Lean Left (Ken Vandermark, reeds [Chicago]; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums [Norway]; Andy Moers & Terrie Hessels, guitars [Netherlands]), live, Belgium (Brussels), 2014
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lagniappe
musical (& other) thoughts
Ken Vandermark has a lot of interesting things to say about improvised music and life as a musician, about politics and movies and journalism and New York, as you can hear in thispodcast-interview.
Albert Collins (1932-1993), “Cold, Cold Feeling,” live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1979
Nobody sounds like this guy, whose 1978 album Ice Pickin’, recorded at Curtis Mayfield’s studio in Chicago and nominated for a Grammy, I’m happy to say I co-produced.
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
“Live in the layers,
not on the litter.”
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.
St. Vincent, live, Chicago (Pitchfork Music Festival), 7/19/14*
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lagniappe
reading table
the scrawny pine, too
looks extravagant . . .
summer moon
—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
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*Set list (courtesy of YouTube):
0:00 Introduction
0:45 Rattlesnake
5:39 Digital Witness
9:13 Cruel
13:10 Marrow
17:40 Every Tear Disappears / Shout (Tears for Fears)
22:16 Surgeon
27:35 Cheerleader
31:19 Prince Johnny
37:15 Birth In Reverse
41:10 Huey Newton
46:47 Bring Me Your Loves
50:52 Your Lips Are Red
Gene Vincent (1935-1971),* Eddie Cochran (1938-1960, 40:45-),* live (Town Hall Party), 1950s
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*Set lists (courtesy of YouTube):
Gene Vincent
1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
2. High Blood Pressure
3. Rip it Up
4. Dance to the Bop
5. You Win Again
6. For Your Precious Love
7. Rocky Road Blues
8. Pretty Pearly
9. Be-Bop-A-Lula
10. High School Confidential
11. Over The Rainbow
12. Roll Over Beethoven
13. Over The Rainbow
14. She She Little Sheila
Eddie Cochran 1. C’mon Everybody
2. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
3. Don’t Blame It On Me
4. Summertime Blues
5. School Days
6. Be Honest With Me
7. Money Honey
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