alone
Günter “Baby” Sommer, live, Germany (Dresden), c. 2007
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musical thoughts
Who has more fun than drummers?
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lagniappe
reading table
Back to Mandrake the Magician,
The man of mystery often seen
In the company of swells and
Denizens of the underworld,
While mother kneads pie dough
And sways her hips to the radio,
And the fat, bow-legged dog
Drools over a red rubber ball,
When there is a flash of lightning
Followed by a roll of thunder
And sudden darkness upon us all.—Charles Simic, “Memory Train” (New Republic, 3/24/14)
like nobody else
Nina Simone (“Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” [Trad.], “To Love Somebody” [B. Gibb, R. Gibb], “Suzanne” [L. Cohen], “Save Me” [A. Franklin], “Porgy, I Is Your Woman Now”/”Today Is A Killer”/”I Loves You Porgy” [G. Gershwin, D. Heyward]), live, Rome, 1969
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1940s
passings
Scott Asheton, drummer (Stooges), August 16, 1949-March 15, 2014
Live (rehearsal), Tribute to the Stooges (SA, drums; Ron Asheton, guitar; J Mascis, guitar; Mike Watt, vocals, bass), “1970,” Belgium (Hasselt), 2002
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Live, Iggy and the Stooges, “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog,” France (Clisson), 2011
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Live, Stooges, “1970,” Michigan (Goose Lake Festival), 1970
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lagniappe
reading table
What do the sky and gardens know
of such disappointments?—August Kleinzahler, “September” (fragment)
sounds of New York
William Parker (bass), Christian McBride (bass), Cooper-Moore (drums), Charles Gayle (tenor saxophone), Hamiett Bluiett (baritone saxophone), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), live (benefit concert), New York, 2012
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Q: What would you do if you were not a composer?
Augusta Read Thomas (1964-): . . . I would spend all day listening. I could listen all day long until the day I die to music I’ve never heard and only begin to scratch the surface. There’s so much new. . . .
not for the faint of heart
Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet,* live, France (Le Mans), 2004
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Q: What would people be surprised to know that you listen to?
Bill Clinton: Brötzmann, the tenor sax player, one of the greatest alive.
—Oxford American, 2001 (annual music issue)
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*PB, reeds; Ken Vandermark, reeds; Joe McPhee, pocket trumpet, tenor saxophone; Roland Ramanan, trumpet, wooden flute; Toshinori Kondo, trumpet; Jeb Bishop, trombone; Fred Longberg-Holm, cello; Kent Kessler, bass; Michael Zerang, drums; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums.
sounds of Chicago
Paul Butterfield (vocals, harmonica), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Mark Naftalin (keyboards), et al., live, Boston, 1971
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lagniappe
found words
Automated response received yesterday, after calling my pharmacy to find out if a prescription was ready, getting a recorded recitation of the available options, and hitting “0” in the hope of reaching a non-virtual human being:
This is not a valid command.
Al testifies
Al Green, “Jesus Is Waiting,” live (TV show), 1974
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lagniappe
radio
Today, in celebration of his 84th birthday, it’s all Ornette all day on WKCR (Columbia University).
Ornette Coleman Quartet (OC, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums), “Blues Connotation” (1961)
two takes
Weary of winter? Here in Chicago we’ve had six feet of snow. How about a little trip south, way south, to Argentina?
Juana Molina, “Un Dia”
Live (TV show), c. 2010
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Recording, 2008
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lagniappe
found words
This just in from Spotify:
Now trending near you. Bob Dylan.