This seems, somehow, to these ears, anyway, to fit a day when the ashes of my mother-in-law are being buried.
Revolutionary Ensemble (Leroy Jenkins, violin; Sirone, bass; Jerome Cooper, drums), “Chicago” (Live at Moosham Castle, 1977)
basement jukebox
Magic Sam (AKA Samuel Maghett, 1937-1969), Cobra Records, Chicago
“All Your Love,” 1957
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“Love Me with a Feeling,” 1957
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“Everything Gonna Be Alright,” 1958
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“21 Days In Jail,” 1958
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taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back soon.
Kidd Jordan Quartet (KJ, tenor saxophone; Billy Bang, violin; William Parker, bass; Hamid Drake, drums), New York (Vision Festival), 2008
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
We tend to take musical instruments for granted, as if their existence were inevitable. But the fact that something exists doesn’t mean it had to. We could’ve been born into a world that never heard a violin.
*****
reading table
“What kind of heaven is that, you can’t have your records?”
—Michael Chabon, Telegraph Avenue
Voices, hands.
Guitar, bass, drums.
And soul.
Sensational Friendly Brothers, Canton, Mississippi (St. James Missionary Baptist Church), 1978
“Where Shall I Be (When the First Trumpet Sounds)”
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“Heaven Is My Goal”
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lagniappe
Thanks, Richard—great clips too.
—George Saunders, featured here the other day
a week in New Orleans: day four
Mardi Gras Indians (Fat Tuesday, 2012)
Wild Magnolias
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Two Indian Tribes Meet in Treme
only rock ’n’ roll
Some bands I keep coming back to.
The Dirtbombs, “Ever Lovin’ Man,” San Francisco (Amoeba Music), 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
Odd, I have now a mania for shortness. Whenever I read my own or other people’s works it all seems to me not short enough.
—Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
alone
Hamid Drake, drums, Paris, 2010
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lagniappe
reading table
Last night I completed a long, meandering journey I began several years ago, finishing the last of the seven volumes of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. If you’ve ever thought about making this trip yourself, I have just one word of advice: go. The minutes, and hours, I’ve spent in Proust’s company—often just a few pages at a time—are among the most rewarding, and pleasurable, I’ve had.
*****
One, two, three. Time, time!
—William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (II, 2, 51)
serendipity
This guy I stumbled upon yesterday afternoon, listening to the radio.* It had been a hard weekend; my 88-year-old mother-in-law died Saturday. These were just the sounds I needed, though I didn’t realize it—spare, precise, open.
Jesse Stacken Trio,** “Bagatelle No. 4,” recording session (Bagatelles for Trio, 2012)
*WFMU-FM (Give the Drummer Radio, webstream), Destination: Out.
**JS, piano; Eivind Opsvik, bass; Jeff Davis, drums.
Miles
Miles Davis Quintet (MD, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano, Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums), live, Europe (Karlsruhe, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden), 1967
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Miles may not be the greatest trumpet player in the history of jazz, but he’s arguably the greatest bandleader. Only someone with supreme self-confidence could do what he did. A brilliant judge of talent, a leader who expected, and enabled, others to flourish, he could seem, at times, the least interesting player in his own band.
*****
reading table
Winter solitude—
in a world of one color
the sound of wind.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694, translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
music clip of the day 