Sister Rosetta Tharpe with the Chicago Blues All-Stars (Big Walter Horton [harmonica], Willie Dixon [bass], et al.), “That’s All,” “Didn’t It Rain,” live, 1960s, Germany
What a treat to hear Walter, with whom I worked back in the ’70s while at Alligator Records, playing with Sister Rosetta.
riveting
Anton Bruckner (1824-96), Symphony No. 5 in B flat major; Berlin Philharmonic (Wilhelm Furtwangler, cond.), live, Berlin, 1942
(Yeah, I realize this performance took place in Nazi Germany during World War II and, no, I don’t have anything profound, or even interesting, to say about how such beauty and such horror could coexist.)
flashback
MC5: Kick Out the Jams (Leni Sinclair & Cary Loren, 1999 [with footage from the ’60s])
Rarely has dying sounded so joyous.
Glen David Andrews, “I’ll Fly Away”
Live, New Orleans (Zion Hill Baptist Church), 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
[P]eople exist for us only in the idea that we have of them.
—Marcel Proust, The Fugitive (translated from French by Peter Collier)
*****
Each year on this auspicious day, alone and foreign
here in a foreign place, my thoughts of you sharpen;far away, I can almost see you reaching the summit,
dogwood berries woven into sashes, short one person.—Wang Wei (701-61), “9/9, Thinking of My Brothers East of the Mountains” (trans. from Chinese by David Hinton)
Sometimes more is more.
Anton Bruckner (1824-96), Symphony No. 8 in C minor; Vienna Philharmonic (Herbert von Karajan, cond.), live, Austria (Abbey of St. Florian), 1979
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Once upon a time, before the human attention span began to shrink, people could actually sit still and pay attention to something—a single thing—for over an hour.
love it or hate it
Fire Room (Ken Vandermark, reeds; Lasse Marhaug, electronics; Paal Nilssen-Love, percussion), live, Poland (Poznań), 2011
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
What Emily Dickinson says of poetry applies to music too: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
You don’t need to be asleep to be lost in a dream.
Maurice Ravel, Piano Concerto in G Major (1929-31); Martha Argerich, piano; Orchestre National de France (Charles Dutoit, cond.); live, Germany (Frankfurt), 1990
joy, n. listening to Paul Motian play Monk.
Paul Motian Trio (PM, drums; Joe Lovano, tenor saxophone; Bill Frisell, guitar), “Misterioso” (T. Monk), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 2005
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Jasper Johns, Corpse and Mirror II (1974-75)
*****
reading table
up to today
such a healthy singer . . .
katydid—Kobayashi Issa, 1813 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
only rock ’n’ roll
Wilco, live, Barcelona (Primavera Sound Festival), 5/31/12
#1
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playing this weekend at the Chicago Jazz Festival
Matt Wilson’s Arts & Crafts* (Sunday, 3:30 p.m.)
“We See” (T. Monk), live, New York, 2011
(Paul Motian, this guy—drummers seem to have a particular feeling for Monk.)
*****
Steve Coleman and Five Elements** (Sunday, 7:10 p.m.)
Live, New York, 2010
*****
Ken Vandermark’s Made To Break Quartet*** (Sunday, 2:20 p.m.)
Live, Barcelona, 2011
*****
*MW, drums; Terell Stafford, trumpet; Gary Versace, piano; Martin Wind, bass.
**SC, alto saxophone; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Tim Albright, trombone; Miles Okazaki, guitar; David Virelles, piano; Thomas Morgan, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums.
***KV, reeds; Christof Kurzmann, electronics; Devin Hoff, bass; Tim Daisy, drums.
music clip of the day 