sounds of Chicago and Switzerland
Need a jolt?
Easel (Christoph Erb, tenor saxophone [Switzerland]; Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello, electronics [Chicago]; Michael Zerang, drums [Chicago]), live, Moscow, 2015
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Note to self: Listen, always, as if it was the first time—and the last.
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random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
This guy takes me places no one else does.
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil (TB, alto saxophone; Oscar Noriega, clarinet; Matt Mitchell, piano; Ches Smith, drums, vibraphone), “Small World in a Small Town” (T. Berne), live, Brazil (Sao Paulo), 2015
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), City Landscape, 1955
sounds of Chicago
Hamid Drake (drums, percussion, voice), live, Sardinia, 2013
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lagniappe
radio
One of the year’s great musical events has begun: the annual Bach Festival on WKCR (Columbia University)—all Bach, all the time, through New Year’s Eve.
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musical thoughts
How lucky to be alive in a world of sound.
sounds of Chicago
And more.
Left Hand Frank and His Blues Band, “Linda Lu”
Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1, 1978
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lagniappe
art beat
Marc PoKempner, Chicago (Divorced Women’s Club), 1988
(I’m taking a break—back in a while.)
sounds of Chicago
More from Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1 (1978).
Jimmy Johnson Blues Band, “Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home”
These sounds, which I bumped into the other night on the radio (Sinner’s Crossroads, WFMU), I can’t get out of my head—not that I’d want to.
Rev. Charles White, “How Long,” c. 1948
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Chicago
Some things last. Nearly forty years ago, I co-produced this track, while working at Alligator Records. It remains one of my favorites. The hour was late. The lights had been turned down. But the tape kept rolling.
Carey Bell’s Blues Harp Band, “Woman In Trouble”
Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1, 1978
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Here’s more of Carey, years later (2000, Switzerland [Bern]).
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
two takes
Lee Morgan (trumpet) with Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Harold Mabern (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass), Billy Higgins (drums), “Yes I Can, No You Can’t,” 1966
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S. Mos, mash-up (Tupac Shakur, “Holler If Ya Hear Me” [1993]), 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
And everything turns and turns
and the unknown turns into the song
that is the known, but what in turn
becomes of the song is not for us to say—Mark Strand (1934-2014), “The Webern Variations,” excerpt
old school
Jackson Southernaires, “Walk Around Heaven,” live, Jackson, Miss., 1990s
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill. (son’s dog, Roscoe)
sounds of Mali and France
Amadou & Mariam with guest Bertrand Cantat, live, France (near Belfort), 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
We dream – it is good we are dreaming –
It would hurt us – were we awake –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #584 (Franklin), excerpt
music clip of the day 