Saturday, December 2nd
two takes
“Feeling Good” (A. Newley, L. Bricusse)
Lauryn Hill (feat. Kamasi Washington, tenor saxophone), live, Italy (Lucca), 2017
*****
Nina Simone (1933-2003), 1965
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2017
Friday, December 1st
what’s new
Moses Sumney, live, Paris, 11/2/17
2017
Wednesday, November 29th
what’s new
Brian Eno with Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), “Only Once Away My Son,” 11/6/17
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lagniappe
reading table
It is like the story of the Chinese Zen Master Dongshan, who was asked, “Is there joy in your practice?” He replied, “It is not without joy. It’s like sweeping shit into a pile and then picking up a precious jewel from within it.”
—Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, “Simple Joy”
2017
Tuesday, November 28th
what’s new
Björk, “Blissing Me,” 11/16/17
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lagniappe
reading table
Mortality is fatal
Gentility is fine
Rascality, heroic
Insolvency, sublime—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 2 (Franklin), excerpt
2017
Friday, November 24th
trumpet festival
day four
Miles Davis (with Bob Berg, saxophones; John Scofield, guitar; Robert Irving III, keyboards; Darryl Jones, bass; Al Foster, drums; Steve Thornton, percussion), live, Switzerland (Montreux), 1984
2017
Thursday, November 23rd
trumpet festival
day three
Lester Bowie (1941-1999), trumpeter—and so much more*
Lester Bowie Brass & Steel Band, live, Italy (Umbria), 1996
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lagniappe
reading table
Together, We All Go out under the Cypress Trees in the Chou Family Burial Grounds by T’ao Ch’ien (AKA T’ao Yuan-Ming), 365-427 A.D. (translated from Chinese by David Hinton)
Today’s skies are perfect for a clear
flute and singing koto. And touchedthis deeply by those laid under these
cypress trees, how could we neglect joy?Clear songs drift away anew. Emerald wine
starts pious faces smiling. Not knowingwhat tomorrow brings, it’s exquisite
exhausting whatever I feel here and now.
*****
Happy Thanksgiving!
This holiday, recovering from pneumonia, I’m more thankful than ever for family, for art, for poetry and, yes, for music.
*****
*Lester is a member of the MCOTD Hall of fame, along with saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill; drummer Hamid Drake; gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates; composer Morton Feldman; poets John Berryman, William Bronk, and Wislawa Szymborska; and photographer Helen Levitt.
2017
Wednesday, November 22nd
trumpet festival
day two
Peter Evans (trumpet) & Cory Smythe (piano), International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, New York, 2014
#1
#2
#3
#4
2017
Tuesday, November 21st
trumpet festival
day one
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (JB, trumpet; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Ajemian, bass; Chad Taylor, drums), live, Toronto, 5/6/17
“theme 1,” “. . . meanwhile,” “theme 2”
***
“theme nothing”
2017
Monday, November 20th
passings
Muhal Richard Abrams, September 19, 1930-October 29, 2017, pianist, composer, cofounder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), educator—and arguably one of the most influential figures in American music of the last 50 years
Solo, “Improvisation for John,” New York, 2016
*****
Quintet (MRA, piano; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Bryan Carrott, vibraphone; Leonard E. Jones, bass; Reggie Nicholson, drums), Italy (Milan), 2016
#1
#2
#3
#4
*****
With bassist Malachi Favors (1927-2004), Sightsong, 1976
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Talking, 2016
2017
Saturday, October 28th
sounds of Amsterdam
Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra, live, Bogotá, Colombia, 9/19/17
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 