Monday, February 17th
sounds of Chicago
Baby Huey (AKA James Ramey, 1944-1970), “Listen To Me,” 1971 (Curtom)
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Thursday’s stop at the Art Institute of Chicago
Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), City Landscape, 1955
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: Chicago
2014
2014
Sunday, February 16th
No stage. No microphone. Just heart.
Evangelist Mary Brown and the Spiritual Singers, “I’ll Fly Away,” live, North Carolina (Plymouth, pop. ~4,000), 2011
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lagniappe
art beat: Thursday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after meeting with a client at the nearby federal jail)
Paul Cezanne, The Bay of Marseilles, Seen From L’Estaque, c. 1885
If a stranger, standing next to me in front of this painting, leaned over and whispered, “There’s no better place to be on the planet,” I wouldn’t disagree.
2014
Saturday, February 1st
sounds of Chicago
Michael Zerang and the Blue Lights (MZ, drums; Mars Williams, alto saxophone; Dave Rempis, baritone saxophone; Josh Berman, cornet; Kent Kessler, bass), live, Chicago (Hideout), 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Now, in general, Stick to the boat, is your true motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when Leap from the boat, is still better.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
2014
Wednesday, January 22nd
Thirty-seven years ago, at a church outside Chicago, my wife Suzanne and I were married. Saxophonist Von Freeman and pianist John Young played at the ceremony.* Afterward, at the nearby reception hall, this guy tickled the ivories. All three are now gone.
Blind John Davis (1913-1985), live, Canada, early ’80s
#1
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#2
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#3
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*Here’s how they sounded that night. (Give it a few seconds.)
2014
Thursday, January 16th
sounds of Chicago
Hieroglyphic Being (AKA Jamal Moss), “Space Is The Place (But We Stuck Here On Earth)”
2014
Tuesday, January 7th
Henry Theadgill’s Zooid,* live, New York (Roulette), 2012
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lagniappe
radio
Today WKCR-FM (Columbia University) is featuring Threadgill and a host of other musicians who came out of Chicago in the ’60s and ’70s.
In May of 1977, members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) collaborated with students at WKCR to present “Chicago Comes to New York,” a four-day music festival at Columbia University’s Wollman Auditorium. Join us starting midnight on January 7, 2014 as we revisit this momentous event with a 24-hour marathon broadcast featuring music and interviews by the AACM.
Thirty members of the AACM came to New York with their families and friends for the festival, many for the first time. The festival also included an on-air component in the form of a ninety-hour broadcast of music and interviews with AACM artists. Over the last year, two recent WKCR alums restored and digitized the entire collection of reel-to-reel tapes from the festival, hearing the music for the first time since it was recorded.
Celebrate the incredibly important work that members of the AACM have been doing to promote artistic freedom and self-determination for nearly half a century. Help us revitalize and share these unique pieces of recorded history that WKCR is so privileged to have regained access to.
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*Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone, flute), Liberty Ellman (acoustic guitar), Jose Davila (tuba), Elliot Humberto Kavee (drums), Zachary Lober (bass), Christopher Hoffman (cello), Ben Gerstein (trombone), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Stephanie Richards (trumpet), Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet).
2013
Monday, December 23rd
passings
Larry Lujack, disc jockey, June 6, 1940-December 18, 2013
Live, WCFL-AM (Chicago), 12/23/72 (not ’73)
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lagniappe
Christmas, 1936
Fats Waller, “Swingin’ Them Jingle Bells” (1936)
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random thoughts
Sometimes I feel like a TV that works only on certain channels.
2013
Tuesday, December 17th
sounds of Chicago
Tonight these guys, who play all over the world, will be at a little club on the city’s northwest side, the Hideout, as will I.
DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Italy (Sant’Anna Arresi Jazz Festival), 2008
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Joy—no one gives me more than Hamid Drake.
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lagniappe
reading table
God keep me from ever completing anything.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
2013
Sunday, December 15th
two takes
The Caravans (feat. Cassietta George), “Walk Around Heaven All Day”
Live
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Recording, 1964
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lagniappe
reading table
Interview of Alice Munro, last month
It’s hard to imagine a male writer, having just won the Nobel Prize in Literature, being so direct, so natural, so down to earth.
2013
Wednesday, December 11th
sounds of Chicago
Son Seals, “On My Knees,” live (TV show), 1980s
Musical notation has its place. Sometimes, though, it’s useless. How could marks on a piece of paper ever capture his attack?
