello; Jean-Guihen Queyras (1967-), live, c. 2007
tonight in Chicago
This guy will be playing at the Hideout.
Daniel Levin, cello
With JP Carletti (drums), live, New Haven, Conn., 2013
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With his trio, live, Jersey City, N.J., 2008
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Solo, live, New York, 2009
Ernst Reijseger (cello) with Harmen Fraanje (organ), “Shadow” (Cave of Forgotten Dreams), live
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lagniappe
art beat
Timothy H. O’Sullivan (1840-1882), Pyramid Lake, Nevada, 1867
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Each week brings new discoveries. Yesterday, on the radio (WFMU, Give the Drummer Some), I heard this cellist for the first time. This photographer I bumped into Wednesday at the Art Institute of Chicago. Next week?
This piece had its world premiere in 1941; the venue wasn’t fancy—a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp.
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), live, ChamberFest Cleveland (Franklin Cohen, clarinet; Yura Lee, violin; Gabriel Cabezas, cello; Orion Weiss, piano), 2013
beyond category
John Zorn, Book of Angels (excerpts); Uri Caine, piano; Masada String Trio (Mark Feldman, violin; Erik Friedlander, cello;* Greg Cohen, bass); live, France (Marciac), 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
There’s a line in Tarkovsky’s Solaris: we never know when we’re going to die and because of that we are, at any given moment, immortal.
—Geoff Dyer, “Diary,” London Review of Books, 4/3/14
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*It’s all related: Erik’s the son of photographer Lee Friedlander, whose work is often featured here.
only rock ’n’ roll
The Ex & Brass Unbound,* “Cold Weather Is Back,” live, London, 2010
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Christopher Wool (1955-)
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*Roy Paci (trumpet), Wolkter Wierbos (trombone), Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone), Mats Gustaffson (baritone saxophone).
not for the faint of heart
Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet,* live, France (Le Mans), 2004
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Q: What would people be surprised to know that you listen to?
Bill Clinton: Brötzmann, the tenor sax player, one of the greatest alive.
—Oxford American, 2001 (annual music issue)
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*PB, reeds; Ken Vandermark, reeds; Joe McPhee, pocket trumpet, tenor saxophone; Roland Ramanan, trumpet, wooden flute; Toshinori Kondo, trumpet; Jeb Bishop, trombone; Fred Longberg-Holm, cello; Kent Kessler, bass; Michael Zerang, drums; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums.
serendipity
This I bumped into yesterday, while taking a break from work (murder case, tax stuff, etc.). I found it enthralling—maybe you will too.
Okkyung Lee (cello), live, Ireland (Cork), 2012
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lagniappe
radio
Today, on the heels of yesterday’s celebration of Ornette Coleman, WKCR (Columbia University) is hosting yet another birthday marathon—this one for jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, born on this date in 1903.
Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra (with Bix Beiderbecke [1903-1931], cornet), “I’m Coming Virginia” (1927)
never enough
Bach’s six cello suites, which I’ve been listening to for over forty years, never fail to astonish me—they breathe.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Suite No. 1 in G major for Unaccompanied Cello; Jan Vogler (1964-), live, New York, 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course . . . .—The Odyssey, opening lines (Robert Fagles’ translation)
Smooth sailing wouldn’t make much of a story.
music clip of the day 