sounds of Buenos Aires
Juana Molina (1961-, compositions, vocals, guitar), live (studio), Seattle, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
A cicada shell;
it sang itself
utterly away.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass
tonight in Chicago
They’re playing at Elastic Arts.
Ken Vandermark (reeds), Nate Wooley (trumpet), Paul Lytton (drums), live, Chicago, 2011
*****
Kuzu (Dave Rempis, reeds; Tashi Dorji, guitar; Tyler Damon, drums), live, Columbia, S.C., 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
sounds of Chicago
Junior Wells (1934-1998, vocals, harmonica), Buddy Guy (1936-, guitar), et al., “Cryin’ Shame” (AKA “Country Girl”), live, Chicago, c. 1970
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
All day long, singing,
yet the day’s not long enough
for the skylark’s song—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
sounds of Chicago
Buddy Guy (1936-), “First Time I Met the Blues,” live, Chicago, c. 1970
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
alone
Oren Ambarchi (guitar, electronics), live, San Francisco, 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
sounds of New York
Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain VI (NW [trumpet, composition], Susan Alcorn [pedal steel guitar], C. Spencer Yeh [violin], a choir, et al.), live, New York (St. Peter’s Church), 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
other morning, Oak Park, Ill.
only rock ‘n’ roll
Bo Diddley (AKA Ellas McDaniel, Ellas Otha Bates, 1928-2008), “Hey! Bo Diddley,” “Bo Diddley,” live, Los Angeles, 1965
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
There is still something I’d like to explain,
yet can’t be sure I’m ready yet.
Beside, we’ve done pretty well with the non-sequiturs,
and they by us, don’t you think?—John Ashbery (1927-2017), from “Hierarchy of the Unexpected”
what’s new
Brian Blade & Life Cycles (BB, drums; Myron Walden, woodwinds; John Hart, guitar; Jon Cowherd, piano; Doug Weiss, bass; Monte Croft, vibraphone, voice; Rogerio Boccato, percussion), “My Joy,” “Slow Change,” “Hello to the Wind,” “The Final Four,” live (studio), Seattle, published 1/10/20 (recorded 9/27/19)
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lagniappe
random sights
other morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
The moon disappears
into darkening treetops
collecting the rain—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
tonight just outside Chicago
They’re playing at a small club (Fitzgerald’s).
Los Lobos
With Robert Randolph (pedal steel guitar), “Don’t Worry Baby” (C. Rosas, L. Perez, T. Burnett), live, Austin, Tx., 2018
*****
“La Bamba” (trad. adapted by R. Valens), live, Watsonville, Calif., 1989
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
what’s new
One-word review: Wow!
Fay Victor (vocals), Baba Israel (vocals), Marc Ribot (guitar), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), Kris Davis (piano), live (Celebration of the Life of Steve Dalachinsky), New York (Winter Jazz Fest), 1/11/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
*****
reading table
I speak across the vast
Dialogues in which we go
To clench my words against
Time or the lack of time
Hoping that for a moment
They will become for me
A place I can think in
And think anything in,
An aside from the monstrous.***
This is no other place
Than where I am, between
This word and the next.—W. S. Graham (1918-1986), from “The Dark Dialogues”
music clip of the day 