music clip of the day

jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more

Category: drums

Saturday, 1/7/12

Roy Hargrove Quintet,* “Strasbourg/Saint Denis,” live, Paris, 2008

What better way to begin the new year than with live music, which is what I did last Sunday (with my wife Suzanne and older son Alex), catching these guys at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase, where they played an ebullient set for the overflow crowd.

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lagniappe

reading table

In January baseball lives in the imagination.

Now he was stuck at this ramshackle ballpark between a junkyard and an adult bookstore on the interstate outside Peoria.

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“The shortstop is a source of stillness at the center of the defense. He projects this stillness and his teammates respond.”

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When your moment came, you had to be ready, because if you fucked up, everyone would know whose fault it was. What other sport not only kept a stat as cruel as the error but posted it on the scoreboard for everyone to see?

—Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding (2011)

*****

*RH, trumpet; Justin Robinson, alto saxophone; Gerald Clayton, piano; Danton Boller, bass; Montez Coleman, drums

Tuesday, 1/3/12

the other night

Just a week after hearing vibist Jason Adasiewicz’s Sun Rooms trio there, my older son Alex (home for the holidays) and I went back to the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s north side, to hear these guys.

DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Chicago (Hideout), 12/28/11

Sunday, 1/1/12

Dionne goes to church.

Dionne Warwick, “Up Where We Belong,” live, c. 1985
New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, New Jersey
Ann Drinkard Moss (Dionne’s aunt), Choir Director

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lagniappe

art beat

Helen Frankenthaler, December 12, 1928-December 27, 2011

Mountains and Sea (1952)

Tuesday, 12/27/11

more favorites from the past year

Wild Flag, live, SXSW (Austin, Texas), 3/11

“Romance” (Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop)

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“Future Crimes” (IFC Crossroads House)

Someday an all-female band will seem no more remarkable than an all-male one.

(Originally posted 10/24/11.)

*****

She’s going to be a big star someday.

Nneka, live

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Originally posted 2/15/11.)

Monday, 12/26/11

This week we revisit a few favorites from the past year.

*****

[D]ance first and think afterwards . . . . It’s the natural order.

—Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1953, 1955 [English-language premiere])

Al Minns & Leon James, New York (Savoy Ballroom, Harlem), 1950s

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

art beat

Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940

(Originally posted 1/11/11.)

Saturday, 12/24/11

When I was little, I would go into Chicago to hear live music—Peter, Paul & Mary, Kingston Trio, Beach Boys—with my father. Then, as a teenager, I’d go into the city with my brother Don to hear the Velvet Underground and the MC5, the Who, Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley, Muddy Waters. Now I make these trips with my sons. The other night, for instance, my older son Alex (now 24 and home for the holidays) and I went to the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s north side, not far from where I once went with my father (now gone) and my brother (now hundreds of miles away), to hear this guy.

Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown (JA, vibraphone; Josh Berman, cornet; Aram Shelton, alto saxophone; Jason Roebke, bass; Frank Rosaly, drums), “Hide,” live, c. 2008

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lagniappe

reading table

No, the human heart
Is unknowable.
But in my birthplace
The flowers still smell
The same as always.

—Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945; trans. Kenneth Rexroth)

Monday, 12/19/11

Rebirth Brass Band, Treme Sidewalk Steppers Parade, New Orleans, 2/6/11

If there’s a God, He loves parades.

More? Here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

Friday, 12/16/11

only rock ’n roll

Happy Refugees, “What’s Your Appeal”
Live, New York (Cake Shop), 12/10/11

More? These guys recently did a live studio performance at WFMU-FM (The Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T), which can be heard here.

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lagniappe

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

George Inness (1825-1894), Early Morning, Tarpon Springs (1892)

Tuesday, 12/13/11

two takes

Rock ’n roll, like blues, is for old folks too.

Dick Dale (guitar, 1937-), “Nitro”

Live (radio broadcast, KEXP-FM [Seattle]), 12/11/09

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Recording and Video, 1993

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lagniappe

I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That’s what music does.

Dick Dale

Saturday, 12/10/11

If sounds define a space as much as walls and windows, you don’t need to knock out a wall to open up a room—just play this.

International Contemporary Ensemble with Steve Lehman
Impossible Flow (S. Lehman), live, New York (Le Poisson Rouge), 4/19/11

The moment this ends I want to hear it again. Is there any higher compliment?

More Steve Lehman? Here.

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lagniappe

reading table

A strange old man
Stops me,
Looking out of my deep mirror.

—Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (c. 662-710; trans. Kenneth Rexroth)