music clip of the day

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Category: Chicago

Tuesday, April 8th

alone

Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), “Stake,” live, Chicago, 2009


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lagniappe

reading table

Dream Song 1
By John Berryman (1914-1972)

Huffy Henry hid  the day,
unappeasable Henry sulked.
I see his point,—a trying to put things over.
It was the thought that they thought
they could do it made Henry wicked & away.
But he should have come out and talked.

All the world like a woolen lover
once did seem on Henry’s side.
Then came a departure.
Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.
I don’t see how Henry, pried
open for all the world to see, survived.

What he has now to say is a long
wonder the world can bear & be.
Once in a sycamore I was glad
all at the top, and I sang.
Hard on the land wears the strong sea
and empty grows every bed.

Thursday, April 3rd

sounds of Chicago

Chicago Underground Duo (Rob Mazurek, cornet, electronics, voice; Chad Taylor, drums, mbira, electronics), live (music begins at 4:30), Italy (Venice), 2013


(This clip, alas, has some glitches: at 56:15 both the sound and the picture drop out, returning, with just one of two audio channels, at 58:46.)

Wednesday, April 2nd

passings

Frankie Knuckles, DJ, January 18, 1955-March 31, 2014

2013 Boiler Room set, excerpt (Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,” remix)


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It could be plausibly argued that Knuckles was as important to the birth of contemporary dance music as James Brown was to soul or Chuck Berry to rock ‘n’ roll. And like those innovators, Knuckles helped nurture a deceptively sophisticated sound that celebrated and embraced outsiders and misfits — in Knuckles’ case, the gay African-American and Hispanic communities.

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“God has a place on the dancefloor,” he once told the Tribune. “We wouldn’t have all the things we have if it wasn’t for God. We wouldn’t have the one thing that keeps us sane – music. It’s the one thing that calms people down.

“Even when they’re hopping up and down in a frenzy on the dancefloor, it still has their spirits calm because they’re concentrating on having a good time, loving the music, as opposed to thinking about something negative. I think dancing is one of the best things anyone can do for themselves. And it doesn’t cost anything.”

—Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune (obituary), 4/1/14

Tuesday, March 18th

sleepless in Chicago

Some folks sleep all night, or so I’ve heard. Maybe you’re one of them. If not, here’s a mix you might try—a sonic tonic.

1. Play this on repeat.

John Luther Adams (1953-), “The Farthest Place” (2001); piano (Clint Davis), vibraphone (Brian Archinal & Andy Bliss), bass (Satoru Tagawa), violin (Lydia Kabalen); University of Kentucky (Lexington), 2008


2.
Ditto. 

Waterfall Sounds, Cow Creek


3. Adjust volume levels to taste.

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lagniappe

reading table

For you fleas too
the nights must be long,
they must be lonely.

—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)

Sunday, March 16th

three takes

“I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired” (C. Burrell)

Mighty Clouds of Joy, live, South Carolina (Charleston), mid-1990s


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Rev. James Cleveland, live


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The Walden Family 19th Anniversary, live, Georgia (Camilla), 2013


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lagniappe

random thoughts

No delusion is more stubborn than the notion you are alive.

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art beat: more from the Art Institute’s Hiroshige exhibit (see Thursday’s post)

Seki—No. 48, c. 1847-1852

Brooklyn_Museum_-_Seki_No._48_from_Reisho_Tokaido_-_Utagawa_Hiroshige_(Ando)

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Heavy Snow, mid-1840s

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Kameyana, Weather Clearing After Snow, c. 1833-34

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Thursday, March 13th

alone

Akio Suzuki (self-made instrument), live, England (Newcastle), 2014

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Each day we have a choice. We can listen, again, to stuff we’ve heard before. Or we can open our ears to something new.

*****

art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Hiroshige’s Winter Scenes (through 3/20/14)

Yabu Street at the foot of Atago Hill (from the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”), 1857

100_views_edo_1121

Wednesday, March 12th

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.

Tuesday, March 11th

sounds of Chicago

Paul Butterfield (vocals, harmonica), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Mark Naftalin (keyboards), et al., live, Boston, 1971

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lagniappe

found words

Automated response received yesterday, after calling my pharmacy to find out if a prescription was ready, getting a recorded recitation of the available options, and hitting “0” in the hope of reaching a non-virtual human being:

This is not a valid command.

Thursday, February 27th

sounds of Chicago

Klang (James Falzone, clarinet; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone; Jason Roebke, bass; Tim Daisy, drums), live (studio performance), 2009


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lagniappe

art beat: the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago

Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Untitled (Purple, White, and Red), 1953

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This painting and I have been getting together, several times a year, for decades. Admittedly, our relationship is rather one-sided. But, if anything, its indifference to me only deepens my feelings for it.

Friday, February 21st

only rock ’n’ roll

The Ex, “Double Order,” France (Orleans), 2013


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lagniappe

found words

From the Chicago Reader music section (2/20/14):

. . . hails from the same quasi-grimestep/post-IDM interzone that’s home to artists as disparate as . . .

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This Liverpool trio plays what it calls ‘caveman doom’ . . .

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. . . retrofuturist murder ballad . . .

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. . . works the same territory that grindcore and sludge bands cleared in the 90s.