music clip of the day

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Category: drums

Tuesday, December 24th

Last night this woman, who died of cancer in 2006, was very much alive, singing Bach on the radio.*

Johann Sebastian Bach, “Ich Habe Genug” (“I Have Enough,” church cantata), Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954-2006), 2003

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lagniappe

Christmas, 1948

Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Al Haig (piano), Tommy Porter (bass), Max Roach (drums), “White Christmas,” live, New York (Royal Roost), 12/25/48

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*WKCR-FM (Columbia University), Bach Festival, through New Year’s Eve.

Tuesday, December 17th

sounds of Chicago

Tonight these guys, who play all over the world, will be at a little club on the city’s northwest side, the Hideout, as will I.

DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Italy (Sant’Anna Arresi Jazz Festival), 2008


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Joy—no one gives me more than Hamid Drake.

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lagniappe

reading table

God keep me from ever completing anything.

—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick

Saturday, December 14th

two takes

This is, to these ears, exhilarating.

Tim Berne’s Snakeoil,* “Cornered (Duck)”

Live, New York (The Stone), 5/8/13


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Live, Washington, D.C (Atlas Performing Arts Center), 10/9/13


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Music should be no more complex than it needs to be. And no matter how complicated it may actually be, it should never seem that way to the listener. If it does, immediacy has deteriorated into abstraction.

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*TB, alto saxophone; Oscar Noriega, bass clarinet, clarinet; Matt Mitchell, piano; Ches Smith, percussion.

Friday, December 13th

only rock ’n’ roll

Superchunk, “Void” (2013)


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lagniappe

reading table

Cormac McCarthy, particularly in a book like Blood Meridian, is writing an English very remote from our own. It’s more like the King James Bible on acid, right?

—David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), in Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing (2013)

Thursday, December 12th

passings

Jim Hall, guitarist, December 4, 1930-December 10, 2013

With Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone), “In a Sentimental Mood” (D. Ellington), live, Italy (Umbria Jazz Festival), 1996


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With Bill Evans (piano), Undercurrent (“My Funny Valentine,” “I Hear a Rhapsody,” “Dream Gypsy,” “Romain,” “Skating in Central Park,” “Darn that Dream,” “Stairway to the Stars,” “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”), 1962


When I was in college in the early ’70s, this album was a frequent late-night companion. Since then I’ve listened to it more times than I could count. It never grows old.

Wednesday, December 11th

sounds of Chicago

Son Seals, “On My Knees,” live (TV show), 1980s


Musical notation has its place. Sometimes, though, it’s useless. How could marks on a piece of paper ever capture his attack?

Sunday, December 8th

sounds of Chicago

The Stars of Heaven, live, Chicago, 2012


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lagniappe

art beat

John H. White, Chicago (south side), 1973

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Friday, November 29th

two takes

“Don’t Start Me Talkin'” (S. Williamson)

Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller), recording, 1955


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Bob Dylan, TV show (David Letterman), 1984


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lagniappe

reading table

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.

—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick

Friday, November 22nd

only rock ’n’ roll

The Dirtbombs, live, Birmingham, Ala., 2008

 
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lagniappe

musical thoughts

When I turn to rock ’n’ roll, I’m not looking for poetry. I go to poetry for poetry. Nor am I looking for brilliant musicianship. That I can find in classical music and in jazz. I’m not looking for roof-raising fervor, either. Gospel music gives me that. What I’m looking for when I turn to rock ’n’ roll is something I can’t find anywhere else—rock ’n’ roll.

Wednesday, November 20th

sounds of New York

Charles Gayle (tenor saxophone), William Parker (bass), Marvin “BuGaLu” Smith (drums), with Brandon James Lewis (tenor saxophone, 10:10-), live, New York (Whole Foods, Union Square), 2012


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lagniappe

art beat

Robert Frank (1924-), New York, 1947

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